The Proper Use of Antidoron
Please help me to understand the
significance of antidoron. How should one receive it and handle it? If one takes
it home during the week for daily "communion" is this wrong? Is there a proper
way of doing it—before a prayer, before a meal, etc.? When can you or should you take
propsphora to Church? Should you also take wine and oil? Do you bring the names
of people to be commemorated with these gifts? (G.M., IL)
This is a subject of great importance
which we have several times addressed in the pages of Orthodox Tradition.
When we do not commune at Liturgy, we receive antidoron (an-dee-tho-ron,
with a hard "d" and a soft "d," as in "the") at
the end of Liturgy (that is, blessed bread which substitutes for the Gifts;
thus, antidoron, "instead of the Gifts"). Those who commune
during the Liturgy receive antidoron or antidoron and wine
immediately after communing and should not take it again at the end of Liturgy.
Since it is blessed, the antidoron should be carefully handled and
no particles of it should be allowed to fall on the ground. This means that
children must be carefully watched while consuming antidoron and taught
to treat it with pious reverence. It should be received from the Priest at the
end of Liturgy and immediately consumed. Since antidoron is given
in place of the Gifts, it is also received on an empty stomach, for which reason
Orthodox Christians do not eat or drink anything from the midnight before the
Divine Liturgy, whether communing or not.
Antidoron may also be taken
home for use during the week. It is a pious custom for Orthodox Christians to
begin the day, after their morning prayers and before eating, by consuming a
particle of antidoron and drinking agiasmos, or blessed water.
Prosforo(n), the word for the
bread which we offer at the Divine Liturgy, comes from the Greek word for an
offering, prosfora. It is customarily baked in the home with prayers
and taken to Church, where it is offered for the Divine Liturgy. (Incidentally,
women, out of piety, should not prepare prosforon during their monthly
periods.) One may also give oil and wine along with prosforon—other
"offerings"—so as to provide for the oil lamps and the remaining
element of the Eucharist, though this is not mandatory. This can be done for
any Liturgy. It is also customary to offer the names of Orthodox Christian family
members, of friends, and of relatives with the prosforon, so that the
Priest may commemorate them at the Service of Preparation (Proskomide).
From Orthodox Tradition, Vol. IX, No. 4, p. 18.
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My brother and I visited your monastery. The
services were beautiful. But you gave antidoron [the blessed bread distributed at
the end of the Divine Liturgy —Editor] to my brother, who, as I told you, is
not Orthodox. You also gave him a blessing. Father [name deleted] said that you cannot
give antidoron and blessings to heretics....Can you help me through this? I trust your
views. (J.F., CA)
Answer: Non-Orthodox should be called "non-Orthodox" or "heterodox,"
not heretics. Gentlemanly behavior and the success of Orthodox missions within
a religiously pluralistic society dictate this.
Your Priest is correct in his opinion that antidoron should not be given to
non-Orthodox. It represents the Holy Gifts. (Thus the custom—now sadly ignored in
most Churches—of fasting from the midnight before Liturgy, even when not communing.)
So as not to embarrass non-Orthodox visiting our services, we place portions of an
unblessed loaf of bread at one side of the antidoron tray and give these to
non-Orthodox with the customary blessing: "May the blessing of the Lord...."
With regard to blessing non-Orthodox, how can we not bless other Christians, or even
non-Christians? Not to do so is to violate the Christian commandment of love. Moreover, in
the Divine Liturgy we pray for all men and women, Orthodox or not, blessing them
and hoping to bring them to the truth of Orthodoxy.
If, in maintaining fidelity to the true Faith and avoiding the betrayals of ecumenism,
we fail to pray for those in error, then we cannot possibly belong to the Church of
Christ. Love is the most dominant feature of Christ's Church, and in that love we are
brothers even of our enemies.
From Orthodox Tradition, Vol. V, No. 3, p. 62.
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MOST ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS are aware that one should keep a strict and complete fast from
midnight before receiving the Holy Mysteries, but one should also receive holy water and
the antidoron (the blessed bread given out at the end of the Liturgy) fasting. If, as many
do, you keep a supply at home, use a little each day to break your fast, when you have
said your morning prayers and before eating anything else. If you are attending the Divine
Liturgy, then keep a fast until the service is over (as in any case one should) and you
receive your antidoron from the priest. If for some reason, you have eaten when you attend
the Liturgy, then take the antidoron home as a blessing and consume it on another day,
thus showing reverence for the things of God and the blessing which this bread has
received.
From The Shepherd.
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SPECIAL NOTE ON ANTIDORON: We are always growing in our Orthodox understanding of what we
are doing in worship. Before the Divine Liturgy begins there is a service of preparation,
the Proskomide, in which the priest prepares the gifts for the Eucharist. The prosphora,
or loaf of bread from which the Lamb is taken, is called the Antidoron which means "instead
of the gift (Holy Communion)". According to Tradition this is received after the dismissal
by those who were not prepared for or could not receive Holy Communion. It is a symbol of
the Theotokos from which Christ (the Lamb) came and is reserved for Orthodox Christians.
This Antidoron will be set by the Holy Water near the solea. It should only be received
by Orthodox Christians while fasting. It can also be taken home for use after morning prayer
before eating or drinking anything. After the dismissal everyone may venerate the Cross
and receive the blessed bread that will be held by Acolytes or others on each side.
From the parish newsletter of Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church, Yakima, WA.
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