Do not deceive yourselves, bishops, presbyters, deacons, that you partake of the Eucharist if you partake of the Holy Cup alone, without the ‘faithful’ (whom you do not even think to declare, to make from the ‘faithful’ – Christians, to involve them in partaking of the Eucharist), who are only spectators of the sacred acts. The fewer ‘parishioners’ present in the temple partake, the fewer are the chances for all those (hierarchy or people of God), who approach the Cup, to partake of the Holy Spirit. (If almost all the cells of the organism are sick, dying – do not receive blood (do not partake), then how hard it is for those cells that still want to live – to partake of the life of the Body?! But still, those cells will survive only if the entire organ survives – therefore, to survive, they need to care about the revival of all others. Unfortunately, such a reaction is not visible in parishes!
St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Maximus the Confessor, and other God-bearing hypostases, having a catholic consciousness and carrying in their prayers the whole people of God and being in prayerful communion with the saints, could partake in any parish, even ‘alone’ (St. Theophan the Recluse for many years ‘alone’ visibly performed the Divine Liturgy, of course, not being alone in the Holy Spirit!). One who is by himself, living his own life – he is not a member of the Body of the Church. He may be visibly in the Body (like something in a vessel, like what is in the stomach that must be expelled), but essentially not partaking of the Body of the Church. Therefore, ‘self…’ in the Church – is a sign of estrangement from the Church, falling away from the Body, or symptoms of a disease, the end of which is falling away, death. Therefore, this ‘self-‘, ‘alone,’ this isolation (signs of egoism and individualization as estrangement from the mystery of personal communion) need to be healed in the Eucharist by repentance, self-denial, so that the egoistic ‘I’ may grow into a catholic ‘we.’ One needs to partake of the Eucharist, live a parish Eucharistic life, so that in due time one becomes able to partake of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist (i.e., first by living a Eucharistic life in the parish, we are healed (more precisely, God heals under favorable conditions – see below) from egoism, selfishness – we come to our senses from the sinful delirium, and later, under the condition of proper fulfillment of ‘homework,’ we begin to feel the Life of the Body, that is, to partake consciously of the Holy Spirit).
Therefore, whoever wants to be Happy, to partake of the Kingdom of God in the Eucharist, must become a member of a living parish, because without a community it is unreal to partake!!! The bishop, presbyter – are obliged to create parishes from their parishioners, if they want to be Happy, i.e., to partake of the Eucharist. Parishioners are obliged to initiate the creation of a living parish from those parishioners who are (if the hierarchy is passive), or they can find a living parish and become its members. Only a parishioner can be Happy, because only he can partake of Happiness, that is, the Kingdom of God at the Eucharist! Therefore, it is understandable why there are many ‘Christians’ (millions), but so few Happy people (a few)!
And now let us point out some factors that have caused the death of parishes (and the church as a whole). The fact that there are almost no living parishes (on the part of ‘almost’ fall those communities that at least do something to revive), all are to blame: both the hierarchy and ‘laity’ (people of God). Together with this, we will show the main disease that destroys the church, and the ways to cure it.
The essence (constituting factor) of the Church – is the Eucharist, that is, the community (gathering in one place of the entire church at the ‘breaking of bread’), and not a ‘thing.’ (In secularized spirituality, the tendency to obscure the interpretation of the Eucharist as a ‘community,’ gathering (in one place) by individualistic pietism, in which the Eucharist is transformed into a ‘thing,’ which can be used as needed to achieve moral perfection!? In the Eucharist the Holy Spirit descends on the community and on the Gifts; the ‘object’ of sanctification – the community of the faithful and the offered Gifts;
‘May Your Holy Spirit dwell in us, and in these offered gifts, and in all Your people,’ ‘send down Your Holy Spirit on us and on these offered Gifts’ – prays the Church in the rite of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom). In the Eucharist, Christ is present here and now, as the One who realizes the self-communion of God with creation as co-participating in His life in the existential form of a specific community, created by the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist, the Church found the structure of the Kingdom, and it is this structure that she transferred to her own structure. In the Eucharist ‘many’ become ‘one’ (1 Cor. 10, 17), the people of God are transformed into the Church, called from their dispersion (εκ-κλεσια) to one place (έπί τό αύτό). Through its participation in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity, the Church becomes ‘the body of Christ,’ the body in which death is defeated and through which the entire world is promised the eschatological unity of all. This Eucharistic structure, which in the catholic communion of all with all (see Apostolic Rule 34) emphasized the eschatological unity of all, ceased to be effective when the institution of the proclaimed ceased to exist, there was a division into sacred and profane, the people of God were divided (by an insurmountable abyss) into two castes: priests (ordained) and laity, priests serve ‘spiritual’ needs (needs), and others are served, for a certain fee, the Sacraments turned from church actions (performed by the entire church) into private needs (performed by the priest ‘by the power given to him (as an individual!??)’), in short, the Church began to become a religion (the process of secularization began and is now developing at a frantic pace). Instead of unity, which institutions and the hierarchy were supposed to serve, there was a division through the sacralization of the hierarchy and the profanation, reducing the people of God to the status of pagans, that is, laity. To begin to heal this wound – first it is necessary to desacralize the hierarchy (bring it ‘from heaven to earth’) and renew in its order the royal priesthood of the people of God (who wear the profane name ‘laity’) – to restore the principle of conciliarity (return to the conciliarity of communion at all levels of the Church’s existence). It is necessary to restore the institution of the proclaimed, that is, not to perform any sacrament without proper preparation and training (proclamation). All sacraments must be performed by the entire Church (parish), in the Eucharistic context!