communion

Comments

• mike84

  December 2004

  the reason for communion is to renew the holy spirit that you've recieved in baptizim. to make your spirit stronger.
• mmatt95

  December 2004

  thnx for the clear answer, anybody else? :D
• Mekha84

  December 2004

  Dear Hos Erof,
  
  I tend to not only think of communion as receiving the body and blood of christ but also it is the "Sharing" of Christ with the rest of the beleivers in the church. It is a symbol of a fellowship, in Christ's Body and Blood.
  
  One aspect of distinguishing any faith is by certain practices, which are carried out by all the beleivers. In Christianity, sharing the Eucharist with other believers, makes Christianity different from all religions.
  
  AS defined in dictionary.com:

  com·mun·ion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (k-mynyn)
  n.
  The act or an instance of sharing, as of thoughts or feelings.
  Religious or spiritual fellowship.
  A body of Christians with a common religious faith who practice the same rites; a denomination.

  
  The Eucharist is receiving our savious that sacrificed himself for our sake. By having communion we are renewing our covenant with God,exactly like the Old testament.
  
  AS for all christians sharing the Holy Spirit, this is also an identity of the Christian Faith, but its as our priest says, "its our ticket to heaven, wheather we use it or not its our choice". As mike said, Communion renews the holy spirit inside us and also renews our covenant with God, to accept him as our saviour and promise to be loyal to him.
  
  This is my humble opinion,
  
  Pray for me,
  
  Mekha
  
• Roaming

  December 2004

  wudn't you like to eat our lords body so hes in us???
  
  i sure wud...
  
  
  i knever seen anybody say Jesus tastes good tho....
• mmatt95

  January 2005

  thnx for ur opinions everybody
  
  i was just wondering about a certain point
  if Jesus was the incarnate God, and his divinity was one with his humanity, and we partake of his body, does this mean we get this sort of divinity from Christ in our bodies as well???
• Unknown

  January 2005

  if Jesus was the incarnate God, and his divinity was one with his humanity, and we partake of his body, does this mean we get this sort of divinity from Christ in our bodies as well???

  Good question. Indeed we do, as 2 Peter 1:4 says, we become "partakers of the divine nature." But what does this mean?
  
  Let me type up for you the footnote in the OSB for this verse:
  
  "Being renewed by God's power, we become partakers of the divine nature. This does not mean that we become divine in nature, for if we participated in God's essence or nature the distinction between God and man would be abolished. What this does mean is that we participate in God's divine energy, described by a number of terms in the Scriptures, such as glory, life, love, virtue, and power. We are to become like God by His grace and truly His adopted children, but we never become God by nature. According to some church fathers, this transformation especially occurs through the Eucharist, for when Christ's body and blood become one with ours, we become Christ-bearers and partakers of the divine nature"
• mmatt95

  January 2005

  that is so interesting, it does make sense though
  at least it clears up the meaning of eucharist, and it's importance

  This does not mean that we become divine in nature, for if we participated in God's essence or nature the distinction between God and man would be abolished. What this does mean is that we participate in God's divine energy

  so this is the difference between us, God's son's and daughters, and Christ, the Only Begotten Son of GOd; we participate in GOd's divine energy, giving us strenhth and virtues etc, and Christ shares in God's Divine nature by being one with Him; just to be clear about this...
• Unknown

  January 2005

  so this is the difference between us, God's son's and daughters, and Christ, the Only Begotten Son of GOd; we participate in GOd's divine energy, giving us strenhth and virtues etc, and Christ shares in God's Divine nature by being one with Him

  Yep, you got it. Just to emphasise the difference between God's essence and energies, i'll paste my summary from "The Orthodox way" on this issue:
  
  In speaking of these two aspects of God: The hidden vs. The revealed, the Orthodox tradition draws a line between God's essence, nature or inner being, and God's energies, operations or acts of Power. St Athanasius writes: “He is outside all things according to His essence, but he is in all things through His acts of power�. St Basil affirms that “We know the essence through the energy�, and “No one has ever seen the essence of God, but we believe in the essence because we experience the energy.�
  
  “The essence then signifies the radical transcendence of God; the energies, his immanence and omnipresence.� (Bishop Kallistos Ware - “The Orthodox Way�) These energies are not to be understood as emanations from God, or intermediaries between God and man, nor as “things� or “gifts� bestowed upon us by God. Rather, they are God Himself in His activities and self-manifestations . Nor are the energies to be considered a “part� of the essence, for the essence is simple and indivisible. “The essence signifies the whole God as He is in Himself, whilst the energies signify whole God as He is in action. God in His entirety is completely present in each of His divine energies. Thus, the essence-energies distinction is a way of stating simultaneously that the whole God is inaccessible, and that the whole God in his outgoing love has rendered Himself accessible to man.� (Bishop Kallistos Ware - “The Orthodox Way�)
  
  It is through this distinction between the energies and the essence that we come to understand God's interaction with mankind, and His mystical union with His creation - the 'theosis' (deification of man). This however is not to be confused with pantheistic ideas, for man participates in the energies of God and not His essence. “There is union, but not fusion or confusion� (Bishop Kallistos Ware - “The Orthodox Way�) It is through this union that man experiences God in a person-to-person relationship.
  
  “Such, then, is our God: unknowable in His essence, yet known in His energies; beyond and above all that we can think or express, yet closer to us than our own heart. Through the apophatic way we smash into pieces all the idols or mental images that we form of Him, for we know that all are unworthy of his surpassing greatness. Yet at the same time through our prayer and through our active service in the world, we discover at every moment his divine energies, his immediate presence in each person and each thing.� (Bishop Kallistos Ware - “The Orthodox Way�)