Resources
Many informative articles were published in our parish newsletters in the years prior to Covid. Email to the friends and faithful of Holy Cross has replaced our newsletters, but we have collected many of the articles here. Use the indexes below to find articles on the topic or the author you’re interested in. (Once you click on a topic or author, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the search results.)
Also, have a look at the Recommended Readings on the OCA (Orthodox Church in America) website for a list of books covering a wide range of topics. Essential Orthodox Christian Beliefs: A Manual for Adult Instruction is also available for free download on the OCA’s website.
(Speaking of our parent jurisdiction, the OCA traces its origins to the arrival in Kodiak, Alaska in 1794 of eight Orthodox missionaries from the Valaamo Monastery in the northern Karelia region of Russia. Today, the OCA includes some 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries, and institutions throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.)
We hope you’ll find these suggested readings to be both edifying and encouraging!
Some Thoughts on Prayer
It all begins with an idea.
Fr. Christopher Foley
2007
As Great Lent is approaching let us take some time to dwell on prayer. Lent is usually a time of greater concentration on our spiritual lives and a time of renewal and thoughtful reflection on where we need continued repentance in our lives. This should include more intensified prayer. We should make an effort to keep our prayer “rule” more consistent and to make more space to listen to God as he speaks to us through silence and the “Jesus prayer.” Prayer is so vital to our lives as Christians, and we hear much talk of prayer. There are many books written on the subject and many people ready to tell us the “secrets” of prayer. The one thing we don’t do that often is ask ourselves “what is prayer anyway?” What do we mean when we say “prayer?” This word gets thrown around so much that it can be confusing to understand what it is. There are many different ways to define prayer and theologically discuss it. All of these definitions are wonderful and articles could be written detailing all of these wonderful meanings of prayer. For the sake of focusing some thoughts on the subject, I think the best definition that I have found of prayer is the following: prayer is the remembrance of God in all things. We could also say that this is really the goal of all prayer.
The Fathers of the Church speak a lot about prayer and all seem to come back to this one point - that prayer helps us become mindful of God in the midst of every area of our lives. This includes not only intentional prayer at specific times throughout the day, but also in the midst of one’s tasks and responsibilities at work and home. St. Paul’s injunction to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17) is certainly a possibility with this expanded definition of prayer. Origen once said, “He prays unceasingly who combines prayer with necessary duties and duties with prayer. Only in this way can we find it practicable to fulfill the commandment to pray always. It consists in regarding the whole of Christian existence as a single great prayer. What we are accustomed to call prayer is only part of it.” Thus prayer can encompass our whole lives. Our whole life then can become an extension of unceasing prayer. St. John Cassian once said, “For whoever is in the habit of praying only at the hour when the knees are bent prays very little. But whoever is distracted by any sort of wandering of heart, even on bended knee, never prays. And therefore we have to be outside the hour of prayer what we want to be when we are praying.” Our lives become the “amen” and activity to our prayer. We become a living prayer always offering up ourselves to God in all things. In this way, whatever we are doing, we are continually praying. By doing our God-given tasks and fulfilling our responsibilities as unto the Lord we continue in our prayer.
It is this type of prayer that is less about words and more about action. The Monks of New Skete comment on this in speaking of unceasing prayer. They say, “We can only be faithful to the mandate to unceasing [prayer] when we seek it qualitatively, by reverently listening and discerning the presence of God in every situation in life; by conforming our hearts and minds and behavior with the words and attitudes we articulate in prayer; and by embracing our whole life and presenting it as a gift to God.” This is not to diminish personal prayer time or our corporate prayers in the liturgical life of the Church. Rather, it should encourage us to think of the totality of our life as a continual prayer being offered up as one who “hears the Word of God and keeps it.” We encounter Christ within prayer and we love Him and strive to keep His commandments in every area of our life. St. Maria Skobtsova calls this the “churching of our life.” This is where we become outside of our prayer what we are when we are praying.
The goal of prayer is the remembrance of God in all things. We do this not only through intentional prayer, but also through embracing what we may call “the sacrament of the present moment.” It is our ability to see the presence of God all around us. Christ Himself is present in all our tasks throughout the day. Paul Evdokimov says, “It is not enough to say prayers, one must become, be prayer, prayer incarnate. It is not enough to have moments of praise. All of life, every act, every gesture, even the smile on the human face, must become a hymn of adoration, an offering, a prayer. One should not offer what one has, but what one is.”
May God help us to see the totality of our life as one ceaseless prayer especially as we enter the Great Fast. Let us be open to seeing the presence of God in all things. Let it be so, Lord, have mercy.
Archbishop Anastasios on Prayer
It all begins with an idea.
Very Rev. John Breck
2007
(from “Life in Christ” March 2004)
His Eminence Archbishop Anastasios (Yannoulatos) arrived in Albania in 1991, to assume archpastoral duties in this impoverished country, which during the Communist period had been militantly atheistic. Since that date, under his guidance and through his prayer, the Orthodox Church in Albania has experienced what has rightly been proclaimed a "Resurrection" (Anastasis!).
Jim Forest, a well-known Orthodox journalist and head of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship (OPF), visited the Church in Albania a few years ago and met with the Archbishop and many other people there who are involved in various kinds of mission work. The fruit of that visit was a remarkable little book, published by the World Council of Churches in 2002, entitled The Resurrection of the Church in Albania: Voices of Orthodox Christians. Jim has kindly given permission to quote from that book a portion of Archbishop Anastasios’ thoughts on prayer (pages 123f). They are vibrant words that issue from a living experience of the God of love, who is present and acting in the midst of the world’s turmoil and suffering. Yet their simplicity and depth is such that they offer direction to anyone who seeks, in the midst of everyday activities, to commune with the life-giving Trinity.
Prayer summarizes a longing. The problem is that so often we become ego-centered, lacking humility. Thus it is good to pray, ‘Oh Lord, deliver me from myself and give me to Yourself!’ – a cry of the heart. It is similar to the prayer, ‘Lord, I believe, please help my unbelief.’ Often it is necessary to pray for forgiveness.
Many times in my life, there has been no opportunity for long prayers, only time to go quickly into what I call the ‘hut of prayer’ – very short prayers that I know by heart or to make a very simple request: ‘Show me how to love!’ Or, when you have to make a decision, ‘Lord, help me make the right estimation and come to the right judgment, to make the right action.’ Then there is the very simple prayer, ‘Your will be done.’ I have also learned, in Albania, what it means to be a foreigner, to come from a country many regard with suspicion. This, however, can help one become more humble. It helps one pray with more intensity, ‘Use me according to Your will.’ Often I pray, ‘Lord, illumine me so that I know Your will, give me the humility to accept your will and the strength to do your will.’ I go back to these simple prayers again and again.
“Many times, the psalms are my refuge. You realize that in the spontaneous arising of certain phrases from the psalms you are hearing God speak to you. Perhaps you are reciting the psalm, ‘My soul, why are you so downcast…’ And then another phrase from the psalms arises which is a response. It is an ancient Christian tradition that a bishop should know many psalms by heart. The psalms provide a spiritual refuge. In each situation there is a psalm that can help you, in those critical moments when you have no place of retreat.
Perhaps you remember the words, ‘Unless the Lord guards the house, they who guard it labour in vain.’ You are reminded that your own efforts are not decisive. You also come to understand that your own suffering is a sharing in God’s suffering. It is a theme St. Paul sometimes writes about. You come to understand that the resurrection is not after the cross but in the cross.
The Nativity Fast - Why We Fast
It all begins with an idea.
Fr. Stephen Freeman
[November 15th marks the beginning of the Nativity Fast (40 days before Christmas). The following article offers some thoughts on the purpose of fasting. - Fr. Christopher]
Fasting is not very alive or well in the Christian world. Much of that world has long lost any living connection with the historical memory of Christian fasting. Without the guidance of Tradition, many modern Christians either do not fast, or constantly seek to re-invent the practice, sometimes with unintended consequences.
There are other segments of Christendom who have tiny remnants of the traditional Christian fast, but in the face of a modern world have reduced the tradition to relatively trivial acts of self-denial.
I read recently (though I cannot remember where) that the rejection of Hesychasm was the source of all heresy. In less technical terms we can say that knowing God in truth, participating in His life, union with Him through humility, prayer, love of enemy and repentance before all and for everything, is the purpose of the Christian life. Hesychasm (Greek hesychia = silence) is the name applied to the Orthodox tradition of ceaseless prayer and inner stillness. But ceaseless prayer and inner stillness are incorrectly understood if they are separated from knowledge of God and participation in His life, union with Him through humility, prayer, love of enemy and repentance before all and for everything.
And it is this same path of inner knowledge of God (with all its components) that is the proper context of fasting. If we fast but do not forgive our enemies – our fasting is of no use. If we fast and do not find it drawing us into humility – our fasting is of no use. If our fasting does not make us yet more keenly aware of the fact that we are sinful before all and responsible to all, then it is of no benefit. If our fasting does not unite us with the life of God – which is meek and lowly – then it is again of no benefit.
Fasting is not dieting. Fasting is not about keeping a Christian version of kosher. Fasting is about hunger and humility (which is increased as we allow ourselves to become weak). Fasting is about allowing our heart to break.
I have seen greater good accomplished in souls through their failure in the fasting season than in the souls of those who “fasted well.” Publicans enter the kingdom of God before Pharisees pretty much every time.
Why do we fast? Perhaps the more germane question is “why do we eat?” Christ quoted Scripture to the evil one and said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We eat as though our life depended on it, and it does not. We fast because our life depends on the word of God.
I worked for a couple of years as a hospice chaplain. During that time, daily sitting at the side of the beds of dying patients – I learned a little about how we die. It is a medical fact that many people become “anorexic” before death – that is – they cease to want food. Many times family and even doctors become concerned and force food on a patient who will not survive. Interestingly, it was found that patients who became anorexic had less pain than those who, having become anorexic, were forced to take food. (None of this is about the psychological anorexia that afflicts many of our youth. That is a tragedy)
It is as though at death our bodies have a wisdom we have lacked for most of our lives. It knows that what it needs is not food – but something deeper. The soul seeks and hungers for the living God. The body and its pain become a distraction. And thus in God’s mercy the distraction is reduced.
Christianity as a religion – as a theoretical system of explanations regarding heaven and hell, reward and punishment – is simply Christianity that has been distorted from its true form. Either we know the living God or we have nothing. Either we eat His flesh and drink His blood or we have no life in us. The rejection of Hesychasm is the source of all heresy.
Why do we fast? We fast so that we may live like a dying man – and that in dying we can be born to eternal life.
[From http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2011/11/12/the-nativity-fast-why-we-fast-2/]
55 Maxims of the Christian Life
It all begins with an idea.
Fr. Thomas Hopko
(Below is a series of short phrases, or maxims, that I have found to be very practical and helpful. We can often times think that the spiritual life is very complicated and and hard to live. Fr. Thomas was asked to come up with a simple and concise list of the essence of our Life in Christ as we struggle on the path towards salvation. He came up with these 55 maxims. I would encourage you to post them somewhere where you can see them often. - Fr. Christopher)
Be always with Christ and trust God in everything.
Pray as you can, not as you think you must.
Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline.
Say the Lord's Prayer several times each day.
Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied.
Make some prostrations when you pray.
Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days.
Practice silence, inner and outer.
Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day.
Do acts of mercy in secret.
Go to liturgical services regularly.
Go to confession and holy communion regularly.
Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings.
Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly.
Read the scriptures regularly.
Read good books, a little at a time.
Cultivate communion with the saints.
Be an ordinary person, one of the human race.
Be polite with everyone, first of all family members.
Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.
Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.
Exercise regularly.
Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time.
Be totally honest, first of all with yourself.
Be faithful in little things.
Do your work, then forget it.
Do the most difficult and painful things first.
Face reality.
Be grateful.
Be cheerful.
Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.
Never bring attention to yourself.
Listen when people talk to you.
Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are.
Think and talk about things no more than necessary.
Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly.
Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out.
Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.
Don't complain, grumble, murmur or whine.
Don't seek or expect pity or praise.
Don't compare yourself with anyone.
Don't judge anyone for anything.
Don't try to convince anyone of anything.
Don't defend or justify yourself.
Be defined and bound by God, not people.
Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully.
Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty.
Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves.
Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.
Be merciful with yourself and others.
Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.
Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin.
Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God's mercy.
When you fall, get up immediately and start over.
Get help when you need it, without fear or shame.
Establishing a Daily Rule of Prayer
It all begins with an idea.
Fr. Apostolos Hill
Prayer has been called the breath of the soul. In the same way that the body needs proper daily nourishment and exercise to maintain a healthy state, and the mind needs productive stimulation to learn and develop, the soul needs prayer to grow and thrive. Prayer keeps the soul properly oriented towards God in the same way that a compass keeps a ship at sea oriented toward its destination. When a vessel leaves port and heads out into the open seas it is not sufficient for the captain to set his course heading only once. Constant course corrections are required to counteract the effect of the waves, winds, and currents that nudge it constantly off course. Likewise, prayer helps us maintain a constant heading when the distractions of life, temptations, and apathy blow us off course.
Prayer also serves to give our lives a spiritual context. A story can illustrate this point. A young executive boards a subway train one evening to begin his daily journey home. He is consumed with the demands of his stressful job and the briefcase full of work he carries with him. As he settles into his seat and opens his laptop he becomes aware of a well-dressed man across the aisle from him and the two small children accompanying him. The children are restless and noisy and soon begin to tax the patience of the young executive. Exasperated after several miles of fruitless attempts to concentrate on his work, he looks up at the well-dressed man and, making no effort to conceal his annoyance, asks him to keep his children quiet. The welldressed man replies as if from a distance and relates to the young executive that he and his children are returning from the funeral service of his wife and their mother and that he is somewhat out of sorts, nevertheless promising to keep his children quieter.
Greatly chagrined, the young executive undergoes a radical paradigm shift. The context of his ride home that evening changes dramatically. No longer concerned about his workload, his attention is immediately focused on how he can assist the grieving father and his children.
As we move throughout the events of our days, it is easy for us to get side-tracked from the context that God intends to keep always before us, that of our abiding in His love and allowing Him to make us instruments of His love to those around us. Daily prayer helps us to restore that proper context.
Historically, Christians have been encouraged to pray at least three times a day, morning, noonday, and evening. Specific prayers have been developed around these times as they relate to our own passage through time. So, for example, upon waking in the morning we remember the prayer of St. Basil that begins: "As I rise from sleep I thank you O Holy Trinity..."
We also remember the savings events of our Lord's life-giving Passion in time when, for example, we pray at mid-day" "O Lord Who at this hour stretched forth Your hands for suffering..."
Other appropriate times to pray during the day can be before meals, during breaks at work, while driving in our cars — something we do so frequently that it affords abundant daily prayer time — and whenever else the need arises. As we work on creating a context of prayer throughout our day, we will find more and more occasions for prayer.
When the disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray, He responded by teaching them the Lord's Prayer. This prayer has become the cornerstone and model of Christian prayer since that time. It contains all the essential elements of a healthy prayer life; praise and adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving. The ancient Jewish prayer practice encouraged prayer to God seven times a day, and the early Church taught that the Lord's Prayer should be said at least three times daily.
Praying the Lord's Prayer morning, noon, and evening constitutes a good beginning towards establishing a daily rule of prayer. This can be expanded to include the Trisagion prayers, the most basic element of liturgical prayer. This set of prayers begins with the prayer to the Holy Spirit: "O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who are in all places and filling all things, treasury of blessings and the Giver of Life, come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One."
The Trisagion prayer continues: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us" (three times), and ends with the Lords Prayer.
Daily prayers can be further augmented with the inclusion of the Nicene Creed, Psalm 51, David's beautiful prayer of confession, and prayers appropriate to the time of day. There are general petitions which help us frame our petitions to God. They include prayers for the Church, our spiritual and temporal leaders, armed forces and civil authorities, our city, family members, godchildren, friends, the poor, homeless, aged, those under persecution, ourselves, and our departed loved ones. This general petition gives shape and constancy to our daily prayers by reminding us of our connectedness to the Church, our family, and society. It also helps keep our petitions from degenerating into a laundry-list of rather petty concerns. It is also vital to our spiritual health to include time to thank God for the specific blessings He has brought about in our lives. These thanksgivings can be spontaneous when our hearts swell with joy at some unexpected blessing. They also serve to remind us of God's presence in our lives over the years when things seem bleak to us.
St. Theophan the Recluse, a nineteenth century Russian saint, wrote that prayer is standing with the mind in the heart before God. Ultimately, prayer is not about words, whether formal or extemporaneous. Rather, it is the state of being in God's presence. The Patristic tradition of the Church teaches us that prayer can eventually become infused prayer, wherein we learn to "pray without ceasing," as St. Paul enjoins us.
The end of spoken prayer is silence. Silence is an unwelcome phenomenon in modern life and we have effectively eradicated it from society. Television, radio, media, 24-hour news channels, Muzak, cell-phones, pagers, wireless internet; all of these modern contrivances ensure that we need never face silence. However, Christians are encouraged to include as part of their daily prayer life a Rule of Silence. This helps us to maintain a disciplined mind and gives us time to hear God speak to us in the ordinary dayto- day activities of our lives.
In summary, a daily rule of prayer is essential for the health of our soul. A rule of prayer helps to keep us oriented toward the Kingdom of God and creates a Christian context to our lives. The tradition of the Church in terms of a minimum standard is three times a day: morning, noon, and evening. A rule of prayer can include but is not limited to; the Trisagion prayers, prayers appropriate to the day, the Nicene Creed, Ps. 51 as a daily confession, and a general petition to which should be added our own specific needs. Consider beginning with the Morning and Evening prayers offered in this section, and eventually adding either First Hour or Third Hour (the Noon Office). A rule of prayer should also include a time of silence. And a fruitful relationship with one's pastor and spiritual guidance is essential in the development of a rule of prayer.
Prayer is the bedrock of our spiritual life. Without it, the soul languishes and withers. With it, the soul can breathe and flourish. "Prayer is the living water, by means of which the soul quenches its thirst."
[I encourage those who do not have an Orthodox prayer book to pick one up in our “bookstore”. This is a great place to start. - Fr. Christopher)
Preparation for Holy Communion
It all begins with an idea.
Fr. Thomas Hopko
November 2006
An Article from Orthodox Education Day Book October 7, 2000
Committed Orthodox Christians order and measure their lives in this world from communion to communion.
We greet the Lord’s Day each week with the eager expectation of entering into holy communion with God by the action of His Holy Spirit in the Church, through Jesus Christ, God’s Son and Word, who is also the Lamb of God and the Bread of Life. Following each Lord’s Day, we live in memory of the blessed experience of holy communion, and we begin immediately to anticipate this divine gift in the next divine liturgy.
Christians live from Sunday to Sunday, and, throughout the year, from Pascha to Pascha. We also live from liturgy to liturgy, from eucharist to eucharist, from communion to communion. Our lives are measured and tested by this sacred event. All that we are and do finds its beginning and end, its meaning and fulfillment, in Gods gift of holy communion through Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Church.
Continual Preparation for Holy Communion
Committed Christians remember what God has done in history and anticipate what God is yet to do. We live in function of Christs first coming as a slave to be crucified and glorified, and His final coming at the end of the ages to establish God’s kingdom.
The Church’s eucharistic worship unites and embraces the Lords two comings, together with all of Gods mighty acts in history. It makes them present for our participation, here and now, for the forgiveness of sins, for the healing of soul and body, and for life everlasting.
Every moment of a Christian’s life is a preparation for the encounter with God which is sacramentally realized in holy communion. Every moment we are making ready to enter God’s kingdom which is coming with observation and power at the end of the ages. We live every moment in constant awareness of the Lords presence in our lives here and now, preparing us in hope for unending communion with Him in the age to come.
In this perspective, everything that we Christians think, say and do in every moment of our lives is a preparation for holy communion -- in this life in the holy eucharist, and without end in the age to come at the end of the world.
General Preparation for Holy Communion
Because we Christians living in this world are inevitably caught up in earthly activities, afflictions, trials and temptations, and because we are so easily overcome by sinful passions, God gives us ways by which we are enabled never to forget Him. He provides practices by which we can keep ourselves constantly prepared to meet Him at His coming. He offers rules of spiritual and physical discipline for us to practice so that we can remain constantly alive to His presence and power in our lives and so to be ready to receive Him when He gives Himself to us in holy communion.
The general disciplines for preparing for holy communion are the disciplines of Christian life itself. They are the practices which keep us alive to God, the actions which open our minds, hearts and bodies to the presence of God s grace and power in our lives. They basically include:
regular participation in the Church’s liturgical worship
regular practice of a rule of personal prayer
regular practice of a rule of ceaseless mental prayer, or "prayer of the heart," to insure our constant remembrance of God
regular practice of periods of silence
regular practice of fasting and abstinence
regular reading of the Bible and spiritual writings
regular confession of sins (and thoughts, feelings, temptations and dreams) to our pastor, or to someone whom our pastor authorizes and blesses for this purpose
regular giving and receiving of forgiveness of sins with all the people in our lives regular donations of money to the Church, and to those in need regular sharing of our time, energies, and possessions with others
constant effort to do our daily work as well as we can, to Gods glory, for the good of people, and
constant striving not to sin in the smallest way in the routine activities of our everyday life and personal relationships.
The words regular and constant are repeated and emphasized because our spiritual practices and activities must be done according to a rule (regula, kanona, pravilo). They must be done constantly and consistently with conscious attention and discipline. They cannot be left to whim, caprice or feeling.
What a person does in regard to liturgical worship, personal prayer, fasting, reading, contributing, working and serving will be shaped according to the conditions of his or her life. It will be different for each person according to age, strength, health, available time, and personal capabilities. The saints say that rules of prayer, reading and fasting should be brief but frequent, simple, pure, uncomplicated and keepable. They should be determined and established with spiritual advice and counsel in ways which permit them to be easily included within the real possibilities of ones actual life.
Specific Preparation for Holy Communion
In addition to the Christians general spiritual discipline, each believer must make specific devotional efforts in preparing for holy communion. These efforts will also differ from person to person. They will include a set number of specific prayers and readings, a specific practice of confession and reconciliation with others, and specific good deeds, such as almsgiving and financial contributions. They will depend on the conditions of one’s life.
A monastic person or clergyman, for example, will normally have a longer rule of specific preparation for holy communion than a lay person. A person with fewer duties will also be freer to spend more time and effort in concentrated preparation for eucharistic communion than someone who has more tasks to perform (for instance, a mother of small children).
People with disciplined spiritual lives who partake regularly and frequently of the sacraments will have less specific preparation for holy communion than those with undisciplined spiritual lives who seldom partake of the holy mysteries. The latter will surely have to make extraordinary efforts to read special prayers, keep special fasts, do special good deeds, give special contributions, and make special acts of sacramental confession when these practices are not a regular, constant and consistent part of their lives.
Prayers Before and After Holy Communion
The usual psalms and prayers for Orthodox Christians before and after partaking of holy communion are contained in Orthodox prayer books of various editions. Literate believers must decide with spiritual counsel how they will, as a rule, use these prayers of preparation and thanksgiving. When this decision is made, every effort must be made to keep one’s rule until it must be adjusted or altered, again with spiritual counsel and advice, because of the changing conditions of one’s life.
When we believers fail to keep our rules, we must find the reasons for our failures, and take appropriate action, once again with the assistance of our pastors and spiritual guides. In this way our participation in the Lords Mystical Supper will be done in a worthy manner. It will be for the forgiveness of our sins, for the healing of our souls and bodies, and for our eternal salvation, and not for our condemnation and judgment.
May the Lord convince us of our unworthiness to partake of holy communion. May He teach us that nothing we can say or do makes us worthy of this divine gift. May He convince that only the heartfelt confession of our unworthiness to partake permits us to participate in a worthy manner. And may He empower us to obey His Word and receive His Body and Blood in godly fear, with faith and love, so that we may really see the true light, find the true faith, receive the heavenly Spirit, and worship the Undivided Trinity Who has saved us through holy communion with Himself.
