Dva aspekty epiklézy nad komunikantmi vo východných anaforách
Two Aspects of Epiclesis Over Communicants in Eastern Anaphores

Summary/Abstract: The introduction to the article characterises the epiclesis, its place and significance in liturgies (especially Eastern) and its theological aspects. Epiclesis is a prayer inviting the Holy Spirit on gifts as well as on communicants. The next part focuses on the relationship between epiclesis and transubstantiation, as well as the place of the priest in the epiclesis. The main part of the work offers a theological reflection on the significance of that part of the epiclesis in which the Holy Spirit calls on the communicants to transform and sanctify them. The fundamental question of the issue is focused on the question of what actually transforms communicants? We have to look at this question from two aspects. Is it the prayer of the second part of the epiclesis itself, or is it the eating of Christ’s body and blood? From the very texts of the anaphoras and their epiclesis, we believe that it is precisely the eating of the transformed gifts by the communicants that makes them worthy of the remission of their sins, the hope of the resurrection and of eternal life in the communion of the glorified Church. Based on the formulations of the double epiclesis itself and the relationship between its two constitutive parts, we have divided it into three groups. In some anaphoras there is only a request for the transformation of gifts, in other cases in the request for the transformation of gifts there is a request for the transformation of communicants. In the most famous anaphoras, it is possible to observe equal substitutions for the transformation of both gifts and communicants.

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