- 1- Prayer Before the Fraction.
- 2- The Fraction.
- 3- The Lord's Prayer.
- 4- The Secret Prayers.
- 5- The Holy Unto the Holy.
- 6- The Confession.
1- Prayer Before the Fraction
As the church has been assembled around her Savior, and in Him, she offers the following prayers as a preparatory for the Fraction:
- A A prayer to keep her in faith.
- B- A prayer to bring her unto His Kingdom.
- C A thanksgiving-prayer for His saving deeds.
A- a Prayer to Keep Her in Faith
And we, who are strangers in this place, keep us in Your faith, And grant us Your peace till the end.
The Liturgy of St. Basil
The Congregation offers a hymn, singing: "As it was, and it is, and so shall it be from generation to generation, and unto the age of all ages. Amen." They participate with the twenty four heavenly presbyters in their hymn, saying "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who are, and was, and are to come; because You have taken to You Your great power, and have reigned." And participate with the four Living Creatures in their hymn, namely, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come."
Now, the congregation being united together in Jesus Christ, conceiving their salvation, says: "You were acting on our behalf, and is still acting in us, and we are waiting for your continuous acts from generation to generation until we meet You face to face in eternity."
B - a Prayer to Bring Her Unto His Kingdom
Guide us unto Your Kingdom,
That in this, as in all things, may be glorified, blessed and exalted Your great and holy Name,
Which in all things is glorious and blessed, together with Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Liturgy of St. Basil
The presbyter concludes this prayer with the apostolic greeting, saying: "Peace be with all," without crossing the congregation; for after sanctification and invocation the Lord Himself is present on the altar, and crosses and blesses them Himself.
C- a Thanksgiving Prayer for His Saving Deeds
Let us give thanks unto God, Almighty, The Father of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. For He has made us worthy, even now, to stand in this holy place, And lift our hands upwards and minister unto his Holy Name. Let us also pray unto Him, to make us worthy of the communion and raising up of His divine and undying Sacraments.
Liturgy of St. Basil
From these three prayers, especially the last one, we can understand the preparations for receiving the Communion as:
- 1 Trusting in the grace of God, which acted and is still acting and will act in all the generations on behalf of mankind.
- 2 Lifting the heart up to the kingdom of God, and being occupied by eternity.
- 3 Continuously giving thanks for His plans and deeds on our behalf.
2- the Fraction
Before the presbyter prays the "Fraction" he takes the Body, puts It on his left palm and points to it praying: "The Holy Body." Congregation: We worship Your Holy Body.
He dips his finger into the Blood and signs the Cross once, saying "And the honored Blood."
C: And we worship Your honored Blood.
P: Which belong to His Christ, the Almighty Lord, our God.
D: Amen, Amen, Pray you.
C: Lord, have mercy.
P: Peace be with all.
C: And with Your spirit.
We see the church worshipping the Body and the Blood of Christ, "For who does not worship the Body of Christ," says St. Augustine, "does not receive It."
St. Chrysostom says that the Wisemen who were pagans and barbarians left their countries and homes and came to Jesus who was in the manger and worshipped Him in great fear. We, who are the sons of heaven, must at least imitate them. For they who saw Him in a manger inside a hut came in trembling and did not see anything of what you see now; you, who see Him not in a manger but upon the altar.
Crossing the Body with the Blood is a symbol of the Passions of the Lord, for it resembles the Blood, which was bleeding from His side when He was on the Cross.
It reminds us of the prophecy of Isaiah who said, "Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like those of him that treads in the winepress? I have trodden the wine press alone."
Now all the minds are thinking of Golgotha with gladness to enjoy fellowship with the Crucified Lord.
The presbyter breaks the Body into twelve parts around the center, which is called the "Spadikon." Theodore of Mopsuestia says, "Now that the liturgy is accomplished, the Presbyter breaks the
bread as our Lord first shared Himself in His manifestations... "
St. Hippolytus mentioned the "Breaking of Bread" by the Bishop. Bishop Serapion mentioned in his Euchologium a prayer of the fraction.
In the "Chabourah Meal," the father of the family broke the bread simply to distribute it. But at the Last Supper, Jesus consecrated It and transformed It into His Body, then He broke It and distributed It to His disciples, saying: "This is my Body which is broken (klomenon) for you." We know that one of His bones had not been broken, but He broke His Sacramental Body declaring that He offers His Body to suffer and be slain willingly.
We must understand that the living Body after the resurrection does not die again. It is a spiritual and glorified Body and what we receive is the true Body of Christ and not a part of It. "For the Body Itself" says St. Jerome, "is inseparable."
3- the Lord's Prayer
At the end of the prayer of the Fraction, the presbyter asks God to purify our spirits, our bodies, our souls, our hearts, our eyes, our understanding, our thoughts and our intentions, that in faith without hypocrisy, with perfect love and steadfast hope we dare with intimacy and without fear to pray unto the Father the Lord's prayer.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose , St. Augustine, and others mentioned the importance of the Lord's Prayer at the end of the Eucharistic celebration. But it seems that it was not accepted in Rome until the time of Fr. Gregory I.
Why does the church pray it in a loud voice with everybody saying it?
1- This is because Christ cried to His Father while He was at Golgotha upon the Cross. Thus, the Church imitates her Bridegroom and cries to her Father while she is around the altar asking Him what her Lord taught her.
Outside this heavenly sacrifice nobody can call God His "Father." But through this service the Church, in one voice, calls Him her Father, reciting her common prayer as a preparation for Communion, i.e., receiving the Body and the Blood of the Son of God.
- St. Augustine says, "Because that sacrifice is a sign of the state we are in i.e. God's children, behold when the sacrifice is finished we say the Lord's Prayer which we have received and learned from him."
- 2- This prayer is most suited for starting the Communion service. For it contains in brief all the prayers and concerns of a Christian soul.
- St. Augustine says, "If we pray rightly and fittingly, we can
say nothing else but that which is contained in the Lord's Prayer." Tertullian says that this prayer "contains almost the whole sum of Christ's doctrine and law."
3- St. Augustine in his sermons to the newly baptized said: "It is recited before receiving Christ's Body and Blood because of human frailty due to a bad thought, perhaps a slip of tongue, a sinful glance, or listening to an off color story. If through worldly temptation and human weakness you have succumbed to such a sin, it is remitted by the Lord's Prayer at the words: Forgive us our trespasses. We can then approach the altar in the safe knowledge that we are not by eating and drinking It, bringing judgment upon ourselves."
4- the Secret Prayers
Before receiving the Communion, the deacon admonishes the congregation, "Bow down your heads before the Lord..." The presbyter prays inaudibly asking God to purify us and prepare us for receiving the Communion.
He prays also the "Prayer of Submission," giving thanks to God who prepared for us those things that the angels desire to behold.
The deacon gives another admonition, "Attend on God with fear," and the presbyter gives the Peace of Christ to the congregation, then he prays inaudibly the Prayer of Absolution, asking God to absolve His servants, the clergymen and laymen and the celebrant himself from their sins by the Holy Spirit, and to write our names among the ranks of His saints in the kingdom of heaven.
The three Coptic liturgies contain many secret prayers, that are very wonderful, by which the heart of the presbyter is raised up in humility to God, in order that he and all the people may be prepared for this great Glory.
The presbyter concludes this prayer by reciting inaudibly the litanies of the Peace and the Fathers of the Church, Finally he prays: "Remember O Lord, our meetings, bless them."
5- the Holy Unto the Holy
The Holy Things for the Holy Ones
Having broken the bread, the celebrant picks up the "Ispadikon" and lifts it up, his head bowed down, and invites the church to enjoy communion crying: "The holy things for the holy ones," as if to say: "Let those who are worthy come to receive the Communion, For holy things are for the holy ones only."
The Greek word "Agios" cannot be translated into "good." It means more than "good," it means those "who belong to God, the holy ones ". St. Paul calls the Corinthians, the chosen Agios (saints,) i.e., the chosen people of God.
Here the Presbyter's invitation can be translated to "The things of God are for the people of God." This invitation for receiving the Communion is addressed not only to those who are perfect but also to those who are striving to become perfect in Jesus Christ, not by their own power, but by the Holy Spirit's. The people of God are called "holy" because of their unity with the Son of God. We are members of His Body, "of His flesh and of His bones." As long as we remain united with Him, and preserve our connection with Him, we live in holiness, drawing to ourselves, through the holy mysteries, the sanctity that comes from the Head.
"Be holy, because I am Holy." If you say you are not holy, you would be ungrateful... If they say that they are not holy they are insulting their very Head."
St. Augustine
"He that eats of the Bread and drinks of the Cup unworthily, eats and drinks doom unto himself," and I, having examined myself, see that I am unworthy. When then will you be worthy? When will you present yourself to Christ?...
Decide then to lead a holier life, in harmony with the Law, and so receive the blessing, believing that you receive power to expel,
not death only, but all the diseases or weakness in us... 1
The Reply of the Congregation
As the celebrant calls the holy ones only to receive the holy things, the entire congregation trembles. They respond: "One is the Holy Father. One is the Holy Son. One is the Holy Spirit. Amen." As if they are saying: "There is One Sun that shine on all of us, and pours Its own rays of holiness upon us."
The Fermentum
Fr. Dix says, that this custom of the "Fermentum," which goes back to the early years of the second century, died out comparatively early in the east, probably in the fourth century, though it lasted in Rome till the eighth or ninth century. But in fact this custom still continues in the Coptic Orthodox Church. Until to day this custom is used as the presbyter puts the "Ispadikon" in the Chalice.
Theodore of Mopsuestia says that this custom shows that the Body and the Blood are inseparable: They are one in power, and vouchsafe the same grace to those who receive them.
The Sanctum
This custom started in the sixth century, when a fragment reserved from the Eucharist consecrated at the previous Liturgy, was brought to the offertory 4 of the following Liturgy. This custom has no existence in the Coptic Church.
6- the Confession
The Presbyter lifts up the paten in both hands and says the Confession. He proclaims that this is the Life-giving Body, which the Only-Begotten Son took from our Lady and Queen, the Theotokos, the Pure Saint Mary. He made It one with His Divinity without mingling, without confusion, and without alteration.
Here we ought to admire the holy Evangelist openly crying, "And the Word was made Flesh" For He was not ashamed to say that He was made Flesh that He might show the Union... And we do not say either that God, the Word of the Father, was transformed into the nature of the flesh or that the flesh passed into the Word; but in an unspeakable manner, a manner surpassing human understanding, the Word was united to His Flesh and having as it were, transformed it all into himself, drove forth of our nature corruption, and dislodged death which of old prevailed by means of sin.
He, therefore, that eats the holy Body of Christ has eternal life, for the Body has in itself the Word that is Life by nature.
It is as though one took a spark and buried it in the midst of stubble in order that the seed of fire preserved might inflame the whole. So in us too, our Lord Jesus Christ hides life through His own Flesh and inserts it as a seed of immortality abolishing all corruption that is in us.
St. Cyril of Alexandria