Five guides to the Divine Liturgy

In the course of my reading of other peoples’ weblogs, I have often found much food for thought. One case in point has been Fr. Philip N. Powell’s Give Me That Water. Although he is a Westerner, we won’t hold that against him, as he has written a good number of cogent articles on preaching and on listening to preaching, which is altogether appropriate for one who is a member of the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum).

But the article which has impressed me the most has been his entry regarding suggestions for those who listen to sermons or homilies. He has five suggestions: 1) Put down the missalette; 2) Pay attention to key words, images, phrases, ideas; 3) Repeat every word in your head; 4) Listen now, argue later; 5) Pray. I recommend that you read his entry, as it is worth reading by itself. You can find it here.

What has given me food for thought, however, is that the advice that he has given is of equal value, not just for listening to sermons, but for our participation in the Divine Liturgy. I think that with a few minor modifications, his advice could be used to assist in that “conscious, intentional, and active participation” in the Liturgy which the Council Fathers had intended in their magnificent statement on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

And so, by filing off the serial numbers, changing the body lines a bit, and trotting it out as my own (and with apologies to Fr. Powell), I would like to offer these suggestions for participation in the liturgy:

1) Take home the missalette (or the Prayer Book)

I entirely agree with Fr. Powell that the church is no place for a missalette, although I would not go quite as far as him in tearing up a book. My reverence for the written and the printed word prevent such a stance. Nonetheless, I will repeat: the church is no place for a missalette, particularly in an Orthodox church. As Fr. Sergei Glagolev, a remarkable Orthodox priest and musician once said, the Church is the last oral culture left on earth. The Apostle Paul did not say that “faith comes by reading the word of God” but “faith comes by hearing the word of God.” All of the prayers of the priest, the deacon, the cantors (or choir) and the congregation are meant to be said aloud, and to be heard. The people cannot respond with “Lord, have mercy” or “Grant it, O Lord”, or “Amen” to the prayers if they cannot hear them. And so often, at the liturgy at St. Andrew’s, I have seen people with the prayer books in front of their faces, blocking their view of the divine drama which is unfolding before them, and deafening them to the chant going on around them.

But there is a place for the missalette, or the Prayer Book: buy a copy of the Missal, or whatever prayer book you use, and take it home with you. Don’t hide it away in your library, or put it under your pillow, or on your coffee table. Read it. Even better, pray with it. Let the words of the hymns in that book gradually become a part of you. And bring that prayer back with you to the Liturgy.

When the hymns of the liturgy become a part of what C.S. Lewis called “the furniture of one’s mind”, then one can go on to start reading the epistle, psalm, gospel and other readings for the day. For the Westerners among you, there is also a wealth of chant and propers available. Even if the local church does not use it, you can read and chant it yourselves. Perhaps it might even prompt you to start a schola cantorum for the benefit of yourselves and others in the church.

The point, though, is that if the hymns and readings are a part of you, it is easier to you to participate in the Liturgy, to see when it is going wrong, and to help it to go right.

2) Pay attention to the language, the hymnography, and the iconography of the Liturgy

When some liturgicide in the clergy or the academy proposes something like a clown liturgy, or distributing teddy bears during Pascha, or altering the altar, or moving the reserved Host out of any place of reverence, among many other sins, a lot of us in the pews or choir lofts get rather the impression that, in addition to talking a great deal of rot, the offending souls have stopped speaking the common language of the Liturgy, if they ever knew it to begin with.

For there is a language of liturgy, a language spoken not only with words, but with music, with images, and with the common elements of life: water, fire, air, earth. Even with such simple things as bread and wine. But this is a language which can only be learned by speaking it, that is, by praying, and by attending when important things are going on.

For us in the East, it is a bit easier: We still have the great blessing of the waters for Theophany; we have the yearly miracle of the lighting of candles, and of the great procession around the church before the Matins of Pascha; we have the blessing of the earth and the fruits of the earth on the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord; and we have the weekly blessing and incensing of our churches by our priests or deacons before the Divine Liturgy. And we have our deacons ever reminding us: This is wisdom: pay attention.

But although that voice is fainter in the West, it still speaks in the baptisms, in the blessings of pious priests, and in the mystery of the Eucharist. Those who wish to be true theologians, that is, those who wish to pray well, will listen attentively whenever they hear that voice.

3) Repeat every word in your head. I’d put that another way myself: Learn how to be inwardly silent, and devote one’s self to listening and to prayer. Of course, one of the best ways to learn that silence is first to attend fully to what is going on around you, as Fr. Powell quite wisely suggests. Another useful way of learning silence is the Prayer of the Heart, which I have mentioned before. The point though, is first to recognize that which Plato taught us, in one of the first thought experiments on record in The Republic: the human mind is for most of us a battlefield, in which our angers and fears, our desires and disgusts, and the internal dialogue rage on endlessly. It is only by emptying ourselves of ourselves first that we may be filled with the good things of the Lord, chief among which is the Divine Liturgy, and the grace which it gives us.

4) Listen first, argue later This is almost a continuation of the last point. So often, our internal dialogue argues with whatever is being presented. This is all very well in the marketplace, the courts, or in the sports hall, but not in church.

Unfortunately, it is also the case that many churches are filled with priests or people who seem to like to replace the words of the liturgy with their own words, or to replace the language of the liturgy with the language of newscasts, or situation comedies, or MTV. In addition to being a violation of the canons of both East and West, this also interferes with our hearing the language of the liturgy, which is simply the language of Holy Tradition.

And so it is necessary first to find a church where the priest and the people are attempting to speak the language of the liturgy. This may take some doing, and one may have to go to some distance to find it. But as the Proverbist says, better a morsel eaten in peace, than a feast served in contention.

But when one has found a peaceful church, it still may come about that something may be said or done poorly. If that happens, it is best simply to listen to what is being said or done (if only to be a better witness). Take it home with you, and think about it afterwards. If you believe that it is wrong, take it quietly and privately to the offending party, and attempt to resolve matters in peace.

5) Pray I can only second what Fr. Powell has to say here. If you are upset with the ones who are serving the Liturgy, pray for them that they may repent. If you are happy with the beauty of the Liturgy, pray that it may continue, and pray for those who are serving it well. More than anything else, though, pray through the Liturgy with the priest and deacon, servers and cantors. Unite your minds and hearts with the prayer, ask that it may be done, and respond with your Amen. This is after all what we will be doing in the Kingdom of Heaven. Contention, distraction, hatred and suffering will be found only in that other horrible Kingdom, of which it is better that we speak no further.