Mystical Supper

During the past few issues of this article I digressed from my thoughts about our Divine Liturgy to share some thoughts about the Creed that we use and the issues connected with the Creed over the course of our history.

For a period in the history of our Church, after our union with Rome, our Church used the changed Nicene Creed that the Western Catholic Church uses. In more recent years, we have returned to the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed that all Eastern Christian Churches use.

In the early Church, none but those initiated into the Church could pray the Creed. It is the ultimate symbol of our faith. Therefore it is contained within that portion of the Divine Liturgy which is called the Liturgy of the Faithful. It is only after we express our faith through the Creed that we presume to Remember (Anamnesis) what our Lord did, namely worship God by offering His very life to God, also giving Himself symbolically to all who follow Him.

The section of the Liturgy which truly remembers what Jesus did, is called the Anaphora. The word anaphora is a Greek word meaning a carrying back. It has been adapted to mean the prayer of oblation, which includes a repetition of the words of Jesus, carrying us back to the time of the first Eucharist. They truly unite us with the past in a real and true way.

As I am sure I have shared before, the first part of the Anaphora includes:
(1) our prayer to the Father,
(2) the recalling and articulation of the words of the Son, and
(3) the invocation of the Holy Spirit to transform the symbols of life (i.e., bread and wine) into the Body and Blood of Christ. The transformation of the gifts is done through the power of the Holy Trinity.

Once the gifts have been truly transformed through this action, we  remember what Jesus did. We offer the transformed Gifts to God – we offer our lives, together with Jesus, to the Father, the Creator, and the Spirit, the Giver of Life. At this point the priest intones this very beautiful prayer on behalf of all: We offer to You, Yours of Your own, in behalf of all and for all. The prayer is continued by all of us praying: We praise You, we bless You, we thank You, O Lord, and we pray to You, our God.

Truly our Liturgy presents, through its ritual, a powerful symbolism of what true worship of God is. To worship God we offer, together with Jesus, our very lives.
Think about this!