What is Pre-Santified Liturgy?

The use of the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy during the period of Great Lent stems from the Byzantine era. This liturgy was celebrated daily during the weeks of Great Lent. This provided the faithful with the opportunity to strengthen themselves through the Eucharist as they participated in the spiritual Lenten journey. A tradition developed within the liturgical life that the Church would remain silent; that is, there would be no Consecration of the Holy Gifts. Since Lent developed into a period of repentance the joyous expression of the Consecration of the Holy Gifts found in the Liturgy seemed out of place. The Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, as the name indicates, uses the Eucharist that has already been consecrated. Thus the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy can be seen more as a service of distribution.

The use of the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy today generally falls to Wednesdays and Fridays of Great Lent as well as Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week. The service structurally is a combination of vespers and the distribution portion of the Liturgy. This would indicate that during Lent the service is an evening service, though in some parishes it is celebrated in the morning. During Holy Week because of the anticipatory placement of the services (that is, orthros services the evening before and vespers in the morning) the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy is offered in the mornings.

There exists a particular richness and beauty found in the readings taken from the Psalms and a special calmness and solemnity inherent in the service itself. Thus the service entices our hearts to repentance and strengthens our souls beckoning us to stand firm with our Lord through His Passion, Crucifixion, and Entombment in order that we may give faithful witness to joyful and glorious Resurrection of our Lord.

The Beginning of Lent

This is the first day of Great Lent for the Orthodox and during this period, I will attempt to post a reflection several times each week. What is important to remember is that this period is provided for us by the Church as a time of opportunity. All too often, I think, we view Great Lent and rules of fasting in legalistic terms. We do this is a couple of ways. Because we view Lent as only a set of rules, most of which we don’t understand, we don’t bother to observe them. The other way we respond is to create rules, or adapt rules from other Christian denominations we want to follow to suit our own needs so that we don’t have to change our lifestyle very much. For example, “I will give up chocolate.” The idea is that we give up something that we like as a discipline, but does not provide the rule with a spiritual aspect. This really runs counter to the concept of Lent.
What we try to do in Lent is to change up our daily routine in order to focus more intently on our relationship with God. The idea of fasting is to not only alter what we eat, but how much we eat. In other words, by eliminating meat from our diet, we should not replace it with a large amount of pasta. By eating lighter foods and smaller quantities we are able to remain more vigilant in worship and personal prayer and the reading and studying of Scripture and writings on our faith. We should, therefore, take sure and steady steps as we begin the Lenten period, not beginning with so much zeal as to burn ourselves out quickly or too lackadaisically so as not to start at all. If we have questions about what we should do, or to set a healthy course and spiritual direction we should make a plan. Consulting our spiritual fathers is perhaps the first step; for most, this would begin with a conversation with our parish priest.
In beginning Lent this year let us look to today’s reading in Proverbs to understand our journey more completely: (The complete reading is Proverbs 1:1-20)
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; that prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth — the wise man also may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching; for they are a fair garland for your head, and pendants for your neck.

My Thanks

This is a new adventure for me. I have infrequently read blogs, much less posted on them. At the January Parish Council meeting we discussed the need to communicate more with the parish and to do so in more technologically savy ways–thus the blog. I was game, but didn’t think it would come about so quickly. Before I knew it I received an email with a volunteer to help get the blog started. I would like to thank Dmitri Koustas for setting me up with the blog site and for tutoring me while I get started. He has been a great help with the Parish website, though he is miles away at school. It is comforting to know that he is just a click away.

With the poor weather last weekend (and it seems as though the snow and ice has timed its visits with the liturgical cycle of the church over the past few weeks) though we held services, all the activities were postponed. This weekend we will hold our annual Vasilopita that is hosted by the Agape Society. We will also offer the oath of office for the 2009 Parish Council. As a reminder, the GOYA will gather following services.

Hello to the St Philip Church Community!

I hope this blog will allow me to stay in better touch with you all. My aim is to post here regularly, keeping you updated on community events and offering tidbits of our Lord’s wisdom to help you get through the week.

God Bless