Charles Diehl (a French historian who was a native of Strasbourg, is a leading authority on Byzantine art and history. He received his education at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and later taught classes on Byzantine history at the Sorbonne) summarizes accurately the history of the liturgical contribution of the East to Byzantium: “Throughout the     history of Byzantium, the Eastern current flows through its civilization, its literature and its art. From the East came many of its stories, proverbs and popular beliefs, its liturgical and political movements, its ideas and its art forms. There the Church found the pattern and structure for many of its ceremonies and there artists learned that art’s true function was to glorify God and the Emperor.”

The East – especially Antioch – made constant pilgrimages to Constantinople in order to establish contact with Greeks, Rus and other Slavic peoples, in order to nourish them with the Gospel of Christ.

Byzantine culture is therefore a complex culture, mobile and varied with all the variety of the twenty-five turbulent nations the Empire had to civilize, humanize and unite into one Eastern Christian Church.

Eastern Christianity and Byzantine culture are, essentially, one and the same. All these peoples became in fact Eastern Christians. The Church provided them with enough sustenance to allow their soul to join the divine feast, and threw enough sparks into their humanity to make them sing and dance, life in Christ being always the guiding star.

Displayed in the ceremonies of Byzantine monasteries or in the humblest church, the elegance of worship becomes dazzling brilliance, splendor and glory for the people of God who share in it. Ukrainians or Melkites, Chinese or French and all who participate find in it enlightenment and delight. It is made to create an atmosphere of light to provide a feeling of nobility and freedom, not because of human voices and intellectual pronouncements, but because God is heard revealing the secrets of his love and the richness of his life, and summoning the human person to self-revelation.

Think about what you experience as we pray and celebrate together. I think that the very last phrase of the Liturgy says it so beautifully: for He is gracious and loves mankind. Our Liturgy, I truly believe, declares over and over again that the God we worship and adore is a God Who truly loves us and only wants us to come to a deep awareness of how much He loves us so that we can experience the fullness of life!