The Divine Liturgy.

​Blessed is the kingdom of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

With those words the Priest begins the Divine Liturgy. No other act within the church is more important than the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is the participation of the Christian in the worship of the divine, that is the Triune God. Without the Divine Liturgy one cannot call himself Orthodox. The Divine Liturgy is the joining of the church on earth with those in heaven. In the Orthodox Church we don’t believe that our loved ones are in some far off place where they are away from us and can’t hear us or see us. Rather those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, are still an active part of the church, and now though their earthly bodies have returned to the dust of the earth, their spirit now sits at the footstool of God, interceding on our behalf, and participating in the liturgy of Heaven. Not only that but the Divine Liturgy transcends time and space. Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey stuff yea yea I know.  At that moment we are no longer on earth, but also at the throne of God. Also we are within all of the church history. We are participating in the continuous worship of the church and the continuous sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist. No Jesus is not being sacrificed again, but we enter into Golgotha, we enter into the Last Supper. We witness along with the Apostles the breaking of the body of Christ and the pouring out of his blood. The Divine Liturgy allows us to have the blessings of Heaven upon earth and the blessings of the divine. That’s why it’s called the Divine Liturgy after all. The Divine Liturgy incorporates the litanies and scriptures of the Church and has been discharged by the priests of Orthodoxy for two thousand years. Within the space of two hours, those who attend the Divine Liturgy will hear the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. That doesn’t mean that every single verse is read, rather the scripture that is prayed covers the entire collections of books that make up holy scripture. From the moment the Liturgy begins the gospel is proclaimed, whether that be in the form of St. Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. The Psalms are sung, the Epistles of Paul, sometimes Peter or James or John are read. The very essence of the liturgy is the holy scriptures which have been handed down to us through Holy Tradition. We proclaim the faith, through the Nicene  Creed, also called the Symbol of Faith, given to us by the church fathers at the First Council of Constantinople sometimes called the Second Ecumenical Council. We pray the prayer our Lord gave to us, the Our Father. We partake in the divine body and blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself declared in John, that those who eat of his flesh and drink of his blood will have everlasting life and that he will dwell in them. For us as Orthodox Christians we see this, as did the church fathers, that it is literal. That the bread and wine that appear on the Holy Altar is indeed the same body and blood that was poured out for us on Great and Holy Friday. That is why it is the most important part of the Liturgy. It is the moment when Christ enters our bodies and resides in us. It is not merely symbolic or merely a metaphor, for Orthodox Christians, it is the epitome of faith. The Divine Liturgy encompasses all of this and so much more. In these few moments that we have in earthly time, we glimpse eternity and that is the most amazing thing one could ever witness. 

May God have mercy on us all. 

Amen.