Let us take a look at THE GIFT OF GRACE: Herein called the spiritual gift, which can be imparted (Rom 1:11); Which impartation is by our breath (1Thes 2:8). We need this breath for love (Mt 22:37). There�s no greater expression of love than this breathing with our friends (Jn 15:13). I am a servant of Christ in God by my breath too (Eph 6:6). Wherein I am in spirit with my breath for you (Phil 1:27). May I heartily do this breathing with you? (Col 3:23). This is why my mouth is open unto you, so that your heart might be thus enlarged (2Cor 6:11-12). This is for the straitening of your inner self, so that your heart would be enlarged (6:12).
I therefore intend to travail within this good thing zealously, until Christ is formed in you (Gal 4:18-19); Without which you desire to be under the law of a husband, rather than being a free woman, who is without a husband (4:21-22, 27). In some justification by the law, you are fallen from this service, which is to love by grace (5:4, 13). Hereby is the perception of the love of God, as Christ laid down/gave His breath for us; we are now giving our breath for the brethren (1Jn 3:16). NOTE lay down is not in the original text. This giving of breath is the deed of love, which is above words (1Jn 3:16, 18). We keep His commandments by doing this pleasing thing in His sight, which is His commandment: Wherein we are loving one another, as He has commanded (3:22-23). This is therefore a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1).
Heart-unity and love-breathing as brotherly affection (1Thes 2:8, Rom 1:11): [The History of the Church of Scotland, by the Rev. W.M. Hetherington. Page 700]: The Moderate party [of the Church of Scotland] was displeased that Rowland Hill has been permitted to preach. And this because the Act of 1799 prohibited �THIS MINISTERIAL COMMUNION.� For Protestant churches had rejected this �communion of the saints,� because they had disclaimed its all-pervading heart-unity, and love-breathing brotherly affection, which needed to be infused into all true members of the faith by the presence and energy of the Holy Spirit.
Breathing in the spirit as brotherly affection (1Thes 2:8): [The Bible Christian Magazine Vol 11 of the 4th series 1866, by James Way. [A continuation of the Armenian Magazine]: Christianity enjoins us into the most intimate of associations. We are not to forsake this assembling of ourselves together; to love one another in our love fests; abounding in love toward one another. WHAT? Desiring a closer unity of the Holy Spirit in the bonds of peace. HOW? Breathing in the spirit of brotherly affection for Christian unity.
The living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) of breathing: [Ante-Nicene Creed. Clement of Alexander, by Sir James Donaldson 1869 pg 428]: Now breathing together is properly said of the Church, as the incense from holy souls. For the sacrifice of the Church is the word breathing.
Union by breathing together: [From Christ to the World, by Wayne G. Boulton]: The word �conspiracy� in the original Latin sense, both literal and tropical, literally means:- that union, or concord in breathing together.
Breathing together for arousal: [ The Mystique of Eucharist]: Hospitality expressed by the kiss of peace. A Christian mouth-to-mouth ritual with breathing together to arouse the senses. Very intimate. Also known as the conspiratio.
Tertullian said it was possible for this rite, the conspiratio, to cause embarrassment. This rite has also been referred to as the pax, which signified �the mutual spiritual union.� In England [12/13 centuries] it was called the pax-brede. This pax was seen as the fulfillment of Jn 13:34-35. [Brother husbandman Philip].
Around the year 300 pax became a key word in the Christian liturgy. It became the euphemism for a mouth-to-mouth kiss among the faithful attending services; pax became the camouflage for osculum [from os, mouth] or the conspiratio, a comingling of breaths.
The Latin osculum is neither very old nor very frequent. It is one of three words that can be translated by the English �kiss�. In comparison with the affectionate basium and the lascivious suavium, osculum was a latecomer into classical Latin � In the Christian liturgy of the first century, the osculum assumed a new function. It became one of two high points in the celebration of the Eucharist. Conspiratio, the mouth-to-mouth kiss, became the solemn liturgical gesture by which participants in the cult action shared their breath or spirit with one another. It came to signify their union in one Holy Spirit, the community that takes shape in God�s breath. The ecclesia came to be through a public ritual action, the liturgy, and the soul of this liturgy was the conspiratio. Explicitly, corporately, the central Christian celebration was understood as a co-breathing, a con-spiracy, the bringing about of a common atmosphere, a divine milieu �
Conspiratio became the strongest, clearest and most unambiguously somatic expression for the entirely non-hierarchical creation of a fraternal spirit in preparation for a unifying meal. Through the act of eating, the fellow conspirators were transformed into a �we�, a gathering which in Greek means ecclesia. Further, they believed that the �we� is also somebody�s �I�; they were nourished by the shading into the �I� of the Incarnate Word � Peace [pax] � as the result of conspiratio exacts a demanding, today almost unimaginable intimacy.
The practice of the osculum did not go unchallenged; documents reveal that the conspiratio created scandal early on. The rigorist African Church Father Tertullian felt that a decent matron should not be subjected to possible embarrassment by this rite. The practice continued, but not its name; the ceremony required a euphemism. From the latter third century on, the osculum pacis was referred to simply as pax, and the gesture was often watered down to some slight touch to signify the mutual spiritual union of the persons present � Today the pax before communion, called �the kiss of peace�, is still integral to the Roman, Slavonic, Greek and Syrian Mass, although it is often reduced to a perfunctory handshake.
Community in our European tradition is not the outcome of an act of authoritative foundation, nor a gift from nature or its gods, nor the result of management, planning and design, but the consequence of a conspiracy, a deliberate, mutual, somatic and gratuitous gift to each other � the shared breath, the con-spiratio are the peace understood as the community that arises from it.
One can fail to perceive the pretentious absurdity of attempting a contractual insurance of an atmosphere as fleeting and alive, as tender and robust, as pax.
The medieval merchants who settled at the foot of a lord�s castle felt the need to make the conspiracy that united them into a secure and lasting association. To provide for their general surety they had recourse to a device, the conjuration, a mutual promise confirmed by an oath that uses God as witness � �conjuration� or the swearing together by a common oath confirmed by the invocation of God, just like the liturgical osculum, is of Christian origin. Conjuratio which used God as epoxy for the social bond presumably assures stability and durability to the atmosphere engendered by the conspiratio of the citizens. In this linkage between conspiratio and conjuration, two equally unique concepts inherited from the first millennium of Christian history are intertwined, but the latter, the contractual form, soon overshadowed the spiritual substance.� [Ivan llich The Cultivation of Conspiracy].
The kissing mass: [The Royal Historical Society, Vol. 57, pg 388]: Which pax-brede, �the kissing mass� was abolished in the Reformed Church. Edw. VI enforced this ban by the Ecclesiastical Commission. Those of the pax wore a token worn as sign of their joyful celebration of peace between them and God.
From the first century on this co-breathing was central to Christianity. An intense hospitality [Collective Reflections, by Ivan llich, pg 240].
