Guidelines for the Reception of Holy Communion
Holy Communion is for active members of the canonical Orthodox Church in good standing who have prepared themselves properly for its reception. We must exert some spiritual effort and labor in order to prepare properly. As our Lord said: "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you" (John 6.27). And as Scripture elsewhere says: "Imitate me, even as I imitate Christ...Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself" (1 Cor. 11.1,28), for it is truly said that "whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord...That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died" (1 Cor. 11.27,30).
Orthodox Christians should be prepared for Communion by listening to the Gospel and the homily (i.e. the sermon), being at peace with others (Matthew 5.23-24), doing the work of God throughout the week by being kind and helpful to people, praying regularly, coming to Liturgy regularly on Sundays, and for those in good health, and on an ordinary Sunday fasting from the middle of the night (about midnight) prior to Liturgy. One must also come to confession and confess their sins verbally prior to taking communion in the following cases: 1. Have not taken Communion or been to Church in over three weeks in a row without a cause (illness, childbirth, great distance, extreme weather conditions, etc.), thereby temporarily separated themselves with need of the mystery of reconciliation (i.e. penance or confession). 2. If you have committed a mortal sin, that is, a grievous sin which cuts one off from the community of faith, and thus are in need of reconciliation to the Church. 3. If you have not been to confession in a while, or if anything is weighing upon your soul. One should not take Communion if he or she is under a penance or censure from any priest or bishop. Nor should anyone partake who without a proper cause has arrived after the hearing of the Gospel which is the reception of Christ in Word so that we might receive him properly in Sacrament.
Why does one need to be Orthodox in order to take Communion? For the same reason why one has to be married to partake of "communion" with one's spouse. Communion literally means "union with," and in the case of Holy Communion, it refers to union with God in the Mystery of Faith. In Baptism and Chrismation, we are joined to the Bride of the Lamb. It is only after we are joined to His Bride that we can partake of the Communion between the Bride and the Lamb, whereby the two become "one flesh" as it says in Holy Scripture. Why is belief important? Why do we say the creed before partaking of Holy Communion? The answer lay in another question: How can you be joined to something you don't believe in? Marital communion (intercourse) involves "believing in," trusting one's spouse and loving that spouse, communicating with them and allowing them to communicate with you. You cannot have marital relations without knowing certain basic things about your spouse (for example, their name, their gender, some basic expectations that they have of you, etc.), and you certainly cannot love them or respect them without knowing and acknowledging certain basic things about them (such as acknowledging that they exist, acknowledging that they have a certain dignity that needs respected as the "other" in the relationship, etc.). But more than this, it is seeing them as person, and receiving them as person. Without love, faith and repect for the other, marital communion is not possible. If communion ceases to be personal, it becomes sinful. If this is true about martial communion, which we are told in Scripture is the icon of Christ's marriage to His Church, how much moreso is this true of the actual Great Mystery of the Communion of Christ with His Church. Above all then in the Holy Eucharist, without love, faith, and respect for the Other, spiritual communion with the Lamb of God is not possible, and that "act" of partaking would not result in communion, but rather in a misuse of the thing that actually distances one, rather than bringing one closer to the "other."
The Icon above is from CTS Orthodox Church in Harrisburg, PA
