Letter 93

93. To Caesaria, a patrician lady, concerning communion.

To communicate each day, and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ, is good and beneficial, since He says plainly: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. For who doubts that to partake continually of life is nothing other than to live in many ways? We ourselves, however, communicate four times each week — on the Lord's day, on Wednesday, on Friday, and on the Sabbath — and on the other days, if there is the commemoration of some saint.

As for being compelled, in times of persecution, when no priest or minister is present, to receive communion with one's own hand, it is superfluous to demonstrate that this is in no way burdensome, since long custom confirms it through the very facts. For all the solitaries who dwell in the deserts, where there is no priest, keep communion at home and partake of it by themselves. And in Alexandria and in Egypt each one of those who are reckoned among the laity, for the most part, has communion in his own house, and partakes of it by himself when he wishes. For once the priest has completed the sacrifice and given it, the one who has received it, as he partakes of the whole at once, taking it each day, must rightly believe that he partakes and receives from the one who gave it. And indeed, in the church too, the priest gives the portion, and the one who receives it holds it with full authority, and so brings it to his mouth with his own hand. It is therefore the same in effect whether one receives a single portion from the priest, or many portions at once.