Preparation for Communion on the Advice of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church

In all the patristic writings it was said that no one can be worthy of communion, but nevertheless it was allotted that everyone who embarks on the sacrament is obliged to strive for a meeting with Christ. Preparation for the sacrament should not be limited to a shit and the recitation of certain prayers. First of all, the readiness for the Eucharist is due to the absence of resentment or hatred towards the close, bright feeling of a pure conscience.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord said: "If you bring your gift to the altar and remember a brother whom you did not reconcile, leave the offering there until you reconcile with your brother." The obstacle before the communion is the sins committed by man. They should sincerely repent before God in confession with the priest. In the ROC, it is customary to start the sacrament on an empty stomach, since the body must be preceded by fasting. This is an old tradition, which was born even when the Liturgy began to be created separately from the "love party" - Agapa.

Preparation for the sacrament includes special ascetic rules, such as fasting for several days. But the birth of this tradition is much later. And it is connected with the fact that they began to join the Eucharist rarely and irregularly. There is no clear definition of how long it takes. Here everything depends on the frequency of the adoption of the holy mysteries of Christ. If this is done more than once a month, then a one-day fast is sufficient, and if less frequent, then at least a three-day post is needed. It should be recalled that this is the pious tradition of the ROC, which encourages the Christian mentally to go deep into himself and remember his sins. By the way, in other local churches, fasting and confession before the Eucharist are not practiced.

But one fast does not end preparation for the sacrament. Prayers during fasting, in the morning and in the evening, are not to be read out, but to create with a broken heart. In addition to daily prayers, it is necessary to create the following canons:

• Repentant to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Molebny to the Most Holy Theotokos.
• Angel to the guardian.

These canons should be created on the eve of Communion, after the evening service, but in the morning, on the day of the acceptance of Christ's Secrets, after the morning rule reads the Follow-up to the Holy Communion.

All preparation for the sacrament is aimed at making the person feel and realize his unworthiness, the sinful way of life and thoughts. And as a consequence, he began the sacrament with a feeling of sincere repentance. The main error of many neophytes is the attitude to the sacraments as to some kind of magic procedure. It should be very clearly understood that everything that is done in the temples is not magic. On this, first of all, faith is based in the autocephalous churches practicing Orthodoxy. The world is great and diverse, and in all other Christian denominations this understanding of patristic truths is distorted beyond recognition. It is extremely dangerous to think about the Eucharist based on the definition of "opus operato". This is a Catholic approach to church ordinances. The sacraments are performed by virtue of the actions performed: the priest said certain words, and it does not matter after that, he believes the one who comes to the cup in Christ or not, but the sacrament has its "good" effect. Another ap. Paul said: "Because of this, many of you are sick and even die that you are unworthy of the Holy Mysteries of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11, verses 29-30). And from this it follows that, no matter how seldom a person approaches the cup, preparation for communion should be conjugated with his inner transformation. Remember that St. John Chrysostom fifteen thousand years ago gave an example: "In Judas Iscariotsky, the devil entered with a sacrament, at a secret evening."