Blessed Is the Kingdom: Reflections on the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Introduction

Where do you find this stuff in Scripture?”

I have been asked this question many times by nonOrthodox people who have attended the Divine Liturgy at the Greek Orthodox church where I serve.

The simple answer is that nowhere in the Bible will you find references to pews, pulpits, or church architecture. Some people worship in an A-frame church building with pews and a pulpit in the center, where there are ten minutes of praise music and a forty-five-minute sermon, and they claim to be practicing sola scriptura, “Scripture alone,” meaning that whatever they are doing is found in Scripture. But this is not true.

Of course, it is true that the Bible doesn’t mention chalices and patens, icons and icon screens, and that there are no references to a Small Entrance or a Great Entrance. However, virtually every line of the Divine Liturgy has a scriptural basis. This is why each reflection in this book begins with a passage of Scripture that is related to the line of the Liturgy that is being discussed.

The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Saint James the Apostle authored the first eucharistic service of the early Christian Church in about ad 70. Saint Basil the Great then edited the work of St. James into what is today known as the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, which is celebrated ten times per year: on the Sundays of Lent, Holy Thursday, Holy Saturday, Eve of Nativity, Eve of Theophany, and on January 1 (the Feast of St. Basil). Saint John Chrysostom further edited the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, and his shorter version is the Divine Liturgy that we celebrate on most Sundays and feast days of the church year. Unless otherwise noted, the reflections in this book are drawn from the 2015 translation of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, approved by the Ecumenical Patriarchate for use by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA). All references and quotes from the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great are from the GOA’s 1988 edition.

If you attend the Divine Liturgy in a parish of another jurisdiction—such as Antiochian, Orthodox Church in America, Serbian, etc.—you will find that some translations differ. There are also a few changes in rubrics, and in some circumstances, small additions or deletions in content. However, the structure and meaning of the Liturgy is the same throughout the world.

A Note on Scripture Translation

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version (RSV) translation of the Bible. In the GOA, this is the translation from which we read the epistle and Gospel passages at divine services.

A Note on the Numbering of the Psalms

The Orthodox Church primarily uses translations from the Greek version of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint, rather than translations from the Hebrew editions. The Septuagint (also known as the LXX) is the version of the Old Testament used in many quotations found in the New Testament, and the numbering of the psalms in the Septuagint differs from that found in Psalters and Bibles translated from the Hebrew. For example, one of the most prevalent psalms in Orthodox worship is Psalm 50 (in the Greek numbering). In Hebrew numbering—the numbering used in most translations of the Bible—it is Psalm 51. In these reflections, when a psalm is titled Psalm 50/51, the “50” refers to the Greek numbering, and the “51” refers to the Hebrew numbering.

The Purpose of This Book

[Jesus] said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”

—Luke 8:10, referring to earlier prophecy of Isaiah 6:9

This book is not a theological book, though it contains some theology. It is also not a history book, though it contains some history. I wrote this book to help readers understand what they should be doing and thinking while the Divine Liturgy is being offered and to assist them in praying the Liturgy.

I am neither a scholar nor a theologian but rather a parish priest who loves to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. I’ve loved the Liturgy for as long as I can remember. The first thing I loved was not the words or their meaning; I was in love with the rituals. I loved the vestments, the vessels, the sights, and the sounds. I still like these things. But rituals are not enough to sustain anyone’s interest, even a priest’s. There is a meaning and purpose behind every ritual and behind every phrase and action of the Divine Liturgy. Each is designed to draw the mind, the heart, and the soul to certain thoughts and prayers. Some are corporate thoughts—when the priest prays for peace in the world, we are all supposed to be thinking of the same thing. But when he prays for forgiveness of sins, we can call to mind our own sins.

For too many years I have stood at the altar and watched people witness the Divine Liturgy without being real participants in it. Perhaps this is why Orthodox Christians are perpetually late or miss the service altogether. After all, it is just a ritual that will be repeated virtually the same way next week, right? Yet when we examine the petitions and actions of the Divine Liturgy, we realize that each one calls us to participate. The word liturgy comes from two Greek words—leitos, meaning “people,” and ergon, meaning “work.” Liturgy literally means “the work of the people” and implies that worship is a divine work for all of us. Whether by offering a response—note that every Liturgy book says “people” next to each response, not “choir” or “chanter”—or by joining our prayers with the prayers of the service, the faithful in attendance indeed have a lot of work do.

When we come to worship and truly do the work of the people, when we pray the service, it becomes more than a ritual; it becomes alive, and we feel as though we belong to the Divine Liturgy, and the Divine Liturgy belongs to us.

The Liturgy is a parable. To the untrained eye and the unopened heart, it is a ritual involving a man in robes, a choir, altar servers, processions, incense, and candles. As Christ said in His reference to Isaiah, one can see but not see, hear but not understand. However, to the one whose heart is open, whose eye is trained, and who yearns to experience God, the Liturgy opens the gates to the Kingdom of heaven and allows the most ordinary of people to leave the world for an hour or so each week and enter heaven for a short time.

The purpose of this book is not to take the mystery out of the service but to help you understand and appreciate the mystery that unfolds before you each time the Liturgy is celebrated. It is said that knowledge is power. This book will arm you with the knowledge of how to pray the Divine Liturgy so that it will become more powerful and meaningful in your life.

Format

The format of the book is this: each line and hymn of the Divine Liturgy will be examined. Since most of the Liturgy is taken either directly or tangentially from Scripture, a Scripture passage will follow each petition or liturgical hymn. The reflection will then discuss how to pray that petition or hymn.

I love serving the Divine Liturgy. I’ve loved it my whole life. But it’s only in more recent years that I’ve come to love praying the Liturgy. It is my fervent hope that these reflections will help you to love the Divine Liturgy even more and understand how to pray it each time you attend.

—Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis

February 2024 Tampa, Florida