Connie Mynihan took risen dough from a bread machine and began to knead and shape it.
Then she pressed a wooden seal into the dough, stamping on religious symbols.
It’s not just any bread. It’s the holy bread called prosfora, used for Holy Communion in Orthodox churches. Orthodox Christians believe the bread and wine are consecrated during Divine Liturgy and become the body and blood of Jesus.
And that process begins with the hands of a church’s own parishioners.
“No bread is the same,” Ms. Mynihan said. “They’re never perfect. They’re made by humans, and we’re not perfect.”
In the kitchen at the educational building next to Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, she then poked holes into the top of the formed dough — 12 holes to represent the 12 disciples and four crosses to represent the four evangelists. Then she set it in the oven to bake.
That was just one loaf of the half-dozen Ms. Mynihan had planned to bake on Wednesday in preparation for Orthodox Easter, celebrated Sunday, following a different calendar than the western church.
At any given liturgy, Holy Trinity’s congregation needs four loaves of prosfora, and they need even more during Holy Week and Easter liturgies. Only one of those loaves will be consecrated for communion; the rest is blessed and passed out following the service.
Baking prosfora is more than just baking bread. Bakers say a prayer before they begin and offer themselves to God through the work.
Karyn Hajjar leads a baking ministry at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral. She said she puts on prayerful music as parishioners prepare the holy bread.
“When I finish the dough, I make a sign of the cross with my hand in the dough,” Ms. Hajjar said. “It's a holy process. It's not just making bread.”
Ms. Hajjar makes a standard dough — just flour, yeast, water, and salt — that’s used for communion. She also prepares a sweeter bread with sugar and mahlab, a spice that comes from the St. Lucy cherry seed, and is coated with a mixture of orange blossom water and sugar.
About 10 families participate in St. George’s baking ministry, with bakers ranging from age 4 to 80, Ms. Hajjar said. She gets the group together as often as possible, though a month or more may pass before the kids are kneading dough together again. When the ministry does get together, they bake a lot of bread to freeze.
“Everything's handmade,” Ms. Hajjar said. “Made with so much love and camaraderie, fellowship.”
Because the prosfora is traditionally made by members of the church, Ms. Hajjar said it’s an important skill to pass on.
“We have to keep our faith alive,” she said. “The only way we're going to do that is to teach our children.”
At Holy Trinity, Ms. Mynihan is starting to instruct younger women in prosfora baking because the list of elderly bakers has dwindled.
Zach Heller is the ministries coordinator at Holy Trinity, and he’s set to finish seminary in May. He said preparing the prosfora helps connect bakers to the church.
“They know that they're offering to God something that's being used in the service,” Mr. Heller said. “It's something tangible that they can contribute to worship for the community.”
Prayer and preparation
Before Divine Liturgy begins, a priest will prepare the bread and wine in a liturgy called prothesis. He will say certain prayers while symbolically cutting pieces from the bread.
The letters “IC XC NIKA” are inscribed at the center of the bread, representing the Greek phrase “Jesus Christ Conquers.” This center square, called the amno or the lamb, is the first piece to be removed from the loaf and placed on a paten.
The priest pierces the right side of the lamb in remembrance of the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus. He then would pour wine and water into a chalice to represent the water and blood that flowed from the wound in Jesus’ side.
He then cuts out the symbol on the left side of the lamb: a triangle representing Theotokos, the Mother of God.
Opposite that are nine small triangles, representing specific ranks of angels, saints, and faithful. Some priests keep that square whole while others might cut out each individual triangle and “line them up like little soldiers,” said the Rev. Michael Shaheen, pastor at St. George.
The next step, honoring the living and the dead, is performed differently at the two churches. At St. George, Father Shaheen cuts two squares from beneath the center square. (Above and beneath the lamb are the same letters, printed smaller.) At Holy Trinity, Mr. Heller demonstrated how the priest would scrape crumbs off the sides of that bottom square while reading names of the living and dead members of the parish and others he’s been asked to pray for.
“The entire body of Christ is represented on the paten,” Mr. Heller said, referring to all members who make up the church.
During the liturgy, the pieces arranged on the paten would be placed into the chalice and become the body and blood of Jesus.
“The elements remain, but the substance changes; it’s called transubstantiation,” Father Shaheen explained to the children in the baking ministry. “We have the faith that God sends down the Holy Spirit and it changes the bread and the wine to become the body and blood.”
An altar server will slice the remaining portions of prosfora, along with a few additional loaves, for distribution after the liturgy. All are invited to take the blessed pieces of bread called antidora.
“There are people who feel they're not properly prepared and will not go and receive communion,” Mr. Heller said. “But we don't want anyone to go away without having received something from God.”
Because the preparation is done separate from the congregation, Orthodox priests may occasionally hold teaching liturgies to demonstrate to parishioners how communion is prepared so they can feel more connected and better understand the sacrifice and meaning.
“It shouldn't be a mystery,” Father Shaheen said. “If they can understand what’s going on, they can embrace it and appreciate it.”
Mr. Heller shared what that mystery means.
“The whole idea of this is we take earthly gifts that God has given us, prepared in a certain way, and offer it back to him so that he can sanctify it and make it better for us.”
First Published April 16, 2023, 11:00 a.m.
