communion

plural communions

1. countableuncountableA joining together of minds or spirits; a mental connection.

   My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal.

   1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IX, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 150

   1 more example

   It would be uplifting to think that the ziggurat was the first expression of Near Eastern civilization, for then one could speak about humanity's fascination with the heavens, of the human quest for communion with the infinite.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 159

   Synonyms: communing

2. countableuncountableChristianityHoly Communion; the Eucharist.

   first communion

   4 more examples

   to take/receive communion

   To receive Communion, open the mouth, letting the tongue touch the inner side of the lip, and having received the Sacred Particle on the tongue, swallow it as soon as you can, to avoid all irreverent touching of the Sacred Host with the teeth or lips.

   1882, “Communion”, in The Daily Prayer-Book […] , London: Burns & Oates

   One day, when at the height of her illness, she had thought herself dying, and had asked for the communion; […].

   1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter XIV, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part II, page 234

   And I have nothing at all left of piety. I haven't confessed or prayed or taken communion in years.

   1968, Ursule Molinaro, transl., Narcissus and Goldmund, translation of Narziß und Goldmund by Herman Hesse

   Synonyms: sacrament

3. Ecclesiastical interrecognition of belonging to the true Church.
   1. countableuncountableCatholicismA form of ecclesiastical unity between the Roman Catholic Church and another, so that the latter is considered part of the former.
   2. countableuncountableChristianityA denomination; a high-level organised subgrouping of Christianity (now especially in Anglican Communion)

1. ChristianityAlternative letter-case form of communion (“Holy Communion”).

   To receive Communion, open the mouth, letting the tongue touch the inner side of the lip, and having received the Sacred Particle on the tongue, swallow it as soon as you can, to avoid all irreverent touching of the Sacred Host with the teeth or lips.

   1882, “Communion”, in The Daily Prayer-Book […] , London: Burns & Oates