Hello,
I have a question:
When is someone worthy of taking the Holy Communion? It seems to me that i'll never be worthy to take this. Also, it says that if you are unworthy, you condemn yourself.
This has been in my mind for ages.
Apparently, even taking the Holy Communion (according to the Church Fathers) when you are unworthy, in the hope that it gives you the spiritual energy to actually improve spiritually, rather than it sanctify you, it condemns you.
So, is it right then that abouna gives you a 7el before communion?
When does someone also become worthy? I've never really felt worthy.
Cheers
Comments
There are however, times when we should not approach the Body and Blood, these include:
- When we are not fasting (without permission)
- When we are not at peace with any of our brethren
- When we are not leading a Christian life of REGULAR repentance and confession.
There may be more, I'm not sure, but these three I'm definitely sure about...
pray for me
joe
it is communion ie communal, to be had by all whom are baptised as an orthodox christian and engaged in confession, you should not make up excuses as to why not have communion, thats sad!.....how can u be united with christ if ur not partaking in one of the holy sacraments...
But I would have to disagree with what you said, there are circumstances when we should not have communion and we should be aware of them because it is in fact a sin to have communion when we are 'unworthy'.
Also when females are menstruating I think, and when we have not attended the Holy Liturgy itself (though this is down to the priest, and is malleable)
Yep yep, forgot them.. It's not only if women are menstruating though, its really if anyone has a open wound, or is sick and susceptable to vomiting.. In other words, if you are in risk of losing bodily fluid within 9 (not sure about the number) hours of communion.
Also, If you come late to the liturgy you should not have communion, I believe you should have at least attended the gospel.
+God Bless
[quote author=josephgabriel link=topic=6609.msg87980#msg87980 date=1211182252]
Also when females are menstruating I think, and when we have not attended the Holy Liturgy itself (though this is down to the priest, and is malleable)
Yep yep, forgot them.. It's not only if women are menstruating though, its really if anyone has a open wound, or is sick and susceptable to vomiting.. In other words, if you are in risk of losing bodily fluid within 9 (not sure about the number) hours of communion.
Also, If you come late to the liturgy you should not have communion, I believe you should have at least attended the gospel.
+God Bless
Yep totally spot on
communion is taken to cleanse us, we should not be denying ourselves communion for the sole basis that we are sinners....
God did not give us His body because we are worthy, but because we are not! Because we are sinners in need of healing.
pray for me
joe
God Bless and Pray for me and my weakness
Kerestina, I agree with you that we are taking it because we are in need of it because of the fact that we are sinners but there are times when we should most definetely not take communion. If you drink the blood and eat the body in an unworthy manner you eat and drink for yourself condemnation. You have to be in regular confession, constant repentance and understand that you are wrong when you are repenting and seeking true forgiveness. None of us are ever worthy to recieve this mystery but we are made worthy through the grace of God.
God Bless and Pray for me and my weakness
Hey JY,
Tell me more about that. You have now entered the path that I originally established to learn more about this. How can we be condemned if we are not worthy. Give us examples JY?
Thanks.
[quote author=jydeacon link=topic=6609.msg88003#msg88003 date=1211215600]
Kerestina, I agree with you that we are taking it because we are in need of it because of the fact that we are sinners but there are times when we should most definetely not take communion. If you drink the blood and eat the body in an unworthy manner you eat and drink for yourself condemnation. You have to be in regular confession, constant repentance and understand that you are wrong when you are repenting and seeking true forgiveness. None of us are ever worthy to recieve this mystery but we are made worthy through the grace of God.
God Bless and Pray for me and my weakness
Hey JY,
Tell me more about that. You have now entered the path that I originally established to learn more about this. How can we be condemned if we are not worthy. Give us examples JY?
Thanks.
I'm not exactly sure what you are asking for sorry, can you clarify QT?
Please could you elaborate on this: Thanks
Ok, so when i said that, i basically took that from one of St. Pauls epistles can't remember exactly which one at the moment, I believe 1st Corinthians if i'm not mistaken. What I take from that is, if you keep on taking communion and you aren't worthy you are not in true union with God therefore putting yourself in condemnation. Also the power of this mystery is beyond what we can imagine, I read somewhere that one time this lady wanted her son to take communion because she heard that it can heal him(he had some sort of illness) but he wasn't baptized or part of the church. So she took him to get communion and when abouna asked is he baptized she told him yes so he can take communion. He started to get better then that night(or something like that) she found him dead. When they did a biopsy on him they found he died from extreme burns in his internal organs and asophugus. So its truley a mistake to take this mystery that lightly. Does that make sense?
Woooo...JY, where did u get that story from? Do u have references??
I could not find the story but here is the topic i was talking about: http://tasbeha.org/content/community/index.php?topic=5929.0
"Burn from the Fire of Divinity"
How does this fit in with what we are discussing concerning Theosis?
QT we aren't discussing theosis in this thread hahah confused are we?
I started both threads to understand the same thing. Both were thoughts I had that came from trying to understand whether we partake of the Divine Nature. Do u understand now?
Look, the entire problems is that people believe we partake of the Divine Nature. I.e. We consume Divinity.
The Church tells them that this is wrong.
Then we have liturgies that tell us "Unless u are worthy, the Divine Nature will burn you".
Can you see the problem I'm having?