At the Eucharist (Holy Communion) the sacrifice offered is Christ Himself. Our offering of bread and wine is taken up into Christ’s self-offering, and so is transformed into His Body and Blood. ‘I hunger for the bread of God, the flesh of Jesus Christ… I long to drink of His blood, the gift of unending love,’ writes St Ignatius of Antioch. The Eucharist is the epicentre of our Christian lives. Each time we take part in the Divine Liturgy we, as a Church, offer ourselves to God as He offers, and sacrifices Himself, for us.
‘Bread and wine: very ordinary things. And in all liturgies, a brief great moment comes when those very ordinary things are being offered to God while still retaining their ordinary and natural character. We take two things out of our daily and secular world and place them apart on the altar. These things placed upon the altar acquire thereby a separate and sacred character…not merely as fruits of the world but as symbols and even as vehicles of the whole world itself in its entirety.’
– Alexander Schmemann, Church World Mission.
Στην αρχαία Εκκλησία, αλλά και σήμερα, οι πιστοί δεν πηγαίνουν μόνοι στην Εκκλησία αλλά συνοδεύονται από τα δώρα της δημιουργίας, τον άρτο, τον οίνο… Τα δώρα αυτά με λειτουργική πομπή μεταφέρονται για να παραδοθούν στα χέρια του Επισκὀπου ο οποίος θα τα αναφέρει στο θρόνο του Θεού ως Ευχαριστία…’
– Μητροπολίτου Περγάμου Ιωάννου Δ. Ζηζιούλα, Η Κτίση ως Ευχαριστία