On Preparation for Holy Communion - Part 1

Part 1: Fasting

The missional dimension of the Liturgy points to an act, a process of Christ’s salvific work. In some larger sense, this process begins with the Pre-Eternal Council of the Trinity and flows into life everlasting, thus never having an end or completion - in other words, it is a journey, not a destination. Therefore, no single isolated element of the Ordo can fully or clearly manifest this missional dimension, especially if treated as an item to be completed on a check-list. Every element must also be understood as a process, processing, as it were, in the direction of Christ’s mission. Since Christ’s mission is to save man by re-establishing a communion between man and God within Himself, then we must identify a process by which we move toward that mission, if we are to find that which manifests the missional dimension of the Liturgy.

Again, in a larger sense, separating the whole into elements may be counter-productive, for the creation is not a set of plug-and-play pieces, but an organic whole. A soul by itself is no more a man than his body by itself - thus, the need of the resurrection, for it is not souls but men who inherit life eternal. As Goethe’s Mephistopheles said so insightfully in his critique of the academia with its drive to dissect the world:

Wer will was lebendig’s erkennen und beschreiben,
Sucht erst den Geist heraus zu treiben,
Dann hat er die Theile in seiner Hand,
Fehlt leider! nur das geistige Band.

He, who wants to study a living thing,
First seeks to drive out the spirit,
Then the parts are in his hand,
But, alas! - the spiritual bond is gone.

von Goethe, J.W. Faust: Eine Tragödie. Part I, Scene IV “Ein Schüler”

Thus, the path to a union with Christ is not in this aspect of life or that - not in going to church every week, or reading the Bible, or giving alms - but in the entirety of a life in Christ. Christ, like breath, is life itself, not a part of it or an activity - see Gen. 2:7, cf. Ps. 150:6. Nonetheless, a more narrow perspective is necessary on account of the limitations of the rational mind which is overwhelmed by complexity and requires reductions, schematics, and good-enough approximations. It is with this in mind that the missional aspect of the Liturgy can be examined by looking at the preparation for this service apart from the service itself.

In the Russian tradition, there are three essential elements of preparation for communion: fasting, confession, and a certain prayer rule. Each of these elements has its own history in Orthodoxy; and the combination of all three as a framework for pre-communion preparation is certainly not unique to the Russian tradition; but once again, since it is not practical to discus all traditions, a sample one must be chosen.

Faust and Mephistopheles