It is about Communion

Many people wonder why coming to Church on Sunday is so important. For some, coming to Church is about connecting to friends and family. For others, attending Church is about learning the Bible and Church history. It is good to see friends and we should always want to learn more about God. This is true, but there is much more to attending Liturgy than history or friends.

Attending Divine Liturgy has always been about receiving Holy Communion. We cannot truly know God without Holy Communion. God became human, not to teach us another Bible story, but to invite us into union with Him. When we are baptized and Chrismated into the Church, that union is made real and permanent. Every time we receive Holy Communion, that union grows stronger. 

That is the truth the Church expresses in Holy Icons. That is the truth that is celebrated on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. Today is much more about pictures about Christ. Today is about the truth that God became human, and because He became human we can live in communion with Him. Holy Icons are about Holy Communion. This is why we celebrate today by proclaiming this truth.

Synodikon From the proceedings of the Seventh Ecumenical Council read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

As the prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the teachers have dogmatized, as the universe has agreed, as grace has illumined, as truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dispelled, as wisdom has presented, as Christ has triumphed; this we believe, this we declare, this we preach: Christ our true God, and His saints we honor in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in temples, in icons, on the one hand bowing down and worshiping Christ as God and Master, on the other hand honoring the saints as true servants of the Master of all, and offering to them due veneration.

This is the faith of the Apostles!

This is the faith of the Fathers!

This is the faith of the Orthodox!

This is the faith which has established the Universe!

Therefore with fraternal and filial love we praise the heralds of the faith, those who with glory and honor have struggled for the faith, and we say: for the champions of Orthodoxy, faithful emperors, most-holy patriarchs, hierarchs, teachers, martyrs and confessors: may their memory be eternal.

(Sing) Eternal be their memory; • Eternal be their memory; • Eternal be their memory.

Let us beseech God that we may be instructed and strengthened by the trials and struggles of these saints, which they endured for the Faith even unto death, and by their teachings, entreating that we may to the end imitate their godly life. May we be deemed worthy of obtaining our requests through the mercy and grace of the great and First Hierarch, Christ our God, through the intercessions of our glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, the divine Angels and all the saints. Amen.