Archbishop Averky (Taushev)

Liturgics

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Introduction

The subject of the Liturgics is the history of Orthodox Christian worship. Orthodox worship is the totality of prayers, hymns and sacred actions that are performed in the Church of God on earth by hierarchical persons, as lawful vicars of Christ (see the Epistle to the Hebrews).

Divine services are performed for the faithful, and in union with them, according to the established rite. Through divine services, believers are called to express their feelings of faith in God, hope and love for Him, enter into mysterious communion with Him and receive grace-filled strength to go through the Christian life leading to salvation.

Divine services are of great importance for a person. It is an expression of the prayerful life of the Church of Christ. The Orthodox worship of ancient Byzantium struck our ancestors with its majestic beauty and led them to Christ, to the Orthodox faith.

You can show your faith by beginning with a fervent and noble prayer. But the modern Western man, who is ignorant of God and religion, and especially those who are corrupted by the propaganda of godlessness in our homeland, if they hear the word of a preacher about faith, about God, about prayer, about divine services, then they cannot immediately dispose themselves and reach for faith in God and accept everything that is told to them. They remain prejudiced, they hesitate. However, there are cases when such people, having seen the fervent rite of divine services, reverent prayer and the beauty of the Orthodox rite, are often imbued with the majestic splendor of church services, and their hearts are touched by the "divine word". This has happened before, and so it is now. An indifferent person, perhaps even an unbeliever, has entered or enters the church by chance, or enters out of curiosity, and, in the surrounding church atmosphere of the spiritual world and faith, fervent reading and singing, the sincere prayer of the faithful captures such people and they, unexpectedly for themselves, become participants in the common prayer and begin to feel a craving for faith in God, accept the teachings of the preacher and often join the Holy Church.

According to St. According to the Apostle Paul, everything among Christians should be done "in an orderly manner and according to order" (1 Corinthians 14:40). The noble rite of Orthodox worship has been formed over the centuries. Its compilers are the Holy Apostles, the Holy Hymn-Writers, the Fathers of the Church. The rite of divine services was formed by ascetics, heroes of the spirit, in the deserts and in monasteries.

Therefore, the wealth of prayers, ideas, images and thoughts accumulated over the centuries, which are found and preserved in thick church books, in leather bindings, should be reflected in the souls of modern worshippers through fervent worship. And whoever loves the prayer of the Church, having delved into its content, will also love its harmonious order.

Let us remember that the main thing in the divine service is the lively, personal participation of both the worshippers and the celebrants of the service: the servants, readers and singers. Only that reaches the hearts of the worshippers that has been experienced and felt by the celebrants of the divine services themselves.

Part 1