Tag Archives: Healing

Do the Sacraments Prevent Illness?
A Survey of Liturgical Sources

by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko | ελληνικά | ру́сский | српски

Icon of the Holy Eucharist

The global COVID-19 crisis has ignited a number of difficult discussions among Christians. The method used to distribute Holy Communion is fiercely debated. In the Churches that remain open, many Protestants and Catholics are withholding the cup, so faithful are receiving in one kind only, the body of Christ. In Orthodox communities, clergy and laity are discussing the possibility of trying new methods for distributing Holy Communion that prevents the spread of disease through a common spoon. This issue has generated emotional statements claiming that it is impossible for the Eucharist to make anyone sick because of the true presence of the Incarnate Christ. Most Orthodox synods have issued guidelines on how to maximize prevention of infection in church, and the Churches are in agreement on communion: it is impossible for the body and blood of Christ to make anyone sick. The corollary to this defense of the faith is that no changes to the method of distributing communion are permitted, with two exceptions. The Romanian Church permits faithful to bring their own spoons from home, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allows clergy to administer communion to laity via intinction, hand-to-hand.

In the remainder of this essay, I will test both assertions by pointing to a selection of historical antecedents. My investigation will demonstrate that the Church has used numerous methods for distributing Holy Communion, and that her steadfast belief in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharistic elements does not come with the promise of guaranteed protection from illness.

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Eating Disorders and the Case for Open Communion

by Katherine Kelaidis

Before I go any further, let me say, I know the arguments for “closed communion,” that is, the practice of allowing only Orthodox Christians who have prepared through confession and fasting and have received the blessing of a spiritual father to receive the Eucharist. I am also aware that how this exactly plays out from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, from parish to parish, varies widely. Finally, please trust me, if you get nothing else from reading this, rest assured that I have exactly the kind of personality that is predisposed to wanting to turn the Eucharist into an opportunity to sort out the worthy and the unworthy, the good and the bad. I am all about making participation in a meal the reward for being “enough.” For believing the right things and doing the right things. I am insanely comfortable with the idea that not eating, not partaking, is a way to repentance and to purification. For years, through most of my teens and into my early twenties (and occasionally my late twenties and early thirties, and frankly, occasionally now), as I struggled with an eating disorder that was my best thinking. It was my big idea. The big idea that consumed my thoughts day and night, that robbed me of any joy, that only caused me pain. The big idea that  could have killed me. And it is exactly because I know what a terrible idea it was for me to have that I cannot believe that it was ever God’s idea. In fact, there is much in the Scripture and the Fathers to suggest that even Judas got to have the meal, got to come to the table, so different is God’s idea about who gets to eat from mine. It is by looking at whom the gospel writers tell us dined with the Lord that I draw my assumptions as to how God intends to issue invitations to His banquet. Continue reading →