Fr. Josiah Trenham: pride blocks Holy Communion
Fr. Josiah Trenham teaches that the greatest obstacle to Holy Communion is pride. If a person holds anyone in contempt or refuses to forgive, he says, that person dare not approach the chalice. The priest urges the faithful to strive to be worthy of Christ's embrace and to embrace others in turn, making communion the center of life.
This means preparing days in advance by reading the pre-communion prayers and giving thanks for days after receiving. Proper preparation also includes avoiding judgment, keeping a regular prayer rule, and confessing regularly according to the counsel of one's spiritual father. Fr. Josiah stresses that the Divine Liturgy is not a stand-alone service but the culmination of the liturgical day.
Therefore, the faithful should attend Vespers and Orthros, sometimes combined as a Vigil, before the Liturgy, and they should come to the Liturgy as often as possible. Above all, one must be reconciled with others, bringing no hatred or lack of forgiveness to the chalice.
Key moments
- If we hold anyone in contempt, if we are refusing to forgive anyone, we dare not approach the chalice.
- We should strive for being worthy to be in the embrace of Christ and to embrace them ourselves, like that as regularly and frequently, and try to regulate your life such that communion is front and center.
- You think of it the days prior, you read the pre-communion prayers, you give thanks for it the days after receiving.
- Avoid judgment, be faithful, keep your prayers, make your confession according, regularly according to the counsel of your spiritual father.
- Be faithful, don't just show up in the liturgy.
- For us, the proper preparation is to come to the Vespers and to come to the Orthros. That's where the content of the daily commemorations are.
- The liturgy is not meant to be a stand-alone worship piece. No, it's the culmination of the liturgical day.
- So try to come to the Vespers, to the Orthros. Sometimes those are done together in churches and call the Vigil, and then to the liturgy as often as you possibly can and make sure you're reconciled with others. That you don't bring any hatred or lack of forgiveness. This is the top of the list.