Sacramental bread

Sacramental bread (Latin: hostia), sometimes called altar bread, Communion bread, the Lamb or simply the host, is the bread which is used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist.

Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches

The Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches use leavened bread for the Eucharist. Thus, the sacramental bread symbolizes the Resurrected Christ. The hostia or sacramental bread, known as prosphorá or a πρόσφορον (prósphoron, "offering") may be made out of only four ingredients: fine (white) wheat flour, pure water, yeast, and salt.

Sometimes holy water will be either sprinkled into the dough or on the kneading trough at the beginning of the process.

The baking may only be performed by a believing Orthodox Christian in good standing—having preferably been recently to Confession, and is accompanied by prayer and fasting. Before baking, each loaf is formed by placing two disks of dough, one on top of the other, and stamping it with a special liturgical seal. The prosphora should be fresh and not stale or moldy when presented at the altar for use in the Divine Liturgy. Often several prosphora will be baked and offered by the faithful, and the priest chooses the best one for the Lamb (Host) that will be consecrated. The remaining loaves are blessed and offered back to the congregation after the end of the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist); this bread is called the antidoron (Greek: αντίδωρον, antídōron), i.e. a "gift returned", or "in place of the gifts".

Liturgy

Liturgy (Greek: λειτουργία) is the customary public worship performed by a specific religious group, according to its particular beliefs, customs and traditions.

The word, sometimes rendered by its English translation "service", may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy (Greek: Θεία Λειτουργία), Catholic Mass, the Eucharist or Mass (Anglican Communion) or a daily activity such as the Muslim salah and Jewish services. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy is a communal response to the sacred through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance. Ritualization may be associated with life events such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death. It thus forms the basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy. Methods of dress, preparation of food, application of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgical activities.

Etymology

The word liturgy, derived from the technical term in ancient Greek, leitourgia, signifies the often expensive offers of service to the people, and thus to the polis and the state. Through the leitourgia, the rich carried a financial burden and were correspondingly rewarded with honours. The leitourgia became both mandatory and honorific, supporting the patron's standing among the elite. The holder of a Hellenic leitourgia was not taxed a specific sum, but was entrusted with a particular ritual, which could be performed with greater or lesser magnificence. The chief sphere remained that of civic religion, embodied in the festivals: M.I. Finley notes "in Demosthenes' day there were at least 97 liturgical appointments in Athens for the festivals, rising to 118 in a (quadrennial) Panathenaic year." Eventually, under the Roman Empire, such obligations, known as munera, devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden that was avoided when possible.

Liturgy (disambiguation)

Liturgy is a Christian term with several meanings:

Liturgy may also refer to:

Eucharist in the Catholic Church

The Eucharist in the Catholic Church is the celebration of Mass, the eucharistic liturgy. The term Eucharist is also used for the bread and wine when transubstantiated (their substance having been changed), according to Catholic teaching, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ

Blessed Sacrament is a devotional term used in the Roman Catholic Church to refer to the eucharistic species (the Body and Blood of Christ). Consecrated hosts are kept in a tabernacle after Mass, so that the Blessed Sacrament can be brought to the sick and dying outside the time of Mass. This makes possible also the practice of eucharistic adoration.

New Testament foundations

The First Eucharist in Scripture

The Catholic Church sees as the main basis for this belief the words of Jesus himself at his Last Supper: the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20) and Saint Paul's 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 recount that in that context Jesus said of what to all appearances were bread and wine: "This is my body … this is my blood." The Catholic understanding of these words, from the Patristic authors onward, has emphasized their roots in the covenantal history of the Old Testament.

Host

Host (masculine) and hostess (feminine) most often refer to a person responsible for guests at an event or providing hospitality during it, or to an event's presenter or master or mistress of ceremonies. Host or hosts may also refer to:

Computing

Cossack host

A Cossack host (Ukrainian: Козаче військо, kozache viysko), sometimes translated as Cossack army, was an administrative subdivision of Cossacks in Ukraine. The word host is an archaic word for army.

List of hosts

Imperial Russia

The Cossack host consisted of a certain territory with Cossack settlements that had to provide military regiments for service in the Imperial Russian Army and for border patrol. Usually the hosts were named after the regions of their dislocation. The stanitsa, or village, formed the primary unit of this organization.

Rogue Mage series

The Rogue Mage series of fantasy novels were written by Faith Hunter about races of beings inhabiting a post-apocalyptic Earth of the not-too distant future. Some of them possess magical powers. The series is set in the remains of the United States about a century after an apocalypse similar to the one predicted in the Book of Revelation, but with no God appearing.

Bloodring

Bloodring (ISBN 0-451-46108-8) is the first fantasy novel by Hunter and the first installment of the series. It was published by Roc Trade on 2006 November 7. It was given a three-star review by Romantic Times.

Plot summary

The story take place about a century after an apocalypse. It includes "neomages", a new race of beings that arose during the time of the apocalypse. They live in an area known as the Enclave, which is both a prison and sanctuary, and are able to work with "leftover creation energy".

Thorn St. Croix is a neomage in exile from the Enclave. Thorn (unlike most mages) is telepathic, and she constantly hears the thoughts of the other mages in the Enclave. This threatened to drive her insane when it began during her adolescence and forced her to live amongst humans whose thoughts she does not hear.