How to prepare for Holy Communion
Whoever wishes to receive communion should prepare for this holy sacrament. Preparation takes several days and involves both a person’s spiritual and physical life. The body requires abstinence: bodily purity (abstinence from marital relations) and restriction of food (fasting). During fasting days, avoid food of animal origin: meat, dairy products, eggs, and on strict fast days, fish. Bread, vegetables and fruit should be consumed in moderation. The mind should not be distracted by petty everyday concerns and entertainment. During fasting days, attend worship in the temple if circumstances permit and more diligently pray at home. Whoever does not usually read all morning and evening prayers should read all of them completely. Whoever does not read the canons should read at least one. On the eve of Communion, attend the evening worship and at home, apart from the usual prayers at bedtime, read the penitential canon, the canon of the Theotokos and the Guardian Angel and also the Holy Communion Service. After midnight, do not eat or drink, so as to partake of the sacrament of Holly Communion on an empty stomach. In the morning, read the morning prayers and anything that may have been missed. Before communion, you must go for confession, either in the evening or in the morning before the liturgy.
