Liturgy of the Faithful

When the catechumens had gone, the doors were watched and the Church turned to what she could share only with her own: the offering and receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ. Today no one is sent out of the building, and visitors are welcome to remain and observe; but the structure keeps the old boundary in its very name, and at one point cries it aloud — "The Doors! The Doors! In wisdom, let us attend!" — the ancient signal that the assembly is now sealed, and that what follows is the confession and offering of the baptized. Only the prepared Orthodox Christian approaches the Chalice; everything else may be watched, prayed, and sung by all.

The Liturgy of the Faithful opens with brief litanies of the faithful, and then the choir begins the Cherubic Hymn: "Let us who mystically represent the cherubim and sing the Thrice-holy Hymn to the life-creating Trinity, now lay aside all earthly cares." While it is sung, the clergy take up the gifts prepared at the Proskomedia and carry them in procession out through the north door, into the midst of the people, and through the Royal Doors to the altar — the Great Entrance. In some churches the procession circles the whole nave; everywhere it is the Liturgy's most solemn journey, with the celebrant commemorating aloud the Church's hierarchs, the civil authorities, the parish, and all Christians, in wording that varies by jurisdiction.

The bread and wine on the move are not yet consecrated, but they carry every name placed with them on the diskos — the whole Church walks to the altar in those gifts. The hymn concludes as they arrive: "That we may receive the King of all who comes invisibly upborne by the angelic hosts. Alleluia."

Two conditions must be met before the offering can proceed, and the Liturgy names them plainly. First love: "Let us love one another that with one mind we may confess…" — and the clergy exchange the kiss of peace, which in the early Church was exchanged by the whole congregation, as it still is in some communities. Christ's rule stands behind the sequence: be reconciled to your brother first, then bring your gift to the altar (Matthew 5:23-24). Then faith: the assembly confesses the Creed — in many churches sung or said by all the people together —, because only the Church's confessed faith can offer the Church's gift.

Now comes the Anaphora, the great Eucharistic prayer — thanksgiving, remembrance, offering, and the invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts, treated fully in its own entry. It is the summit of the service: the prayer in which the Church's sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15) is joined to Christ's own self-offering, and the bread and wine become His Body and Blood.

The Lord's Prayer gathers the whole assembly into the words Christ gave, asking for the daily — the supersubstantial — bread. The priest then elevates the consecrated Lamb with the ancient warning and welcome in one line: "Holy Things are for the holy!" And the people answer for all humanity: "One is Holy! One is the Lord Jesus Christ! To the glory of God the Father, Amen." No one is holy enough; One is holy, and He gives Himself. The Lamb is broken, a portion is placed in the chalice, and hot water — the zeon — is added in the Byzantine use, the warmth of the living Spirit in the Blood of the living Lord.

The clergy commune at the altar, and then the faithful, who have prepared themselves, approach the Chalice — St. Ignatius' "medicine of immortality." Thanksgiving follows, and the dismissal: the priest bids the people depart in peace, and they answer, "In the Name of the Lord." Blessed bread, the antidoron, is distributed — in most parishes to everyone present, visitor and faithful alike — and the dismissal prayers send the Church out as what she has just received: the Body of Christ scattered into the week.