Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Five Ways To Participate In Worship

1. We participate in worship through frequent communion. This is the most important way of participating in the Divine Liturgy. When the priest comes forward with the holy chalice and lifts it high, he says, "With Fear of God, with faith and love, draw near." Come close to commune with God. That's a command, an instruction. After all, what is the holy Eucharistic Liturgy all about? Simply, it's the way the Church prepares, consecrates, and administers the sacrament of Holy Communion. Receiving Holy Communion, receiving Christ, is the central act of the Divine Liturgy.

 2. We participate in worship through faithful gathering together as the Church. The Divine Liturgy begins with the words, "Blessed be the Kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." What's a kingdom? The place where a king reigns. Who's the King? GOD. Who are the subjects? CHRISTIANS. Where does the king reign? Where God is present and the Christians are present. God's kingship is made manifest in us during worship. One cannot be manifesting the Kingdom liturgically if he he's not there. Being present is crucial to the liturgical life.

 3. We participate in worship through entering into it responsively. The language of the Liturgy contains a number of dialogues in various parts of the service. For example, the priest says, "Let us lift up our heart." The words of the Liturgy in these dialogues invite us to involvement and participation. But because we are not taught to participate in worship, these dialogues often go unnoticed and unheeded, the commands they contain often are not obeyed in the people's hearts.

 4. All Orthodox services include "litanies" as for an example "Let us pray unto the Lord", in which the priest names a petition, and the choir responses - either "Lord, have mercy" or "Grant this, O Lord." The priest is not actually addressing himself to God in these petitions: he's addressing the whole congregation. He's saying (for another example), "For the peace from God and salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord." The choir sings the response, but they are not really praying either they give the same response to all the petition. It's really the congregation’s role to pray these prayers. If the congregation does not enter in, then nobody is praying!

 How does one pray the litany? Simply do what the priest says. The priest says, "Let us pray for the peace from God adn for salvation of our souls." You can just say in your heart. "Dear Lord, grant us your peace from above and the salvation of our souls." You can also think of particular people and situations you want to pray for with each petition. Then the prayers are no lonbger just-words; you are now following the instruction of the litany.

 5. We participate in worship through singing. Many Orthodox people are not accustomed to singing in Church, they are afraid of being conspicuous. But even in a parish were the Choir does all the singing, it's possible to sing along with the choir softly. You don't have to sing loud enough to be heard, but sing! The patristic tradition tells us that in the past they did sing. We need to revive this tradition in all our Churches.

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