Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, Baptism and the Eucharist (1933) pp.1-123.

Synopsis of this Chapter.

The priest begins the Anaphora, and before anything else he blesses the people with these words: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." For this the people answer him: "And with your spirit." And the priest says to the congregation: "Lift up your minds ": and the congregation answers: "To You, O Lord." And the priest says: "Let us thank the Lord." And the people answer: "It is fit and right." The priest begins the Anaphora, and offers a public sacrifice and says: "In singing loudly and glorifying, Holy, Holy, Holy, the mighty Lord. Heaven and earth are full of His praises." While all have resorted to silence, and while we look downwards, the Church crier shouts: "Let us all stand up in great fear and tremor." Indeed, by the power of the things that are taking place it is necessary that Christ our Lord should rise from the dead and spread His grace over all of us. And the priest prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit may descend also on those present. And the priest offers a supplication for all those of whom, by regulation, mention is made in the Church, and then begins to mention the departed.

The priest recites quietly these prayers, and immediately after takes the holy bread and looks towards heaven. He breaks the bread while praying over the congregation: "May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." And the congregation replies with the usual words, and he with the bread makes the sign of the Cross over the blood and with the blood over the bread. For this reason it is customary to throw the vivifying bread little by little |97 into the chalice. Before any other thing we must pray our Lord for those who presented this holy offering. And the priest blesses the people with "peace be to you" and the latter answer with the usual words, which are recited while their heads are duly bowed. And the Church crier shouts: "Let us be attentive." And the priest cries: "The holy thing to the holies." And all answer and say: "One holy Father, one holy Son, one holy Spirit," and add: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit."

And he receives the communion, and all of us hasten to do the same. The priest who offers the sacrifice draws near and partakes of it first, and then every one of us draws near, while looking downwards and stretching out both hands to receive the sacrament which is given. A person stretches out his right hand, and under it he places the left hand. When the priest gives it he says: "the body of Christ." The same thing is done with the reception of the cup. This is the reason why you say after him: "Amen." You receive communion and you send the participation of the sacrament inside. After you have received the communion, you offer thanksgiving and praise to God, and you remain (in the Church) so that you may also offer this thanksgiving and praise to God with all others, according to the regulations of the Church.

It is time now to give you, if God permit, what was left off.We began to speak to you of the spiritual food of which you partake when you receive the holy communion, and we discoursed also to your love on some other indispensable things dealing with this subject. We further taught you the service which is performed in it, and reached the sentence: "Look at the sacrifice" which the deacon utters loudly according to the Church ritual, and after which the priest must begin the Anaphora. Since, however, the things that had to be said were many, we rightly put an end to our speech and kept the service of the priest concerning them for another discourse, and I hope, by the grace of God, to bring them also to an end to-day.

After the deacon has said: "Look at the sacrifice," and while, according to his announcement, all look at what is taking place, the priest begins the Anaphora, and before anything else he blesses the people with these words: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all," because he thinks that before anything else the people ought to be blessed, prior to this service, with these words of the Apostle, on account of their great usefulness; and because of the honour due to them, he uttered them first and confided them to writing, since, according to the words of the Gospel, "God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son for it, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

He showed all this love to men, not because He received from us anything worthy of this good will, as it is by His grace and mercy that He made manifest to us a love for the sake of which the Only Begotten Son of God, God the Word, was pleased to assume a man for us, whom He raised from the dead, took up to heaven, united to Himself, and placed at the right hand of God. And He promised to us participation in all these, and gave us also the Holy Spirit, whose firstfruits we are receiving now as an earnest. We shall receive all (the fruits) when we shall have communion with Him in reality and when our vile body shall be fashioned like to His glorious body.This is the reason why the blessed Paul prayed in his Epistles for the faithful so that they may be seen worthy of the love of God, which He by His grace made manifest to all our race, and made us all worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit by whose gift He promised to us communion with Him.

It is with justice, therefore, that the priest who is about to perform such a great service, from which we are led to the hope of these (benefits), should first bless the people with the above words. Some priests only say: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you," and include in, and restrict with these, words all the sentence of the Apostle. For these words the people answer: "And with your spirit," according to an ordinance which states that whenever the priest blesses the people with "grace" or with "peace" all those present should, for the reasons which I have already explained, answer him with these words.

After this benediction the priest prepares the people by saying: "Lift up your minds," in order to show that although we are supposed to perform this awe-inspiring and ineffable service on earth, we, nevertheless, ought to look upwards towards heaven and to extend the sight of our soul to God, as we are performing the remembrance of the sacrifice and death of Christ our Lord, who for us suffered and rose, is united to Divine nature, is sitting at the right hand of God, and is in heaven, to which we must extend the sight of our soul and transfer our thoughts by means of the present remembrances. And the people answer: "To You, O Lord," and in this they confess with their voices that they are anxious to do so

After the priest has prepared and set in the right direction the souls and the minds of the congregation, he says: "Let us thank the Lord." This means that for all these things which were accomplished for us, and which we are about to perform in this service, we owe, before anything else, gratitude to God, who is the cause of all these benefits. To the above words the people answer: "It is fit and right." In this they confess that we certainly ought to do it for two reasons: because of the greatness of God, who granted us things such as these, and in order to show that it is right on the part of those who were granted such benefits not to be ungrateful to the One by whom they were promised to them.

After we have all of us performed this, and while we are silent, in a great reverential fear, the priest begins the Anaphora. He offers a sacrifice for the community, and a reverential fear, which embraces both himself and us all, is cast upon him on account of what has happened, namely that our Lord suffered for us all a death, the remembrance of which is about to be performed in the present sacrifice. Let the priest be at that time the tongue of the ecclesiastical community, and let him make use of the right words in this great service. The right praises of God consist in professing that all praises and all glorifications are due to Him, inasmuch as adoration and service are due to Him from all of us; and of all other services the present one, which consists in the commemoration of the grace which came to us and which cannot be described by the creatures, takes precedence. And because we have been initiated and baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and because we ought to expect therefrom the full accomplishment of the things that are performed, he says: "the greatness of the Father." He adds also "and of the Son," because the same thing that is due to the Father is also due to the Son, who is really and truly a Son with an identical substance with His Father, and in nothing lower than He. He adds necessarily in the same sentence: "and of the Holy Spirit," and confesses that the Spirit is also of Divine substance. He asserts that praises and glorifications are offered at all times, and before all other (beings), to this eternal and Divine nature, by all the visible creatures and by the invisible hosts.

He makes then mention, before other (creatures), of the Seraphim, who offer that praise which the blessed Isaiah learned in a Divine vision and committed to writing, and which all of us in the congregation sing in a loud voice, as if we were also singing that which the invisible natures sing: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole heaven and earth are full of His praises." Indeed, while the blessed Isaiah foresaw, by the working of the Spirit, the benefits that were to be granted to the human race, he heard in vision the Seraphim uttering these words. The prophet saw through revelation that a great service was being performed, which was high above human nature. The prophet noticed that the spiritual hosts appeared to look with great awe and reverence, since they were looking downwards and covering their faces completely with their wings. The doctrine of the Trinity was also revealed at that time when one Godhead was proclaimed in three persons. This was revealed by their saying "holy" three times, and once only "Lord." In saying "holy" three times, they showed three persons: the person of the Father, the person of the Son, and the person of the Holy Spirit. We must believe that each one of them is eternal and truly holy, because the Godhead is really holy and immutable, while a creature may be said to be or to become holy by an act of grace from it. The words said at the end, "the Lord of Sabaoth" mean Lord and God of hosts, and omnipotent God. The expression "Lord of Sabaoth" shows all these, and is congruous to the nature of the Trinity, which is alone eternal and God.

It is necessary, therefore, that the priest also should, after having mentioned in this service the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, say: "Praise and adoration are offered by all the creatures to Divine nature." He makes also mention of the Seraphim, as they are found in the Divine Book singing the praise which all of us who are present sing loudly in the Divine song which we recite, along with the invisible hosts, in order to serve God. We ought to think of them and to offer a thanksgiving that is equal to theirs. Indeed, the Economy of our Lord granted us to become immortal and incorruptible, and to serve God with the invisible hosts "when we are caught up in the clouds to meet our Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord," according to the saying of the Apostle. Nor are the words of our Lord false, who says that the children of God "are like the angels of God, because they are the children of the resurrection."

When Isaiah heard the above words in a spiritual vision, he fell upon his face and said: "Woe is me. I am wretched, and sorrowful, and a man, and have unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Sabaoth," as if he were sorrowing in his heart for all human nature, for what we are and what we receive. He said "I am a man," so that by the mention of human nature he might show that it is an attribute of this same human nature to lean towards evil, as God said: "for the desire of a man's heart is set on evil from his youth." This is the reason why, while Isaiah was sorrowing for all the human race, he was astonished at the boundless mercy of God, who granted such a grace to a race full of sins such as these.

As to us, because we are ordered to perform the greatness of the gift that was shown a long time previously to the prophet, and was afterwards seen and realised sometime ago as a sacrifice on our behalf, we all stand in reverential fear while we bow our heads, as if unable even to look at the greatness of this service. And we make use of the words of the invisible hosts, in order to make manifest the greatness of the grace which has been so unexpectedly outpoured upon us. We do not cast away the awe from our mind, but on account of the greatness of the things that are taking place, we keep it throughout the service equally, and we bow our heads both before and after we recite loudly the Sanctus,and make manifest this fear in a congruous way. In all this the priest also associates himself loudly with the invisible hosts, and prays and glorifies the Godhead, and is like the others in fear of the things that are taking place, as it is right that in connection with them he should not be less than the rest; on the contrary, he is to be in awe and fear more than all, as he is performing for all this service which is so awe-inspiring.

After all those present have recited loudly: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of Sabaoth," and have reverted little by little to silence, the priest proceeds with the holy service and says before anything else: "Holy is the Father, holy also is the Son, and holy also the Holy Spirit," in order to proclaim that they are the eternal and holy nature, and in order that he may be seen that he understands clearly the meaning of the praise of the Seraphim which the prophet heard and confided to writing. He afterwards makes mention also of the ineffable grace of (God) for which He made manifest the Economy which took place in Christ, and by which the One who was in the form of God was pleased to take upon Him the form of a servant, so that He might assume a perfect and complete man for the salvation of all the human race; and He abolished the old and harsh observances which were formerly enjoined upon us through the deadweight of the law, and also the dominion of death which was dating from ancient times; and He granted us ineffable benefits which are higher than all human intelligence and for which He agreed to suffer, so that through His resurrection He might effect a complete abolition of death; and He promised us communion with Him in the happiness of the future benefits.

It is with great justice, therefore, that He gave us this Sacrament which is capable of leading us efficiently to those benefits, as through it we are born again in the symbo1 of baptism, and we commemorate the death of our Lord through this awe-inspiring service, and receive the immortal and spiritual food of the body and blood of our Lord, for the sake of which, when our Lord was about to draw near to His Passion, He instructed His disciples that all of us who believe in Christ had to receive them and perform them through these (elements), and in this way to commemorate by stages the death of Chnst our Lord, and obtain therefrom an ineffable nourishment. From these things we derive a hope that is strong enough to lead us to the participation in the future benefits.

The priest says these and similar things in this holy service, and in his remembrance of the things that had taken place previously, and prepares us all to see through the oblations the gift of Christ our Lord. It is necessary, therefore, that our Lord should now rise from the dead by the power of the things which are taking place and that He should spread His grace over us. This cannot happen otherwise than by the coming of the grace of the Holy Spirit, through which the latter had also raised Him previously, as the blessed Paul showed when he said in one passage: "He was declared to be the Son of God, by power and by the Spirit of holiness, from the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord," and in another passage:

It is with great justice, therefore, that the priest offers, according to the rules of priesthood, prayer and supplication to God that the Holy Spirit may descend, and that grace may come therefrom upon the bread and the wine that are laid (on the altar) so that they may be seen to be truly the body and the blood of our Lord, which are the remembrance of immortality. Indeed, the body of our Lord, which is from our own nature, was previously mortal by nature, but through the resurrection it moved to an immortal and immutable nature. When the priest, therefore, declares them to be the body and the blood of Christ, he clearly reveals that they have so become by the descent of the Holy Spirit, through whom they have also become immortal, inasmuch as the body of our Lord, after it was anointed and had received the Spirit, was clearly seen so to become. In this same way, after the Holy Spirit has come here also, we believe that the elements of bread and wine have received a kind of an anointing from the grace that comes upon them, and we hold them to be henceforth immortal, incorruptible, impassible, and immutable by nature, as the body of our Lord was after the resurrection.

And the priest prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit may come also on all those present, in order that as they have been perfected into one body in the likeness of the second birth, so also they may be knit here as if into one body by the communion of the flesh of our Lord, and in order also that they may embrace and follow one purpose with concord, peace, and diligence in good works. In this way, all of us pray God with a pure mind not to receive the communion of the Holy Spirit for punishment, as if we were divided in our thoughts and bent on disunions, bickerings, jealousy and envy, and despising good works, but to be considered worthy to receive (that communion) because the eye of our soul looks towards God with concord, peace, diligence in good works, and purity of mind. We must draw near in this way to the communion of the Holy Sacrament, and through it we will be united to our head, Christ our Lord, whose body we believe ourselves to be, and from whom we have communion with Divine nature.

The priest performs Divine service in this way, and offers supplication on behalf of all those of whom by regulation mention is to be made always in the Church; and later he begins to make mention of those who have departed, as if to show that this sacrifice keeps us in this world, and grants also after death, to those who have died in the faith, that ineffable hope which all the children of the Sacrament of Christ earnestly desire and expect.

The priest recites quietly these prayers, and immediately after, takes the holy bread with his hands and looks towards heaven, and directs his eyes upwards. He offers a prayer of thanksgivings for these great gifts, and breaks the bread. While breaking it he prays for the people, that the grace of God may be upon them, and says thus: "May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you." The people accept this and answer with the usual words. And with the bread he makes the sign of the Cross over the blood, and with the blood over the bread, and he unites and joins them together, in order to reveal to all that although these elements are two, they are nevertheless one in power, and are the remembrance of the death and the Passion that affected the body of our Lord, when His blood was shed on the Cross for us all. When the priest makes the sign of the Cross over them he unites them and joins them together, because the human body is one with its blood, and where the body is there also is the blood; and from whatever slit or cut, whether large or small, that is made in it, blood will necessarily flow according to the size of the cut. The body of our Lord was so constituted before His Passion, and much blood must necessarily have been shed from it by the wounds of the crucifixion. When our Lord gave both of them, He said: "This is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins, and this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins." In the first sentence He referred to His Passion, and in the second to the severity and length of His Passion, in which much blood was shed.

It is with justice, therefore, that according to this teaching, we place both of them on the altar, in order to refer to happenings that took place afore, and to show that both of them are one in power, as they belong to the one person who received the Passion, that is to say to the flesh of our Lord, from which blood was also shed. This is the reason why the priest, at the end of the Anaphora, rightly breaks the bread and joins it with the blood while making the sign of the Cross, and then likewise brings the blood near the bread in order to show that both of them, which the Passion affected, are one, and that we also are ordered to perform the remembrance of this Passion in this way.

It is customary to throw the vivifying bread into the chalice in order to show that they are not separable, that they are one in power, and that they vouchsafe the same grace to those who receive them. The priest does not break the bread to no purpose, but in remembrance of Christ our Lord, who after His resurrection from the dead appeared to all His followers: He first appeared to the women, then to the eleven Apostles, and later, little by little, to individuals and to the rest of the believers while they were gathered together, as when He appeared to Cleophas and his companion, who were two in number. His aim in this was to show Himself to them that He had risen, and by His resurrection He revealed and announced to them that they also will participate with Him in those great benefits with which He greeted them, and He thus prepared them to rejoice in the expectation of the future good things. This is the reason why even to the women, to whom He immediately appeared after His resurrection, He said: "Peace be with you." For these reasons it is with justice that now also the priest does the same thing after the service has come to a complete end, according to the teaching of our Lord, and the remembrance of the death and the resurrection has been accomplished.

He breaks the bread according to the first method (used by our Lord), who varied His apparitions, once appearing to this and once to that, and another time showing Himself to many, so that He might draw all to Him; and (in the present case) so that they may embrace the good thing that was made manifest to them, and worship Him while acknowledging the greatness of the honour that came to Him. They think in their minds, while eating the holy bread, that they also are receiving an ineffable communion with Him. By this we are steadfastly led with much happiness, a great joy and a strong hope to the greatness which, through the resurrection, we expect to have with Him in the next world.

At the end all the bread is broken, so that all of us who are present may be able to receive (communion). Each one of us takes a small portion, but we believe that we receive all of Him in that small portion. It would, indeed, be very strange if the woman, who had an issue of blood, received Divine gift by touching the border of His garment, which was not even part of His body but only of His garment, and we did not believe that we receive all of Him in a part of His body. This is also illustrated by the fact that when we kiss we are in the habit of kissing only with the mouth, which is but a small part of the body, but we believe that we embrace all the body. Furthermore, how many times do we not hold one another by the arms in walking together, and show our whole fellowship with one another through parts only?

For the sake of the things that will take place at the end, it is necessary that the priest, who offers this holy and ineffable sacrifice, should begin also with this (act). When, therefore, the priest has finished all the service of the Anaphora, he rightly begins to break the bread, from which we must picture in our mind that Christ our Lord, through each portion of the bread, draws near to the person who receives Him, while greeting him and speaking to him of his resurrection, and while becoming surety for us concerning the future benefits for the sake of which we draw near to the holy Sacrament, and obtain the gift of immortality through an immortal nourishment.

When everything comes to an end, the Church crier shouts and mentions in short words those for whom every one ought to pray, and before any other thing he says: "We ought to pray for those who presented this holy offering," as if one were saying: for those who (gave us the occasion) of becoming worthy of this offering; and for this let us also pray that we may be found worthy of looking at it, standing by its side, and partaking of it. The priest finishes the prayer by imploring that this sacrifice may be acceptable to God, and that the grace of the Holy Spirit may come upon all, so that we may be able to be worthy of its communion, and not to receive it to punishment, as it is much and immeasurably higher and loftier than we are. After he has finished the prayer with words such as these and has blessed the people with "peace be to you," they answer him with the usual words which are recited by all those present, while duly bowing their heads.

Sometime after the priest has finished this prayer, and after all the above services have been brought to an end, and while every one of those who is about to receive the communion is looking, the Church crier shouts: "Let us be attentive." He prepares loudly every one to pay attention to the thing which is about to be said. And the priest says loudly: "The holy thing to the holies," because this food is holy and immortal, as it is the body and the blood of our Lord, and is replete of holiness on account of the Holy Spirit who dwells in it. Not everybody partakes of this food, but only those who have been sanctified for some time. This is the reason why only the baptised ones partake of it, those who have received the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit in the second birth of baptism, and have been found worthy to receive holiness therefrom. It is for this reason that the priest says: "The holy thing to the holies" and directs the mind of all to look at the greatness of the oblation. He says in this way that you ought to observe the greatness of the offering which is laid (on the altar). You should know that you partake of a food of which, by your nature, you are not worthy, as it is immortal and immutable in everything; and it is not right for every one to partake of it, as it belongs to those who have been sanctified. This is the reason why when you alone partake of this food, as men who have received holiness through baptism, you ought to know the greatness of the gift, and what you had to make you worthy of this holy food. You must, therefore, strengthen in you the gift, which has been bestowed upon you, with good works, so that in doing, in the measure of your power, the works that are worthy of the thing given to you, you may partake of this food, which would then be fit for you.

God has provided in every animal, which is born of another animal, the food that is suitable to the one which is born. Indeed, every animal is born of another of its species and feeds itself from it. A sheep is born of a sheep, and feeds itself from the nature of a sheep; and so a horse in a like manner; and so also all other animals of one species are born of others of the same species, and have their food in the nature of the one which brought it forth. In this way it is right and fit also for you, who were born in baptism of the grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and who have received holiness therefrom, to partake of a food similar to it, from the grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, in order to confirm and increase the holiness which has been promised to you, and perfect the expected benefits which will come to us in the next world and through which all of us will be wholly holy. It is in this meaning that we must understand the (sentence) "The holy thing to the holies"; and it is with these things that we draw near to the greatness of this communion; and it is with this mind, with this faith, with this diligence, with this reverential fear, and with this love that we must partake of the holy and immortal food.

In this sense, after the priest has said, "The holy thing to the holies," all answer and say: "One holy Father, one holy Son, one holy Spirit." They profess that one is the nature that is truly holy, and this is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a nature that is alone eternal, alone immutable, and alone capable of bestowing holiness upon whomsoever it wishes. And they add: "Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen," as it is fit that those who make a profession of faith in the holy nature should glorify it with their duty of glorifying.

After all these things have taken place, and all the service has come to an end, all of us hasten to receive the communion, and from a communion-table which is awe-inspiring and higher than words, we partake of the immortal and holy food. Although those who wait at the altar and are appointed for Divine service draw near to the altar and partake of the Divine food, while the rest partake of it from a distance, there is nevertheless no distinction in the food itself, because one is the bread and one is the body of Christ our Lord, into which the element of bread is changed; and it receives this great change from one descent of the Holy Spirit, and all of us partake of it equally, as all of us are one body of Christ our Lord, and all of us partake of the same body and blood. As through the second birth and through the Holy Spirit all of us become one body of Christ, so also by the one nourishment of the holy Sacrament, through which the grace of the Holy Spirit feeds us, all of us are in one fellowship with Christ our Lord. In one passage it is said: "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free," and in another passage: "For we are all partakers of one bread, because the bread is one, and we are many but one bread."

When all of us partake, therefore, of the one body of Christ, and receive communion with Him through this nourishment, we become one body of Christ, and from this we receive communion and close union with Him as (the members) with the head, because: "the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ, and the cup which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" (The Apostle) shows here that by our partaking of these we are united to the body and the blood of our Lord, and so when we partake of them we remain in communion with Him, while we are the body of Christ; and through this communion we strengthen that which we had received from the second birth of baptism, by becoming His body, according to the words of the Apostle who said: "You are the body of Christ," and in another passage: "The Christ is the head from which all the body is joined and knit together, and increases with the increase of God."

The gift of the communion of the Sacrament is thus granted in a general way to all of us, because all of us are equally in need of it, as we believe that in it is found the happiness of the eternal life. The priest who is offering the sacrifice draws near first and partakes of (it), so that it may be made clear that he is offering the sacrifice for all according to the order written in the rules for priesthood, but that he is in equal need with the others of partaking of it, and asserts that there is utility in this food and drink. In saying: "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, shall live for ever," He (our Lord) refers not to the one who offers the sacrifice but to the one who eats (of it), and this, like the sacrifice, belongs equally to all of us. It is indeed offered so that by the coming of the Holy Spirit it should become that which it is said to be: the body and the blood of Christ. All of us partake of them, when they become like this, because all of us believe that in this food and in this drink of which we are ordered to partake, there is life, according to the words of our Lord.

To partake of them is common to all, but the one who, through love, faith and good works, shows himself, in the measure of human capability, to be worthy of them, obtains something more from them. It is, however, clear that not a single man is worthy of partaking of them, because how can a man who is mortal, corruptible and burdened with sin, be deemed worthy to take and to receive that body which became immortal and incorruptible, which is in heaven, and at the right-hand of God, and which receives honour from all as Lord and King? We have confidence, however, because of the grace of our Lord who granted these things, and we draw near to them with the best zeal and diligence which we can possess and produce by ourselves. We draw near to them in the measure of the power of the human nature.

It is with these expectations that all of us draw near to Christ our Lord, who promised to us the second birth in baptism, in which He made us His flesh and His body—as it is written "Behold I, and the children which God has given me"—and who, firstly in the likeness of the love of a carnal mother, strove to feed us from His body, and secondly placed before us the elements of bread and cup which are His body and His blood through which we eat the food of immortality, and through which the grace of the Holy Spirit flows to us and feeds us into an immortal and incorruptible existence, by hope; and through these leads us steadfastly and, in a way that no one can describe, to the participation in the future benefits, when we shall really feed ourselves from the grace of the Holy Spirit, without signs and symbols, and shall become completely immortal, incorruptible, and unchangeable by nature.

It is in this way and through these remembrances and these signs and symbols which have been performed that all of us draw near to Christ our Lord risen from the dead, with a great joy and happiness. And we joyfully embrace Him with all our power as we see Him risen from the tomb, and we hope also to participate (with Him) in the resurrection, because He also rose from the tomb of the holy communion-table as from the dead, according to the symbol that has been performed; and He draws near to us by His apparition, and announces resurrection to us through our communion with Him. Although He comes to us after having divided Himself, all of Him is nevertheless in every portion (of the bread), and is near to all of us, and gives Himself to each one of us, in order that we may hold Him and embrace Him with all our might, and make manifest our love to Him, according to the pleasure of each one of us. It is in this way that we partake of the body and the blood of our Lord, and expect to be changed into an immortal and incorruptible nature. It is with these (expectations) that each one of us draws near while looking downwards and stretching out both hands. By his looking downwards he signifies that he is offering a congruous thing (to God) through adoration, and giving thanks for his receiving the body of the King, who became the Lord of all through His union with the Divine nature, and who is worshipped as a Lord by the whole creation; and in the fact that both his hands are stretched out, he confesses the greatness of the gift which he is about to receive.

To receive the Sacrament which is given, a person stretches out his right hand, and under it he places the left hand. In this he shows a great fear, and since the hand that is stretched out holds a higher rank, it is the one that is extended for receiving the body of the King, and the other hand bears and brings its sister hand, while not thinking that it is playing the role of a servant, as it is equal with it in honour, on account of the bread of the King, which is also borne by it.

When the priest gives it he says: "The body of Christ." He teaches you by this word not to look at that which is visible, but to picture in your mind the nature of this oblation, which, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, is the body of Christ. You should thus draw near with great awe and love, according to the greatness of that which is given: with awe, because of the greatness of (its) honour; and with love, because of (its) grace. This is the reason why you say after him: "Amen." With your answer to the words of the priest, you confirm and subscribe to the words of the one who gives. The same thing happens in the communion of the chalice.

As to you, after you have received the body,¹⁵ you offer adoration as a confession of the power placed in your hands, while remembering the words uttered by our Lord to His disciples after He rose from the dead: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." You press it with great and true love to your eyes and kiss it, and you offer (to it) your prayers as if to Christ our Lord, who is at present so near to you, and in whom you believed before that you had confidence, which you will receive now that you have drawn near to Him and held Him. You pray, while confessing your weakness, the great number of your sins, and your great unworthiness for such a gift. You glorify also in a fitting manner the One who granted these things to a person such as you, and rendered you worthy to receive help from Him to the extent that you became worthy to receive the communion, free from all evil things and doing all the things that please Him.

You receive the communion with these and similar (devotional acts), and you send the participation of the Sacrament inside,¹⁶ as not only the body but also—and even before the body —the soul does the grace of the Holy Spirit nourish through this awe-inspiring communion, when in the next world it will render the body immortal and the soul immutable, and not subject to any sin whatever. After you have received the communion you rightly and spontaneously offer thanksgiving and praise to God, so that you may not be ungrateful with regard to this Divine gift. And you remain (in the Church), so that you may also offer thanksgiving and praise with every one, according to the regulations of the Church, because it is right for all those who received this spiritual food to offer thanksgiving to God publicly for this great gift.

We have, as you know, spoken in many past days of things pertaining to such a Sacrament the greatness of which far exceeds what the words are able to express. Indeed, what can mortal words say that is worthy of immortal, heavenly and unspeakable things? It was necessary, however, to speak of them to your hearing, so that you might not remain completely ignorant of the greatness of the gift. It is right for you now to make use of an intelligence consonant with these sublime things of which you have been rendered worthy, and to think well, according to the measure of the greatness of a gift such as this, what we were and into what we have been transformed: that we were mortal by nature and we expect to receive immortality, that from being corruptible we shall become incorruptible, from passible impassible, from mutable, for ever immutable; and that we shall be transferred from the evils of the earth to heaven; and that we shall enjoy all the good and delightful things found in heaven. We have acquired this hope from the Economy of Christ our Lord, who was assumed from us. He was the first to receive this change, from Divine nature, and in this way He became to us the usherer of our participation in these great things. We strive, therefore, to partake of the Sacrament because we believe that through symbols, as through unspeakable signs, we possess, sometime beforehand, the realities themselves, and also because after having received the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit in our participation in the Sacrament—firstfruits which we obtain when we are baptised into the second birth—we believe that, when we receive the communion, we do receive it for the nourishment and the sustenance of our (spiritual) life.

We ought to think of these and similar things every day and in all our life, and to endeavour to make ourselves worthy, as much as possible, of the Sacrament; and we shall be worthy of it if we obey the commandments of Christ our Lord, who promised afore these and similar benefits to us, if we strive to turn away from evil things and cleave to good things, and to reject cruelty and adopt mercy, which brought us benefits such as these. Indeed if our Lord, who ordered those who pray to say: "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors," added: "For if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses" —we will all the more not receive the grace and the benefits prepared for us by God, while still in this world, if we do not strive with all our power to have mercy upon our neighbours. We become, therefore, worthy of this awe-inspiring Sacrament if we think of things of which we spoke above; and if we acquire in the measure of our power, a mind higher than earthly things; and if we contemplate heavenly things, and think continually that it is in their hope that we have received this Sacrament.

It is fitting for those who always lead an unmarried life to spurn earthly things and constantly look towards heavenly things, and remember the words of the blessed Paul: "He that is unmarried thinks about the things that belong to His Lord, how he may please Him; and he that is married thinks about the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." He shows here that it is suitable to the one who is unmarried to be free from all worldly care, and to have his entire regard for the things that please God, to whom he also joined himself by promise. It fits such a one, who has drawn near to this Sacrament and has been called to heaven where there is neither marriage,³ nor food nor drink,³ to live, in the measure of his power, beforehand, while still in this world, according to that which is congruous to a world in imitation of which he chose to be unmarried. It is also fitting for the married persons not to be tied to the cares of this world, as through the Sacrament they have received the hope of the happiness of the world to come in which we shall cast away marriage, and—to express myself succinctly—all the affairs of this world. It is creditable for those who lead a married life to strive, with all their power, to imitate the world to come, as the blessed Paul said: "It remains for those that have wives to be as though they had none, and they that weep to be as though they wept not, and they that buy to be as though they possessed not, and they that rejoice in possessions to be as though they rejoiced not, and they that use this world to be as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passes away."

Because all this world stands in a worldly fashion which will pass away, according to the words of the Apostle, and will undoubtedly suffer dissolution, and because we are expecting the world to come which will remain eternally, it is right for us all to order our life according to the things of the next world. This is especially good and suitable to us, who partake of the food of the Sacrament and look for the things in the hope of which we participate in the holy communion. The sins which come to us from human weakness are not capable of deterring us from the communion of the holy Sacrament. As those who live in sins are not to draw near to this communion without fear, so also those who care for their salvation ought to draw near and receive the holy communion, while thinking that as for the sustenance of our present existence we are by necessity obliged to take food, so also for our future existence we partake of spiritual food from Divine grace, through the Economy of Christ.

It is right for us, therefore, neither wholly to abstain from communion nor to go to it unworthily, but we must strive with all our power after the things that are right, and after having thus striven we must hasten to receive communion, well aware that if we devote our life to unworthiness, and sin fearlessly, and do anything we take fancy to, and are careless of our duty, we shall eat and drink this food and this beverage which words cannot describe, to our damnation; but if we are careful of our salvation, and hasten towards good works and meditate upon them continually in our mind, the sins that come to us involuntarily from (human) weakness will not injure us; on the contrary, we will acquire great help from our communion. Indeed, the body and the blood of our Lord, and the grace of the Holy Spirit that is promised to us therefrom, will strengthen us in doing good works, and invigorate our minds, while driving away from us all ungodly thoughts and surely quenching (the fire) of sins, as long as we have committed them involuntarily, and they have come to us against our will, from the weakness of our nature, and we have fallen into them against our desire, and because of them we have sorrowed intensely and prayed God in great repentance for our trespasses. The communion of the holy Sacrament will, without doubt, grant us the remission of trespasses of this kind, since our Lord plainly said: "This is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins, and this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins," and: "I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

If, therefore, we sin carelessly, it is hard for us to draw near to the holy Sacrament, but if we do good works with diligence and turn away from evil works and truly repent of the sins that come to us, we will undoubtedly obtain the gift of the remission of sins in our reception of the holy Sacrament, according to the words of Christ our Lord, because while we were sinners we have been chosen to a penitence, a deliverance and a salvation that embrace all, solely by the grace of the One who has called us. This may also be learnt from the words of the blessed Isaiah, because the awe-inspiring vision which he saw was a sign of the Economy of Christ our Lord, from which all the earth was about to be filled with Divine glory, was to learn also the mystery of the Trinity, and receive evangelisation, faith and baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To make this manifest, the Seraphim shouted in a loud voice the canticle: "Holy, holy, holy the Lord of Sabaoth, the heaven and the earth are full of His praises."

When the prophet saw these things in a spiritual vision, he fell upon his face, because he remembered human weakness, which is full of sin and iniquity; and one of the Seraphim was sent to him, and took with tongs a live coal from the altar, and brought it to his lips and said: "This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sins are forgiven." There were, therefore, live coals on the altar: a figure of the Sacrament that was to be given to us. A piece of coal is at first dark and cold, but when it is brought to the fire it becomes luminous and hot. The food of the holy Sacrament was going to be similar to this: at first it is laid upon the altar as a mere bread and wine mixed with water, but by the coming of the Holy Spirit it is transformed into body and blood, and thus it is changed into the power of a spiritual and immortal nourishment.¹ This is the reason why he (the prophet) saw the sign and the figure of what was to take place in the form of live coals. The Holy Spirit also came down from heaven in the form of fire upon the blessed Apostles, through whom the grace of the Holy Spirit was united to all the human race. As the Seraph drew near, purified, and forgave all the sins of the prophet, so also we ought to believe that by participation in the holy Sacrament our trespasses will be completely wiped out, if we repent and are grieved and afflicted in our mind for our sins.

When the prophet was granted this (vision) he fell upon his face and said: "Woe is me, for I am wretched, sorrowful, and a man, and my lips are unclean, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and I have seen with mine eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth." Because these are words of a repentant man, smitten by his conscience for his sins, while he was in this state it was given to him to hear the above words when a live coal was brought to him by the Seraph. And if we also strive to act similarly, it is clear and evident that the grace of the Holy Spirit will promise us help to do good things, and like fire which consumes thorns, will completely obliterate our sins.

And the Seraph did not hold the live coal with his hand but with tongs. This vision demonstrates that the (faithful) should be afraid to draw near to the Sacrament without an intermediary, and this is the priest, who, with his hand, gives you the Sacrament and says: "The body of Christ," while he himself does not believe that he is worthy to hold and give such things; but in the place of tongs he possesses the spiritual grace, which he received in his priesthood, and from which he acquired the confidence for giving such things. He holds (the elements) with his hand, so that he may himself receive confidence with his own hands; and he not only is not in fear because of (their) greatness, but has much confidence because of (their) grace.

If the live coal that was carried with tongs by the Seraph took away sins when brought into contact with the lips, and did not scorch or wholly consume according to the nature of the object that was seen, how much more will it not be right for you, when you see the priest bestowing upon you this gift with his hands, and with great confidence, because of the grace of the Spirit conferred upon him for this service—to have also confidence and to receive it with great hope? You have fear because of the greatness of the gift, but when you have received it, you will put your trust on Him who granted such things to mankind, and who bestowed also such a confidence upon the priest; not only upon himself alone, but upon those who are in need of the grace of God, if according to the words of the blessed Paul, he stands "to offer sacrifice for his own sins and for the people's."

It is such a thought and such a love that we ought to possess concerning the holy Sacrament. If a great sin, contrary to the commandments, is committed by us, and if we do not induce ourselves to turn away from sins of this kind, it is right for us to refrain always and without reservation from receiving the communion, because what utility can come to us from this act if we are seen to persist in these sins? We must first induce our conscience with all our power to make haste and fittingly repent of our sins, and not permit any other medicine to ourselves. Let us know that as God gave to our body, which He made passible, medicinal herbs of which the experts make use for our healing, so also He gave penitence, as a medicine for sins, to our soul, which is changeable. Regulations for this (penitence) were laid down from the beginning, and the priests and the experts, who heal and care for the sinners, bring medicine to the mind of the penitents who are in need, according to the ecclesiastical ordinance and wisdom, which is regulated in accordance with the measure of the sins. This is the reason why our Lord said: "If your brother shall sin against you, tell him his fault between you and him alone: if he shall hear you, you have gained your brother, but if he will not, then take with you one or two, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established; and if he will not hear them also, tell (it) to the Church, and if he will not hear even the Church, let him be to you as a publican and an heathen man."

This is the medicine for the sins, which was established by God and delivered to the priests of the Church, who in making use of it with diligence, will heal the afflictions of men. The blessed Paul also said thus: "Teach in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and comfort." He ordered that the sinners should be reproved "with all long-suffering and doctrine," so that they should reveal their sins to (the priests); and the "rebuke" is administered so that they may receive correction by some ordinances, and obtain help therefrom for themselves. He ordered also to "comfort them," in the sense that after they have been seen, through reproofs and rebukes, to be eagerly willing to amend themselves, turn away from evil and be desirous of drawing near to good, he necessarily added "doctrine and long-suffering" to all of them. He singled out "long-suffering" because it is highly necessary, as it soothes the one who is gained; and also "doctrine" because in everything that takes place, whether he (the sinner) be reproved or rebuked or comforted, it is by words that he learns what is necessary and draws near to what is fit.

This the blessed Paul seems to have done when he learned that among the Corinthians an insolent man had taken his father's wife. He ordered him to be delivered to Satan, who had caused him to be driven out of the Church, and he showed the purpose of this by saying: "for the destruction of his flesh, that he may live in spirit in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. As if he were saying: I order this so that he may suffer and be conscious of his sins, and receive reproof; and that through rebuke he may be reprimanded, learn wisdom and turn away from sin and draw near to duty; and after he has thus moved away from sin, he will receive full salvation in the next world, because, at his baptism, he had received the grace of the Spirit, which left him when he sinned and persisted in his sin. He undoubtedly calls the salvation of the spirit the turning away from sins and the full reception of the Holy Spirit, who will cause him to revert to his previous state.

When (that man) had repented in this way he (the Apostle) ordered in the second Epistle that he should be received, and said: "Sufficient to such a man is his reproof, and you ought contrariwise to love him and to comfort him more, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him. To whom you forgive, I forgive also." With these words he ordered that he should be reinstated in the same confidence as that he had before, because he had been rebuked and had amended his ways, and, through true repentance, had received forgiveness of his sins. Afterwards he laid down rules concerning these things and said: "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a drunkard, or a railer, or an extortioner; with such a one do not eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are outsiders? do not you judge them that are insiders?"

He shows here that this correction is not to be given by us to those who are outsiders but to those who are insiders: those who obey the things that are said and rightfully accept a correction that comes from us. He shows also the nature of the gain that accrues to those who are insiders, by saying: "But those who are outsiders, God judges." He demonstrates here that if those who are outsiders remain without correction, they will undoubtedly receive punishment, as being strangers also to religion; as to the children of the faith, if they are willing to receive that correction, they will obtain the forgiveness of their sins, and will be delivered from the threat of the punishment of the world to come. Owing to the fact, therefore, that it may happen that some people do not accept the correction that is offered to them, he said: "Put away from amongst yourselves that wicked person," as if one were saying: let him be completely outside you. This is similar to the sentence which our Lord uttered: "And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as an heathen man and a publican."

Since you are aware of these things, and also of the fact that because God greatly cares for us gave us penitence and showed us the medicine of repentance, and established some men, who are the priests, as physicians of sins, so that if we receive in this world through them, healing and forgiveness of sins, we shall be delivered from the judgment to come—it is right for us to draw near to the priests with great confidence and to reveal our sins to them, and they, with all diligence, pain and love, and according to the rules laid down above, will give healing to sinners. And they will not disclose the things that are not to be disclosed, but they will keep to themselves the things that have happened, as fits true and loving fathers, bound to safeguard the shame of their children while striving to heal their bodies.

After we have thus regulated our life, and known the greatness of the Sacrament, and of the boundless grace to which we have been called; and been solicitous for our salvation, and endeavoured to rectify our trespasses in the right way—we shall be deemed as deserving the future hope for the sake of which we have been rendered worthy, by Divine grace, to perform this Sacrament. And we shall delight in the Kingdom of Heaven and in all those ineffable and eternal benefits, which all of us will be enabled to receive by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

Here end the six discourses on the interpretation of the sacraments of the holy Church, composed by Mar Theodore, bishop and commentator of the Divine Books. Glory be to Christ our Lord.

[Most footnotes omitted, as being biblical references or explanation where the translator deviated from the literal meaning. I have also removed Thou and Thee etc.]

1. ¹ Or: circumcised.

1. ¹ I.e., the registrar of baptisms.

1. ² The rite of conducting a person and answering the questions of the registrar.

1. ² The words between brackets represent a blank of one or two words which were illegible in the MS. from which the copyist was transcribing.

1. ¹ I.e., the registrar of baptisms.

1. ² The godfather.

1. ⁴ The registrar.

1. ¹ Evidently this orarium spread on the crown of the head was somewhat different from the modern stole.

1. ¹ All this refers to superstitious acts.

1. ¹ John iii. 9 and 8. I use "Spirit" instead of "wind" in the sense in which the author understands the word πνεῦμαof the sacred text, which in Greek and in Syriac means both "Spirit" and "wind."

1. ⁷ This passage is quoted in the Acts of the Fifth Council (see Prefatory Note).

1. ³ The word Kurbanamay be translated throughout by "offering," as is often done in the English Bible, or by "sacrifice."

1. ⁵ Allusion to the Diptychs.

1. ³ Or: "oblation" in both cases. The expression is a translation of the Greek word Anaphora.

1. ⁴ In Syriac literature the word paghra, "body," is used for the consecrated Eucharistic bread. See Barsalibi's treatise against the Armenians in my Woodbrooke Studies,vol. iv., pp. 28 and 57, etc.

1. ² I.e., apparently you eat and swallow the Eucharistic bread, so that it may mix with the blood, which, according to the ancients, was the seat of the soul. See Woodbrooke Studies,vol. v., p. 5, and the references given there.

This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2008. This file and all material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.

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