An Overview of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy

when you come to an orthodox church for the Divine Liturgy on a Sunday morning when you arrive if you arrive at the stated time The Divine Liturgy is supposed to start you'll probably walk in and find that worship is already going on in some Churches there's a preliminary service that's just 15 or 20 minutes called hours other churches do a longer service that might stretch to an hour or more service called matins or arthros don't feel bad about it come on in and you might notice that the room is not full yet and as the first prayers and hymns of the Divine Liturgy continue and progress more and more worshipers will come in Orthodox are not often very punctual about when they get to to worship something that annoys the pastors and they remind them of it but they still tend to trickle in all through the first opening minutes of the service you'll notice that early in the service we sing a couple of antiphons these were these were hymns that were sung in ancient times while people were still making their way to church there will be a little ceremony called the little entrance where the priest and the other altar servers leave the altar go out in front of the iconostasis and then come back in again through the central doors the Royal doors it's called the little entrance and that used to be at the point at which Sunday Worship in church would begin so now it happens maybe 15 minutes into the surface not too long after that we will sing hymns about the we'll sing the hymn that's the appointed him for the patron of that church if it's Saint Paul it'll be the hymn that's dedicated to Saint Paul if the church as mine is is named Holy Cross we'll sing A Hymn about the Holy Cross after that a couple of hymns about the events or the Saints of the day him to the Virgin Mary that they had took us pretty soon into a hymn called the tresagian trisagian means Thrice holy so it's the hymn that that the seraphim sang to each other in Isaiah's Vision holy holy holy we have a slightly expanded version We Sing holy God holy Mighty holy Immortal have mercy on us and as we sing it you'll notice worshipers make the sign of the cross with each repetition holy God holy Mighty holy Immortal have mercy on us and when they finish making that cross many of them not everybody necessarily will bow reach down to touch the ground or if you're old like me to gesture toward the ground even if you can't quite touch it that's called making a matanya and matania is the sign of the cross followed by reaching down to the ground some Orthodox Traditions you reach down first and then make the cross as if you were picking up your cross as if you're accepting the cross that the Lord has given you immediately after the trasagian hymn will have the first scripture reading this is always a reading from the epistle from one of the letters of Saint Paul from Saint James Saint John or any of the other Epistles this reading is quite often are usually done by a parishioner a member of the church who just walks up to the front of the church stands on that little riser in front of the iconastasis little Riser is called the soleia stands there and then reads the epistle we'll read the epistle not from an ordinary Bible but from a large book sometimes with an ornate binding that book is called the epistle it contains all the Epistles and that's all it contains it lists them in order as we read through them during the course of the church year so they'll read from the apostolos to use the Greek word or the epistle book and when that's finished we hear the gospel in this case we have something of A procession The Altar Boys come out they're bearing candles and now it will be either the Deacon or the priest reads the Gospel reading everyone stands up for the Gospel reading and after the Gospel reading the priest may do his homily his sermon right then in some Orthodox Churches they prefer to just continue with worship and save the homily or the sermon for the very end at the end of The Gospel or the end of the sermon if he does the sermon immediately there will be the prayer over the catechumens now the catechumens are people who are planning to join the Orthodox Church they're still in a process of education and learning and at this point in The Divine Liturgy they come forward and they stand in front of the icon of Christ while the Deacon or the priest says a prayer over them the next notable part of the service is the cherubic hymn it's called that because as we sing it we are representing the cherubim and the seraphim who cried holy holy holy is the Lord God of hosts after this hymn his son there is the great entrance we had that little entrance earlier on when the the priest and the altar party just made a little detour outside of the iconastasis back in again in the great entrance the priest and all the altar servers with candles with the processional cross with all kinds of things with the incense makes a large progression all the way out from the north door of the iconastasis to the back wall of the church and up the center aisle again coming through the midst of the people and as they pass by worshipers will sometimes Reach Out And Touch the Hem of the priest's garment as he passes this reminds us of course of the the woman who was ill and was was afraid to ask Jesus for healing but touched just the Hem of His Garment and she was healed as the priest goes by he reads the prayers that were requested for loved ones members of the family of the person who baked the communion bread that day but also everyone else that's on the parish prayer list or anything going on in the news perhaps or some significant occurrence that that needs prayer as he passes by if you're thinking about someone you're Praying for You Reach Out And Touch the Hem of His Garment just symbolically attaching your prayers to those intercessory prayers an element of worship from the earliest centuries is called the kiss of Peace this is when worshipers turn to each other and in the Orthodox service we say Christ is in our midst and respond he is and ever shall be and at that point we exchange a kiss some Orthodox Churches cultures do it just two cheeks some do one two three in some Churches they prefer just to touch fingertips or touch fingertips to the lips and then to the fingertips of the other person usually not a big hearty hug usually not a handshake in Orthodox churches where this custom has been re-adopted in some Western liturgical churches a hug or handshake might be difficult often in Saint Paul's letters he talks about greeting the Brethren with the Holy kiss so this this kiss was part of our worship from very early on the unity of the congregation the unity of the faithful holding the same faith is what enables us to love each other and what enables us to keep the faith itself and that's why immediately after the kiss of Peace we go into the Nicene Creed we recite this Creed that was written in the 4th century to say what we know what we believe about God the Father God the son and God the Holy Spirit the Nicene Creed was written in the 4th Century at two large ecumenical councils bringing together all the leading clergy of the time to settle some some heretical ideas and some theological questions that were going around at that time and they were able to settle it in a statement that they all agreed on very soon after that we go into the communion prayers and from there we go into some very ancient prayers going back to the very earliest centuries of Christian faith in which the priest recounts all that God has done for us and he talks about him sending his sin to save us and he talks about how our lord said this is my body this is my blood after that the priest asks for the Holy Spirit to come and to bless the bread and the wine that they will become the body and blood of Christ when the communion prayers are done where the bread and wine has been consecrated first the priests the deacons those at the altar receive communion and then after that the priest will come out with a chalice ready to give communion to the people people will line up and what was quite surprising to me is that the Chalice of course has wine in it but there is no bread that's given to you in your hand instead the bread has been placed into the wine and with a spoon the priest lifts out a little morsel of bread and some wine and delivers it to each person the person receiving communion comes and stands directly in front of the priest opens their mouth wide and usually alter Boys on either side are holding a red cloth beneath your chin in case anything is dropped and you receive communion and then go back to your place in the congregation as you return there will be a basket of bread that's been cut up into chunks now our communion bread is bread in loaf form bread that is risen usually round loaves and what is consecrated made the the body of Christ is a cube from the very center of the loaf that the priest has taken out prayed over blessed and placed in the Chalice the rest of the loaf though is cut up into chunks and it's blessed bread but it's not communion bread anyone can partake of this blessed bread which is called antidorm that is in place of the gifts so someone who is receiving communion May pick up a couple of pieces of antideron bring it back to where they were standing in the congregation and give it to people around them who were not going up for communion that day after everyone has received communion we go back to our places and there are a few closing prayers and then either listen to the priest's sermon here's some announcements then we're ready to go downstairs and get something to eat Lord is through

Channel: Theoria

Views: 178,669

Keywords: Orthodox, Church, Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Church, Divine Liturgy, Overview, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Welcome To the Orthodox Church, Book, Series, Video, Worship

Id: XDUMf7oFt2s

Length: 11min 16sec (676 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 28 2016