An Unexpected First Communion and “Becoming” Greek Orthodox — Part 2

If you haven’t read Last weeks post to understand the background and the differences between the Greek Orthodox Mass and a Roman Catholic Mass, you might want to go back and check that out.

In a nutshell, we found ourselves with no Roman Catholic masses available on the Island of Santorini, but a very active Greek Orthodox church. In this scenario, a Roman Catholic is allowed and encouraged to attend the Greek Orthodox services and even to receive communion — if the Greek Orthodox priest will allow it — as we share this Sacrament in common with the Greek Orthodox.

The only catch is many Greek Orthodox will not allow a Roman Catholic to receive communion, though some will allow it in circumstances like our own — and it’s really up to individual discernment as to how to approach the situation.

On our part, this was a pilgrimage of faith, trust and recognizing the providence of God, and therefore we prayerfully put it all in God’s hands. Though, I must admit, we pretty much begged God to allow us to receive Him while in Greece, and the rest was up to Him.

I should add that John and I had decided we would seek out an icon to bring home and remind us of this crazy pilgrimage we decided to take with our whole family — in the middle of a pandemic — to serve as a reminder of God’s providence.

My takeaway from the pilgrimage was that sometimes God might be asking us to do something that might seem a bit crazy to the rest of the world, but if we say “yes” and venture out in faith, God will meet that “yes” with something beautiful.

The fact that the day before we left, we discovered we might not be able to receive Jesus in Santorini, was just one more detail we had to leave in God’s hands. He had a plan for it, and we just needed to keep walking forward.

Part of that plan, apparently, was finding this beautiful little icon shop with lovely icons, typical of the Greek Orthodox faith. The icon is very important to the Greek Orthodox, and as we witnessed first hand the respect and reverence these icons inspired in the Greek Orthodox in night prayers and Holy Mass, their beauty began to speak to us, too.

It was while we pondered the different icons, that we began striking up conversation with the women in the shop. After our third visit to the same shop, our conversations grew very friendly and familial-like.

The woman told us that most Greek Orthodox will buy an icon and then give it to the priest, who will keep it in the altar area for 40 days, and then bring it back to the home and hang it in a place of honor.

What a beautiful tradition!

So, we were sold on getting an icon, and perhaps more importantly to this story, the woman made a call to her friend and confirmed that the little Greek Orthodox Church just next to where we were staying was having a special Mass on the feast of the Transfiguration, in which there would be blessed bread, and a special fish dish that would be distributed to all who attended the feast.

She told us it was such a typical Greek experience and we “must attend”, and we decided we would make it a priority. The plan was made, and the only problem was that there are many little greek orthodox domes all around the city and we weren’t sure exactly which one it was.

On the morning of the Mass, we heard bells ringing and ran around this maze of steps and curvy paths trying to find the Church before the bells stopped ringing.

All of a sudden, the bells at the main Church began to ring, so we all started running in the opposite direction — way up top to the city to see if perhaps there were two masses for the big feast day.

It was a mad dash up the steps, only to find an empty church and no idea what to do next.

Honestly, we were so desperate for the chance to attend Mass, that back down the steps we ran, winding around until we found a small Church, festively decorated with streaming Greek flags, and some muffled voices from within.

Eureuka! We had found it!

Again, we hadn’t a clue exactly how to act in a Holy Greek Orthodox Mass — but we tried our very best to blend in with the locals. Then came the Communion, and this is where the Greek Orthodox Mass begins to look very different from our own.

There are many similarities with the bread and wine being presented, but most of the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus happens behind this icon screen, which allows glimpses of the priest and his assistant — but there is much more of a veil surrounding the event.

Even up until the last moment, we weren’t sure if we would be able to receive, but we tried to participate and pray and see the beauty of brothers and sisters who were like us, and yet different, too.

I had heard from other Greek Orthodox that many Greeks were not receiving Jesus at the Holy Mass because the ancient way of distributing communion was meeting resistance by some.

You see, the Greek Orthodox method of distributing communion is one in which the priest takes one silver spoon, and places the Consecrated bread, soaked in the Consecrated wine (Now Jesus!) on the spoon and a red altar cloth is spread from the large “chalice” to the mouth of the communicant and the spoon is inserted into the mouth.

The communicant closes his or her mouth around the spoon, and the priest pulls the empty spoon out of the closed mouth. Obviously, during a pandemic, this caused a lot of questions and even criticism of the Greek Orthodox.

In fact, the government had tried to intervene and request one new plastic spoon be used for each recipient so as to avoid spreading covid, but the Greek Orthodox refused.

In many ways, I can respect that decision, but I also understand the caution of the people to receive in that manner, too.

At the end of the day, though, I have to say that I respect that the Greek Orthodox didn’t close their doors and that they kept the Sacraments available to the people who chose to attend!

Honestly, I wish the Roman Catholics would have allowed the steadfastness of the Greek Orthodox to influence their own decision to shut everything down.

When restaurants and shops were all open for business and packed with people, it seems the Roman Catholic diocese of Santorini could have stayed open and served the needs of the people, but God took this opportunity and brought something beautiful out of it.

What is beautiful about this story is when my husband walked up to receive Jesus with our youngest son to get a blessing, the priest moved in, and before we could stop him — he gave the Blessed Sacrament to our five year old son.

The priest was used to distributing communion to babies, as that is the practice in their faith, and so before my husband could intervene, the priest went in with that silver spoon and our little guy received Jesus!

I saw it all happening, from a distance, trying to signal to my husband to stop our little guy from receiving (he hadn’t made his first communion yet!) — but wouldn’t you know it, Jesus had a different plan!

On that day, it seems, Jesus determined our littlest guy was ready for his first communion! That was an unexpected part of our pilgrimage, but an unexpectedly joy-filled moment for all of us!

My little guy ran back to me, and shouted, “Mom, the priest let me receive Jesus!” and we all just started laughing — laughing because of our little guys innocence, laughing because my husband thought he was in trouble with me, and laughing because it was so sweet to see the joy of our little guy receiving Jesus and the privilege of experiencing it all first hand.

What can I say except, Jesus clearly wanted to be close to our little guy in that moment — a closeness that only happens after receiving him Body, Blood, Soul &Divinity — and we all went out that day and celebrated an unexpected first communion and the love that Jesus has for little children. Hooray!

Perhaps my oldest son said it best, “Well, if anybody should have received first communion, it was him”.

He added a beautiful reflection about the power of the Eucharist, “Mom, now that I’ve received Jesus in the Greek Orthodox Church, I feel like I’m Greek Orthodox, too. It’s official!”. I just smiled and knew that there is something so powerful about sharing the Eucharist with people who are part of this Church Christ established, even if separated in some ways I don’t fully understand.

I hope one day those differences are worked out, but if we can’t work them out in this lifetime, God will surely bring us all back into one fold in the end! So Hooray for that!

“So that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.”

John 17:21