Journey to the Kingdom. Fr. Vassilios Papavassiliou

take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (14:2–3, VP). One of the greatest teachers and bishops of the Church, St. Athanasius the Great, summed this all up very well by saying: “God became man that man might become God.”¹³

      All this is the source of our joy and hope, the heart of our faith. Through Christ, we are given true, everlasting life. Therefore at the Divine Liturgy, we give thanks, we praise and worship the author of our salvation. We offer our lives to Him, that we may have true life, that Christ may always be with us and within us. That is the ultimate purpose of the Eucharist. At the Liturgy, Christ is incarnated again, no longer in the form of a man, but now in the form of bread and wine, that in Holy Communion we may be able to receive Him as His Body and Blood and thus be perfectly and fully one with Him.

      Of course, at the beginning of the Liturgy we are far from reaching the point of Holy Communion. But the Liturgy is our preparation for Communion.

      We must not separate the Sacrament of the Eucharist from the Liturgy. For there can be no Holy Communion without the Liturgy. Of course, Communion is taken to those who are sick, who are physically unable to come to church to partake in the Divine Liturgy. But otherwise we must participate in the Liturgy before we can receive Communion.

      But before we even begin to speak of Holy Communion at the Divine Liturgy, we must first hear the word of God, and this hearing of God’s word is also something that we must prepare for, and that preparation begins with what is called the “Little Entrance,” or the “Entrance of the Gospel,” when the clergy bring the Gospel from the altar and carry it in procession to the center of the church.