The Preparation

We offer bread and wine ... He gives His Body and Blood.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and the High Priest, the sacrificer and the sacrifice, gives back to us His life-giving Body and Blood. The bread is a symbol of the sacrificial lamb while the wine and water symbolize the blood and water that flowed from Christ’s side when he was pierced by the sword.

The bread is called prosphora from the Greek meaning “offering.” Five loaves are used to represent the five loaves with which Christ fed the five thousand (John 6:22-58). One portion of one loaf, known as the Lamb, is cut out. It is consecrated during the Divine Liturgy, while the rest becomes the antidoron, the blessed bread distributed at the end of the Liturgy.

In the early Church everyone brought donations, including bread and wine, to the assembly for the needs of the community. This original practice of participation in the offering has been preserved in that families bake prosphora at home and bring it to church. Likewise the wine is offered by a family. This is also why prayers for the needs of the entire community are said during the Proskomedia. In this way the original link between the Eucharist and the sacrifice of mercy still exists today.

The priest takes the first loaf in his left hand and with the lance in his right hand he makes the sign of the Cross while saying three times:

"In remembrance of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ."

The priest then cuts a cube out of the center with the spear and pronounces the words of the Prophet Isaiah:

"Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, he does not open his mouth. He has been humiliated and has no one to defend him. Who will ever talk about his descendants? Since his life on earth has been cut off." (Is. 53:7-8).

This cube-shaped portion, called the Lamb, is placed on the diskos. Then the priest cuts a cross in the bottom of the Lamb while saying the words:

"The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world is sacrificed for the life and the salvation of the world."

He then pierces the right side of the Lamb with the spear, saying the words of the Evangelist:

"One of the soldiers pierced His side with a lance. And immediately here came out blood and water; and this is the evidence of one who saw it, and he knows he speaks the truth." John 19:34-35.

Wine is then poured into the chalice mixed with water. From the second loaf, the priest cuts out one portion in honor of the Theotokos and places it on the diskos to the right side of the Lamb. From the third loaf, which is called "that of the nine ranks," are taken nine portions in honor of the saints, St. John the Forerunner and Baptist, the prophets, the Apostles, the hierarchs, the martyrs, the monastic saints, the unmercenaries, Joachim and Anna, the saint who is celebrated on that day, Saints Constantine and Elena to whom our church is dedicated, and finally the saint who composed the liturgy being celebrated. These portions are placed on the diskos to the left side of the Lamb. From the fourth loaf, portions are removed for the hierarchs, the priesthood, and all the living. From the fifth loaf, portions are taken for those who have reposed.

Finally, portions are removed as names are read for the health and salvation of the living and for the repose of the dead. All these portions are placed on the diskos below the Lamb. At the end of the Proskomedia the priest covers the bread with the asterisk and then covers the diskos and chalice with veils, censes the diskos and the chalice and prays that the Lord bless the offered gifts and remember those who have offered them and those for whom they are offered.

The sacred instruments used and actions performed in the Proskomedia have symbolic meanings. The diskos signifies the caves in Bethlehem and Golgotha; the asterisk, the star of Bethlehem and the Cross; the veils, the swaddling clothes and the winding sheet at the tomb of the Savior; the chalice, the cup in which Jesus Christ sanctified the wine; the prepared Lamb, the judgment, passion, and death of Jesus Christ; and its piercing by the spear, the piercing of Christ's body by one of the soldiers. The arrangement of all the portions in a certain order on the diskos signifies the entire Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ in the center as the King and Savior. The censing signifies the overshadowing by the Holy Spirit, whose grace is shared in the Mystery of Holy Communion.