In the life of every Orthodox person there are events that go far beyond the scope of everyday joys and sorrows. These are the days when the sacrament of the Holy Communion is performed on him. They lie in a completely different plane of life. They bring joy, but this joy is of a special kind, not commensurate with the joy that earthly life gives us. These are the days of our union with God.
What is the meaning of Holy Communion for us?
The great mystery of the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord makes our human nature akin to God. His body and blood become part of us, organically part of our soul and body. As a man inherits from his biological parents, of which he became part due to blood kinship, certain inherent qualities, and having absorbed the body and blood of the Lord, we become heirs to his qualities.
The Lord in his earthly life, making an atoning sacrifice, died, and then rose again in a completely different flesh. This flesh was endowed with properties inaccessible to the ordinary person. But Holy Communion makes us - the works of his hands - heirs of this flesh and this immortality. In addition, Jesus Christ, incarnating from the Virgin Mary, perceived all human qualities, except for sinfulness. The Lord is sinless.
When we read the prayers included in the Following to Holy Communion, we ask God to save us from the slavery of sin, which has been hindering us from the day of the fall of the first people - Adam and Eve. And our prayers are justified. After all, becoming partakers of the divine body and blood, we must get rid of the sinful captivity. For the great joy of spiritual renewal and gaining immortality, we thank the Lord God, offering him thanksgiving prayers for Holy Communion.
Where and how are these prayers recited?
Communion of the Holy Mysteries of the body and blood of Christ takes place in the church during the liturgy. At the end, it is read on behalf of all who have been honored on this day of the holy sacrament, a prayer of thanks after Communion. Usually it is read by a psalm reader. But sometimes parishioners, returning home from the temple, open a prayer book and read themselves.
The text, which consists of prayers of thanksgiving for the Holy Communion, includes five independent prayers. This is followed by the famous words of the holy reverend Simeon the God-Receiver: “Now let go ...” - and then the texts of the troparia and kondakas are read, depending on which liturgy the saint celebrated on that day. All this prayer serves one purpose - to sing with dignity and to thank the Lord God for giving us great mercy. It is not for nothing that thanksgiving prayers for Holy Communion are preceded by words that urge them to be read fervently and from the heart.
First prayer
This prayer begins with words of gratitude to God for the fact that, despite all our sinfulness, he did not reject us and revealed us as partakers of his sacred secrets. The following is a request that his body and blood serve spiritual healing and bodily health. So that they help repel any enemy, visible and invisible, enlighten with the knowledge of the Divine Mysteries in strengthening the faith, and bestow the strength to keep the holy commandments of the Lord. This first prayer of thanksgiving after Communion ends with words expressing a desire to continue to devote life to the service of God, and a request for gracious help along the way. The following is a prayer written in the 4th century by Saint Basil the Great.
Prayer of St. Basil the Great
First of all, it is necessary to say a few words about this saint. Basil the Great was born in Caesarea in 303. Having received an excellent education in childhood, he continued it in Athens. Here he met with another pillar of Christianity - Gregory the Theologian. Their friendship lasted a lifetime. In Athens, St. Basil embarked on the path of asceticism and knowledge of Christian doctrine. Soon he was ordained. The saint traveled a lot. Having gathered a circle of like-minded people, he became their spiritual mentor.
He has written many theological works that have come down to us. The thanksgiving prayer after Communion, written by Saint Basil the Great, is full of deep and sincere feelings. He begins it with words of gratitude for all the blessings God has given him. The saint asks the Lord to always keep it with grace and divine power. In conclusion, he prays that the Lord would enable him to preserve his conscience unspotted and always proceed to the holy sacraments with the consciousness of his spiritual purity.
Third prayer
Its author is Saint Rev. Simeon Metafrast, who lived in Greece at the turn of the 9th-10th centuries. He went down in the history of Christianity as an outstanding theologian and historian. He created an extensive collection of the lives of the saints, edited and provided with comments. A prayer of thanks written by him after Communion is read the third in a row. Starting it, he likens the Lord God to a fire that burns all those who are not worthy. The reverend prays, having saved his life, to burn the sinful thorns nesting in him and make him the abode of the Holy Spirit. The reverend gives himself to God's providence and trusts in his defense.
A very short, fourth prayer
This small prayer is filled with a very deep meaning. It contains an appeal to God with a request for the granting of eternal life - the main and longed-for goal of every Christian. Then the words of prayer appeal to the Lord for the sending of mercy at the Last Judgment, which will follow the second coming.
Prayer of thanks to the Virgin
The Blessed Virgin Mary enjoys special love and veneration from all Christians. She has a very special attitude. With its purity and holiness, it surpasses the angelic hosts. Even cherubim and seraphim cannot compare with her. Therefore, the prayer addressed to her begins with words full of sincere love. “The light of a darkened soul, cover, refuge, comfort, and joy” - these are the epithets with which the thanksgiving begins, for she enabled us to partake of the blood and body of her Son.
In prayer, recognizing ourselves mortified by sin, we ask the Most Holy One to revive us. For her, who gave birth to the source of immortality, nothing is impossible. We ask you to direct our thoughts to good deeds and fill our hearts with Divine love. And like all previous prayers, the thank-you prayer to the Theotokos ends with a request to give us the opportunity to receive the shrine of the mysteries until the end of life.
Excerpt from the gospel text and subsequent troparia
At the end of the prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, a short biblical text is read, which includes the words of the holy Monk Simeon the God-Receiver, uttered by him when he saw through the Holy Spirit in the baby Jesus brought to the temple the incarnated God. His “Now let go ...” concludes the prayers of thanks after communion, the description of which is given above.
But our thanksgiving does not end there. Then the troparia and kondaky are read, and which ones depends on the saint's liturgy. It could be the liturgy of St. Basil the Great, or it could be John Chrysostom. In addition, if the liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was served, then the troparia is read to St. Gregory Dvoeslov and the corresponding kondak. A prayer of thanks to the guardian angel is not included in this list of prayers, but it is quite clear that we cannot but thank the guardian of our soul and body, do not give him credit for everything that we owe him, including for the grace of Holy Communion. There are many prayers to our guardian angel. You can read any of them. The main thing is that she walked from a pure heart. In preparation for Holy Communion, everyone recites a large number of prayers prescribed by the church charter. Among them is the canon of the guardian angel. It is very good to reread it even after performing the holy sacrament.
Our day after Holy Communion
But the prayers of thanksgiving in the Sacrament do not complete the range of our responsibilities related to this most important sacrament. The Holy Church strongly recommends devoting this day to the study of the word of God, to God’s thought, and to care for maintaining spiritual purity. It is better on this day to get rid of all the idle and devoid of spirituality. Abstinence from all kinds of entertainment is recommended. Even those that are not condemned by the church on ordinary days may not be appropriate on the day of Communion. Marital intimacy and smoking are also prohibited. The lips that have received the body and blood of the Lord should not be defiled by anything. Therefore, the use of swear words is completely unacceptable.
The Lord has given us to communicate with him a powerful and reliable tool - Orthodox prayers. Grateful, requesting and repentant - they exalt our souls and hearts. Regardless of whether we are talking about church prayer, read in the temple, or about home prayer, they become fertile only under the condition of our deepest faith and sincerity with which we pronounce them. And each time, approaching them, we must remember that we are currently performing the great sacrament of communication with God.