We continue the translation of the book by Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Saint Macarius of Corinth, “The Soul-Profiting Book on Continual Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.”

Some object and say: do not those who commune frequently feel, like all people, the influence of the passions of gluttony, vainglory, laughter, idle talk, and many others of the kind? How then, in spite of this, do they wish to commune frequently?

To these people Saint Anastasius of Antioch replies: “It happens that some, even those who commune rarely, give themselves over to sin. Others, however, who commune more frequently, as a rule guard themselves from many evils, fearing the judgment of Communion. Therefore, if we fall, like all people, into certain human and pardonable sins, being robbed either by the tongue, or by hearing, or by the eyes, or by vainglory, or by sorrow, or by anger, or by something of the kind, then, reproaching ourselves and confessing to God, let us in this way commune of the Holy Mysteries, believing that the Communion of the Divine Mysteries will be for us a cleansing from these sins. But if we commit certain grievous, cunning, fleshly, and impure sins, and harbor rancor toward our neighbor, then, until we repent in a fitting manner, we must not touch the Divine Mysteries at all.

Yet since we, being people of the flesh and infirm, fall into many sins, God has given us, for the remission of sins, various sacrifices which, when we offer them, cleanse us so that we may approach Communion. Thus almsgiving too is a sacrifice that cleanses sins. There is also another saving sacrifice for the remission of sins, as the prophet David says: “A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19).

If we offer these sacrifices to God, then, even when we have certain human shortcomings, we may nonetheless approach the Holy Mysteries – with fear, and trembling, and compunction, and confession, as did, weeping and trembling, that woman with the issue of blood. For there is a sin unto death, and there is a sin unto repentance, and there is a sin that requires the application of a plaster. True repentance can heal all things. The one who approaches the Holy Mysteries with fear, and trembling, and confession, and compunction receives forgiveness, while the one who approaches without fear and contemptuously incurs punishment. To such people not only is forgiveness of sins not granted, but the devil gains even greater access to them. But those who come to the Divine Mysteries with fear are not only sanctified and receive remission of sins, but also drive the devil away from themselves.”

However, in spite of all these incontestable testimonies of the holy teachers of the Church, some still are not satisfied and put forward another objection, saying…