Journey to the Kingdom: An Insider’s Look at the Liturgy and Beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox Church
2012 First Printing
Copyright © 2012 by Theodore Christopher Vasilis (Fr. Vassilios Papavassiliou)
ISBN 978-1-61261-164-8
Scriptures marked (NIrV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL READER'S VERSION®. Copyright © 1996, 1998 Biblica. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of Biblica.
Scriptures marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scriptures marked (ESV) are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scriptures marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scriptures marked (EL) were translated by Fr. Ephrem Lash
Scriptures marked (VP) are the author’s own translations.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Papavassiliou, Vassilios.
Journey to the kingdom : an insider’s look at the liturgy and beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox church / Fr. Vassilios Papavassiliou.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-61261-164-8 (trade pbk.)
1. Orthodox Eastern Church—Doctrines. 2. Lord’s Supper—Orthodox Eastern Church. 3. Lord’s Supper (Liturgy) 4. Orthodox Eastern Church—Liturgy. I. Title.
BX323.P37 2012
| 264’.019--dc23 | 2012019328 |
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by Paraclete Press
Brewster, Massachusetts
Printed in the United States of America.
Contents
Come In and See
Map
1. The Blessing and Litany of Peace
2. The Great Litany
3. The Mini Creed
4. Entrance of the Gospel
5. Catechumens
6. The Cherubic Hymn and Entrance of the Holy Gifts
7. Psalm 50
8. Preparing for Holy Communion
9. The Litany of the Precious Gifts
10. The Creed: Holy Trinity
11. The Creed: Jesus Christ
12. The Creed: Holy Spirit
13. The Creed: The Church
14. The Creed: Baptism
15. The Creed: Resurrection
16. The Holy Oblation
17. Remembrance
18. The Lord’s Prayer
19. Holy Things for the Holy
20. Thanksgiving and Dismissal
Appendix: The Church of the Resurrection or a Church of Death?
Acknowledgments
Notes
JOURNEY
to the
KINGDOM
1. Church interior and icon screen
Come In And See
Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
—REV. 21:9, NRIV
This is your invitation to come in and see how Orthodox Christians all over the world worship. Perhaps you have heard something about what we call the Divine Liturgy, the beauty of its expressions, the profundity with which this special service offers its participants a way to encounter God? If so, this book will take your understanding to the next level.
How better to get to know a faith than by experiencing, albeit secondhand, its primary form of worship? The sights and the symbols. The words of faith and the mysteries that are plumbed. Through twenty brief chapters, and just as many black-and-white photographs, you will learn much more.
In many ways, this book could be regarded as a form of liturgical catechism, or instruction about worship, for any and all interested in joining the Orthodox Church. But it is also more than that, as I hope that anyone—whether Orthodox already, considering joining an Orthodox church, or the simply curious—will find this tour of our liturgy and worship helpful and inspiring.
The “standard” Liturgy in all Eastern Orthodox Churches is that of St. John Chrysostom (ca. 347–407, archbishop of Constantinople). The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great (ca. 330–379, archbishop of Caesarea) is celebrated usually ten times a year: on the five Sundays of Great Lent, Christmas Eve, the Eve of Theophany, Great Thursday, Great Saturday, and on his feast day (January 1). Many of the prayers of the clergy in St. Basil’s Liturgy are different and considerably longer than those of St. John’s Liturgy.
On the weekdays of Great Lent (the forty-day period before Holy Week; Holy Week is when we celebrate the Passion and Resurrection of Christ), normal liturgies are not celebrated, except on the great feast of the Annunciation (March 25). Because liturgies are always a celebration, they are deemed inappropriate in Lent except on days on which we celebrate the Resurrection (Saturdays and Sundays) or a great feast like the Annunciation. In order that Christians may receive Communion more frequently during the period of Lent, we have the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Wednesdays and Fridays. This is a more somber service than other liturgies. It is called the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts because there is no consecration of the bread and wine. Instead, a portion of the Eucharist from the Sunday Liturgy is kept aside for these weekday services. Hence the term Presanctified Gifts, meaning that the holy gifts—that is, the bread and wine of the Eucharist—are from the very beginning of the service the Body and Blood of Christ, having been sanctified already at a previous Liturgy.
Journey to the Kingdom is not a work of scholarship. It is not a formal study of worship or liturgical history, nor is it a comprehensive commentary on the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church. The purpose of this book is to explain the meaning of our worship, what happens at the service of the Divine Liturgy throughout the world, and the part that every Orthodox Christian plays in it.
By “Eastern Orthodox Church” we mean the family of Christian