Literary notes about Communion (AI summary)
The term "communion" functions on multiple levels in literature, often serving as both a literal reference to religious rites and a metaphor for deep interpersonal or societal connection. In many works, it signifies the sacred act of partaking in a religious sacrament—marking milestones such as first communion or the solemn sharing of the Eucharist ([1], [2], [3])—while in others it conveys an intimate bond, whether between individuals sharing private spiritual experiences ([4], [5]) or members of a community fostering a unified spirit ([6], [7]). Additionally, the word is sometimes extended to include broader acts of collective participation or even social unity, as seen in contexts where it embodies historical rituals or symbolic acts of sacrifice and concurrence ([8], [9]).
- The day of your first communion was the happiest day of your life.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - The first communion will soon be upon us, and I fear we shall be behind after all.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - Ah! when will she take her first communion?” She began to reckon on her fingers.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - We both beamed in silent communion, each knowing the other to be a lover of God.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - While thus left in communion with my self alone, I know not how I slipped out of the poetical groove into which I had fallen.
— from My Reminiscences by Rabindranath Tagore - Probably no other president has been in such full and cordial communion with Congress, if we may except Lincoln alone.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity, that never dreads contact and communion with others, however humble.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - .That is, his church bound up together by the bands of one faith and communion.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - In the form which it takes when fully constituted, a sacrifice is composed of two essential elements: an act of communion and an act of oblation.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim