The service of the Presanctified Gifts is meant to support us in our lengthy and tiresome pilgrimage:
On this journey we need help and support, strength and comfort, for the “Prince of this world” has not yet surrendered . . . and in this fi ght, our main help is precisely the Body and Blood of Christ, that “essential food” which keeps us spiritually alive and, in spite of all temptations and dangers, makes us Christ’s followers (Schmemann, Great Lent, 47 –8).