From a monastery in Ukraine I brought home a wooden stamp for fashioning Holy Communion wafers in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It functions like a cookie-cutter, with a serrated edge to be pressed into unleavened dough. The flat face of the stamp is engraved with a simple cross surrounded in its four quadrants by these letters:
CX CI on the top and aK NH below.
Imprinted on the dough, the characters on the wafer will be reversed to present an abbreviated form of the Greek words Ιησούς Χριστός, νικητής or “Jesus Christ, Victor.” I envision black-robed monks at work amid the aroma of the monastery bakery, bending over thin dough stretched out on a long table, pressing out the wafers ready to be baked in the oven. Worshipers receive the wafers in their hands during the service.
When we receive the body and blood of Christ with bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, our Savior conveys to us personally the precious benefit of his life and death, that’s the forgiveness of all our sins. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15).
(The ELS relationship with the Thoughts of Faith ministry is conducted by the Europe Committee of the Board for World Outreach.)
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Steve Petersen
www.worldmissionsouvenirs.com
