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Garfield NJ 07026
Tel: 973-478-7202

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Divine Liturgy

What grandeur is the Divine Liturgy! When God looks upon His humble minister, how much does he feel the majesty of the Liturgy; how much do those who are commemorated profit! How much does God honor man, to descend with the angelic orders in every Liturgy and to nourish man with His all-holy Body and Blood! REF:Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos

...the Priest cries aloud, 'Lift up your hearts.' For truly we ought in that...hour [i.e. the Divine Liturgy] to have our hearts on high with God, and not below, thinking of earth and earthly things. In effect therefore the Priest bids all in that hour to dismiss all cares of this life, or household anxieties, and to have their heart in heaven with the merciful God. Then you answer, 'We lift up our hearts unto the Lord:' assenting to it, by your avowal. But let no one come here, who could say with his mouth, 'We lift up our hearts unto the Lord,' but in his thoughts have his mind concerned with the cares of this life. At all times, rather, God should be in our memory; but if this is impossible by reason of human infirmity, in that hour above all this should be our earnest endeavor. St. Cyril of Jerusalem

And when he served the Liturgy, his face became like an angel's and was penetrated with such light that it was not possible to look freely at him .... His mind was bright, clearly beholding the truth of God. He loved these truths with all the fullness of his heart. Therefore, when he would give a talk his words went from heart to heart and were always effective and fruit-bearing. The life of St. Symeon the New Theologian, Seven Homilies by St. Symeon; Platina CA

Anyone who wishes to show his love for the deceased and to give them real help can best do this through prayer for them, especially in commemorating them at the Liturgy, when the particles removed [from the prosphora during the proskomedia – ed.] for the living and the dead are placed into the Blood of Christ with the words “Remit, O Lord, the sins of those commemorated here through Thy Precious Blood and the prayers of Thy saints.” We can do nothing better or greater for the reposed than to pray for them, commemorating them at the Liturgy. This is always essential for them, especially throughout the forty days in which the soul of the reposed is on its way to its eternal home. The body then feels nothing. It does not see those gathered together around it, does not smell the flowers, does not hear the speeches made at the coffin. But the soul feels the prayers offered for it, and is spiritually close to them. O relatives and friends of the reposed! Do for them that which they need and that which is in your power to do. Spend your money not on external decorations for the coffin and grave, but instead on what will help those in need, in memory of your deceased relatives; on the church, where prayers are offered up for them. Be merciful to those fallen asleep; care for their souls. That same path lies before you, and how we will then want others to remember us in prayer! Let us, ourselves, be merciful to those who have reposed. Holy Hierarch St. John Maximovitch

Unworthily do I serve Liturgy to my God. The office is holy and fearful. Every day I offer the sacrifice pleasing to God, the Lamb of God, the blameless One to the blameless Father and God, in order that He be merciful to us who grieve the most good God, Who for us sacrificed His Son. O, my God, Your beloved Son for us! And who are we, that it was worth such a supreme sacrifice for us! "While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Apostle Paul, Rom. 5:10). REF:Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos, "Counsels from the Holy Mountain"

From: www.orthodox.net

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