The Eucharist

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The Eucharist

The Orthodox Eucharist Service

The Holy Eucharist is the oldest experience of Christian Worship as

well as the most distinctive. Eucharist comes from the Greek word

which means "thanksgiving." The word describes the most important form

of the Church's attitude toward all of life. The origin of the

Eucharist is traced to the Last Supper at which Christ instructed His

disciples to offer bread and wine in His memory. The Eucharist is the

most distinctive event of Orthodox worship because in it the Church

gathers to remember and celebrate the Life, Death, and Resurrection of

Christ.

Before the Orthodox Eucharist service can take place, they believe

that you must prepare yourself for "holy communion" because they

believe it helps them to acquire the right attitude toward the

Sacrament. St. Paul writes, "Let a man examine himself and so eat of

that Bread and drink of that Cup" (1 Cor. 11:28). There are five

stages:

1. Self-examination - It is believed that this should be done

regularly by Christians in following God's path and is done to raise

awareness and lead to improvement, it is especially important when

approaching the chalice to receive communion.

2. Abstinence - On the morning of communion you should not eat or

drink anything because The Church Fathers emphasized that true fasting

is to abstain from sin and evil.

3. Prayers - Prayers that are designed to be read before and after

Communion should be read so that you can be in the proper attitude for

the reception of Communion.

4. Repentance - You should approach Jesus with a plea for mercy and

forgiveness because it is only faith and repentan...

... middle of paper ...

...e church is doing Sunday schools and

family services so that more of the youth can be shown Christ's

influence at an early age. Or to appeal to the younger generation's

music like brining in electric guitars to church and this I believe is

defiantly important to make kids more participant in church today.

On the other side of the story we come to pray for the very reason

that is in the prayer. "We have come together in the name of Christ to

offer our praise and thanksgiving to hear and receive Gods word to

pray for the needs of the world and to seek the forgiveness of our

sins, that by the power of the holy spirit we may give ourselves to

the service of God". In this prayer it shows that we come to prayer

for the needs of others as well as ourselves. So we should be thinking

of others and not worry about being bored.

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