Hieromonk Gregorios of Koutloumousiou: The Eucharist as living in Christ

 Between the first visitation of the Word and His Second Coming, there is the present age. We Christians struggle to love the Lord, because love helps us to live the mystery of His visitation. "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23). Love perpetuates God's visitation and transforms man into a dwelling-place of God and a dweller in God: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him" (1 John 4:16). When we participate in the Mystery of divine love - in the Eucharist and Holy Communion - we are celebrating the Mystery of God's visitation in the world and in our lives. As Christ says: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (John 6:56).

+Hieromonk Gregorios of Koutloumousiou, from The Divine Liturgy, a Commentary in the Light of the Fathers, Chapter 6 Diptychs and Prayers, Visit us, O God.

Hieromonk Gregorios: On how to rightly receive the Holy Eucharist

 Every Christian should imitate Joseph, who "took the Body of Jesus, wrapped it in a clean winding sheet and placed it in a new tomb" (cf. Matt 27:59-60) - which is to say, in a new person. Let each one of us therefore take diligent care not to sin, so as not to show contempt for God who dwells within us and expel Him from our soul. The soul of every Christian believer becomes a "new tomb" which will receive the all-holy Body of Christ.

+Hieromonk Gregorios, from The Divine Liturgy a commentary in the light of the Fathers, chapter 3 The Litany and the Great Entrance.

Hieromonk Gregorios of Koutloumousiou: God's union with us

 On another occasion, St. John [Chrysostom] hears Christ speaking to him: "I am not simply joined with you; I am interwoven, I am eaten, I am attenuated little by little so that the mixing, the interweaving and the union can be greater. For things that are joined preserve their own boundaries, whereas I am interwoven with you. I do not want there to be anything between us. I want the two of be one" (On 1 Timothy 15 #4). Between Christ and the Christian there is no longer anything intervening. Everything dissolves in the light of His love: "We and Christ are one"(On Hebrews 7 #3).

Only a saint can speak this boldly. And that was how the saints [Symeon the New Theologian] did indeed speak:

We become Christ's limbs, and our limbs become Christ:
though I am a wretched man, my hand is Christ, my foot also is Christ.
though I am wretch, I am both Christ's hand and Christ's foot.(Hymn 15)

The words of the saints are not well-turned phrases designed to impress us; they are the outpouring of hearts that overflow with Christ. Amidst this overflowing of Life and Light, the whole man flashes like lightning. All his limbs radiate light. and the world in which the saint lives and moves is full of the light of Christ. The light of Christ illumines all" (Presanctified Liturgy).

+Hieromonk Gregorios of Koutloumousiou, from The Divine Liturgy, A Commentary in the Light of the Fathers, Introduction