Eucharistic Living 2- Worry and Anxiety
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6: 25-34
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Phill 4:6-7
Anxiety and worry are symptoms of fear
As with everything in life, it is part of our repentance
Anxiety is not grounded in reality as it is about a future event. In the present we lament, rejoice etc
Anxiety is grounded in the earthly, the liturgy is a window into heaven and gives us a taste of the kingdom
offering
The bread and wine stand for us i.e. for our life, for the whole of our existence, for the entire world created by God for us.They are our food, our food makes us live , it is that which becomes our body.By offering it to God, by sacrificing it to Him, we show that our life is given away to Him, that we follow Christ, our Head, in His movement of total love and sacrifice. Thus in the procession of Offertory our very life is being brought to the Altar, presented to God in an act of love and adoration.- Fr Alexander Schmemmann
The sacrifice of the Eucharist is essentially an act of love, in which Christ gives Himself totally to God, His Father, on our behalf. We also, in His Name, offer ourselves totally, through our unity with Him, as His own Body. In other words, by the “offertory” the Church declares the practical acceptance of her Bridegroom's Cross, i.e. the ladder to heaven. For we offer not only bread and wine or money but also our deeds, our joys, our sorrows, our hopes, our ambitions, and our hardships etc. We must bring them all to the altar - the Cross of Christ - at the offertory and lay our hearts upon the paten and our life into the chalice so that we may participate in His suffering and His sacrifice- Fr Tadros Malaty
The bread and wine resemble us in that we are an oblation to God. As the bread cannot be offered before going through many phases, so likewise we must pass with our Lord through the fire of His suffering. Also as the wine is not offered before it is pressed, we must be pressed with Him through the winepress of His Cross, so that we may be offered to Him.- Fr Tadros Malaty
We present to the Lord corruptible gifts received on loan from Him: “We offer unto You Your gifts from what is Yours, for everything, concerning everything, and in everything.” And the merciful Lord, Whose Name is the all-good and searches Saviour of the world, is well-pleased to fill these gifts with His indestructible life. This is the great and unfathomable mystery that takes place in the Divine Liturgy. He returns the consecrated Gifts to his people, the members of His Body, saying, ‘The Holies are for the Holy.’- Elder Zacharias
Man approaches the Sacrament with his being divided and corruptible, but also with all his pain, his agony, his faith, however faltering and limited it may be, his longing and his desire to become a partaker of eternal life. Although he offers God perishable gifts of bread and wine, they are nonetheless impregnated with his prayer, his suffering, his despair, his gratitude, and his hope, the content of his hear and his whole life, which is limited, temporary, meaningless, corruptive, irredeemable. He offers wretched tears and the humble thoughts of repentance, with which he poured out his heart to the ‘God of knowledge’ in his private prayer.
He offers thanksgiving, glorification, praise and supplication. He offers his expectation. He says to God through the mouth of the priest: “We offer unto You Your gifts from what is yours, for everything, concerning everything and in everything,” knowing that he has nothing of his own. Even his life is a loan of God’s goodness…. The All-good and Merciful God says through the mouth of the priest: ‘The Holies are for the Holy.” He returns His Gifts to His people, to those ‘called to be saints’ (see Rom 1:7); but now they are filled with His own life, which is eternal, incorruptible, blessed, never fading.
At that sacred moment, the inconceivable and indescribable exchange of human life with the divine takes place. It is in this exchange that the great mystery of the Divine Liturgy lies. This exchange is essentially the purpose of the sacred Act which brings eternity and salvation to earthly man. Through this exchange, the soul is blessed with the gentle breeze of the light-bearing divine love which makes man in corruptive and unites him to the Almighty Jesus with a powerful bond of perfect love. - Elder Zacharias
thanksgiving
Then the priest cries “Lift up your hearts!” For truly is it necessary at that most awesome hour to have one’s heart on high towards God, and not below, occupied with earth and the things of earth. In effect, then, the priest commands everyone at that very hour to banish worldly thoughts and workaday cares, and to have their hearts in heaven towards the God who loves mankind. Then, assenting to this by your confession, you answer: “We have lifted them up to the Lord.” Let no one present be so disposed that while his lips say “We have lifted them up to the Lord,” in his mind his attention is engaged with worldly thoughts. At all times we should be mindful of God, but at least, if this is not possible due to human frailty, we must strive for it at that hour.- St Cyril of Jerusalem
Then he cries, “Lift up your hearts,” i.e. let us be heavenly- minded, not earthly-minded. The people give their consent and say that their hearts are lifted up to heaven, where their treasure is, that is, Jesus Christ. We have followed Him in His ascension, because He has accepted us at His Table in His Kingdom. We have entered the Eschaton (world to come) and are now standing beyond time and space. It is because all this has happened to us that something will happen to the Bread and Wine. Now that our hearts are in heaven in Christ, nothing remains but to give thanks to God. The celebrant says, “Let us give thanks (euxaristomen) unto the Lord,” and the faithful give their consent, saying, “It is worthy and right.” - Fr Tadros Malaty
Thanksgiving is the experience of paradise. We were created in paradise and for paradise, we were exiled from paradise, and Christ “leads us again into paradise.” Thanksgiving is the “sign”, or better still, the presence, joy, fullness, of knowledge of God, i.e., knowledge as meeting, knowledge as communion, knowledge as unity. Just as it is impossible to know God and not give him thanks, so it is impossible to give him thanks without knowing him. Knowing God transforms our life into thanksgiving, and thanksgiving transforms eternity into life everlasting, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Ps 103:1). If the entire life of the Church is above all one continuous burst of praise, blessing and thanksgiving, if this thanksgiving is raised up both out of joy and out of sorrow, out of the depths of both happiness and misfortune, our of both life and death, if the most bitter graveside lamentation is transformed by it into a song of praise, “Alleluia” , then it is because the Church is the meeting with God, which has been accomplished in Christ. - Fr Alexander Schmemann
Peace
“Peace be with you all”- We have become so accustomed to this formula that most of us are no longer able to sense the value and meaning it offers to us. When the priest extends his hand towards the faithful and says “Peace be unto all!” He is communicating something real. On behalf of God he confers a gift of grace. Peace, not our peace but the peace which comes from God Himself, descends upon us and enters into us. Do we sense this peace in our heart? Are we really conscious of the fact that the Saviour grants us His peace? Have we the faith to believe that the peace thereby bestowed upon us possesses what is necessary to calm our anxieties and our suffering? It may be that we have heard this expression “Peace be with you all” a hundred times during the liturgy, without every having paid it serious attention. Now is the appropriate moment for us to try finally, with a renewed heart, to receive and preserve within us this peace of Jesus which is offered to us.- Fr Lev Gillet
“Indeed may fear flee for the sake of Him who suffered in the flesh on our behalf, end established the victory of the Cross”- Prayer of Submission Addressed to the Father, Liturgy of St Cyril
“You are He, O Lord, with whom we have laid our life. O Lord, who fills all, guard us in every place where we shall go. And the compunction that has become ours through prayer, and the contentment of heart of upright living, guard them for us, unstolen and without regret …” Prayer of the Laying-on of the Hands After the Distrubition of the Holy Mysteries, Liturgy of St Cyril
Go in peace, the peace of the Lord be with you