Preface

p. xiii

The Liturgy: The Church’s Faith in Motion

The Church is primarily a worshipping community

p. 1

The Church enacts and celebrates her faith through the liturgy

p. 3

The two ways of prayer - personal devotion and communal worship

p. 4

God is present to his people in the liturgy

p. 5

Exercising the priestly office through the liturgy

p. 7

The liturgy is a formative, restorative, and transformative experience

p. 10

The liturgy brings us to the threshold of another world

p. 13

The liturgy is a study of life

p. 14

The liturgy enlivens our ecclesial identity

p. 16

The tension between the present and the future

p. 18

The liturgy exhorts us to imitate God’s love and holiness

p. 19

Learning to love, know, and live the liturgy

p. 21

The Nature and Goal of Liturgical Piety

Our ultimate destiny - entering into a personal relationship with the living God

p. 23

The primal wound of the original sin

p. 26

Christ - Church - Deification

p. 27

Appropriating the saving grace of God

p. 28

The meaning and aims of liturgical piety

p. 29

The degrees or stages of prayer

p. 30

Levels of the spiritual life

p. 31

Embracing Christ as faithful servants

p. 32

Four activities

p. 34

The eschatological ethos of liturgical piety

p. 34

Liturgy - Time - Kairos

p. 37

Church - Eucharist - Eighth Day

p. 39

Liturgical theology and piety and the Church’s eschatological vocation

p. 40

The eclipse of eschatology and the shift to historicism and allegory

p. 42

Another shift in liturgical piety - the ascetical

p. 48

The Byzantine synthesis - An integrated liturgical piety

p. 52

How the Orthodox Liturgy Was Shaped: The Byzantine Rite and Its Liturgical Books

Encountering God in worship

p. 54

The Byzantine Liturgical Rite

p. 55

The Liturgical Books of the Byzantine Rite

p. 61

The Typikon - A Short Story on the Development of the Orthodox Liturgy

The precursors of the Typikon: two examples from Christian antiquity

p. 63

The Daily Office and the Typikon

p. 66

The Cathedral Rite of Constantinople

p. 69

The Monastic Office

p. 77

The Lavra of St. Savas

p. 81

The Monastery of Studios

p. 83

The Neo-Sabaitic Synthesis

p. 87

The Typikon of the Great Church of Christ

p. 89

The Four Liturgical Schemata

p. 92

Contents of the Typikon of the Great Church of Christ

p. 95

Digests of the Typikon

p. 97

The Diataxeis or Manuals of Rubrics and the Function of the Typikon

p. 98

The Euchologion: A Brief History

A brief history of the Euchologion

p. 102

English translations of the Euchologion

p. 106

The contents of the Great Euchologion

p. 108

The abridged versions of the Great Euchologion

p. 109

The emerging ecclesial realities in America and the Euchologion

p. 114

The Spirit and Ethos of Orthodox Prayer as Reflected in the Euchologion

The Euchologion - a glimpse into the mind of the Church

p. 117

Apophatic and cataphatic language in the prayers

p. 118

Prayer is an act of adoration and supplication

p. 119

The communal character of Orthodox worship

p. 120

The services and prayers manifest a vision of life

p. 121

Eschatology, solidarity, and catholicity

p. 122

Analyzing the History and Content of Liturgical Texts: Risks and Challenge

I. The Problem of Ritual Formalism

p. 125

Risks, Challenges, and Opportunities

p. 125

A sad and disturbing commentary

p. 126

The liturgical life of the Church must be vibrant and relevant

p. 127

II. Are Liturgical Texts Absolute and Immutable?

p. 128

The Role and the Authority of Liturgical Texts

p. 128

The printing of liturgical texts and some initiatives at reform

p. 129

III. The Search for Meanings in Texts and Rituals

p. 131

Investigating the received liturgical tradition - a necessary but difficult task

p. 131

Texts and rituals convey layers of meaning

p. 132

Why Textual Reform Is Necessary - A Case Study

Dealing with problems in liturgical texts - The Pre-baptismal rites for infants

p. 138

The search for meanings and theological precision require textual changes

p. 140

Ceremonial laws of the Old Testament

p. 141

Ancient attitudes towards menstruating women

p. 143

The canonical tradition and menstruating women

p. 143

Another perspective

p. 145

The liturgical tradition and the rites of ‘churching’

p. 146

The value of the Pre-baptismal Rites

p. 148

Lessons from the Feast of the Meeting

p. 149

The Rite of Churching and entrance into the sanctuary

p. 151

Infertility, stillbirth, and miscarriage

p. 152

Some attempts at reforming the Pre-baptismal Rites

p. 153

Who has the authority to change the liturgical texts?

p. 155

Another example from the Baptismal Rite

p. 155

Another example from the Burial Rite

p. 156

The need to be responsive

p. 159

An Introduction to the Divine Liturgy

I. History and Outline

p. 162

The phrase Divine Liturgy

p. 162

The origins of the Divine Liturgy

p. 163

The development of the Divine Liturgy

p. 167

The Three Liturgies

p. 170

The celebrants of the Divine Liturgy

p. 171

Reception of Holy Communion

p. 172

In the Eucharist we are called to repentance and to share in what is divine

p. 173

II. Theological Meaning

p. 174

The Eucharist and the parish

p. 174

The Eucharist at the center of the Church’s life

p. 175

The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church’s life

p. 176

The Eucharist as memorial-anamnesis

p. 177

The Eucharist as messianic banquet

p. 180

The Eucharist as a continuous Pentecost

p. 181

The Eucharist as food and communion

p. 183

The Eucharist as sacrifice

p. 184

At the Eucharist we become partakers of divine nature

p. 188

The Eucharist: A vision of the true life and the new humanity

p. 189

Some Textual Problems in the Divine Liturgy - Are Details Important?

I. Regarding some rituals of the Great Entrance

p. 193

‘Remember us all’ or ‘Remember all of you’ … does it really matter?

p. 193

The development of the Great Entrance ritual

p. 194

Popular piety and the Great Entrance - the emergence of the commemorations

p. 196

The Cherubic Hymn - the text and its interpretation

p. 199

The Cherubikon and the rite of censing

p. 202

II. ‘Mercy, peace, a sacrifice of praise’

p. 204

Which is it ‘a mercy of peace’ or ‘mercy, peace, a sacrifice of praise?’

p. 204

III. Examining portions of the Anaphora

p. 207

Offer or Offering? An example of a significant alteration in a liturgical text

p. 207

The unfolding actions of the Anaphora

p. 208

The Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving

p. 210

The altar of God is a table of communion and life

p. 212

The organic unity of the Anaphora

p. 213

Reciting prayers silently - losing out on the substance

p. 214

The practice of reciting prayers silently should be reversed

p. 216

A new ritual action - the elevation of the Gifts

p. 217

The phrase “κατὰ πάντα καὶ διὰ πάντα” - What does it mean?

p. 218

Another way of looking at the phrase κατὰ πάντα καὶ διὰ πάντα

p. 221

Is the Inclination Prayer a pre-communion prayer?

p. 222

Additional examples

p. 225

The Penthekte Synod and Liturgical Reform

Prayer, dogmas and canons

p. 227

The ‘liturgical’ canons of the Penthekte Synod

p. 228

Reforming liturgical practices: An example from the Pedalion

p. 231

Invigorating and Enriching the Liturgical Life of the Parish

Creating a healthy liturgical environment

p. 235

Liturgical reductionism - The ‘Sunday Church’ 

p. 236

The early immigrant communities

p. 236

The process of adaptation, acculturation, and assimilation

p. 237

Changing cultural and social realities

p. 239

The depreciation of worship

p. 240

Spiritless worship does not engender commitment

p. 241

Examples of liturgical creativity and vitality

p. 241

The parish is neither a monastery, nor a laboratory, nor a museum

p. 242

Revitalizing the liturgical life of the parish

p. 243

The deeper problem - a crisis of worship - a crisis of faith

p. 244

Creating a sound cultural context

p. 246

NOTES

p. 249

Paperback:

289  Pages

Publisher:

Holy Cross Orthodox Press

ISBN:

978-1-885652-69-0

Product Dimensions:

9 x 6

Author:

Alkiviadis C. Calivas

Publication Year:

2003