It is a well-known and undisputed fact that in the early Church the communion of all the faithful, of the entire ecclesia at each Liturgy was a self-evident norm. What must be stressed, however, is that this corporate communion was understood not only as an act of personal piety and personal sanctification but, first of all, as an act stemming precisely from one’s very membership in the Church, as the fulfillment and actualization of that membership. The Eucharist was both defined and experienced as the “sacrament of the Church,” the “sacrament of the assembly,” the “sacrament of unity.” “He mixed Himself with us,” writes St. John Chrysostom, “and dissolved His body in us so that we may constitute a wholeness, be a body united to the Head.” The early Church simply knew no other sign or criterion of membership but the participation in the sacrament. – Alexander Schmemann
the “eucharist” as a book, is now under translation into egyptian readable arabic , done by me , as a christian interested in patristics and all about eucharist and liturgy written by contemporary fathers, fr alexander one of them , that really attracts a lot of laymen and clergymen in Egypt, a great book , even not revised by the late wrigter, but still a great piece of work , leading us in a journey to the kingdom of god , pushing us as orthodox to return back to our patristic and ecclesiastical roots, to recognize the eucharist not as an individual act of piety, or an act of sacralisation , putting the church as holy against the world as unholy , but offering our food,our world, fallen and unable to do anything for our salvation , and offering our lives with the offer of Jesus Christ to the Father, an invitation to unite as one church in the one eucharist, this act of love and thanks offered to the Holy Father through the Holy Son in the Holy Spirit. thanks
Thank you so much for posting this–it was just what I needed.