Prosphora is the bread we offer for the Divine Liturgy. It’s leavened bread, baked with prayer, and from it the priest cuts the portion that becomes the Body of Christ in Holy Communion.
The word means “offering” in Greek. That tells you something important right there. When someone bakes prosphora for Sunday, they’re not just making bread for church. They’re offering something to God, participating in the Liturgy before it even starts.
What It Looks Like
You’ll recognize prosphora by the seal stamped on top. The center shows a square with the Greek letters IC XC NI KA, “Jesus Christ Conquers.” This central square is called the Lamb. During the service, the priest cuts it out and places it on the paten, and this becomes the Eucharist. This is what we receive at Communion.
But there’s more to the seal than just that center square. Around it you’ll see triangles of different sizes. A large one represents the Theotokos. Nine smaller ones commemorate the angels, prophets, apostles, and other ranks of saints. The priest cuts these out too during the proskomedia, the preparation service before Liturgy, and places them on the paten around the Lamb. He’s arranging the whole Church, heaven and earth, around Christ.
How It’s Made
The recipe is simple. Flour, water, yeast, salt. That’s it. No sugar, no honey, no whole wheat. Just basic bread, leavened like the loaves people have been baking for thousands of years.
At St. Michael, laypeople bake prosphora. Families sign up, members of the Antiochian Women, men who want to serve this way. You don’t have to be a monk or a priest. You just need to bake it prayerfully. Some people say the Trisagion while they work. Some pray in their own words. The point is you’re making something holy, so you approach it that way.
Most parishes ask for five to seven loaves for each Liturgy. One is usually larger than the others. You bring them to church a day or two before Sunday, and you can write down names of people you want remembered, living and departed. The priest will commemorate them during proskomedia, cutting small particles from the additional loaves and placing them on the paten while he prays for each person by name.
What Happens to It
Only the Lamb becomes the Eucharist. The rest of the prosphora, blessed but not consecrated, gets distributed after Liturgy as antidoron. You’ve probably received it, small cubes of bread handed out as people venerate the cross and leave. It’s a sign of fellowship, blessed bread shared among the faithful. Even non-Orthodox visitors can receive antidoron, though they can’t receive Communion.
If you offered the prosphora that Sunday, you’ll get a small portion back to take home and share with your family. It’s a tangible connection between your kitchen and the altar, between your offering and God’s response.
Why It Matters
In a lot of Protestant churches around Beaumont, you’ll see individual communion cups and wafers that come pre-packaged. There’s nothing wrong with wanting things sanitary and convenient. But we do it differently, and the difference means something.
When someone from our parish bakes this bread, when they bring it as an offering, when the priest cuts the Lamb from it and it becomes Christ’s Body, that whole process shows us what the Liturgy is. It’s not a private transaction between you and Jesus. It’s an offering, a transformation, a communion. We bring bread and wine, the work of human hands, and God makes them into something else entirely. We bring ourselves, and God does the same thing to us.
The Church has always done it this way. The bread is leavened because Christ is risen. The seal shows Christ at the center with the whole company of heaven around Him because that’s what the Liturgy is, heaven and earth joined together. And we offer it because that’s what Christians do. We offer what we have, and God gives us back far more than we brought.
If you visit on a Sunday and someone hands you a piece of antidoron as you leave, take it. It’s not the Eucharist, but it’s still blessed. It’s still part of what we offered, what God received, what He gives back to us. Eat it on your way to the car or save it for later. Either way, you’re taking something home from the Liturgy, a small reminder that what happens at the altar isn’t confined to the building.
