Why does Abouna break the Body of Christ the way he does?

edited December 1969 in Youth Corner
You know, I've always seen Abouna break the Body of Christ during the Institution Narrative the same way every time. What is the meaning behind that?

Comments

  • Hey Coptic Orthodox Musician,
    Fr. Athanasius Iskander wrote about this in his book called "Understanding the Liturgy" (page 56)...

    . . . which shall be broken for you . . . :
    To many, this saying will seem difficult to reconcile with the
    known facts about the crucifixion.  It is obvious that no bones of
    the Lord were broken when he was crucified (John 19:33) and
    this agrees with the prophesies that “A bone of Him shall not be
    broken.” (John 19:36).  Why then did the Lord tell the disciples
    that His body “shall be broken”?  The answer comes to us from
    modern science!  Medical scientists wrote many articles about the
    “Pathology of Crucifixion”2, that is to say, what happens to the
    human body during the process of Crucifixion and what are the
    possible causes of death from such cruel punishment.  Many
    agree that one of the effects of hanging the person from his wrists
    is multiple dislocations at his major joints.  This means that the
    body becomes disjointed or separated at the joints.  It is probably
    this what the Lord meant when He predicted that His body shall
    be broken.
    The prophesies give support to this explanation, for David
    prophesies by the Holy Spirit concerning the Lord’s passion
    saying, “All my bones are out of joint” (Ps 22:14).
    During the Fraction, the priest proceeds to gently disjoint the
    “body” along markings in the oblation, sometimes without
    completely separating the parts.  Could it be that  the priest  is
    emulating what happened to the body of our Lord on the Cross?

    If you wish to read more of this book, you can check it out at: http://www.stmaryscopticorthodox.ca/content/books/liturgy.pdf

    Hope that helped.
    Pray for me,
    Mansour89

  • Wow Mansour89 WELCOME BACK DEAR, it has been a while. Thanks alot for the book I was looking for it. Hope to see you often with us here :).
    Plz pray for me
  • nice topic to share , it is nice book thx mansour , and i wanna add simple info , that the father seprates  a small part of the oblation and put it little away as it refer to " yahoza " that seprated himself fro mthe boday of Lord , then father put this part of oblation in its place and this refer to " Metias " that was elected instead of yahoza . God be with u , Coptic Orthodox Musician . by the way i like music and search for spiritaul songs music :) . plz, don't forget to mention me in prayers .
  • thanks everyone
Sign In or Register to comment.