In the previous issue of this article, I began sharing with you the Clementine Liturgy which has been preserved in the Apostolic Constitutions. It is the Liturgy that predates that of Basil the Great and John Chrysostom.

The anaphora (the central portion of the Liturgy when the consecration of the bread and wine take place) of the Clementine Liturgy is of great length and could hardly have been composed,      scholars believe, for actual parish use. This is perhaps why the Liturgy of Basil the Great has much longer priestly prayers.

The Clementine Liturgy begins with an extended thanksgiving to God for his own being, and for the creation which he brought into being through his only-begotten Son. A detailed description of the natural order based on Genesis 1 and 2 is followed by an equally detailed account of God’s work in redemption up to the collapse of the walls of Jericho. Here the thanksgiving breaks off to conclude with a mention of all the hosts of heaven, leading into the Holy, Holy, Holy. We see in the anaphora of Basil’s Liturgy, this same detailed account of the coming of Christ, His ministry and the impact His ministry has had on mankind and creation.

In Clementine’s liturgy, this prayer continues with praise for God’s holiness and that of His Son, and with a thanksgiving for the work of the incarnate Christ as far as His ascension. It then moves on to the formal commemoration of the passion and the offering of the gifts:

Wherefore we, having in remembrance the things which He for our sakes endured, give thanks to You, O God Almighty, not such as are due but such as we can, and fulfill His injunction.

 Then an account of the Last Supper follows. Then,

Therefore having in remembrance His passion and death and resurrection and His return into heaven, and His future second advent in which He shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and to give to every man according to His works, we offer unto You our King and our God, according to His injunction, this bread and this cup, giving thanks unto You through Him that You have counted us worthy to stand before You and to sacrifice unto You.

At the conclusion of this prayer, God is asked to look graciously on the gifts lying before Him and to be well pleased with them. For this part of the prayer the   compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions drew upon the early third-century Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome. You see the seeds of the Liturgies that we currently use, albeit, they have been simplified. We remember what our God has done for us out of love.