For the Life of the World. Alexander Schmemann
The Eucharist (Part 2) Study Guide
Calvin: First, then, the signs are bread and wine, which represent the invisible food which we receive from the body and blood of Christ. For as God, regenerating us in baptism, ingrafts us into the fellowship of his Church, and makes us his by adoption, so we have said that he performs the office of a provident parent, in continually supplying the food by which he may sustain and preserve us in the life to which he has begotten us by his word…” “Therefore, we must not drag him from heaven, as some dream, but by the secret power of his Spirit he gives himself to us from thence, so that he becomes our life. Hence it follows, that the communion which we have with the body and blood of the Lord is of such a nature, that while he remains in heaven, we are nevertheless truly partakers of him; not that the substance of his flesh descends into us, but that we are quickened by the power of the Spirit, who transfuses to us the life which flows from his flesh.”
Schmemann “The early Christians realized that in order to become the temple of the Holy Spirit they must ascend to heaven where Christ has ascended.” (pg 28)
Doxology – “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.” Anglican – Procession from world to the Altar with Decalogue/Collect for Purity moving from Earth upward.
Entrance – pg 31 (Section 5) “It is not “grace” that comes down ; it is the Church that enters into “grace,” and grace means the new being, the Kingdom, the world to come.” Lord have mercy vs. Trisagion.
Sacrament of the Word – p. 33 “ The proclamation of the Word is a sacramental act par excellence because it is a transforming act. It transforms the human words of the Gospel into the Word of God and the manifestation of the Kingdom. And it transforms the man who hears the Word into a receptacle of the Word and a temple of the Spirit.”
Bread and Wine: “And thus this offering to God of bread and wine, of the food that we must eat in order to live, is our offering to Him of ourselves, of our life and of the whole world.” (pg 35)
“The Eucharist is the sacrament of cosmic remembrance: it is indeed a restoration of love as the very life of the world.”
Sanctus: Holy, Holy, Holy – Final Ascension into Heavenly Realm.
“In this world-the one that condemned Christ and by doing so has condemned itself-no bread, no wine can become the body and blood of Christ. Nothing which is a part of it can be “sacralized.” But the liturgy of the Church is always an anaphora, a lifting up, an ascension” (p. 42) “Only in the Kingdom can we confess with St. Basil that “this bread is in very truth the precious body of our Lord, this wine the precious blood of Christ.” (pg 43)
Epiclesis – “To be in the Spirit means to be in heaven, for the Kingdom of God is “joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.” And thus in the Eucharist it is He who seals and confirms our ascension into heaven, who transforms the Church into the body of Christ and-therefore-manifests the elements of our offering as communion in the Holy Spirit. This is the consecration.” (p. 44)
Intercession – “Life comes again to us as Gift, a free and divine gift. This is why in the Orthodox Church we call the eucharistic elements Holy Gifts. Adam is again introduced into Paradise, taken out of nothingness and crowned king of creation. Everything is free, nothing is due and yet all is given. And, therefore, the greatest humility and obedience is to accept the gift, to say yes-in joy and gratitude. There is nothing we can do, yet we become all that God wanted us to be from eternity, when we are eucharistic.” (pg 45)
