Apostolic Fathers: Didache
Chapter 9
1 And concerning the Eucharist, thus you shall give thanks.
When the Teaching turns to the Sacrament of the Altar, it uses the name “Eucharist”, which means thanksgiving. Therefore, the Teaching uses the Greek ?????????? for both the name of the Sacrament and the action of thanksgiving.
2 First, concerning the wine cup, “We give thanks to you, our Father, by the holy vine of Your servant David, who was made known to us through Jesus Your Son, glory to You forever.”
The Teaching reverses the order of the consecration of the elements. Instead of our normal practice, as well as Jesus' institution—blessing the bread and then the wine—the Teaching has the prayer of blessing for the wine first. St. Luke's Gospel has two cups distributed: one before the bread (22:17) and one after supper (22:20). There are ancient customs of blessing prayers in the liturgy of the Sacrament throughout both the Western and Eastern churches. Anciently, these prayers were inserted into the Words of Institution after the corresponding words. Therefore, for those who accepted and followed the Teaching, this prayer followed Jesus' words of the institution of the wine as His blood (see below). Lutheran liturgies tend to combine the thanksgiving prayers to precede the Words of Institution, while Catholic liturgies have the thanksgiving prayers for the elements with the offering.
In this prayer of blessing for the wine, we are reminded that Jesus is the Vine which provides salvation for His disciples (John 15:5). Through the Vine, we receive the “fruit of the vine”, another name for the wine of the Sacrament (Matthew 26:29).
3 Then concerning the broken bread: “We give thanks to You, our Father by life and knowledge, which was made known to us through Jesus Your Son. To You be the glory forever. 4 Just as the broken bread is scattered over the mountains, it is gathered together and becomes one. In the same way, let Your congregation gather together from the ends of the earth into the same kingdom, because Yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.”
In the prayer of blessing for the bread, we are reminded of the process of bread-making. Bread is made by the gathering of many grains to be ground into flour and then combined into a dough. In this dough, each grain loses its own individual identity and simply forms part of the whole lump.
We pray for the Father to unite us, as individual Christians, into Jesus' mystical body, the Church. We should strive to be united in the one true faith. We proclaim to be members of the “one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” This prayer asks God to bring this invisible, intangible reality into the visible realm for everyone to see through His glory and power (cf. Shepherd Parable 9:162).
5 And let no one eat nor drink from your Eucharist, except those who have been baptized into the Lord's name. For concerning this also the Lord has said, “Do not give the holy thing to the dogs.”
The restriction for Eucharistic reception in the Teaching is Baptism. For Lutherans, this seems to be an obvious statement. But in the ancient Church, even centuries after the Teaching was written and received its limited acceptance, Baptism was often delayed until the deathbed. Many Christians in the second-sixth centuries would come and receive the Eucharist without Baptism. They had faith in Christ; but, in their personal self-examination, they did not believe that Baptism was absolutely necessary to distinguish Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).
Baptism and the Eucharist are linked together as the two Sacraments of the Church. Both offer the forgiveness of sins through Jesus' institution and promise. But the cart should not be put in front of the horse. A recipient of the Eucharist should first be a baptized Christian. Therefore Jesus' injunction stands: “Do not give the holy thing to the dogs” (Matthew 7:6; 15:25-28; Luke 7:27-28).