During the Great Fast I shared, in this article, certain things about the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. It is an intense Liturgy that is filled with many lengthy prayers which present much about our faith. The real problem is that it presents so very much it is difficult to fully comprehend all the meaning that Basil infused into it.

Before the Great Fast, I shared thoughts about St. John Chrysostom’s Liturgy and about liturgy in general. You will recall that the word liturgy means common work or common action. The Divine Liturgy is the common work of the Church. It is the official action of the Church formally gathered together as the chosen People of God. (The word church, you will remember, means a gathering or assembly of people specifically chosen and called apart to perform a particular task and who share a common belief).

The divine liturgy is a single, though also multifaceted, sacred rite, a single sacrament, in which all its “parts,” their entire sequence and structure, their coordination with each other, the necessity of each for all and all for each, manifests to us the inexhaustible, eternal, universal and truly divine meaning of what has been and what is being accomplished by God.

Such is the tradition of the Church, such is her living experience in which the sacrament of the Eucharist is inseparable from the Divine Liturgy. For its setting, its entire sequence, order and structure consist in manifesting to us the meaning and the content of the sacrament, in bringing us into it, in converting us into its participants and communicants.

It is precisely this unity, this integrity of the Eucharist, the indissoluble link of the sacrament with the liturgy, that calls us to enter into a deeper relationship with God by joining with our Savior, Jesus, in offering our lives to the Father as an act of Thanksgiving for the gift of life. This act has both spiritual and psychological dimensions to it.

First, we must believe that, when we remember what our Brother Jesus did and ritually repeat His actions, something happens. Second, we must be prepared psychologically to THANK GOD for the life that we have. Last, we must be desirous of being joined with others in worship.

This last point, I think, is frequently overlooked. Just as many grains of wheat and many grapes must be crushed and kneaded together to make bread and wine, the symbols of life, so too must we recognize that we must be joined together in love to make the Eucharist a true act of worship. This is one of the reasons why our divine liturgy explicitly states before we recite the Creed: Let us truly love one another so that with one mind we might profess belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Mutual love of those we worship with is essential. It is this mutual love that also makes us CHURCH, or a gathering of people who believe in our Triune God.