Mystical Supper
After we commemorate the Mother of God and the various different kinds of saints, we pause to remember those who have departed that have been a part of our lives. I cannot stress how important I believe this is. Each time we come to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, we should remember those we know who have died as well as the living. If you have celebrated the Divine Liturgy with me, you know that I always pause and invite you to “call to mind the memories” of those you know who have died. I is my greatest hope that this happens. In most parishes this is not said aloud and the congregation is not invited to personally remember the deceased. I cannot encourage you enough to always pray for those who have made a transition to a new life.
After our remembrance of the deceased, we again pray for the hierarch of our Church. The Liturgy actually allows for the remembrance of the hierarchy four different time.
Once we have remembered the hierarchy, we are called to remember the “living” persons that we personally know and love. The prayer introducing this remembrance asks God to remember those “who bear offerings and perform good deeds in Your [God’s] holy churches and those who remember the poor.”
After our remembrance of the living, the priest offers this simple but very moving prayer: “And grant that we, with one voice and one heart, may glorify and praise Your most honored and sublime name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever”. All present respond with AMEN which means that this expresses their sentiments – that they are truly in agreement with this statement.
It should be noted that this sequence in the Divine Liturgy reminds us that we are joined with all other Christians, living and dead, in the worship of God. It also reminds us that what we do during the Divine Liturgy is simultaneously being done in God’s Kingdom where everything exists in the “Present Moment”.
The Anaphora is then brought to an end with a priestly blessing which is meant to expressed God’s blessing on what we have prayed, believed and ritualized. The blessing is expressed in a statement: “May the mercies of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ” be with us who have, through our ritual, “actively remembered” all that God has done for us through the Persona of His Son, Jesus, the Christ.