![\"Liturgy\"](\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Liturgy-1.jpg\")
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\u201cBlessed is the Kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.\u201d The Divine Liturgy begins with an acclamation of the\u00a0Kingdom of God, brought into being by the Kingdom bringer himself, Christ and represented by the Priest \u201cin\u00a0persona Christi.\u201d The Kingdom of God is at Hand! The Liturgy is the feast of the kingdom, an inauguration of things\u00a0to come, but also present and active here and now. The powers of Heaven invisibly worship with us.<\/p>\n
This is but a taste of the reality of the Churchs\u2019 Liturgies, but how often do we see attending church as little more\u00a0than fulfilling a responsibility or as if we are attending a performance. Is it just something you do to fulfill an\u00a0obligation and endure impatiently? \u00a0Liturgy means “the peoples\u2019 work”\u2026 it’s faith in action, word, song, prostrations,\u00a0incensing, bowing and signing the Cross etc. You are participating in the most significant encounter with the\u00a0Eucharistic Risen Lord, the source and the summit of our life!<\/p>\n
The truth is Liturgy is life giving and beautiful, yet so often we are spiritually blinded by our sin and attachment to\u00a0worldly concerns. Church is boring when it’s just about sitting through something we don’t understand or care to\u00a0understand. To the outsider, it may appear meaninglessness or empty or a set of strange and hollow customs;\u00a0something from the past like visiting a museum about an ancient tribe tribe with quirky habits.<\/p>\n
Yet the Divine Liturgy, in particular, is the very thing that brings salvation from death and healing. It is the hospital\u00a0for the sick. It is something to be lived. \u00a0We are called to immerse ourselves in the Liturgy which is the very life of the\u00a0Church, the life of the community; to become Church, the very Body of Christ present in the Temple.<\/p>\n
Our Holy Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox worship is ancient, and yet very relevant. It may seem foreign to the\u00a0modern world, but it’s as timeless as ever because people really haven’t changed. Fashion, music, technology may\u00a0have changed, but human nature hasn’t. \u00a0We need God as much as our ancestors did. Everything in the liturgy, every\u00a0act, every phase has been designed to draw us into the mysteries, to worship in communion with our brothers and\u00a0sisters in the faith in the presence of Christ our King.<\/p>\n
In the Divine Liturgy we give creation a voice and we offer it back to God in the form of bread, wine which\u00a0symbolizes the entire created order. \u00a0We are in the presence of God and his Saints. “What shall I render to the Lord\u00a0for all His benefits to me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the lord…”<\/em> Psalm 115 12-13.<\/span><\/p>\n Every service is a chance to encounter the risen Lord and to be transformed. We are offered up, not just the bread\u00a0and wine in Divine Liturgy. We are the outward, living sign of the Kingdom when we participate in this most public\u00a0action of the Christian community in relationship with the Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n In the liturgies the prayers of the celebrants are sealed and affirmed with \u201cAmen\u201d, Hebrew for “let it be so.” Without\u00a0the amen acknowledged by the members of the Body of Christ present in the temple, the liturgy cannot continue. At\u00a0least one person must be present in addition to the priest or bishop for Divine Liturgy to be given. In the liturgy we\u00a0praise God in song, word, the smells and the bells, the beautiful icons, we bow and we make the sign of the cross.<\/p>\n The church day and year has a cycle, it’s not just about Divine Liturgy; there is the liturgy of the hours, matins,\u00a0vespers, liturgies of supplication, memorials, and compline to name some of the most consequential ones. There is a\u00a0daily cycle as the sun moves across the world from east to west. In Matins we give praise to God who reveals himself\u00a0to us just as the sun rises to overtake the darkness of night and to nourish the world. In the evening, Vespers is\u00a0celebrated, usually as the sun sets, where we reflect upon the true source of light, Christ the Son of God and the Son\u00a0of righteousness whose love for us will never set.<\/p>\n We must strive to see the deep reality and mystery present in the life of the Church, seen and unseen by our human\u00a0eyes. The earthly liturgy as a manifestation in time of the heavenly offering and is therefore heaven on earth. The\u00a0Church is an earthly Heaven, a showing forth of the eternal offering in Heaven here and now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Liturgy” is not an abstract concept that exists outside of us, but a meeting between persons. It is an encounter of\u00a0two sides, a human side and a Divine side.”<\/em> <\/span> \u201cThe divine services of the Church are words in which we converse and speak to God with our worship and with our\u00a0love. The hours spent closest to Paradise are the hours spent in the church together with all our brethren when we\u00a0celebrate the Divine Liturgy, when we sing and when we receive Holy Communion. Together we all follow the divine\u00a0services\u2014 the words of our Lord. With the Gospel, the Epistles, the hymns of the Book of the Eight Tones, of the\u00a0Lenten Triodion, and of the Offices of the Saints, we achieve our union with Christ.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em> “Liturgy is the place where the scriptures emerge into light. Liturgy is the place where Tradition lives… Liturgy is the\u00a0place where the stream of salvation history runs swifts and clear –sweeping Christians into the current of the Divine\u00a0and Sacramental economy.\u201d <\/span><\/em> To assist with understanding the various aspects of the Divine Liturgy, Sister Vassa published a video breaking it\u00a0down into six sections.<\/p>\nFrom the Saints and Others<\/h3>\n
\n\u2013Sister Vassa Larin<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u2013 Elder Porphyrios<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u2013 Scott Hahn<\/span><\/p>\nThe Structure of the Divine Liturgy<\/h3>\n