Nothing
is so spiritually uplifting, and so rewarding then prayer before God in the
Church. The Orthodox Church has a cycle of services, and all of us should make
every means to attend these services. It’s not really how long are these services,
but what we put into them that is spiritually rewarding.
When the
Church calls us to prayer, we should rush with great Christian love to go to
these services, and give our Lord God due honor and worship, at the same time
we should think about our spiritual relationship with our God, and our path to
our salvation. During these cycle of services we begin to realize how much our
Lord God loves us, and wants us to be a part of His Kingdom. We can participate
in His Kingdom in prayer, and we can behold His great spiritual beauty as we
gaze around the Church and behold Him, as well as the opening arms of the
Mother of God, the saints, the prophets, the apostles, and the martyrs all
surrounding us with their prayers and intercession on our behalf, what a blessing!
Then
again preparations before the Divine Liturgy are spiritually necessary, and
that is if when we will go to Holy Communion, we should consider speaking to
our priest about going to Holy Confession. We also should fast from certain
foods anticipation of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, i.e. at the
least, fast from meats on Wednesday and Friday, and all foods and liquids the
morning of the liturgy unless these are deemed necessary for medical reasons.
We also
have prayers to be read before taking Holy Communion, they are called Prayers
in Preparation for Holy Communion, or prayers before Holy Communion, should
speak to our parish priest about these prayers. Some of the faithful begin
reading these prayers on Thursday, so that we do not have to wait to the last
minute. Then again we have prayers of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion,
eventually throughout the day we should read these prayers of thanksgiving,
some parishes read these prayers of Thanksgiving at the end of the Divine
Liturgy, as well as the faithful who took Holy Communion remain in the church
until these prayers are finished.
Attend
these services with your children, and rush with great love to the Church and
pray. Let us make every effort to go to the Church in prayer, and let us realize
when we come to late, we miss many blessings, after we leave we shall be
spiritually rewarded.
Love to
pray in the Temple of our Lord God His Church, and when we pray, let us pray
with all our heart, mind, and soul! Well aware of the work at hand, we should
attend services prepared to labor as unique members of the body of Christ.
Ultimately, each of us, that is every man, woman, and child, should be ready to
“put aside all the cares of life, and receive the King of all…”
I am
humbly presenting to you the Cycle of Services that are celebrated in the
Orthodox Church, which by understanding these services we begin to realize how
important these services are in our Church, and how rewarding spiritually they
can be for us all!
May our
Lord God bless you!
By Archimandrite Nektarios (Serfes)
Source: http://www.serfes.org/orthodox/cycleofservices.htm
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