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What Is The Fire In CommunionFire

2/23/2015

Consuming Fire which our hands have held Live ember which our lips have kissed,

I'm not sure anyone is reading these posts but I am so glad to share with you what the Lord and a few of His choice servants share with me.

I could imagine someone asking what is the "Fire" of CommunionFire? How is Communion (Eucharist, Qurbana, The Lord's Supper) related to CommunionFire?

Glad you asked!

First, CommunionFire is a word my wife and I started using trying to describe something beautiful and wonderful we began to experience when having communion in our home.

Jesus started showing up one day and speaking with us and it happens every time we come to His Table, even this morning! there's not enough paper or time to share everything with you so we ask the Holy Spirit to help us pick and choose those things that might be helpful (and in some cases - in a timely fashion) to you.

To answer the questions posed in the first paragraph I am going to share what some Christians were saying about this same subject in Syria back in 350-600 AD. Just a few quotes, but I think they speak volumes. This is a continuation of our Ephraim the Syrian series. You might say we have adopted St. Ephraim as our patron saint, that is if non-Catholics are allowed to do that! Well, whether we are or not, at least in our house we have! In fact we talk about Ephraim like an old friend.

What is the Fire in CommunionFire?

From Jacob Baradaeus
(Syriac Christian Communities) 500-578 AD

One day when visiting a certain monastery he journaled the following observation during the offering of the Qurbana (the bread of medicine ~ St. Ephraim, the holy Eucharist, Communion):

"A certain Arab who had recently been baptized was there. He saw fire come down from heaven and he saw tongues of fire hovering over the Qurbana and hosts of angels with bowed heads before the divine sacrifice."

From the poet Balai in 'fire imagery' (432 AD)

"Praying the epiclesis* the priest kindles the fire and takes the bread but gives forth the Body. He receives the wine, but distributes the Blood."

* The epiclesis (also spelled epiklesis; from Ancient Greek: ἐπίκλησις "invocation" or "calling down from on high" is that part of the Anaphora** (Eucharistic Prayer) by which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit (or the power of His blessing) upon the Eucharistic bread and wine in some Christian churches

Particles of the Communion Bread are often called "embers" or "burning coals" (as in Isaiah 6:6-7 when the Seraphim uses tongs to take a coal from the Alter of God (His Table) to purge the lips of Isaiah.)

In the following prayer of thanksgiving after communion (called the Sharar), the text likens the Eucharist to a burning ember:

"Consuming Fire which our hands have held
Live ember which our lips have kissed,
The seraphim do not dare
to take it in their hands.
The prophet held it and was purified by it.
Lord, purify our mouths and lips
and hands which hold your Body.
Sanctify the bodies, souls and spirits
which have received your victorious Blood."

When we receive Communion we offer our bread and wine to the Lord and ask His blessing*. At that moment we are 'translated' (spiritually moved) to have our table become His Table, the bread His Body and the wine His Blood. This is the Miracle of CommunionFire. Through a simple offering of bread, wine and prayer Jesus takes residence in the Bread to make it His Body and in the wine to make it His Blood.

When we eat we take the bread of His Body to be kneaded into the bread of our body to give us the presence of His life. When we drink we take the wine of His Blood to flood the wine of our blood with His presence and life.

The Miracle of CommunionFire is that, at least for a few of us, when we feed and drink of Him, He takes residence inside us. He literally becomes "Christ in us the hope of glory!"

And then, as described in 2 Corinthians 3:18 "We look into His Glory (Fire) as into a polished mirror (or high def heavenly television) and we see His image! When we do it transforms us from the current glory (communion) to a greater glory (communion) with Him.

When we see Him (His image - whatever corresponds to the encounter with Him in each communion) we also 'get the message'. We hear his voice. It may be a whisper. It may be a feeling or sense but something is "said". We hear with our spirit and understand something from Him even if it is as simple as "I love you."

*(Keep in mind it is the Lord who provides the staff of life and the fruit of the vine - He is our bread - the mixture of His provision as the 'staff of life' mixed with His Water of Life; and He is the Vine in whom we are grafted and from whom we receive the fruit of the vine).

Isaiah 6: 1-9

In the year that King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another:
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

From "De Fide" one of St. Ephraim's Teaching Songs:

The Seraph could not touch the fire's coal with his fingers
The coal only just touched Isaiah's mouth:
The Seraph did not hold it, Isaiah did not consume it,
But our Lord was allowed to do both!

To the angels who are spiritual
Abraham brought food for the body and they ate.
The new miracle is that our mighty Lord has given to bodily man
Fire and Spirit to eat and drink

Bob Bonnell Communion Pastor

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