Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches
The Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches use leavened bread for the Eucharist. Thus, the sacramental bread symbolizes the Resurrected Christ. The 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".
Read more about this topic: Sacramental Bread
Famous quotes containing the words eastern, catholic, orthodox and/or churches:
“And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!”
—Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861)
“Lord, have mercy on us.
[Kyrie, eleison.]”
—Missal, The. The Ordinary of the Mass.
Missal is book of prayers and rites used to celebrate the Roman Catholic mass during the year.
“If the jests that you crack have an orthodox smack,
You may get a bland smile from these sages;
But should it, by chance, be imported from France,
Half-a-crown is stopped out of your wages!”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)