Communion and Squeamishness

Q & A with Fr Job:

Question: What should one do if one really wants to receive Communion, but can’t because one can’t take the spoon into one’s mouth after other people, squeamishly?

Answer: This happens from lack of faith in the all-good power of God, and also from lack of consciousness that you are communing the real Body and the read Blood of the Lord. Look at how many centuries this miracle is being performed: thousands of people in different church (even at times of terrible epidemics) all commune from one chalice, and the Lord preserves them. Maybe you don’t know that after communion of several hundred people, when the Liturgy is over, the deacon or priest, not having even the shadow of a thought that from a single chalice communed many people, with reverence consumes the remaining Holy Gifts. Think about it: the deacons or priests do this (and are ready to do it now) when in the cities or villages in which they serve raged infectious diseases (the plague, cholera, etc.). With all obviousness it’s revealed to us what we firmly believe: the Mystery of Communion is God-established. Metropolitan Nestor (Anisimov; 1884-1962), when Bishop of Kamchatka, opened a hospital for leprosy and built a church there in honor of the Righteous Job the Much-Suffering. After all the lepers received Communion, the clergy would consume the remaining Holy Gifts in the chalice.

Pray to God, that he would strengthen faith in you, and rouse yourself to become a full-fledged member of the Holy Church. When you will begin to have Communion regularly you will know and recognize that without this saving action your life has no meaning.

See also this article.