Teaching the Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy is one of the great gifts of God to us as human beings. It is God allowing us to participate in His life. Sometimes though, it might seem obscure and inaccessible and we might have questions about what is happening and why.
On Saturday the 13th we had a teaching liturgy here at the church. We began by seeing the end of the Proskemede service that the priest does before every Divine Liturgy to prepare the bread and wine for the service.
We then learned many things about the Divine Liturgy: We learned about the beginning of the Liturgy and how the doors of the Kingdom are opened to us when the priest says “blessed is the kingdom…”; we learned about the small entrance and its signifying of the first coming of Christ; we learned about receiving the Word, first through word and then in body; we learned about the connection of Isaiah chapter 6 to the receiving of Christ; we learned about when the Divine Liturgy cannot be served; and we learned about some interesting ancient practices in the Church.
This teaching liturgy was a blessed day. Godwilling there will be more of these as time goes on and the Liturgy will gradually become more and more familiar and more and more accessible to each of us as we attend and continue to grow.
