Sunday, April 25, 2004
Keener
There is a second historical reason for why the daily celebration of the Eucharist is rare in Eastern Christian Churches. Ancient legislation once forbade married people from receiving the Eucharist the day after having sex. This used to apply in the Roman Catholic Church too, until Pope Pius X changed this rule. In the Eastern Churches we have a tradition of married priests. Because it is forbidden for a priest to celebrate the Eucharist without receiving it, married priests had to abstain from relations with their wives for a day before celebrating the Divine Liturgy. If married Eastern Christian priests were expected to celebrate the Eucharist daily, as Roman Catholic priests were, they would never have relations with their wives, and thus would never be blessed with children.
Whoa. That's pretty intense. How come that never came up in my history books?
Whoa. That's pretty intense. How come that never came up in my history books?
