the form of bread to the deacon, and the same ceremony with similar words is used for the chalice. After a prayer of thanksgiving the doors are opened, the deacon shows the people the chalice, and says: "Approach with fear of God, faith and love," and the priest blesses them. It is at this moment that on the rare occasions when people receive Holy Communion (four times a year among the Orthodox) the priest goes down to the royal doors and distributes it. They receive it under both kinds; the priest takes with a spoon part of the Host which is in the chalice, and therefore soaked in the consecrated wine, and gives it to the communicant, saying: "The servant of God, N., receives the holy and precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Lord, God, and Saviour, for the forgiveness of his sins, and for life everlasting." When he goes back to the altar, the deacon, with a sponge, puts all the prosphora of the Saints into the chalice.[1] After incensing the chalice he carries it back to the prothesis.[2]
Here begins the last part, the Dismissal. The deacon loosens his orarion and goes back to the choir, where he chants a short litany with the singers. The priest then also comes out and says a prayer before the image of our Lord on the Ikonostasis. The deacon goes to the prothesis and consumes all that is left of the Holy Eucharist (with the prosphora). Meanwhile some bread was left over when the offerings were first prepared (p. 413) and has stayed on the prothesis ever since. This is now brought to the priest, blessed and given to the people as blessed bread (ἀντίδωρον, pain bénit).
- ↑ One of the great questions is whether these prosphora, which were broken off from the bread at the beginning (p. 413) and which have lain on the diskos ever since, are consecrated (p. 392). The Orthodox now say they are not consecrated, and their deacons put them into the chalice after the Communion. At one time they were certainly put in before, and given to the people as communion. So if the Orthodox are right, those people formerly received Holy Communion under one kind only — of wine. It is really only a question of the priest's intention. The Uniates are bound to intend to consecrate all the bread on the diskos (by Benedict XIV), the prosphora of the Saints are put in the chalice immediately after the priest's communion, and the laity are communicated with them. See the discussion of the whole question in E. d'Or. iii. pp. 71-73 (l.c.).
- ↑ Brightman, pp. 383-397.
