Divine Liturgy

the uttering of the words of the consecration signifies Christ himself speaking in the first person, his living presence in the corpus mysticum of priest, congregation, bread, wine, and incense, which together form the mystical unity offered for sacrifice.

Jung reads the words of consecration as the activation of a mystical unity — the corpus mysticum — in which the eternal sacrifice becomes psychologically present at a specific historical moment, making the Liturgy a paradigmatic symbol of transformation.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958thesis

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The Liturgy: the joining, revelation, actualization of the historicity of Christianity (remembrance) and of its transcendence over that historicity ('Today, the Son of God . . .'). The joining of the end with the beginning, but the joining today, here.

Schmemann, as interpreted by Louth, defines the Liturgy as the pivotal act in which historical memory and eschatological transcendence are simultaneously realized, making it the structural heart of liturgical theology.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentthesis

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for Schmemann, the Eucharist is about the realization of the presence of the kingdom of God, in which we are invited to participate at the heavenly banquet. This heavenly banquet reveals the purpose of creation: communion with God, sharing his life.

Louth articulates Schmemann's central claim that the Eucharist — and by extension the Divine Liturgy — constitutes nothing less than the eschatological realization of creation's purpose.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentthesis

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If you celebrate the divine, revered and awesome mysteries in the proper manner, with absolutely nothing on your conscience, you may hope for salvation, for the benefit you derive from this will be greater than that which derives from any work or from contemplation.

The Philokalia tradition argues that the proper celebration of the Divine Mysteries surpasses all other spiritual practice, grounding the Liturgy's primacy in its direct soteriological efficacy for the celebrant.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis

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The institution of the Church means nothing less than the everlasting continuation of the life of Christ and its sacrificial function. In the officium divinum or, in Benedictine parlance, the opus divinum, Christ's sacrifice, the redeeming act, constantly repeats itself anew while still remaining the unique sacrifice.

Jung interprets the Church's liturgical office as the ongoing psychological and metaphysical perpetuation of a unique redemptive event, making the Liturgy's repetition symbolically identical with the original sacrifice.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944thesis

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Foundoulis' genius lies in never letting this happen; he always points beyond the detail to the theological meaning of the elaborate ceremonial of the Byzantine Liturgy.

Louth commends Foundoulis for treating liturgical rubrics as transparent to theological meaning, exemplifying the principle that ceremonial detail in the Byzantine Liturgy always bears doctrinal significance.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

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Nowadays, it is rare to find the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the UK with no use of English at all, and it is quite common to find the liturgy celebrated predominantly in English.

Louth documents the linguistic and cultural transformation of the Divine Liturgy in the English-speaking world as evidence of Orthodoxy's increasing accessibility and adaptation in Western contexts.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

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The Divine Liturgy was being celebrated by Fr John Romanides; also present were Dimitrios Koutroubis, receiving Holy Communion for the first time since his return from abroad to Greece and to the Orthodox Church from Roman Catholicism.

Louth grounds a pivotal moment of conversion and ecclesial return in the physical celebration of the Divine Liturgy, presenting it as the experiential threshold of Orthodox identity.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

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Bulgakov, who made a habit of using liturgical texts and liturgical practice as a springboard for his theology. This was not, however, much noticed at the time.

Louth identifies Bulgakov as a precursor of liturgical theology, arguing that his use of liturgical texts as theological sources was overlooked in favour of his sophiological speculation.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

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Lot-Borodine shifts her attention from what we might call the ascetical and mystical to the liturgical, or maybe not 'shifts', but extends her attention to embrace the liturgical. For in both Maximos and Nicolas we are engaging with texts that seek to integrate the ascetical/mystical and the liturgical.

Louth traces how Lot-Borodine's engagement with Maximos and Cabasilas reveals the liturgical dimension as essential to the integration of ascetical and mystical theology in Orthodox thought.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

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Since he has an angelic, or even archangelic, office, in my view he needs to be like the angels and archangels.

The Philokalia insists that the priest's mediating role in celebrating the Divine Mysteries demands an angelic purity commensurate with the cosmic significance of the liturgical act.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 2, 1981supporting

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Divine Liturgy, Divine Mysteries 25, 34, 45, 50–52, 54, 56–59, 101–102, 108–110, 136, 165, 167, 175, 196, 210–213, 245, 270; see also Eucharist

The index of Louth's volume confirms the extensive and cross-referential presence of the Divine Liturgy throughout the text, linking it explicitly to the Eucharist and a range of theological concerns.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentaside

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the noetic activity of the intellect mystically offers up the Lamb of God upon the altar of the soul and partakes of Him in communion. To eat the Lamb of God upon the soul's noetic altar is not simply to apprehend Him spiritually or to participate in Him; it is also to become an image of the Lamb.

The Philokalia tradition internalizes the Divine Liturgy as a noetic event occurring on the altar of the soul, arguing that inner participation transforms the practitioner into an image of the sacrificed Lamb.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting

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A wooden gong sounds at 4 a.m., inviting monks to worship (Matins and Liturgy, normally on a daily basis) in the silence of the night.

The daily monastic rhythm of Matins and Liturgy is presented as the structural foundation of Orthodox spiritual life, placing the Divine Liturgy at the centre of the hesychast discipline.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 1, 1979aside

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the coexistence of two heterogeneous worlds, the presence in this world of something absolutely and totally 'other'. This 'other' illumines everything, in one way or another. Everything is related to it – the Church as the Kingdom of God among and inside us.

Schmemann's formative experience of the Mass crystallizes the theological intuition underlying his liturgical theology: the Liturgy enacts the presence of an absolute 'other' within the world, identifying the Church with the inbreaking Kingdom.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

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