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Part IV: Dogma and Ritual Questions · 42

When Should the Ordinary Bread be Distributed?

Faith Q&A › Many Years with People's Questions › Part IV

The question

Some people take and eat the ordinary bread, which is to be given after the Mass, when they arrive at church, and eat it, or let their children actually eat it in the church during the service. Is this permitted? Or should we only take it on leaving the church after the end of the Mass?

The answer

The correct thing to do is to take the bread as you depart from the church after the end of the Mass, and after you have heard the blessing and the dismissal.

Originally this custom arose because the people came to church fasting, and attended the Mass fasting, and so on their departure, the Church gave them the bread of blessing.

In olden times the churches used to hold an ' agape' or love meal, in which the people used to have their breakfast together, after they had left the church. There was a special or private

room for this, and the more wealthy believers would take turns in providing such a meal, in the name of the Church. But this custom gradually died out, except for being held on a few special occasions. Finally, it was thought sufficient that the believer should be given a piece of bread on leaving the church, so that all could be said to have eaten from one meal - which was the bread.

But to distribute this bread before people enter the church doesn't make sense, and has no purpose from the pastoral point of view. It also gives some of the children the opportunity to eat it during the service, a thing which forbids them to take Communion!

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Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory

Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory, Many Years with People's Questions, Part IV: Dogma and Ritual Questions. Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate. Translated by Mrs. Glynis Younan, London. Revised by Mrs. Wedad Abbas. First edition, August 1992. Revised COEPA 1997. ISBN 977-5319-0-2-1.