LITURGY
Part One
St Cyprian’s 2/28/16
The Rev. Deena Galantowicz
Every Sunday when we gather to worship together, we participate in the LITURGY of the Episcopal Church…our way of worship. So Fr. Ted and I thought it would be helpful to have some time today and next Sunday to consider why we do what we do in our worship. Actually, the word liturgy means “the work of the people.” It’s what we do when we come to church. Our work, our worship, our service, as the people of God, is to offer ourselves and our substance and our praises as an offering in great thanksgiving for our gift of God’s Love made known to us in the life and death of Jesus. We are called a Liturgical church, and so is the Lutheran church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches, because our offering, the sacrifice of the Eucharist or the Mass is central to our worship life. In more Protestant churches, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc., this is not the case. The Eucharist is relegated to a sometimes meal of remembrance and the Bible is central.
Part One
St Cyprian’s 2/28/16
The Rev. Deena Galantowicz
Every Sunday when we gather to worship together, we participate in the LITURGY of the Episcopal Church…our way of worship. So Fr. Ted and I thought it would be helpful to have some time today and next Sunday to consider why we do what we do in our worship. Actually, the word liturgy means “the work of the people.” It’s what we do when we come to church. Our work, our worship, our service, as the people of God, is to offer ourselves and our substance and our praises as an offering in great thanksgiving for our gift of God’s Love made known to us in the life and death of Jesus. We are called a Liturgical church, and so is the Lutheran church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches, because our offering, the sacrifice of the Eucharist or the Mass is central to our worship life. In more Protestant churches, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc., this is not the case. The Eucharist is relegated to a sometimes meal of remembrance and the Bible is central.
Since for us Episcopalians, our primary liturgy IS the Holy Eucharist, let’s focus on that. Please feel free to turn to page 355 in the Book of Common Prayer; it may help you to follow along. Our liturgy of the Holy Eucharist consists of two parts: First) The Proclamation of the Word of God, and Second) the Holy Communion, and these two parts pivot at the Peace…we’ll see why later. This morning we will look more closely at the first half of our Eucharistic Service and then next Sunday we will consider the second half: The Holy Communion.
We begin with the Opening Acclamation. Since we are now in the church season of Lent, we use the sentences for this penitential season, but for most of the Church year, the priest begins with the words, “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” And we respond: “And Blessed be his kingdom, now and forever. Amen” Amen which simply means “So Be it.” This, in a nutshell, is the whole of worship, namely that God is to be blessed by his created ones. Later our Eucharistic Prayer says, “In your infinite love you made us for yourself…” Just think of that… we say…”In your infinite LOVE you made us for yourself!” How much more special can we know ourselves to be!
Then the Collect for Purity. A Collect is a short prayer that makes one request of God, and usually places that request in the context of who God is, what God has done. Nearly all collects are only one sentence long. They sum up petitions that we might like to make of God at the point in the service where they occur. The Collect for Purity is exactly appropriate for the beginning of the liturgy…because we ask for pure hearts, before we even think of presuming to proceed.
Next is either the Gloria or, in Penitential times like now, we use the Kyrie, the whole title of which is Kyrie eleison which means Lord, have mercy. Each of these, but the Gloria especially, are canticles or songs of pure worship.
Then we have the Collect of the Day. This is a wonderful prayer that sums up the focus of the day and the music and the scripture readings. And it begins with the ancient Christian greeting of “The Lord be with you” and the response “And also with you.” Again it is usually one long sentence. Pay attention to the Collect of the Day because it strikes the note, the theme, for the entire liturgy of the day. It is called The Collect of the Day because it changes each Sunday. I always think that if anyone lets their attention wander during the service, it shouldn’t be at The Collect of the Day.
Next: The reading of Scripture which has been central to Christian worship from the start, deriving as it does from Hebrew worship. Our Prayer Book includes significant portions of the Bible every time we worship. We have a reading from the Old Testament and the Psalms and from the New Testament and the Gospels. You may know that the Gospel readings are arranged in a three year cycle called Year A, Year B and year C. The gospel readings in Year A are from the Gospel of Matthew. In Year B they are from Mark and in year C, which we are in now, from Luke. John’s Gospel is read on special occasions like Easter in any of the three years in the cycle. This ensures that much of the Bible will be read over a three year period. In case you didn’t know, the Psalms are the one part of our Holy Scripture that is also Holy Scripture in the other monotheistic religions: Judaism and Islam.
The reading of the Gospel is the high point of this section of the liturgy because in the Gospel we hear about Our Lord’s own words and stories of his ministry, teaching and healing. That is why we stand, and why we turn to face the Gospel Book, and that is why we have a Gospel procession symbolizing that the Good News of Jesus is being taken out among the people.
Then the Sermon is preached with the intention of expanding or interpreting the words that have been heard up to this point, after which we stand to profess our faith through the words of the Creed. The word Creed comes from the Latin “credo” which means “I believe.” The shorter of the two creeds we use is the Apostles’ Creed which we say at Baptisms. The other, the Nicene Creed, which we say most Sundays, gets its name from the city of Nicaea where bishops and theologians met in the fourth century to deal with some thorny problems and heresies facing the church. Many of us know these creeds by heart, and proclaim them as our connection with Christians through the ages.
Next: the Prayers of the People. The Prayer Book gives us several options, but the forms all include intercessions for the world, for the Church, for our community, for our own church, for those who have died and for any special needs we may have. The forms for these prayers are drawn from very ancient intercessions used in the earliest Church. The Prayers of the People is a most important part of our liturgy. I really hope some of you do experience that in these prayers, as with the Sacraments themselves, we find ourselves right in that mystical place between heaven and earth, between time and eternity. Remember that the mystery of prayer goes all the way back to the beginning of time,… AND WE HAVE BEEN COMMANDED TO PRAY....very fitting as Christ-ians…followers of Christ.
Next is the Confession. Private, personal confession, where we name our sins, is a necessary part of any Christian’s spiritual life, and we only kid ourselves if we don’t do this. But, our beautiful liturgy, our prayer book worship, gives us the opportunity to offer our confession, though keeping the particulars personal and in our hearts, but to offer all of this within the Body of Christ, the church, and that reality, different from any other hour in our week, places us plunk in the midst of the right attitude by saying what is true…namely, that we HAVE sinned in thought, word, and deed, and that we need God’s forgiveness. I guess because the Episcopal Church has the biggest collection of ex Roman Catholics, I also need to say this. The Priest does not forgive the sins. The word “absolution“ refers to the declaration that we, being penitent, are forgiven by God, not by the clergy. …the Priest is NOT a mediator whom the church has interposed between Christ and his people.
We now exchange the peace. If we have been genuine in our confession and we have accepted the priest telling us that our sins are forgiven, we are now in a rather pure state and what more could we ever wish for one another at that moment than that we all know God’s peace, that peace that passes all understanding!
SO - it is no wonder that this is the PIVOTAL moment in our Liturgy. How perfect!! The Peace!! Here ends the first half, the Liturgy of the Word. Tune in next week to the second half, THE Great Thanksgiving!
We begin with the Opening Acclamation. Since we are now in the church season of Lent, we use the sentences for this penitential season, but for most of the Church year, the priest begins with the words, “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” And we respond: “And Blessed be his kingdom, now and forever. Amen” Amen which simply means “So Be it.” This, in a nutshell, is the whole of worship, namely that God is to be blessed by his created ones. Later our Eucharistic Prayer says, “In your infinite love you made us for yourself…” Just think of that… we say…”In your infinite LOVE you made us for yourself!” How much more special can we know ourselves to be!
Then the Collect for Purity. A Collect is a short prayer that makes one request of God, and usually places that request in the context of who God is, what God has done. Nearly all collects are only one sentence long. They sum up petitions that we might like to make of God at the point in the service where they occur. The Collect for Purity is exactly appropriate for the beginning of the liturgy…because we ask for pure hearts, before we even think of presuming to proceed.
Next is either the Gloria or, in Penitential times like now, we use the Kyrie, the whole title of which is Kyrie eleison which means Lord, have mercy. Each of these, but the Gloria especially, are canticles or songs of pure worship.
Then we have the Collect of the Day. This is a wonderful prayer that sums up the focus of the day and the music and the scripture readings. And it begins with the ancient Christian greeting of “The Lord be with you” and the response “And also with you.” Again it is usually one long sentence. Pay attention to the Collect of the Day because it strikes the note, the theme, for the entire liturgy of the day. It is called The Collect of the Day because it changes each Sunday. I always think that if anyone lets their attention wander during the service, it shouldn’t be at The Collect of the Day.
Next: The reading of Scripture which has been central to Christian worship from the start, deriving as it does from Hebrew worship. Our Prayer Book includes significant portions of the Bible every time we worship. We have a reading from the Old Testament and the Psalms and from the New Testament and the Gospels. You may know that the Gospel readings are arranged in a three year cycle called Year A, Year B and year C. The gospel readings in Year A are from the Gospel of Matthew. In Year B they are from Mark and in year C, which we are in now, from Luke. John’s Gospel is read on special occasions like Easter in any of the three years in the cycle. This ensures that much of the Bible will be read over a three year period. In case you didn’t know, the Psalms are the one part of our Holy Scripture that is also Holy Scripture in the other monotheistic religions: Judaism and Islam.
The reading of the Gospel is the high point of this section of the liturgy because in the Gospel we hear about Our Lord’s own words and stories of his ministry, teaching and healing. That is why we stand, and why we turn to face the Gospel Book, and that is why we have a Gospel procession symbolizing that the Good News of Jesus is being taken out among the people.
Then the Sermon is preached with the intention of expanding or interpreting the words that have been heard up to this point, after which we stand to profess our faith through the words of the Creed. The word Creed comes from the Latin “credo” which means “I believe.” The shorter of the two creeds we use is the Apostles’ Creed which we say at Baptisms. The other, the Nicene Creed, which we say most Sundays, gets its name from the city of Nicaea where bishops and theologians met in the fourth century to deal with some thorny problems and heresies facing the church. Many of us know these creeds by heart, and proclaim them as our connection with Christians through the ages.
Next: the Prayers of the People. The Prayer Book gives us several options, but the forms all include intercessions for the world, for the Church, for our community, for our own church, for those who have died and for any special needs we may have. The forms for these prayers are drawn from very ancient intercessions used in the earliest Church. The Prayers of the People is a most important part of our liturgy. I really hope some of you do experience that in these prayers, as with the Sacraments themselves, we find ourselves right in that mystical place between heaven and earth, between time and eternity. Remember that the mystery of prayer goes all the way back to the beginning of time,… AND WE HAVE BEEN COMMANDED TO PRAY....very fitting as Christ-ians…followers of Christ.
Next is the Confession. Private, personal confession, where we name our sins, is a necessary part of any Christian’s spiritual life, and we only kid ourselves if we don’t do this. But, our beautiful liturgy, our prayer book worship, gives us the opportunity to offer our confession, though keeping the particulars personal and in our hearts, but to offer all of this within the Body of Christ, the church, and that reality, different from any other hour in our week, places us plunk in the midst of the right attitude by saying what is true…namely, that we HAVE sinned in thought, word, and deed, and that we need God’s forgiveness. I guess because the Episcopal Church has the biggest collection of ex Roman Catholics, I also need to say this. The Priest does not forgive the sins. The word “absolution“ refers to the declaration that we, being penitent, are forgiven by God, not by the clergy. …the Priest is NOT a mediator whom the church has interposed between Christ and his people.
We now exchange the peace. If we have been genuine in our confession and we have accepted the priest telling us that our sins are forgiven, we are now in a rather pure state and what more could we ever wish for one another at that moment than that we all know God’s peace, that peace that passes all understanding!
SO - it is no wonder that this is the PIVOTAL moment in our Liturgy. How perfect!! The Peace!! Here ends the first half, the Liturgy of the Word. Tune in next week to the second half, THE Great Thanksgiving!
