The Eucharist

by Don Palmer

The Eucharist is the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day in the Episcopal Church. (BCP p.13) It commemorates the Last Supper and follows the Biblical injunction, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  As Bishop Wilson says, “It is a memorial act–not merely calling something up to memory, but identifying ourselves with the thing that was done.”

The Eucharist is only one of several names given to this sacrament: Lord’s Supper, Mass, Holy Communion, and Holy Liturgy being some of the others.  Eucharist is the Greek word meaning thanksgiving.

The Eucharist has two major divisions: the liturgy of the Word, with Bible reading, preaching, confession, and ending with passing the Peace; and the liturgy of the Eucharist, in which the bread and wine are offered and blessed, the bread is eaten and the wine is drunk, and we make our communion.

Holy Communion is said to be “of two kinds”, i.e., bread, representing the Body, and wine, representing the Blood of Christ.  We partake of both kinds, although either is sufficient by itself.

Some priests symbolically have water poured over their fingertips to cleanse them prior to the Communion. The vessel is called the lavabo, from the Latin word for washing.

The bread is kept in a ciborium, on the small table or shelf by the altar (the credence) along with the cruets of water and wine.  From this box of bread a sufficient number of wafers is placed upon the paten, the small plate carried by the priest to those making their communion.

Unleavened bread is traditional, although not at all universal. There is one large wafer of the cracker-like unleavened bread; this is called the Host, and the priest symbolically holds it high and breaks it.  Christ’s Body was broken for us.

Preparing for the Communion, the priest is handed, by the acolyte, a cruet of wine, from which he pours into the chalice, the common cup.  This is mingled with water prior to administration.

Communion using the chalice as a common cup is of ancient origin.  After a communicant sips the wine, the chalice bearer wipes the rim of the chalice with a purificator.  There has been no evidence of transmission of illness by the silver cup, but some prefer to intinct rather than to drink from the chalice.  This is done by holding the wafer given by the priest, and then, when the chalice is presented, simply dipping the tip of the wafer into the wine and placing it on the tongue.

It is extremely helpful to the chalice bearer if the person making her communion discreetly guides the cup to her lips, perhaps with the fingers of one hand on the bowl of the cup and fingers of the other hand steadying the base of the chalice.  As you can imagine, this is of immeasurable assistance when a lady making her Communion is wearing a large Easter hat!

We quietly leave after having received both kinds, allowing another to take our place at the Lord’s Table.