The Liturgy is a real environment, and from another it is a source of incorruptible food for us. Therefore we need to live in that environment and feed ourselves with that food. That is why Jesus Christ Himself before He was crucified, before He died on the Cross, before He rose from the dead, prepared us and gave us the real food – His Body and His Blood. Before He was taken to Heaven, He promised his apostles that He will send them the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, and He fulfilled his promise at Pentecost on which occasion He founded the Church, so that is why the Church is the real place for us to live in, and when we consume Holy Communion this is our real food, and beside this there is no life.

 

The Liturgy is a joyful occasion. When Jesus was asked why the apostles were not fasting, He answered that, they could not fast then because the Bridegroom was with them. This time of sorrow is the present time, the days of strict fast. During these days the holy fathers have decided not to perform the holy Liturgy. Therefore there is no Liturgy during the Great Lenten Fast, from Monday to Friday.

 

The Holy Communion as have been mentioned before is our real food and drink, through this we are sustained in eternal life, and so a way should be found to take Communion during these days of sorrow, too. During the first centuries when the Christians were being persecuted, Liturgy was performed on Sunday, and the priest or better to say the Bishop gave Communion to the faithful people, from the table (there was no an altar, everything was uncovered) and they took it home and received it every day. When the Christian religion was recognised, there was no need to take it home, because the Liturgy could be performed every day. Later only the monks could take the Holy gifts home with them, and before they took them they used to say some prayers.

 

When the Church had been established, when it had been universally accepted in Byzantium, so that the services could be performed freely, the holy fathers still wanted to keep the two rules – these are: not to perform Liturgy because of the days of sorrow, and to take Communion. That is why the holy fathers from the Eastern Church invented this way of Communion, which is in fact an evening service with Holy Communion to follow which received its name because of the communion character, the name Liturgy of the pre-sanctified gifts.      

        It was thought that saint Gregory Dialogos pope of Rome, had invented this way of performing the Liturgy, but this is not true, he just made it actual and preferred it. When he came to Byzantium he saw this way of performance and he liked it, so when he returned to Rome he introduced this way of praying, because by that time in Rome the solemn Liturgy was still performed during the Great Lenten fast. That is why during the previous Liturgy, on Sunday, the Priest takes as many lambs as he wants to have such Liturgies during the week, and they are sanctified. While such Liturgy is being performed we do not say any prayers for sanctification, but only the prayers for Communion, because everything has been done on Sunday. It is considered to be a prolonged Liturgy, and we start with Blessed is the Kingdom of …… and there is no a note of the Holy Spirit. When the priest is vesting he has prayers to say, but here there are not of the usual kind. When the act is finished it is said: According to the prayers of our holy fathers……. In the Lenten Triodion it is written that on Wednesday and on Friday such a Liturgy is performed, but this is not an absolute rule, which forbids performing a Liturgy every day because it is said…… if there happens to be a memory of some of our saints. During the Great Lenten Fast a regular Divine Liturgy can only be performed on the feast of the  Annunciation.

 

The holy fathers have decided of a eucharistic fast of non eating that is to say a preparation before Communion, and an ascetic fast which we practice when we like to be closer to God, and to get purified from our passions, to reduce the dominancy of body over our spirit. This eucharstic fast has no canonical rule about the duration of the abstinence before Communion but only rules given by local churches and they are: 5 to 8 hours, so the spiritual father allows some kind of approximate solution.

 

             The evening Communion has a much better essence – our life and aspiration we seek to unite with God. By the end of the day we aspire as by the end of our life to unite with God. We have been fasting all day long to get ready by the end of the day to take the Communion with the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ. According to me, it is allowed in the morning because of the weakness and the urbanity of present times and society, only to make it possible for everybody to take the Communion, but unfortunately they do not use this right that belongs to them. We aspire to unite with God, to take the Communion by the end of the day, but it is nice to start the day with taking a Communion, too.

             The Liturgy starts with a usual evening tone of - Blessed is Thy Kingdom……… which shows that we continue the Liturgy from Sunday. Everything is the same as on each celebration of evening Vespers service in the beginning, the 103rd psalm is read, in the memory of Adam and he being expelled from Heaven, which is why the priest reads the prayers out of the altar, in front of the Holy Doors. A catechism is being said from the psalms when the priest prepares the gifts on the Proskomedia table, where he brings the discus, too. The lamb is placed, it is censed, it is taken to prosphora, wine and water are poured in the Communion, it is censed and everything goes on without prayers for sanctification. After that we sing “Lord, I have cried” and the singing of stichira begins of the day and the saint, there is an entrance with censer, but when the Epistle and Gospel are read, then an entrance with Gospel Book is made.

 

             After that the Prokeimenon are read each followed by a part of the Old Testament from Genesis,  then Proverbs, or the priest takes a candlelight from the book about Jove, and puts it on the Gospel Book, which shows the fact that what has been announced by the prophets from the Old Testament, has been completed in the New Testament. Therefore the priest says Let us stand, as was said by Archangel Michael when he stood in front of the devil and his army, and said  Wisdom, let us be careful, but being completely prepared to fulfill everything that has been read. “The Light of Christ — illumines all.”– and we kneel. And it starts with ‘Let my prayer arise in your sight as the incense……’

 

             Something new that can be met in this Service is the singing of the verses Let my prayer stand with reading some verses from the psalms. The priest reads verses, and than people sing - Let it stand. This is performed from two choirs and whiles the first one sing the other kneel, and the other way round. This creates a beauty. In case it can not be done otherwise, then we bend our head slightly out of respect. At the end everyone kneels, and then gets up. After that the prayer of the Catechumens is said, which originates from the period about Easter when a lot of people were baptised, so that they can take the Communion on Easter. On the other hand, the prayers for preparation for Communion, as well as the thanksgiving ones after the Communion, in this Service, are not the same as those of the Eloquent.

 

                When the Litany of the Faithful is to be announced we emphasise that the pre-sanctified Holy Gifts are for the Holy and we do not raise the lamb again but we touch it with our finger covered with the clothes of the discus, pointing to the sanctity referred to, while the faithful people bend slightly their heads showing a sign of reverence. On Sunday, when the bread is being blessed we do not say   Bless these breads but this bread which is the only one because Jesus is the only one It is crumbled but it is not separated, always eaten but never eaten up, and that is the bread that Jesus Christ gave to his Apostles, during the Last Supper, and He is the One Who gives or better to say He Himself is handing out. All this happens secretly and we participate on the same Liturgy with Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

       

        During the cherubic hymn, the gifts are taken to God, and it is not symbolic but secretly and real. The entire Universe, all the gifts, everything material is given to God. The Archpriest who is an icon of God, accepts them, and takes them to God, and lays them on the God‘s throne. Together he takes all of us the whole creation of God. All these gifts are previously taken and sanctified during the previous Liturgy, because of the emphasized asceticism during the fasts, the Basil’s Liturgy is performed, and now I hold God himself in my hands and because of my unworthiness the aer (the cover) is above my head. Instead of the cherubic hymn there is the verse:: Now the powers of heaven invisibly worship with us; for behold the King of Glory does enter. Behold, the completed Mystical sacrifice is escorted in.

                  

In the end, after we complete all the songs and read the prayers and Our Father, which are as prayers before Communion by the end of the day in this Liturgy, we accept Christ, we take the Communion and therefore we sing the song: Taste the Heavenly Bread and the Cup of life and You will see how good the Lord is, hallelujah, hallelujah.

 

          The prayer that is said behind the ambon is also very beautiful, when the priest gives Communion to the faithful people, close to God, with peace and enlighten by God’s light, calls them to appear again throughout the world to testify about God’s gifted light, to glory and glorify Him.

                  

The priest prays: O almighty Master, who has made all creation and by your inexpressible providence and great goodness has brought us to these all-revered days, for the purification of soul and body, for the controlling of passions and for hope of resurrection, who, during the forty days did give into the hands of Moses the tablets of the Law in characters divinely traced by You: Enable us also, O good One, to fight the good fight, to complete the course of the fast, to preserve inviolate the faith, to crush underfoot the heads of invisible serpents, to be accounted victors over sin; and, uncondemned, to attain unto and worship the holy resurrection. For blessed and glorified is your all-honourable and majestic name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages Amen.

                  

The Liturgy of pre-sanctified gifts has been confirmed and it is being performed only for the faithful people to take the Communion. Unfortunately, today no one takes the Communion. There are only a few who perform this Liturgy, and even less is those who take the Communion. Where is our faith, our eagerness, our love…? We do nothing about our God; we have no feelings about our God, but for our salvation, too. It is fast time. Let us regret and sacrifice our sincere tears of regret, in front of God’s Throne, to wash out our hearts from our passions, to be able to take the Communion with pride and to participate in the glorious and rescue able Christ Resurrection. Amen.