Eucharistic Living 1- Liturgy to Liturgy

Eucharistic Living 1- liturgy to liturgy

The Eucharist

1- Just as the root of the vine ministers and distributes to the branches the enjoyment of its own natural and inherent qualities, so the Only-begotten Word of God imparts to the Saints, as it were, an affinity to His own nature which is that of God the Father, by giving them the Spirit...

And the Saviour Himself says: He that eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in him. For here it is especially to be observed that Christ says that He shall be in us, not by a certain relation only, as entertained through the affections, but also by a natural participation. For as, if one entwines wax with other wax and melts them by fire there results of both one, so through the participation of the Body of Christ and of His precious Blood, He in us, and we again in Him, are co-united. -St Cyril of Alexandria

2-In the Eucharist we eat the resurrection and it becomes a power that glows in our spirit giving it spiritual fervour, light, holiness, purity and all that is needed for the progress of the sons of the resurrection and the Kingdom in eternal life. Every time we eat the bread of the Eucharist and drink the cup we are established in the resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ is established in us day by day so that we may perfect the will of the Father as sons of the resurrection. The Eucharist is the food of the resurrection, the heavenly cure for all the diseases of the sons of death, the wedding feast for those invited now to share in the wedding feast of the Lamb in blissful eternity.- Fr Matthew the Poor

3- If the poison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; and that Bread, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste.- St Cyril of Alexandria

4- When we make contact with God, the broken pieces of our former life are restored. Our heart is freed from the burden of the past and dares to love God and our fellow once again.- Elder Zacharias

The Liturgy

5- The Liturgy begins then as a real separation from the world. In our attempt to make Christianity appeal to the man on the street, we have often minimized, or even completely forgotten, this necessary separation. We always want to make Christianity “understandable” and “acceptable” to this mythical “modern” man on the street. And we forget that the Christ of whom we speak is “not of this world” and that after his resurrection he was not recognized even by his own disciples.- Fr Alexander Schemmann

6- The Liturgy is a priceless gift to mankind. It affords knowledge of the Mystery of crucified Divine love, which was hid from the beginning of the world. In the Divine Liturgy we genuinely live the pattern of the Resurrection, and we ascend to the mountain of contemplation of the glory of the Transfiguration. The liturgy relives the thirst of our spirit with another water that ‘springeth up into everlasting life.’ Those who tasted manna in the wilderness died, but those who eat the Bread that came down from heaven and will life forever. - St Sophrony

7- Elder Sophrony rightly stressed that the Divine Liturgy has such a structure and is overshadowed by such a spirit that it engraves on our consciousness the ‘work’ of Christ on earth and inspires a vision of His character and His life which enraptures the mind and the heart. When we follow the way of Christ, revealed to us in the Divine Liturgy, we begin to accept Christ as our friend and companion, as did the three holy children in the furnace of Babylon and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.- Elder Zacharias

8-   This, then, is the aim of the Liturgy: that we should return to the world with the doors of our perceptions cleansed. We should return to the world after the Liturgy, seeing Christ in every human person, especially in those who suffer. In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, the Christian is the one who wherever he or she looks, everywhere sees Christ and rejoices in him. We are to go out, then, from the Liturgy and see Christ everywhere.- Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

9-Without fail, we must grow unceasingly in knowledge of God and not allow the Liturgy to turn into just a mere detail in our spiritual life. It is precisely because instead of being a Liturgy it becomes a ‘routine’, that we all went through our deep crisis- St Sophrony

10-Liturgy embraces in itself all our life; in the Liturgy are included all the levels of our being in it's turning towards God. The Liturgy, as long as it is lived with all our being, enables us to live it as a truly Divine Act, which not only bears within itself this visible world in its entirety, but also goes beyond the world’s limits to an infinite degree.- St Sophrony

11- When the Christian begins to perceive the true dimensions of the Sacrament, he is filled with the desire to approach it more and more closely. Thus, the life of the faithful Christian goes from Liturgy to Liturgy. His chief concern is how to offer a more acceptable presentation before God every time; how to conform his own presentation to that of Christ before the Heavenly Father; how to attain to a greater fulness of divine love, how to become a worthy disciple of the Lord.- Elder Zacharias

Leading to the Liturgy

12- We must not forget that our participation in the abundance of life which the Lord offers us in the Liturgy, depends not only upon how much we have prepared in our ‘closet’ the day before, but every day as well. Our whole life ought to be a single preparation to present ourselves worthily before God in His house, and to thank Him for what we owe Him with all our heart, and in a manner befitting Him.- Elder Zacharias

13- The warmth and peace that we have accumulated in the secret ‘closet’ of our heart will accompany us when we assemble for the Divine Liturgy, forming a holy and mystical space within us wherein our spirit can move freely and creatively.- Elder Zacharias

14- It is generally known among Christian ascetics that a ‘rich’ liturgy is preceded by a ‘strong’ night, that is, by a good preparation, wherein the Christian makes an effort to conform his spirit to the spirit of the Liturgy, to the downward path of the lord Jesus to the infernal regions. Elder Zacharias

15- One way of preparing is by praying on our own for a period of time before the Liturgy, and then going to Church with our heart full of warmth, faith, love, hope, in expectation of the Lord’s mercy, and full of spiritual dispositions. That is an offering we bring to God and the Church, a gift to the assembly of the brethren who have gathered together in the temple. The gift that we cultivate when we are alone unites us with the Body of Christ. It leads us into the communion of all the other gifts of the members of Christ’s Body, the Saints in heaven, and also of His elect upon earth so that in truth we become rich.- Elder Zacharias

16- Consequently, the more we cultivate our gift when we are alone, the more we shall be prepared when we come to church, to enter this blessed communion of gifts, the blessed communion of those who possess gifts, the blessed communion of the grace of God. For the grace of God establishes the Church, who, like a mother, helps and inspires the faithful with her prayers and Liturgies, which create an upward impetus, while the Saints, who are the glorified members of the Body of Christ, pull them up with their prayers and intercessions. This is the meaning of the Church: a helpful push from below and a saving pull from above.- Elder Zacharias

At and From the Liturgy

17- “If you want to experience the Kingdom of Heaven in the Liturgy, preserve the sanctity and respect of the place”- Bishop Epiphanius, Bishop of the Monastery of St Macarius the Great

18- The difference that the Christian feels between Holy Communion and Paradise is due rather to his own shortcomings, to his insufficient preparation, to the incompatibility of his nature with the grandeur of the Sacrament and to the corruption of his body.- Elder Zacharias

19- If we have truly received Christ in us, we can have no other desire except that the world should be saved. We can have no other prayer apart from the prayer for the whole world. This is the way in which the Liturgy teaches us universality.- Elder Zacharias