Bishop Kallistos Ware on the Divine Liturgy (Part Two)

moaning second of my talks on the divide entity and it's in a meeting has title heaven unless known by damn tying common fears of the Divine Liturgy the easiest from history beauty tools of Germanos patriarch of Constantinople who died in 733 states in its opening chapter the church is an earthly heaven in which the heavenly God dwells and moves way Casilla is still a video surah Naas I know well Quran no spells any key hey everybody now Germanos was referring earth in the first instance to the church beauty but his words by equally to the primary action that takes place in that building and that is the divine initiative Reggie is in truth an earthly heaven heaven now in my first talk we looked at the liturgy in horizontal terms we spoke of the unity that prevails here on earth among the visible participants in the Eucharist let's now extend of visionary way and consider the liturgy in vertical terms as an action taking place simultaneously here on earth and in heaven now this notion of the liturgy together with the church bility in which it's celebrated as constituting heaven on earth is frequently found in Greek and Russian sources let's remind ourselves of a few typical example first of all here is the description by procopius of the newly restored Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople he's writing in the 5:30 the visitors mind he says is lifted up to God and soars along thinking that he cannot be far away but must especially love to dwell in this place that he himself has chosen there are certain you have the idea of God the immediately in the Chosin on earth and the same idea we can find in a sermon by patriarch photius of constantinople delivered around the year 86 for he offers a fine description of the program of church decorations in the period immediately following icon of us he begins by speaking of the delight and wonder felt by the worshiper on entering the forecourt voucher the onlooker stands as if rooted to the ground facade of the church as focus is a new miracle and a joy to see but when the difficulty continues to focus what has torn oneself away from there and looked into the church itself with what joy and trepidation and astonishment what is still it is as if one had entered heaven itself but there you have a classic description yes of the church as heaven it is as if one had entered heaven itself and I'm sure when that we shall feel as we go can t do miracles of joy now this theme comes out very notably in the welded story of prince while still a pagan was visited in here by representatives of the different faiths first of all the bull God whose lives came within him and explained their beliefs and but when of lagina that the Muslims didn't allow you to drink strong liquor the German Catholics came and the Greek scholar having listened to them all Saint redeemeth sent out emissaries to visit the different countries of the world to see at firsthand what their faith was night and the emissaries were not satisfied until they went to Constantinople and they are the Greeks took them to the divine liturgy in the Church of Nea Oh Sonia and this is what they reported when they came home to their master an idea we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere upon earth we cannot describe it to only this we know that God dwells there among men and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places or we cannot forget that beauty this beauty and a thousand years of their history now clearly in promoting this idea of the church building and the liturgy is heaven on earth the vital role is played by the holy icons we're trying to think of it I'd like to recall a phrase from the life of son Steven began ago who was a larger than the cause of the icons in the eighth century and he says the icon is a door Fira negative B equal a door and we make a door into wall in fact we could say the icon is a door makes possible a two-way pass the icon initiates us into heaven and it brings heaven up the essence of the icon is not just a visual reminder it's not just a representation but much more profoundly the icon signifies participation through the icon Christ the mother of God the angels of saints come to us through the icon we pass into the communion of saints participate the icon fulfills the sacramental mediatorial vote you can call the icon with symbol using the word symbol in its true and strong sense silver valine in Greek means to cost of throw together so Nikon a symbol symbol means is that which draws together two levels of reality and so exactly the icon rolls together the visible and the invisible it rolls together through the presence of we able to enter Heaven now let's apply this concept of heaven on earth more particularly to the divine literature so Theodore of Bach's Wester says that the earthly service that we celebrate isn't even a code of the liturgy in him and when we are worshipping at the divine liturgy we shouldn't mention we are in heaven and this notion of decisions being heaven is also a master team in the preaching of some john chrysostom church he says is the place of the angels of the Archangels the kingdom of God's heaven it's and he says in another place when the priest invokes the Holy Spirit the Angels attended and the home sanctuary is strong with heavenly power when the curtain is thrown aside after the air PPC's says some john chrysostom so they did use a curtain in his time and the curtain would have been drawn during the actual and a forever drawn back again when the card is gone aside he says this symbolizes the opening up of heaven itself and the approach of the heavenly host sees a choir of angels coming to meet a sense when you see the Lord sacrificed applying the for you since Chrysostom and the priest standing over the sacrifice of the rain and all who partake stained and still standing are you know at once transported into ever do you not gain ground upon heavenly so there are we see during the Divine Liturgy the earth day of the heavenly realms are joined in unity whether few or many the members of the earthly congregation invariably form part of a larger all-embracing drama they are taken up into an action or greater of themselves the Divine Liturgy is the undivided offering of the total charge made conservable himself with the angels and the safe now let's turn to the actual serviceability and see how this notion of heaven on earth is worked out its present from the very outset before beginning the liturgy the celebrant raises his hands to heaven and says thoughts and its history styles kvg Savini and anthropocentric here glory be to God on high and on earth peace goodwill among men then at the very outset you'll see indicated the two levels on which the liturgy is being celebrate that is high and deep below there's a clear indication of these two now let's compare these two levels the earthly liturgy takes place as an event in a particular spot the heavenly liturgy takes place everywhere because heaven is not a geographical point in space heaven is a level of reality the earthly digiti takes place as an event in the other hand the earth syzygy takes place learn through words and kiss heavenly liturgy takes place on to logic Christ does not say the heavenly liturgy he does not reciting Christ is the Liturgy is virgin the people full of red wine but in the heavenly liturgy it is Christ who offers himself now what happens during the Eucharistic celebration is precisely and consecrate and the epiphysis of the Holy Spirit these two levels earthly and heavenly are unite our offering is taken up into Christ's self offering and identified with thread using metaphorical language we can say either up or down but the meaning is the same we the celebrants of the earthly liturgy go up to heaven but same truth is expressed a up or down the realms of earth and heaven are no longer separated they are unite each realm embraces the other so that's something of what we could read into those opening words of the liturgy glory be to God on high and the earth peace goodwill among man when I am celebrating at home I always wait for them to finish singing the great doxology and then I say those words aloud in the hearing of the people very important for understanding now this unity of Earth and heaven is reaffirmed in what follows immediately after the words doc said it sees himself glory be to God on high the Deacons turns to the celebrant unfortunately deacons have become very rare today because this is not complete without beneath course the spiritual reality of the liturgy is not impaired when there is no decent but output expense is suddenly giving the Deacons Road is something essential I was very disturbed when editions of the liturgy are published which simply omit any reference to detail as if he didn't exist and such translations are incomplete you don't have become speak these would be reminded that there should be a decent f1 of questions that needs to be discussed at our Orthodox Church today is to reply the diamonds but that's not my team today so the dicen then turns tools the priests this is before the initial blessing and he says to the priest Karos to PE say okey real now sometimes that is translated as it is time for us to begin the service to the law that's the translation that you will find in the OCA version of the Divine Liturgy but that I think is not the best rendering of the Greek word I think it should be translated it is time for the Lord to act in other words the phrase does not mean it's time for us to start doing something but it's kinda low in fact heads the phones nation from psalm 118 1926 and if you look it up him almost all the modern versions of the Bible's based on the Hebrew they all say it is time for the Lord to act this is a very important phrases for religion and it's pity that because there is a new tree a deacon those words are not usually set because this phrase reminds us first so the liturgy is not just words but an action and secondly it is not merely our actions but the action of the Lord the liturgy is something at which price the invisible high priests is the seller and we Virgie and people together are the early conservatives with Christ the visit of the earth in Delta G is one with the heavenly liturgy because there is only a single summer on both levels and that celebrant is Christ itself so we as priests whenever we are about to begin the Divine Liturgy should always remind ourselves as we stand before the holy table Christ is standing before was Christ who is offering the divine little I am merely going with Christ without having Jesus live before us in the eyes of our heart he neither pressman price the one true God per system says but it is Christ who performs everything the priest merely provides his hand and lends his voice that reminds him an occasion when once I had to go Savior to live anew at the city subway from Oxford and I was somewhat upset because I had pulled and done and broken my hand and it's very difficult to celebrate the liturgy and to give communion with early one man so I hope to get a another priest to come and help me at the service and he arrived but he was very upset because he had completely lost the use of his voice so then of the Deacons phrase it is time to the Lord price is the one true celebrant at the divided and there is the same celebrant in heaven and on earth the role of Christ as the true priest of the service is underlined in the well-known words of the prayer during the children will be killed see daddy or Prospero's cross at all menos you he is both priest and pick the person surprised is again on the lines in the exchange of the kiss of peace at the recitation of the Creed two occasions in particular when the unity of heaven is expressed with particular clarity Oh the entrances first of all is the entrance with the book of the Gospels and the prayer that the priest says he speaks and in that prayer he says to God make with our entry and entry of your holy angels celebrating the liturgy with us so they're very clearly we have the idea that at the little entrance as the visible clergy go into the sanctuary at the same time invisibly because of angels making an entry into the center and this idea of the unity between us in heaven the participation of the heavenly powers of the liturgy is then emphasized in the chanting of the facade yah holy God holy strong holy immortal this is the him holy holy holy that is being sung in heaven and so we on earth and the ends of the sanctuary with the angels sing with them the price holy hill let's recycle so there you see at this moment when tonight night unfortunately the prayer of the entry is not heard by the people and I suspect celebrants often saved in a rather hurried away after bustling out with the gospel book but it is a very important prayer mate with our entry an entry of your holy angels of the Russian st. Seraphim of Sorrows it is recorded that one Holy Thursday when he was celebrating in the monastic church as a deacon he saw with his bodily eyes at the moment of the little entry or just afterwards just promised Messiah on he saw Christ coming into the church accompanied by great number of angels like a swarm of bees he said and then Christ moved up through the church and entered his icon in the iPhone screen and the angels all went into the center and for many hours since Serafina could not speak he was so overcome by that deep but what he saw happens every time we celebrate so we don't have the eyes of faith of sincerity to see then the second procession the great entrance friend of the unity of us in heaven even more explicit because the rubicon companies the processional entry with the holy gifts begins with the words eat our carob you missed oppose eco need song tears and that's usually translated we who mystically represent but what represent is in and represent is a dry and representative of the university represent is we also translate it we who mystically o in this history our icons of the chair now an icon as I just said involves participation it's not just a representation an icon but it unites you with that which it depends so if we say we are icons of the term that doesn't have mean we represent them in a kind of external it means that we are shouting and participating in the action we are doing what the cherubim are doing in heaven we sat in that action on earth and in heaven there is oniy a single action that's the real reason of incontinence or tears we were I come of the challenges acting with night and the same point is made much more clearly at the great entrance in the Liturgy of some J when the infants him is little wattle fresh be silent which we do sing now there are we say in that him the King of Kings Christ our God comes forth to be sacrifice and give it a spool to the face before he'd go the choirs of angels every principality and power the cherubim with many eyes and the sincerity so that him Seiji Sato are so sad for here and all mortal men to keep silence is a very clear proclamation of the unit and the same point was very clear at the great today in the celebration of the presanctified gifts when we sang now the powers of heaven worship with us invisible I always look forward to live not because we could be eating I compared that to now the powers of heaven worship this idea of the single action is underlined in the frescoes that you will sometimes see in Byzantine churches most commonly in the drum of the dome there you see representation of the great entrance you will see one several fingers candles and Olivia you'll see a figure with the incense to see the figure dressed in deacons vestments carrying the holy gifts of bread and behind you see a figure in priestly vestments carrying the chalice and you see another figure in the history lessons waiting for the procession at the entrance of the century but in this fresco the figures who are dressed in the basements of subdeacon Deacon and priests they will have wings they are all angels and the figure who is waiting at the end so the sanctuary to receive the gifts is Christ himself so in that representation of the Angels performing the great entrance you have a visual illustration of the fee might been seeking to develop the unity of earth as in John Chrysostom affirm those in heaven and those on earth for the single pestle ascent there is shadow Thanksgiving one single fly now the clearest affirmation of the unity of Earth in heaven in the liturgy comes a little data own in the Napa becomes when the celebrant says we thank you also for this liturgy which would be pleased took set from our hands though there stand around you thousands of Archangels of tens of thousands of angels the chair of him on the Sabbath his six wings and many eye soaring aloft upon their wings singing crying shouting the triumphal him saying oh they're exactly very expensive the side we find affirmation the unity of the efforts of the participation of the angels on earth angels in the same act to praise that we are performing on complete there's a story that I remember when my duties as an Anglican once upon a time there was a priest country priest and he was always having the long-standing quarrel with the local farmer who had his lands just next to the church and the priest watched one week day the the farmer watched one weekday leaning over the wall at the priest went into the service and nobody else so you didn't have very many people this morning the priests how many said the phone oh good many thousands said the priests nor Elias at the father I'd be watching all this time nobody went into the church yourself you and that's of course true when we celebrate we learn we are always taken up into an action and let me illustrate that by two experiences of my own they neither of them relate directly to the divine liturgy but they do concern other liturgical actions and the principle of heaven on earth applies not just to the liturgy about to enter the act of worship the first experience concerns my initial acquaintance with orthodoxy when I was 17 years old I was wandering through a part of London that I didn't know and I saw a church with which I was unfamiliar and so out of curiosity or perhaps by divine providence I decided to go inside it was a hot sunny Saturday afternoon and the church which I went into was in fact the Russian Church in London when I entered the church at first it was dark I could see nothing then I became conscious of a large expanse of polished floor because there were no pews in the church and my initial sense was this church is complete then they realize that my eyes became accustomed to the job that it wasn't entirely him I saw all of our icons around the walls with lighted lamps in front of them I saw that there was an icon screen but maybe lighted candles in front of it at the East End I saw that there were a few people very many elderly people standing behind the screen and I realized somewhere out of sight there was a pie I've seen at this point my initial impression that the church was empty was completely reversed and I felt this church is not empty it is full it is full of invisible presences it is full of invisible worshipers I cannot see the world they are present immediately and I have exactly this meeting they're more visible Congregation for being taken up into a reality greater than ourselves I had exactly the sense that the Russian emissaries had but at that point I'd never read about same material that this was heaven on earth I felt that we miss a lovely congregation were being taken up into the worship of heaven that I felt that the Saints and the angels are here the mother of God is here advice himself is efficient and it was that was the experience but let me mention another experience which I had in church in Oxford I was performing one Sunday evening and have Kirlia service of anointing for an elderly lady in our congregation she was well enough to come to the church much much longer to live and so the anointing service in the church itself and the were just three of us there the old lady a friend who come with her and who read the responses and I the officiating priest and we were in camp and as we celebrated the service it gradually moved on after the service was over I saw some people waiting two or three at the entrance of the church so I went to talk with them and they were Greeks who happened to be passing through Oxford who decided just to look into the church and they said to me well do you meet all the others horror at the service they said no I said to them they said we came earlier and through the windows of the church we could see hundreds of people standing with lighted candles and we could hear to come in we are into the

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Keywords: kalistos, ware, Kallistos Ware (Author), Liturgy, divine, Orthodox Christianity (Religion), Christianity (Religion), Bishop, Divine Liturgy, Gospel, education, Eastern Orthodox Church (Religion), trisagion, films, Church, Priest (Profession), Bishop (Religious Leadership Title), religious, religion, christians, byzantine

Id: g-f47DL5fWg

Length: 51min 5sec (3065 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 10 2012