Divine Liturgy
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Divine Liturgy (Greek: Θεία Λειτουργία, translit. Theia Leitourgia) or Holy Liturgy is the usual name used in most Eastern Christian rites for the Eucharistic service.  The Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches see the Divine Liturgy as transcending time and the world. All believers are seen as united in worship in the Kingdom of God along with the departed Early Christians. The first part, termed the "Liturgy of the Catechumens", includes like a synagogue service the reading of scriptures and, in some places, perhaps a sermon/homily. The second half is based on the Last Supper and the first Eucharistic celebrations by Early Christians and it is called "Liturgy of the Faithful". Eastern Christians believe that the Eucharist is the central part of the service in which they participate, as they believe the bread and wine truly become the real Body and Blood of Christ, and that by partaking of it they jointly become the Body of Christ (that is, the Church). Each Liturgy has its differences from others, but most are very similar to each other with adaptations based on tradition, purpose, culture and theology.[1][2]
Byzantine Rite
Three Divine Liturgies are in common use in the Byzantine Rite:
As well as these, there are two others that are used locally and rarely, the Liturgy of Saint Mark .
The Hierarchical LiturgyAs numbers in a diocese increased dramatically, the bishop who presides over the Eucharistic assembly appointed presbyters to act as celebrants in the local communities (the parishes). Still, the Church is understood in Eastern Orthodoxy in terms not of the presbyter, but the diocesan bishop. When the latter celebrates the liturgy personally, the service is more complex and festive. To demonstrate unity with the greater Orthodox community, the hierarch commemorates the hierarch he is subordinate to or, if he is head of an autocephalous church, he commemorates all his peers, whose names he reads from a diptych. Typical structure
The format of Divine Liturgy is fixed, although the specific readings and hymns vary with season and feast. The Divine Liturgy consists of three interrelated parts; when not in conjunction with vespers, the liturgies of John Chrysostom and Basil the Great are structured thus:
A typical celebration of the Byzantine Liturgy consists of: Liturgy of PreparationThis part of the Liturgy is private, performed only by the priest and deacon. It symbolizes the hidden years of Christ's earthly life.
Liturgy of the CatechumensThis is the public part of the Liturgy, in which both catechumens and baptized faithful would be in the nave:
When the liturgy is at the usual time (following matins or the sixth hour), this order is followed:
But when the liturgy is joined to vespers (on Christmas Eve, Theophany Eve, the feast of the Annunciation (except when these days fall on Saturday or Sunday (or, in the Annunciation's case, during Easter Week)), Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday) after the Old Testament readings the Little Litany is said and the liturgy continues from this point:
Liturgy of the FaithfulIn the early Church, only baptized members who could receive Holy Communion were allowed to attend this portion of the Liturgy. In common contemporary practice, with very few local exceptions (e.g., Mount Athos), all may stay. However, in most places, catechumens are formally dismissed for further study.
Almost all texts are chanted throughout the Divine Liturgy, not only hymns but litanies, prayers, creed confession and even readings from the Bible, depending on tradition. In ancient rubrics, and contemporary Greek practice, the sermon, Nicene Creed and the Lord's Prayer are spoken/read, rather than chanted. Slavic traditions chant or sing everything except the sermon.[3] Oriental Orthodox Churches
"Divine Liturgy" is the normal word for church service in Oriental Orthodoxy. In their own languages, followers of the Byzantine Rite apply it to their Eucharistic services but, while in English the same word (as also the word "Mass") is at times used to speak of the corresponding services of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the normal names used in those Churches refers either to the aspect of offering/sacrifice (Qurobo Alohoyo in the Syriac Orthodox Church), Badarak[4] in the Armenian Apostolic Church, Prosfora[5] in the Coptic Orthodox Church) or of sanctifying (Keddase in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church).[6] The Oriental Orthodox Churches own a richness of different liturgies, which are named after the anaphora included. Coptic LiturgyAt present, the Coptic Orthodox Church and Coptic Catholic Church have three Liturgies:
The Liturgy of St. Basil is celebrated on most Sundays and contains the shortest anaphora. The Liturgy of St. Gregory is usually used during the feasts of the Church but not exclusively. In addition the clergy performing the liturgy can combine extracts of the Liturgies of St. Cyril and St. Gregory to the more frequently used St. Basil at the discretion of the priest or bishop. The main liturgy used by the Coptic Church is known as Liturgy of Saint Basil. AnaphoraThe Egyptian (or Coptic) Armenian grouping of anaphoras of Saint Basil. The Egyptian version does not derive directly from the latter and has its own peculiarities: its text is more brief, with less Scriptural and allusive enhancements, and it lacks well-defined Trinitarian references,[10]: 113 which are typical of other versions and reflect the theology of the First Council of Constantinople of 381.
The structure of the Bohairic Coptic version used today in the Coptic Church can be summarized as follows:
The 7th-century Sahidic Coptic version found in 1960[12] shows an earlier and more sober form of the Bohairic text: the manuscript, incomplete in its first part, begins with the Post Sanctus, and is followed by a terse Institution narrative, by a pithy Anamnesis which simply lists the themes and ends with the oblation. The next Epiclesis consists only of the prayer to the Holy Spirit to come and manifest the gifts, without any explicit request to change the gifts in the Body and Blood of Christ. The intercessions are shorter and only Mary is named among the saints.[10]: 112 Liturgy of Saint BasilThe term Liturgy of Saint Basil may refer also to the whole OffertoryProthesis) is the part of the liturgy in which the Sacramental bread (qorban) and wine (abarkah) are chosen and placed on the altar. All these rites are Middle-ages developments.[15]
It begins with the dressing of the priest with Nicean Creed .
Then takes place the elaborate rite of the choosing of the Lamb: while the congregation sing 41 times the Kyrie eleison, the priest checks the wine and chooses among the bread one loaf which will be consecrated (the Lamb). The Lamb is cleaned with a napkin and blessed with the priest's thumb wet with wine. Afterwards the priest takes the Lamb in procession around the altar and the deacon follows with the wine and a candle.[7] At the altar, the priest, with appropriate prayers, blesses the Lamb and the wine, places the Lamb on the Paten and pours wine and a few drops of water in the chalice (the chalice is placed on the altar in a wooden box named ark).
The last part of the offertory resembles an anaphora: after a dialogue, the priest blesses the congregation and proclaims a prayer of thanksgiving, giving thanks to God for his support to us, and asking him for a worthy participation to the liturgy. Then comes the prayer of covering said inaudibly by the priest, which has the form of an epiclesis asking God to show his face on the gifts, and to change them in order that the bread and wine may became the Body and Blood of Christ. This text might come from an ancient anaphora or simply be a later High Middle Ages creation.[15] The paten and the ark with the chalice inside are here covered with a veil. Liturgy of the CatechumensIn the catechumens . It is roughly equivalent to the Liturgy of the Word in the Western Rites.
It begins with a Penitential Rite in which first the priest prays inaudibly to Christ for the forgiveness of sins (The Absolution to the Son) and then all the participants kneel in front of the altar and the celebrant, or the bishop if present, recites a prayer of absolution (The Absolution to the Ministers).
The reading from the Mary and a hymn of intercession. The Pauline epistle is followed by a reading from the Catholic epistles and by one from the Acts of the Apostles. Another offering of incense is conduced (the Praxis Incense), similar to the Pauline incense except that only the first row of the faithful is incensed. A reading from the Coptic Synaxarium can follow.
After these readings, the Psalm and the singing of the Alleluia, and finally the proclamation of the Gospel from the doors of the sanctuary. The sermon may follow.
Liturgy of the FaithfulThe Liturgy of the Faithful is the core of the Liturgy, where are placed the proper Eucharistic rites.
It begins with the prayer of the Veil, The Anaphora is conducted. After the anaphora takes place the consignation,[15] i.e. the moistening of the Lamb with some drops of the consecrated Wine, which is shown for the worship of the faithful. The Fraction of the consecrated Lamb ensues, during which the priest says a prayer which varies according to the Coptic calendar. All of the congregation stands and prays with open hands the Lord's Prayer. To be prepared for partaking of the Eucharist, the faithful bow while the celebrant says in low voice the prayer of submission, then the priest and the participants offer each other a wish of peace and the priest inaudibly prays to the Father for the forgiveness of sins (The Absolution to the Father). The Elevation is similar to that in the Byzantine Rite, with the celebrant who raises the portion of the Lamb engraved with a cross (the ispadikon) crying: "The holy things for the holy ones". The priest makes a second consignation and puts gently the ispakidon in the chalice (the commixture),[16] then he recites aloud a confession of faith. The partaking of the Eucharist follows, first the Body of Christ given to the celebrants, to the deacons and to the faithful who approach the sanctuary without shoes and then the Blood of Christ in the same order. Psalm 150 is sung in the meantime. The distribution of the Eucharist ends with a blessing with the Paten. The dismissal rites include The Prayer of Laying the Hands and the final blessing. Syro-Antiochene liturgyThe Divine Liturgy of Saint James which differs substantially from its Byzantine Rite counterpart, most notably in being substantially shorter (it can be completed in under two hours, whereas the historic form of the Byzantine Rite liturgy prior to the revisions of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom took more than four hours), and in that it can be used with more than eighty different anaphoras; the most commonly used are those of Mar Bar Salibi (which is the shortest), and that of St. James, which resembles that of the Byzantine Rite liturgy, and is mandated on certain occasions, such as major feasts, the consecration of churches, and the first liturgies offered by newly ordained priests.[17] Due to the long isolation of the Saint Thomas Christians the rite of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church shows some differences, so that this rite is called the Malankara Rite .
Armenian LiturgyThe Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church have at present a single liturgical structure, called the Armenian Rite, with a single anaphora (the Athanasius-Anaphora)[18] for the liturgy: Holy Patarag or in Western Armenian Holy Badarak, meaning 'sacrifice'. This is in distinction from the other liturgies of the Oriental Orthodox Churches (Coptic, West Syrian, Ethiopic) which have retained multiple anaphora. This means that the text of the Patarag can be contained in a single, unified liturgical book, the Պատարագամատոյց (Pataragamatooyts, Western Armenian Badarakamadooyts, meaning 'the offering of sacrifice'). This book contains all of the prayers for the Patarag assigned to the bishop (if celebrating as a bishop), the celebrating priest, the deacon(s), and the people, the last typically led by a choir with accompaniment. Before the end of the 10th century there were also other liturgical forms, such as the Anaphora of The elements of the Armenian eucharistic liturgy reflect the rich set of influences on Armenian culture. The roots of the liturgy lie in the West Syrian and Byzantine forms, with the influence of the Roman Catholic Mass, the latter having arrived likely during the period of the Fourth Crusade or shortly thereafter. Among the distinctive practices of the Armenian Patarag is the tradition that on the Sundays of the fast before Easter (the Great Fast) the curtain which hangs down in front of the elevated altar area (Armenian խորան khoran) is never opened – even for the reading of the Gospel, certain movable parts of the liturgy are omitted, the parts of the liturgy sung by the choir are said or chanted simply without adornment, there is no general confession, and there is no distribution of Communion to the faithful. This practice of fasting from the Communion bread in preparation for Easter may reflect an ancient custom of the church in Jerusalem. A special prayer of repentance is sung by the clergy on the morning of Palm Sunday (Armenian: Ծաղկազարդ tsaghkazard, Western Armenian dzaghgazard), after which the curtain is opened for the first time since the last Sunday before the Great Fast. One element which almost certainly derives from the influence of Western liturgy is the reading of a last Gospel at the conclusion of the Patarag. However, the celebration of a short memorial service for one or more departed persons (Հոգեհանգիստ hogehangist, Western Armenian hokehankist, meaning 'rest of the spirit') is quite prevalent in parishes and replaces the reading of the last Gospel. Equivalents in other Liturgical RitesRoman Catholic ChurchHoly MassPresent-day forms of the Roman Rite Mass  Mass of Paul VI (post–Vatican II)  Tridentine Mass (1962 missal), Solemn Mass form The following description of the celebration of Mass, usually in the local Latin language alone, may be employed where authorized by the Holy See or, in the circumstances indicated in the 2021 document Traditionis custodes,[25] by the diocesan bishop.
In the modern form the priest usually (though not obligatorily) faces the people (versus populum); in the earlier form the priest most often faces in the same direction as the people, towards the apse of the church, a stance that since the twentieth century is often called ad orientem, although not necessarily eastward. As mentioned, the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated in the Catholic Church also in other Latin liturgical rites and in those of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the importance of the Mass in the Catholic tradition under the headings:
Church of the EastHoly QurbanaHoly Qurbana is the Eucharistic celebration in the Edessan Rite. The Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East and their larger Catholic counterparts, the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Church, which use the Edessan Rite that they all inherit from the Church of the East, employ one or more of three different Eucharistic anaphorae when celebrating Holy Qurbana:
See alsoReferences
External links
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