Short Prayers and Words We Hear During the Services
Wisdom
WISDOM!
We hear this word repeated frequently during the services in our churches.
Firstly, this word is intended to remind us and bear witness before us and
before the world that everything that takes place in the church has as its
foundation the Divine Wisdom. "26In wisdom hast Thou made them all";
we hear these words at every vigil during the reading of the 103rd Psalm, the
so called Proemial or beginning Psalm. In our everyday life we frequently use
the words reason, mind, sense, and intellect when we try to describe the
obvious function of the human brain. In speaking of the functions of the brain
in this way, we frequently separate these functions of the brain from the full
manifestation of the human spirit. We are living in the age of reason, the age
of man’s great scientific, technical, intellectual, and artistic achievements.
Not infrequently these achievements are deprived of the creative element and
are directed toward destructive objectives.
Is this
what is meant by the word "wisdom," so often used in the church? In
part it is, as man’s reason, enlightened by the light of Christ, can be
contained within the sphere of the Divine Wisdom, but representing at the very
best a mere drop in the ocean of that Wisdom. We could repeat here the dying
words of that great scholar: "All I know is that I know nothing."
Divine
Wisdom is the basis of all creative endeavor in this world. All that cannot be
contained therein, does not draw nourishment therefrom, is not enlightened
thereby, consciously or unconsciously, and is repelled by true knowledge and
becomes a victim of destructive forces. As everything is polarized in the
world, the Divine Wisdom can be opposed only by absolute folly, diabolical
folly, and mindlessness. It is that folly of which King David said: "The
fool hath said in his heart: there is no God.
So this
is why the Church so often repeats the word "WISDOM." In the first
place, it reminds us that true wisdom is inherent in God alone; that man can
approach Divine Wisdom only in so far as he derives spiritual enlightenment
through the Church and in the Church; that the measure of his the Divine Wisdom
is based on humility and the recognition of his own insignificance,
intellectual and spiritual, before the greatness of God. Also, through the
repetition of this word the Church confirms that it, as the Body of Christ; is
one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and is the repository and the fountain of the
only true Wisdom.
Wisdom, Upright
We have
already reflected on the word "wisdom" which, minor though it is, is
profoundly significant. During liturgy, this word is often followed by the word
"upright." In it basic meaning, this word is a call and a reminder
for the supplicants to stand straight and to adopt the physical posture that is
most conducive to attentiveness and best testifies to the reverence of those
who pray to God. Sometimes it is not easy, it can be even tiring, to stand
straight for a long time. That very fatigue, however, is a sacrifice we offer
to God during the divine service and during prayers. That is why this fatigue
is blessed and beneficial. However, the reminder to stand straight is not
limited to its physical meaning. Undoubtedly, the Slavonic word prosti is
derived from the word простон — prostoi meaning "simple." This word,
then, urges upon us inner "straightness," simplicity, collectedness.
The words of the Cherubic Hymn call upon us to "put away all worldly
care." For the duration of the service, we must free ourselves from all
external, worldly superfluous baggage which frequently and very successfully
distracts our minds from the greatness of the religious ceremony. This
"worldly care," our vanity, our distraction must be left outside the
doors of the church; inside the church everything must be directed towards one
goal only: the glorification of the Lord and our immersion in the fullness of
our communion with Him.
In
general, simplicity is one of the basic assumptions of spiritual life. It is
not without reason that an Optina elder used to take pleasure in saying: ‘Where
there is simplicity there are angels aplenty." So here also, in the
church, where we stand face to face with the ineffable Wisdom of God, which is
revealed to us during the divine service, it is good that our hearts, our minds
and even our flesh be clothed in simplicity, holy simplicity, in which there
are no barriers and no walls between us and God.
This is
also the reason why the original meaning of the word upright; stand straight,
stand attentively, stand meekly, is so significant and important. They call us
to subject our behavior in the church to a specific spiritual and physical
order. Every divine service is a movement; ours and that of the entire Church,
toward God. In this movement we are like a spiritual army. In the words of the
hymn we "mystically represent the Cherubim," and Cherubim and
Seraphim are called by the Church "the heavenly host." An army
requires an order and a system. In this particular case, it is an order which
unites our spiritual being with our physical being.
For this
reason, as we participate in the Divine Service we shall stand sober, we shall
stand tall, we shall acquire that state of physical collectedness which will
reveal the way to collectedness and sobriety of the spirit. "Wisdom,
Upright!"
Let us attend
From time
to time during our church services we hear the words, "let us
attend!" This is the imperative form of the verb "to attend." In
ordinary language we might say "let us pay attention," "let us
be attentive." These are again "minor words," which are often
repeated during our services and which can easily escape our attention.
Strange, is it not, that the very words which urge us to be attentive should
escape our attention. These are minor words but words of great meaning and
responsibility.
Attentiveness
is one of the important qualities even in our everyday life. From childhood we
have been taught to pay attention; by parents, by teachers, and by superiors.
Yet it is not always easy to pay attention. Our minds tend to wander, to be
forgetful. It is difficult to force oneself to be attentive. The Church
recognizes this weakness and so tells us every now and again, "let us
attend," let us pay attention, be attentive.
To be
attentive means to make our minds and memories concentrate on and be in harmony
with what we hear. And more importantly, to attune our hearts so that nothing
that happens in the church can slip by them. To pay attention means to listen
and to hear, to look and to see. To pay attention means to free oneself from
all thoughts and considerations; from "all worldly cares." To pay
attention means to open one’s mind, one’s soul and one’s heart to all those
rays of wisdom which flow to us from the Light of Reason, from the Sun of
Truth, from Christ.
It also
means to pay attention to everything which the Church lovingly submerges us in,
but also to pay attention to each other, to our neighbors, to their needs, so
that we may indeed "with one mouth and one heart" glorify God in Holy
Trinity. Christ has said, For where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:19). But He can be among them
only if these "two or three" and the entire Church are linked by the
Union of Love, the very basis of which is the union of attention.
It is
good to remember these words, "let us attend," and to repeat them in
our spirit as we journey through life. As we look at the beauty of God’s world,
God’s creation, it is good to tell ourselves "let us attend." How
much evil, pain, irritation, hostility, untruth would begin to disappear from
our lives, from our relations with others, if we carry these words beyond the
walls of our churches and used them as a lantern and as a torch, to shed light
on each step we take, each movement we make, and each person we meet.
Amen
A very
minor word, Amen, is so often repeated during our services and in our private
prayers. Usually, it marks the end of prayers or important texts of religious
content and it is like a seal placed on everything of particular importance.
And that is exactly what it is. One of the earliest meanings of the ancient
Hebrew word amen was "to be worthy of trust." Other meanings are:
"it is truly so," "let it be so," "let it be
accordingly." In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy, Moses instructs the
people of Israel to build an alter, he gives them the order of sacrificial
offerings and commands them to obey God and submit to him: 9This day thou art
become the people of the LORD thy God (Deuteronomy 27:9). In response to the
loudly proclaimed words of the prophet, words which reject every impiety and
every untruth, the people exclaimed repeatedly Amen. The last lines of the last
book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse or the Revelation of St. John the
Theologian reads: 20He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come
quickly. Amen (Apocalypse 22:20).
Thus the
word "Amen" is used in the Old Testament to signify the concurrence
with the pledge given and, by the same token, the acceptance of all
consequences arising there from. Furthermore, in order to bear witness to this
agreement and at the same time praise the Lord, this word is repeated twice:
"Amen, Amen." In the New Testament this word is used even more
frequently. In the Christian Church, the believers, even Greek speaking
believers, started using this ancient Hebrew word at the end of each
Eucharistic prayer spoken by the priest. But even private prayers and hymns of
praise of early as well as present day Christians end with this word. Christ
used this word at the beginning of particularly important words of witness:
"verily, verily I say unto you," or "amen, amen I say unto
you." He invested this word with a new, special meaning which had been
unknown in the old rabbinical literature by using it to confirm the absolute
truth and veracity of His words; thus lending them the weight of His Divine
authority. In the New Testament even Christ Himself is called "Amen,"
the True One. As Apostle Paul says in his epistle to the Corinthians: For all
the promises of God in Him [Christ] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of
God by us (II Corinthians 1:20). And so, as we utter the word "Amen"
we give ourselves to God, we submit to His will. As He has signed the New
Testament, His Testament, with His Blood which He has shed upon the Cross so we
receive from Him this New Testament, this new covenant of God with man and we
confirm our faithfulness and devotion to Him by this burning word of faith;
Amen!
Alleluia
In the
Psalms of King David we frequently find the word of praise
"Alleluia." Apart from the Psalms, this word appears only twice in
the Bible. Once, in the Old Testament, in the prophetic vision of the New
Jerusalem in the Book of Tobit it is said that its streets will echo with
Alleluias. Then in his Revelation (Apocalypse) St. John says: After these things
I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation,
and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God (Apocalypse 19:1). And
alleluias continue to issue forth from the mouths of those who are holy and
just and bow down before the Throne of the Almighty.
The word
"Alleluia," which appears with such frequency in the hymns and
prayers of our Liturgy, is of Hebrew origin. The last syllable "ia"
is an abbreviated form of Yahweh or Jehovah, the Old Testament name for God.
The preceding syllables mean praise. The whole word, then, means Praise God,
Praise the Lord. The Christian Church began early using this word of praise in
the liturgical texts. The word became an expression of joy and triumph, a hymn
to triumphant faith. In our Church, it is a part of all services, including the
services of repentance during Great Lent and the services for the dead. The
entire life of the Church is built on the unwavering faith in Christ’s
Resurrection. The attitude of the Church even to death is permeated with the
joyous expectation of the forthcoming meeting with Christ and the life
everlasting in the Kingdom of God.
During
the Divine Liturgy, the word "Alleluia" is sung before the reading of
the Gospel; at the end of the Cherubim hymn, it marks the translation of the
Mysteries from the table of ablations to the Holy Throne Table; it is sung
after the Communion and at the end of the liturgy. It is heard on many
occasions during the vigil. So it is present throughout our church services
and, for all its brevity, it expresses that to which all divine services are
dedicated; the praise of God.
So there
we have yet another minor word which does not always hold our attention. Yet,
its content is so inexhaustible that the just will use it to express the praise
of God in the New Heaven and the New Earth, in the everlasting Kingdom of God.
For there is no better way of proclaiming the Divine dominion over the world
and over mankind than by praising and glorifying Him, by singing praises to
Him; the King and the Lord.
Lord have mercy
Lord have
mercy. How frequently these three words are repeated in our churches and in our
personal prayers. They are repeated in litanies which consist of short
petitions, each of which ends with the words "Lord have mercy." At
evening services and during the reading of the Hours we repeat these words
sometimes three, sometimes twelve, and sometimes even forty times. How
marvelous is the score of the Russian composer Lvovsky for the multiple
"Lord have mercy" sung at the Elevation of the Cross. And there are
many other services during which "Lord have mercy" is repeated many
times, insistently, repentantly.
Let us
not be disturbed by such frequent repetition of some of our short prayers, in
particular the prayer "Lord have mercy." The object of such repetition
is to imbue our hearts, our minds, and our entire souls with the prayer. The
aim is to focus our attention on the topic of the prayer which the Church
considers of particular importance for our spiritual growth. This repetition,
like a theme in music, penetrates our consciousness and remains long in our
memory, staying with us even as we leave the church for our everyday
existences.
"Lord
have mercy." Three words, but what depth of meaning do they hold. First,
by calling God Lord, we confirm His rule over the world, the mankind and, most
importantly, over ourselves, over those who speak these words. Lord means
master, ruler. This is why we call ourselves the servants of God. This term has
nothing offensive about it, as is so readily suspected by some of those who
would fight the Lord. Servitude by itself is negative as it deprives the human
being of the original gift; the gift of freedom. But as this gift was given to
man by God, only in God can man find the plenitude of freedom. It follows,
therefore, that service to God is in fact the perfect freedom in God.
Our
service to God is far from perfect. Every day, every hour we flee from that
blessed Servitude. We flee to where there is neither light, nor love, nor joy,
nor life; we can find these only in God. We flee from perfect joy to the
bottomless pit of sorrow. Then, we awake spiritually, we return to our senses;
we begin to understand that we have nowhere to go when we flee God, except to
death. As King David said: Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? And from Thy
presence whither shall I flee? (Psalm 138:7 [LXX]). We return to God; some of
us after only a momentary absence, some after many years of alienation. In
order to reestablish our filial servitude to Him, the servitude which we are
constantly fleeing, we beg for forgiveness and repeat: have mercy, have mercy.
So there
they are, these minor words, these few words of prayer with which we can pray
in all places and at all times: "Lord have mercy." It is good to
value them, cherish and nurture them. They are our praying beads made up of
words and they link our hand with the right hand of the Lord.
The Holies for the Holy
Just
before the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ,
standing in the sanctuary facing the Holy Table, the priest raises the Holy
Lamb, the Bread of the Bloodless Sacrifice, which has become the body of
Christ, and says these words: "the Holies for the holy." These words
have the sound of a mystery which, indeed, is contained therein. But no mystery
should be deprived of the inner meaning with which these words, these minor
words," are also imbued.
Apostle
Peter, in his First Epistle General speaks to the still young Christian Church:
9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation . . . the
people of God (I Peter 2:9-10). This is how Apostle Peter describes the members
of the early Church and all of us together with them. There is no doubt that
the early Christians consisted of sinners as well as saints. There are quite a
few sinners in today’s Church, starting with ourselves. And yet the apostle
calls all of them and all of us the chosen nation, the royal priesthood, the
holy people, the people of God. This sets the standard for the attitude of God
and the Church toward man, toward the people of the Church. Through the Mystery
of Baptism, every person receives the absolute guarantee of holiness. From the
font, the baptized individual arises holy, washed clean of all sin, all
untruth, and all defilement. This holiness is sealed with Chrismation. Thus all
newly baptized are given the fullest potential of holiness which the Church
recognizes in them through their entire life.
The onus
of responsibility for the preservation of this gift lies no longer on the
Church but on the conscience of the individual, on his or her treatment of the
gift of free will, freedom of choice between good and evil. The holiness is
lost, it is dissipated on the roads and crossroads of life, but it is also
restored through the mysteries of Confession and Communion. And the Church
continues to stand by her original estimation: she continues to believe in us,
in . . . A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar
people . . . [of God] (I Peter 2:9[-10]). And the Church invests not only her
priests but all her members with the great gift of the royal priesthood.
According to the Orthodox teaching, the great mystery of the Eucharist is
performed not by the priest alone, but by the entire Church, the entire
"royal priesthood," the entire "people of God."
Therefore,
as he raises the Holy Lamb, the Body of Christ, presenting it to the entire
Church, the priest says: "The Holies for the holy." "The
Holies" are what he holds in his hands at this moment; the Holy Mysteries.
"For the holy" means that the Mysteries are intended for all of us,
all members of the Church, in whose eyes we are all holy since we are the
people of God. And we, in full and humble recognition of our sinfulness and
unworthiness, respond: "One is holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ. . . ."
Let us depart in peace
At the
end of the Divine Liturgy, after the Communion and the Thanksgiving for the
Mysteries, the priest turns towards the people and, coming out of the altar,
says: "Let us depart in peace." We must remember that in early days these
words marked the end of the Liturgy, and the faithful were asked to return to
their homes "in peace."
The word
peace appears often in the prayers of the Church. The Church is the great
champion of peace. It was peace which the angels proclaimed on the night of the
Nativity as they sang: "Glory to God on high and peace on earth."
Christ frequently spoke of peace: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you: not as the world giveth (John 14:27). The Church calls for peace as it
begins the Liturgy and other services with the Litany of Peace: "In peace
let us pray to the Lord." In his War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy misinterprets
these words when he takes the word peace to mean the community of men. The
actual meaning of these words is the invitation to pray to the Lord in peace,
with tranquillity of mind. "For the peace from above’ is not peace given
to us by the world, peace achieved through peace negotiations and treaties; it
is the peace given to us by Christ. But we also pray "for peace in the
whole world," because nothing so dims the rejoicing of the Church as
raging enmity in the world.
This
peace is not the peace which is simply the opposite of war. Politicians, who so
readily use the word peace and who so frequently abuse it, do not recognize
that the most peaceful places in the world are cemeteries, not conference
tables at which the word peace appears in all shapes and forms. The peace of
which the Church speaks, with which it sends its congregants into the world
after the Liturgy, is a different peace. It cannot be taken away by anyone; it
is capable of filling the hearts and minds of men even on battlefields, in
wars, revolutions, and catastrophes. It is an inner peace. It is certainly not
individual or personal; it is the peace of which St. Seraphim spoke when he
said: "keep the spirit of peace within yourself and a thousand around you
will be saved." So it is the peace which cannot be concentrated upon, or
contained within, rather it is one which one uses as a conduit through which to
reach "a thousand" other hearts as St. Seraphim affirmed.
So it is
the peace to which the priest calls the worshippers as he sends them off on
their worldly business after the Divine Service. In the early days of the
Church, there no doubt existed a kind of spiritual insatiability. People were
loath to leave this "heaven on earth." And so the priest’s words ‘let
us depart in peace" are answered by the people "in the name of the
Lord"; in the name of God. And the priest responds to this request by
ending his dialogue with the people with the words, "Let us pray to the
Lord" and by reading the last prayer for the Church, for Her people, for
peace…
By Archpriest George M. Benigsen
Source: https://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/vigil_v_potapov.htm
