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Continuing our
series of talks on the various interpretations of the Divine Liturgy, last
week we finished with the Little Entrance and the singing of the hymns
dedicated to the feast or saint of the day. On the Great feasts we sing
just two hymns, but on other days they can be many. During our English
Liturgies we normally sing five. The hymn of the saint whose feastday it
is, the hymn to St. Barnabas the Patron saint of Cyprus, the hymn to St.
Andrew, the hymn to St. John the Baptist and finish with a hymn to the
Mother of God. The hymns are called Apolytikia except for the last one
which is called a Kontakion. So where did the names of these hymns derive
from? The Apolitikion literally means the Dismissal hymn from the Greek
word Apolysis meaning dismissal. The name derives from the fact that it is
chanted for the first time before the dismissal of Vespers which in the
Orthodox Church is the first service of the day.
The Kontakion
has a more complex history. Today we only sing one kontakion but
originally, the kontakion was an extended homily in verse consisting of
many short hymns. The kontakia were so long that the text was rolled up to
form a scroll on a pole for use in the services. The word derives from the
Greek word for pole which is kontari. The Greek for polevault is Άλμα επί
κοντώ and I used to get really confused when I heard Greek sports
commentators mention it because konto also means short so I literally
translated it as “short jump” It only made sense when I realized that
κοντώ means a pole.
Now while the
choir sing the hymns, the Priest says the Prayer of the Thriceholy hymn in
a low voice:
“O Holy God, who restest in the holies; unto whom
the seraphim sing the thriceholy song; whom the cherubim glorify, and all
the heavenly hosts adore; who didst bring into being all that exists; who
didst create man in Thine image and likeness, and didst adorn him with
Thine every gift; who givest wisdom and understanding to him that asketh,
and art not wroth with the sinner, but dost grant repentance to salvation;
who hast deemed us, Thine humble and unmeritable servants, worthy at this
hour to stand before the glory of Thy Holy Altar, to bring unto Thee
rightful worship and praise: accept, O Master, from the mouths of us
sinners the thriceholy hymn, and visit us with Thy goodness. Pardon our
offences, voluntary and involuntary. Sanctify our souls and bodies, and
grant us to serve Thee in holiness, all the days of our life. By the
prayers of the Mother of God, and of all the saints which have been well
pleasing unto Thee since the world began.”
The choir is due to sing the Thriceholy Hymn or we can call it the angelic
hymn, thus the Priest prays that grace be sent upon those who are to sing
this hymn. He asks that their bodies and souls may be cleansed, that their
sins be forgiven, and that they may worship him in holiness all the days
of their life. When the choir has finished singing the hymns to the
saints, the Priest will then say aloud the doxology to the prayer:
“For Thou our God art holy, and to Thee we
ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now
and for ever: world without end.” The choir will now sing the
Thriceholy Hymn: “O Holy God, Holy and Strong,
Holy and Immortal, have mercy upon us.”
The hymn was composed
from two sources: firstly from the angelic hymn mentioned in the book of
Isaiah where in describing the throne of God he says: “Above it stood the
seraphims: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with
two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one cried unto
another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth
is full of his glory. The words Strong and Immortal belong to King David
who in Psalm 42 says: “My soul thirsts for the strong and living God.” The
Church joining these two sources and adding at the end: “Have mercy upon
us” wished to show the harmony of the Old and New Testaments and also that
angels and men form one Church, a single choir, because of the coming of
Christ who was of both heaven and earth. It is said three times, because
the three Holies are proper and fitting for each person of the Holy
Trinity. Each Person is Holy, Strong and Immortal. During the singing of
the Thriceholy Hymn, the Priest imitates the movements of the seraphim who
flying around the throne of God continually cry to one another, with
incessant voices, hymns of glory. He goes to the Prothesis glorifying the
Lord who has come into the world saying: “Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” He then goes to the
Throne on High which is invisibly present behind the holy Altar saying:
“Blessed art Thou on the glorious throne of Thy
kingdom, that sittest upon the cherubim, always, now and for ever: world
without end. Amen.”
With the Thriceholy
hymn finished, it is now time for the Apostle and Gospel readings. The
reader will first read the Prokhimenon for the reading. The word
prokhimenon literally means the pre-texts. These are usually verses from
the psalms and are used to introduce us to the mystery of the Word. They
are prophetic sayings which foretell the presence of Christ and prepare us
to hear the Word of God. After the reader says the first verse, the Priest
will say aloud: “Let us give heed” in
other words Let us pay attention, let us cast away all negligence and
inattention and listen carefully to what is being said. After the second
verse he says: “Wisdom”. Now he is
reminding the faithful that they should call to mind the wisdom with which
they should enter into the holy mysteries and attend to them. What is this
wisdom? It is the sum of those thoughts which are in accord with the
ceremony, which should occupy those full of faith when they behold and
listen to the ceremonies and prayers, so that they are concerned with no
purely human sentiment. Such is the wisdom of Christians, that is the
meaning of the cry “Wisdom” which the priest says many times to the
faithful during the Liturgy. It is a reminder to collect our thoughts
which are forever wandering on vain imaginings. It is a reminder to set
aside all earthly cares and listen carefully so that our attendance is not
in vain, so that we may benefit from what we are about to hear.
The reader then
announces the reading and again the Priest tells us to pay attention. Then
follows the actual reading from the Apostle. But why do we read first from
the Apostle and then the Gospel whereas historically the Gospels came
first and then the Epistles of the Apostles? Because the Liturgy is a
continual manifestation of the Lord. We saw with the Little Entrance His
first appearance to the multitude, now with the readings we are about to
receive a more perfect manifestation. The readings represent the time when
Christ mingled with the crowd and made himself known not only by his own
words, but also by that which he taught the Apostles in sending them to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. With the order of the readings, we
wish to show the gradualness of his appearance: the Gospels are Christ’s
own words and thus reveal his supreme manifestation and so are kept to the
end. After the Apostle reading, the Choir sing the Alleluia which means
“Praise the Lord”. Many Churches just sing a quick 3 Alleluias, but in
times of old the Alleluia were complete Psalms with the Alleluia at the
end of each verse sung by all the people.
But why do we
sing the Alleluia at this moment. What follows immediately after the
Alleluia is the Gospel reading and as we have mentioned before, the Gospel
always represents the appearance of Christ in person. Christ with his
presence brought joy into the world thus we sing Alleluia which is a
joyous greeting to the Lord. The singing of the complete psalm was
abolished long ago and was reduced to singing the Alleluia with 2 verses
from the psalms. This is also an old observance which many Churches are
tying to reintroduce back to the service. At our parish here, we have been
following this rule for many years, not only because it is more correct,
but also because before the Gospel reading the Priest should offer incense
and singing the Alleluia with the verses gives him the time to do it. In
Churches where they don’t sing the verses, the Priest either doesn’t
bother to offer incense or he censes silently during the reading of the
Apostle, which no matter how silently he censes, always disrupts the
people’s attention from the reading.
Is it important to
cense before the Gospel? Yes! Before the start of the Liturgy the Priest
offered incense which was to welcome the faithful into the house of the
Lord. Now he offers incense so that we may receive in return spiritual
enlightenment to understand the deeper meanings of the Gospel reading.
Remember the Prayer at the blessing of the incense:
“We offer incense unto thee, O Christ our God, for a
sweetsmelling savour of spiritual fragrance, which do thou accept upon Thy
most heavenly altar; and send down upon us the grace of Thy most Holy
Spirit.” We need spiritual grace to understand the Gospels
because we do not interpret the Gospels just literally with the face value
of the words, hidden within the words are many meanings which only God
reveals to spiritual people. We can read a passage from the Gospels
hundreds of times and not see anything new in it, then suddenly God opens
our eyes and we see the same passage as though for the first time and with
a different meaning and we are puzzled why we didn’t see it before. This
is verified by the prayer before the Gospel which is said silently by the
Priest: “O Lord and lover of mankind, make the
imperishable light of Thy divine knowledge to shine in our hearts; and
open the eyes of our understanding that we may apprehend the preaching of
Thy Gospel.”
It is
dangerous to interpret the Gospels without spiritual understanding,
without God first opening our eyes and our heart to apprehend the fuller
meanings of his words. That is why today there are so many hundreds of
Christian denominations because each founder of these so called Christian
churches interpreted the Gospels as he wanted to interpret them without
his spiritual eyes being opened. As a safeguard we always interpret
Scripture within the Church studying carefully what the enlightened
fathers have to say for each word.
The Priest,
now ready to read the Gospel will say: “Wisdom. Stand steadfast. Let us
hear the Holy Gospel. Peace unto all.” With the cry of Wisdom Stand
steadfast, the priest is telling us to be upright and alert, to raise our
minds above what is earthly and concentrate all our attention on the
Gospel which is full of Divine Wisdom. The Priest blesses the people
saying Peace unto all. We mentioned before that without peace in our souls
we cannot pray, without calmness of the thoughts we cannot concentrate on
the task we have before us. Only inner peace can help us keep our mind and
soul on prayer and only Christ can give us this inner peace which will
prepare us to receive and understand the spiritual wisdom of the
scriptures. During the Little Entrance, the Priest covered his face with
the Gospel Book to reveal to the people the face of Christ. Now with the
reading of the Gospel, the Priest lends his mouth to Christ the Word so
that the faithful can hear his voice.
St. German (Herman)
of Constantinople writes: The Gospel is the presence of the Son of God
which has appeared to us. Through the Gospel we see Christ in our midst.
We hear him calling us to his kingdom. And because we see him and hear him
with the senses of faith, for this very reason we see him clearer than
those who saw him in the flesh but without faith. St John Chrysostom
speaking on Christ’s saying: “Blessed are your eyes,
for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you,
That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things
which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye
hear, and have not heard them” (St Matthew 13:16-18”) says that
Christ is not speaking of the external senses but of the inner senses: the
spiritual eyes and ears of the soul. The Jews saw a blind man made whole
and said: It is him, it is not him, it is someone like him, let us call
his parents to see if it is him. They doubted what they saw. But we, who
were not present, do not say it is him, it is not him, but that it is him.
Do you understand that absence does no harm when there are eyes of faith
and that there is no benefit being present when there are no eyes of
faith. The Jews saw and heard Christ but what did they benefit by seeing
and hearing with their external senses? Absolutely nothing. We who did not
see him in the flesh actually see clearer than them. The faithful
especially during the Divine Liturgy, hear Christ and follow him for as
Christ said concerning the Shepherd and his flock: “the sheep follow him:
for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will
flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. St John 10:4-5
After the
reading of the Gospel the Priest says the Great litany prayers which are
also called the Common prayers. They are called Common because they are
the last prayers said for both the faithful and the catechumen and at the
end of these the catechumen are asked to depart from the Church. The
prayers begin with:
“Let us all say with our whole soul, and with our
whole mind, let us say.
O Almighty Lord, God of our fathers, we pray Thee, hear us and have mercy.
Have mercy upon us, O God, after Thy great goodness. We pray Thee, hear us
and have mercy.”
The prayers continue mentioning the Archbishop and all the
priesthood, for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, visitation,
forgiveness and remission of the sins of the servants of God, and here we
mention the names of those who have asked to be commemorated for the
feast-day and all Orthodox Christians, the parishioners, the Church
committee, those who give help and those who have dedicated gifts to the
temple. We pray for the blessed and ever-memorable founders of the Church
and for all our departed fathers, brethren, and Orthodox Christians
everywhere who have fallen asleep. We pray for them that help and work in
the church, for them that serve, and them that sing; and for all the
people.
Immediately
after the Common prayers we have the special prayers for the Catechumen.
The Priest will say:
“Catechumens, pray ye unto the Lord.
Let us, the faithful, pray for the catechumens.
That the Lord may have mercy upon them.
That He may instruct them in the word of truth.
That He may reveal unto them the gospel of righteousness.
That He may unite them to His Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Save, have mercy, help and preserve them, O God, by Thy grace.
Catechumens, bow your heads unto the Lord.”
And then this prayer:
“O Lord our God who dwellest on high, and dost
look upon the lowly; who for the salvation of mankind didst send forth
Thine Only-begotten Son and God, our Lord Jesus Christ: look upon Thy
servants, the catechumens, who bow down their necks before Thee; and deem
them worthy, at the appropriate time, of the washing of regeneration, of
the remission of sins, of the garment of incorruption. Unite them to Thy
Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; and number them among Thy chosen
flock.”
In our times,
because we don’t have Catechumen like they did in times of old, and to
save time, we rarely say these prayers. We only say them during Great Lent
in the service of the Presanctified Liturgy and I sometimes add them to
the Liturgy when I have adults preparing for Baptism, but maybe we should
reinsert them back into every Liturgy. Just because the order of
catechumen has become obsolete we should not be ready to discard these
prayers from the Church as being irrelevant. There are those who say that
we should look at these prayers as a renewal of our own experience in the
Lord, but this would not make sense because the prayer is specifically for
the unbaptized and that they may be deemed worthy of baptism which will
unite them and make them members of the Church. There is though a far more
essential reason why the prayers should be reintroduced to our
contemporary Liturgy. They express the fundamental calling of the Church.
Her mission in the world is to “Go into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every person.” (Mk. 16:15)
Historically the
prayers for the catechumen were introduced not only when the church had
catechumen, but also at a time when the church considered the world as an
object of her mission and as the known world at that time was the Roman
Empire it even seemed that she succeeded in her mission because the whole
of the Roman Empire had become Christian. Today we live in a world that
has turned away from Christianity or has never heard of the gospel truth
as preached by the Orthodox Church. The consciousness of the Church should
once again be centred on this mission to preach to the world and unite
them to the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Thus the prayers of
the catechumen can be directed and applied to the world at large who are
potentially catechumen. What we could leave out is the dismissal of the
catechumen which would not apply to the world because we would be praying
for the people of the world as catechumen without them actually being
present and even if some non Orthodox were present at the Liturgy today we
allow them to remain until the end. Thus the dismissal “As many as are
catechumens depart. Catechumens depart. As many as are catechumens depart.
Let not any of the catechumens remain” would be pointless unless the
Church was once again full of catechumen.
At this point
the Liturgy of the Catechumen comes to an end and the third part of the
Liturgy begins called the Liturgy of the faithful. The Priest unfolds the
antiminsion. The antiminsion is a piece of cloth which has imprinted on it
the Icon of Christ lying dead in the tomb similar to the epitaphios. It is
consecrated and signed by the Bishop during the Consecration service of
the Church and is in a way a portable Holy Table and with this we can
serve the Liturgy in other places other than the permanent Holy Altar. It
is kept folded on the Holy Altar under the Gospel Book and is unfolded as
this time of the Liturgy. The Divine Eucharist is always served on this
cloth even if the Holy Altar is consecrated. A practical reason for this
is because it safeguards any particles of the holy body should they fall
from the paten. The particles fall directly onto the antiminsion and are
easily retrieved by the Priest. But this is not the main reason for its
use. In the early Church the bishop was the normal celebrant of the
Eucharist and even today the Priest serves the Liturgy on the bishop’s
behalf and as his representative. The bishop’s signature on the
antiminsion signifies the bishop’s permission to the priest to serve the
Liturgy on his behalf.
With the
Antiminsion unfolded the Priest calls the faithful to pray:
“As many as are faithful,
Again and again in peace, let us pray unto the Lord.
Succour, save, have mercy and preserve us, O God, by Thy grace.
Wisdom.”
And the Priest will read the first of two prayers for the faithful
“We give thanks unto Thee, O Lord God of hosts,
who hast accounted us worthy also now to stand before Thy Holy Altar and
to bow down and beseech Thy compassions for our sins and the errors of the
people. Accept, O God, our prayer; make us to become worthy to offer unto
Thee prayers and supplications, and the bloodless sacrifice for all Thy
people: and enable us, whom Thou hast appointed to this Thy ministry, by
the power of Thy Holy Spirit, to call upon Thee, at all times and in every
place, without impediment and without condemnation, with a clear testimony
of our conscience, so that hearing us Thou mayest be gracious unto us in
the multitude of Thy goodness.”
The Priest thanks the Lord for accounting him worthy to stand before him
and pray for his sins and for sins of the people and then prays that the
Lord make him worthy to offer the Bloodless Sacrifice. This first prayer
of the faithful is in fact more for the Priest than for the faithful. It
is to prepare him for the awesome mystery of the Divine Eucharist that is
to follow, but the faithful are called to share in this preparation and
pray with the Priest that God may account him worthy for his sacred
ministry.
The Priest
will again say:
“Again and again in peace, let us pray unto the
Lord.
Succour, save, have mercy and preserve us, O God, by Thy grace. Wisdom.”
And then recites the Second Prayer of the Faithful:
“Again and many times, we bow down before Thee
and pray to Thee, who art good and lovest mankind, that Thou wouldst look
upon our prayer and cleanse our souls and bodies from all filthiness of
the flesh and spirit; and grant us to stand guiltless and without
condemnation before Thy Holy Altar. Grant also, O God, to them that pray
with us, an increase of life, and of faith, and of spiritual
understanding. Grant unto them that for evermore worshipping Thee in fear
and love, to partake, without guilt and without condemnation, of Thy Holy
Mysteries, and to be accounted worthy of Thy heavenly kingdom.”
As we approach closer to the time of the consecration and Holy Communion,
we feel that we must be spotless so that we can receive Christ. Humbly we
acknowledge that we cannot by our own efforts cleanse ourselves, thus we
beseech God to cleanse our souls and bodies from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, but this is not enough to approach the Holy Mysteries
without condemnation, we must approach worshipping God with faith, fear
and love for when we have these things we approach in an orderly fashion
showing that we are conscious of the great gift of life we are about to
freely receive.
The prayer ends with the doxology:
“That being ever guarded by Thy might we may give
glory to Thee, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now
and for ever: world without end.”
The Choir now
begin singing the Cherubic Hymn while the Priest prepares for the Great
Entrance. The Cherubic Hymn is sung slowly and solemnly:
“Let us who mystically represent the cherubim and
chant the Thriceholy hymn to the life-giving Trinity, now lay aside all
earthly care. That we may receive the King of all, invisibly attended by
the angelic hosts. Alleluia.”
From this moment onwards we can see clearly two interpretations to the
hymn and the Great Entrance. We have the Alexandrian influence which gives
everything an eschatological interpretation and at the same time the
Antiochian influence which centres on the historical actions of Christ’s
Passion and sacrifice. From the eschatological point of view the whole
Liturgy is our ascent to the kingdom of heaven and the hymn refers to
Christ the King who will now manifest himself with the glory and power of
the Kingdom. He will appear with the angelic powers at the end of time and
all the faithful will enter with him into his kingdom. The second
interpretation, the historical aspect has us preparing to receive the King
of glory who is now to enter the holy City of the earthly Jerusalem. We
are asked to prepare to walk with him the road to Golgotha and stand near
him by his Cross together with the Mother of God and the Disciple whom he
loved. We are told to prepare ourselves by laying aside all earthly care
and to mystically identify ourselves with the angels in heaven and with
them to chant the Thrice holy hymn to the Life-giving Trinity. But even
this interpretation calls us to leave behind everything that is earthly
and to lift our minds to heaven because only there can we be free of
worldly troubles without the running and rushing of our daily lives, and
only there can there be complete calmness and love, joy and peace,
meekness and many other good things which replace the earthly cares.
While the
choir sing the Cherubic hymn the Priest says silently the prayer of the
Cherubicon:
“None is worthy among them that are held fast in
fleshly desires and pleasures to approach, or to draw nigh, or to minister
unto Thee, O King of glory, for to minister unto Thee is a great and
fearful thing, even for the heavenly powers themselves. Notwithstanding,
through Thine ineffable and immeasurable love for mankind, Thou didst
become man suffering no change or altering, and art become our High Priest
and hast Thyself bestowed upon us the ministry of this divine office and
Bloodless sacrifice as Master of all. For Thou only, O Lord our God, hast
dominion over all things in heaven and on earth, who art borne upon a
throne of cherubim, who art Lord of the seraphim and king of Israel; who
alone art holy and dost rest in the holies. Therefore, I beseech Thee, who
alone art good and ready to hear, look down upon me Thy sinful and
unprofitable servant, and cleanse my soul and my heart from an evil
conscience. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, enable me, who am
invested with the grace of priesthood, to stand before this Thy Holy
Table, and to administer Thy most pure and sacred Body and Thy precious
Blood. For unto Thee I come, to Thee I bow my head, and I beseech Thee:
turn not Thy face from me, neither reject me from among Thy servants, but
account it meet that these gifts be offered unto Thee by me, Thy sinful
and unworthy servant. For Thou art He that offereth and He that is
offered, and He who dost receive and art given, O Christ our God, and to
Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thine eternal Father, and Thine
all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and for ever: world without
end. Amen.”
This prayer he says on behalf of himself, recognising and confessing his
unworthiness at the greatness of the mystery which he is called to serve.
But he proceeds, precisely because he doesn’t rely on his own worthiness
or strength, but on the divine mercy. He finds support in the unfathomable
depth of God’s compassion and love for mankind. For it was because of his
love for mankind that God became man and it was for this same love that he
gave us the Mystery of the Bloodless Sacrifice. And not only did Christ
come once and offered himself, but he comes continually to every Liturgy
and is at the same time He that offers and He that is offered, and He who
receives the offering and who is given to the faithful. Christ Himself
performs and completes the Mystery of our salvation. This fact is the
foundation on which the mystery of the Divine Liturgy is based. Christ is
the Priest who offers, He is the Lamb that is offered, He is God who
accepts the offering and the gift that is given. Christ is both the
nourisher and the nourishment, the feeder and the food.
After the
prayer the Priest says the Cherubic Hymn three times and then takes the
censer to cense the holy Altar, the Prothesis, the Iconostasis and all the
people. During the censing he will say silently the 50th Psalm (51 in King
James). The Psalm is called the penitential Psalm and was written by King
David after he committed Adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of his
commander Uriah and then committed murder by sending Uriah to the
frontline of battle so that he would be killed. The Psalm expresses the
very meaning and depth of repentance and humility and so the Priest says
this Psalm in recognition of his own sins. The Priest, to hold in his
hands the precious gifts, must go through a stage of repentance and
everything he now does until the Great Entrance outwardly show his
feelings of repentance. With his example he is also showing the faithful
the road to repentance, so in a way he represents St. John the Baptist who
began preaching before the showing of Christ saying: Repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Priest as the image of the Baptist is
exhorting us to prepare the way of the Lord and the way is repentance.
Thus as we prepare for the Great Entrance, both people and minister wait
in expectation of the Lord in repentance.
Having
finished censing, the priest makes three prostrations before the holy
Altar saying the penitent verses:
“O Saviour, I have sinned before Thee as the
Prodigal Son, accept me, O Father, as a penitent, and have mercy upon me,
O God.”
“With the voice of the Publican I cry unto Thee, O Christ Saviour. Be
gracious unto me, as Thou wast with him, and have mercy upon me, O God.”
And kissing the antiminsion he will turn and bow humbly to the
people asking their forgiveness, but at the same time praying for them
saying in a low voice:
“May God forgive them that hate us and them that
love us.”
Then going to the Prothesis he takes up the aer and first
censing it he will say as he lays it upon his shoulders:
“Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless
the Lord.”
Then censing his hands he will take up the paten and the
chalice saying:
“God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the
sound of a trumpet.”
Then preceded by lighted candles and the six-winged fans, the
Priest will go out of the sanctuary by the north side holding the holy
gifts head high walking in slow and solemn procession through the nave of
the Church saying in a loud voice:
“May the Lord God remember all of you in his
kingdom, always, now and for ever: world without end.”
With the first
talk we had on the various interpretations of the Liturgy we saw how the
Alexandrian and Antiochian schools of thought influenced how the fathers
gave their interpretations of the Liturgy. As the main example of the two
very different approaches I used the interpretations for the Great
Entrance because here the differences are more strikingly obvious as is
heaven and earth. So although you have already heard of the
interpretations assigned to the Great Entrance, it would do no harm to
hear them again.
The practical
reason for the Great Entrance is basically to transfer the Holy Gifts from
the Prothesis to the Holy Altar. I mentioned in the first talk that in
times past the Prothesis was not in the Sanctuary as it is today but
rather in a room at the back of the Church so of necessity they had to be
transferred to the Holy Altar for the Eucharistic rite. Then it was the
duty of the Deacons to bring the Gifts to the Priest, but today both the
Deacon and Priest take part in the Procession. The Procession became the
high-spot of the Liturgy, but even from the earliest times it was a moment
in the Liturgy which was given various interpretations. The Antiochian
approach follows the historical events of Christ’s life as found in the
Gospels. The procession of the Great Entrance signifies the last
manifestation of Christ, which aroused the hatred of the Jews, when he
embarked from Bethany to Jerusalem where he was to be sacrificed. Then he
rode into the Holy City on the back of an ass, escorted by a cheering
crowd. The King of kings enters the Holy City. The Minister becomes the
ass that no man has sat on and therefore worthy to carry the King of
Glory. As the Gifts pass by us we bow down asking like the good thief:
Remember me, O Lord, in thy Kingdom. With the Priest entering the
Sanctuary, Christ has already been Crucified and taken down from the
Cross. The Sanctuary becomes the tomb and the Holy Altar the actual stone
where Christ’s body was laid. As the Priest sets the Paten and the Chalice
upon the Altar and removes the veils, he takes the Aer from his shoulders
and covers with it the holy gifts. As he does so, he says the following
hymn:
“Down from the tree Joseph, a godly man, took Thy
most pure Body, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, and laid
and closed it in a new sepulchre.”
At this moment
the Priest represents Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus who took care of
Christ’s burial. The Aer which covers the holy gifts has two
representations, first it represents the linen sheet with which Joseph
wound Christ’s body and secondly it represents the stone which Joseph
placed upon the tomb and which was later sealed by the Roman guards. Then
taking the censer the Priest will cense the holy gifts. The censing of the
Holy Gifts now on the Holy Altar represents the aroma of the myrrh and
sweet spices that Joseph and Nicodemus used for the burial. Thus with the
Antiochian interpretation, the Great Entrance takes us back into time to
relive the events of Christ’s saving Passion and Death as though they are
happening now in front of our very eyes.
The
Alexandrian approach perceives the entire Liturgy as an ascent from the
material to the spiritual; from the lower existence to the unity of the
divine. In contrast to the Antiochian approach which takes us back into
time, the Alexandrian approach takes us forward in time to an age where
the faithful will find themselves after the Second Coming of Christ. From
the interpretation of the preparation rite – the Proskomede – we saw that
the offering of bread and wine represent an offering of our lives: both
the bread and wine are man’s special offering to God because although the
raw materials all come from God the end product is the outcome of man’s
labour and love, thus they represent our life that we offer to God. On the
Paten we placed the Lamb which is Christ and particles for the Mother of
God, the various ranks of the saints, and particles for the living and the
departed, in other words, we placed on the Paten a representation of the
whole Church. During the Great Entrance the Priest representing Christ
holds in his hands man and the whole body of the Church. With the
Alexandrian approach, the procession of the Great Entrance is the journey
to heaven, the ascension of the Church to heaven, the return of man to
Paradise, the return of man to God. Christ himself takes all of us and our
whole life back to God where we will partake of the heavenly banquet with
Christ in the Kingdom of God after the Second Coming.
As the Priests
proceeds through the nave, he exclaims in a loud voice:
“May the Lord God remember all of you in his
kingdom, always, now and for ever: world without end.” With the
Antiochian interpretation this is the prayer of the Good Thief who on the
cross asked Christ to remember him when he comes into his kingdom and
Christ responded with “Today you will be with me in
my kingdom”. The Alexandrian interpretation contains nothing of the
biblical events and always gives a higher and spiritual explanation for
every word and action, so here the remembrance is an act of love. God
remembers us and his remembrance, his love, is the foundation of the
world. In Christ, we remember. We become again beings of love, and we
remember. The Church in its separation from this world on its journey to
heaven remembers the world, she remembers all men, she remembers the whole
of creation, and takes it in love to God. The Eucharist is the sacrament
of cosmic remembrance.
As the Priest
enters the Sanctuary the ascension of the Church becomes a reality for the
Sanctuary is an image of Paradise and the Holy Altar represents the throne
of God which is borne by the Cherubim. The Great Entrance comes to a close
with the prayer of the Prothesis which is said silently by the Priest
while the choir complete the singing of the Cherubic Hymn:
“O Lord God Almighty, who alone art holy, who
dost accept the sacrifice of praise from such as call upon Thee with their
whole heart; accept and receive also unto Thy Holy Altar the supplication
of us sinners; and enable us to offer unto Thee both gifts and spiritual
sacrifices for our sins and for the errors of the people. And account us
worthy to find grace in Thy sight that our sacrifice may be well-pleasing
to Thee, and the good Spirit of Thy grace may dwell in us, and in these
gifts here set forth, and in all Thy people.”
Here the Priest is asking the Lord to make him worthy to offer the holy
gifts for his sins and the errors of the people. Special attention should
be given to the two words for sin. The priest calls his own transgressions
sins, but the people’s transgressions as errors: in other words sins they
have done unwittingly in ignorance. And this is because Priests are more
responsible before God than the laity. They have received the grace of
priesthood and supposedly lead a spiritual life which should make them
more conscious of transgressing the divine will.
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