The Frequency of the Lord's Supper

[Costeon]

Originally Posted by Esaias

The Catholics teach that taking communion imparts eternal life to the soul. It is a very short hop skip and jump from there to thinking that taking communion can impart divine healing to the individual..

Not exactly what you're referring to, but very early on in the first decade of the second century AD, at least one prominent bishop in the third most important city of the Roman Empire referred to the (eternal) life-giving power of the Lord's Supper: "Breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but that we should live for ever in Jesus Christ" (Ignatius's letter to the Ephesians, ch. 20, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0104.htm). I'm not sure how prevalent this view was, but very early on some were not thinking of it just in symbolic terms.