All are welcome to come learn more about Jesus Christ’s Holy Orthodox Church.
Click the following link to see the rest of the 2019 Inquirers & Catechumens Class Schedule.
The Communion Service. The Eucharist has always been the central focus of the life and worship of the Church from the beginning. Here we try to convey, by way of the Cherubic Hymn and the priestly prayers, the meaning of the Great Entrance – the journey of the gifts from the Prothesis table to the Altar. This is the life-journey of Christ in the world on his way to His Life-Giving Death, and the faithful are eyewitnesses to this – as the lines between heaven and earth are blurred in the mysterious and sacred space of the Kingdom.The bread and wine, the gifts of the people, have been moved from the table of preparation (prothesis table) to the altar in the Great Entrance. In this program we further discuss the Cherubic Hymn in which we are admonished to “lay aside all earthly cares” as we confront the reality of the heavenly Kingdom and the unity of all believers both in heaven and on earth who confess “Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity one in essence and undivided.” We enter a liturgical dialogue with the priest as we contemplate the greatness of the grace of God who accepts from us sinners our gifts in order to return them to us as the Body and Blood of His Son. In this liturgical dialogue we acknowledge our life in the Trinity, the love and unity of the Church, the glory of God, our gratitude to God for His mercy and the awesome and fearful prospect of taking the “fire of divinity” into our human flesh in the Eucharist.
We come to the most sacred and debated words of Christian worship in history: the Epiclesis, the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine to make them into the Body and Blood of Christ. Is the change “real” or is it symbolic? How does the change happen? When does it happen? Are the words just a magical “hocus pocus” incantation? Can it happen anywhere a priest just speaks the words? What are the differences in the views of “the Body and Blood of Christ” in the bread and wine?