It is truly proper and just to worship our Triune God. This is what Jesus revealed to us. Our Divine Liturgy continues that which Jesus began, namely the worship of our Triune God by offering our very lives to Him in thanksgiving for the Gift of Life. This requires, however, that we are truly thankful for the life we have. So the one very important disposition we must have when we come to the Divine Liturgy is that of gratitude for the life we have been given, even with all of its struggles and challenges. The beginning sequence of the Anaphora duly reminds us of this.

Having stated that we are grateful for the life we have, we then symbolically join our voices with those of the angels standing before the Throne of God and sing: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.

The first line of this prayer comes from the hymn of the seraphim in Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8. The second part is what the crowd cried to Jesus at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mt 21:9), which is modeled after Psalm 118:25. Hosanna is a Hebrew term which is derived from the words yasha, which means save, and na, which is an expression of entreaty or request. The Hebrew terms were combined – yasha na (O Save), as in Psalm 118:25 – and this became hosanna.

It was used as part of the Jewish temple liturgy during the feast of Tabernacles, when the priests carried willow branches and cried Hosanna while processing around the altar of burnt offering. Over time, the crowd gathered to worship picked it up and it became a cry of joy.

Thus the crowd greeted the Messiah by waving palm branches and joyfully crying Hosanna to him as he entered Jerusalem. The expression Hosanna to the Son of David was an exhortation to acclaim or praise the Messiah in hopes of deliverance probably from the hated Romans in the mind of the crowd.

The expression Hosanna in the highest is more mysterious. Suggestions have included the idea that it is an exhortation (1) to us to cry Hosanna to God, (2) to the angels to cry Hosanna to God and (3) for there to be songs of praise in heaven. Hosanna has been used as part of Christian worship since the first century. It appears in the Didache (70 CE).

It is critical, I think, that we realize that when we celebrate the Divine Liturgy we are joined by the heavenly host in offering praise and worship to God. The Divine Liturgy calls us to remember what the Lord did and is doing right now in our lives. He is calling us to worship God by offering our very lives, as Jesus did, back to God in thanksgiving for the wondrous gift of life. This, I would remind you, calls us to be thankful for the life we are experiencing right now and not some life we would like to have!   Gratitude is essential for worship!