A Journey Through the Liturgy

 

H.G Bishop Moussa

 

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

ONE GOD. AMEN.

 

The word Liturgy is composed of 2 parts. “lay” and “erg”. “Lay” derived from la-os or laity – lay people and “erg” meaning the work. The work of the people and it was for any event when people come together like a festival. The work of the people - but afterwards it was restricted to the religious work of the people that is

the Holy liturgy, the mass, the prayers.

You know we have three liturgies:

1. The Cyrilian that was originally of St Mark.

2. The Gregorian

3. The Basilian

The Ethiopians have how many masses? Eighteen liturgies – they are very

nice to read. There is a book in Arabic and English that presents the

eighteen liturgies they have which Abouna Moris Dawood prepared a long

time ago but it is now out of print. I have a copy of it but I’m not going to

give it to you. If someone asks for it I can copy it for them. The problem is

that we are not allowed to use them until the Holy Synod says to use it

because a few people started to use them and some of the priests started to

use these very nice liturgies but the Holy Synod said that we can’t because

we will find that we end up with twenty-one masses and we will confuse

everything so we will agree in the Holy Synod on which part we can use from

this liturgy and all of us can use it. Until now no one has requested this but

if you listen to the mass of John the Beloved – His theology is marvellous.

His spirituality is very impressive.

Look the mass is simply, we are not going to trouble you with too many

details, but if we look at the mass we will find it has seven sections.

1. The Incense – evening and morning

2. The Psalms

3. The Offertory – ta-dem el hamal (offer the Lamb)

4. The Readings

5. The Sermon

6. The Story of Salvation – this is a big part.

7. The Litanies

In the Story of Salvation we see that it takes until we let the bread and wine

to become the body and blood of Christ. Then since Emmanuel is amongst us

we can start the Litanies – our request and then there is the Fraction and

Distribution so we can keep it simple.

(1) Incense:

The Incense is what in Arabic? Ruf el booh-khoor in the evening and in the

morning like we just did now. A long time ago in the Old Testament there

was offering in the evening and offering in the morning everyday. And God

so He can (yerda an nena) we can and have a link with Him - daily link. So

now of course there is no offerings with blood (zaba-ah), this means there

are no animals to be slaughtered and shed their blood this was all removed

for the crucifixion of Christ so now The Raising of Incense (Raf el boohkhoor)

is instead of it.

The Raising of Incense whether it is in the evening or in the morning has

four types of prayers. The one you were just praying now. If you took notice

you will find that there was the Praise (tasbeha) and Thanksgiving (salat el

shokr) and then there is asking the mercy of God (evnoti-nai nan) and then

there is our requests and (talabat) and of course there is the Bible. Of

course it is an amazing church because it gives you in half an hour if you

want to glorify God with praise there is tasbeha. If you want to thank Him

(God) for what He is doing for you there is the thanks-giving. If you want to

ask Him to forgive you for your sins there is (alah erhamna). If you want to

ask requests the church will offer you a lot of the requests on your behalf in

the prayers of the raising of incense. They are all different – each of them

has a different motive. Praise – I am praising God for His virtues, His love,

His care, His sacrifice and so on – praising the Lord. If it is about the thanks

– I am thanking God because (satara ana) say with me what He said “We

thank you for you protected us, assisted us, guided us, accepted us…

brought us to this hour” so we thank the Lord.

After that, number three, asking the Mercy of God. That’s when Sayedna is

praying evnoti-nai nan. He does His hands in the sign of the cross and holds

the cross in his hand and on the cross there is a candle. A candle represents

what? Christ. And the three represents the Holy Trinity. So was the Holy

Trinity crucified? What do you think? The Holy Trinity participated in

redemption. Of course the Father gave His Son. Is that right? God so loved

the world He gave His only begotten Son… The Son gave Himself on the cross

and the Holy Spirit transmits the blessings of redemption to my heart.

Therefore it has a very important function. Therefore the Father gave His

Son, the Son gave Himself, the Holy Spirit gives the fruits of redemption and

converts them into my heart. Therefore I am asking the mercy of God

(alahom marhamna ateref alena erfah gadabak ana) I am repenting, I am

confessing, I am asking the mercy of God another type of prayer.

The fourth type of prayer is the requests or litanies. What do we request on

behalf of in the raising of incense? Think of the asheya. What did we just

pray now? The departed (el raq-edeen). And if we are tomorrow morning

what would we pray? We pray for the sick (el marda). We can also pray with

it for the traveller (el mosafareen). So there is the sick people and the

travelers. And then after that the prayers that are said in secret are for the

sake of the Church and the Pope, the Bishop and the priests. Then we pray

for the sake of the salvation of the world (khalas el mawda). Then we pray

for the sake of the air and the sake of the fruits and the sake of the plants

and everything. And even when we are praying we pray for the sake of the

widow (armalla), the orphan, the stranger and even for the sake of the

guest. So if there is a heavy guest at your home – the church is helping you.

This means the Church is amazing, there is nothing else you will need to

pray for. Your sins – you will find alahom marhamna. What else do you want?

There’s nothing more. There are some litanies that come in the mass only

and there are prayers for the sake of the presidents. There is nothing left

out of the mass. There is nothing you will find missing. I mean I don’t know,

if you want to tell me about something. If you want to work we include it –

we say success to the student and action for the needy now. We added it

because it became a problem and the Church is flexible it sees the needs of

the people. So a lot of requests you can find. All of this we are still in the

raising of the incense in vespers (asheya) and baaker.

(2) Psalms:

After that we go to Psalms. You will find they say has the Lamb (hamal)

arrived, yes, ok then we will pray the Psalms. We wear white and begin to

pray the Psalms. If it is a non-fasting day we pray the third and sixth hour. If

we are fasting, we pray the third, sixth and ninth hour. And if there is the

Great Fast (lent) we pray the eleventh, twelfth… If we are in the monastery

we pray the prayer of the veil (setar) something for the monks. You might

say what is this and I will say, listen carefully, these are the prayers that

come through the liturgy. This is the idea that we do not want to forget the

Agpia and the Psalms. So now we are in the mass and the mass is going to

finish at eleven or twelve for example so we pray the third and sixth (hour).

If the mass is going to be late and finish after midday then we pray the

ninth (hour). The sunset prayer comes out in the evening what do we pray

then? - Till the sunsets. The Psalms of David are full of spiritualities and

spiritual emotions and affections towards God and full of lessons and

preaching – as if you are preaching yourself. Of course we are not going to

talk about the Agpia now but I just want to tell you our church is very

amazing She wants us every three hours to speak with God if you look on the

map you will see it like that. Look this here is baaker (6am), then the third

(9am) and then the sixth (12pm) and then ninth will be (3pm) and then the

eleventh and twelfth creates some concentration why? Because one is the

sunset and one is the Compline. One is at 5pm and the other is at 6pm. Here

I remember resurrection, here the Holy Spirit, here crucifixion, here death

of the Lord, here getting the body down from the cross and this burial.

When they were going to bury him it had become dark (6pm). Ok you say

and then, and I say to you this is how our Church is – 9PM!? You say the

midnight prayer is number one. Rest a little and come to me at 12am

because I will give you the other midnight. Come at 3am – you don’t have to

sleep, sleep why? 3am you will find the haga el talta. Haga means you rest a

while and get up. They don’t want to sleep what can we do? It is their love

for God. And then you return at 6am which is baaker (matins). You will find

it every three hours. Of course none of us do this but they used to do this

and more than this. So the idea, take care, is not just to take the

spiritualities of the Psalms but also certain occasions in the life of Christ.

Here I take the power of resurrection, here the power of the Holy Spirit,

here the power of crucifixion, here the power of the death of Christ to

humiliate and control my senses, here that I am going to bury my sins with

You in the tomb Lord. In the sixth, which is the Sunset it’s the end of life –

the end of day and therefore I must prepare myself and then here is the

burial I bury my sins with the Lord. Here now – all of this is waiting so I

don’t want waiting in the midnight prayer to the second advent of Christ

and the Christ comes to find us sleeping we must be awake. That’s them not

us I mean. We will be where? Under the doona praying any few words then

we sleep and God looks down on us from above and says (ala adoohom) as

much as they know – it doesn’t matter I love them. Even still - I love them

and they are doing this.

(3) Offertory:

Psalms, offertory - you see that after the Psalms we wash our hands and

then we offer the Lamb (the hamal) which is an odd number of Korban and

we have to chose the best representing the Lord because He is blameless,

sinless in order to be offered on our behalf. And you know very well the talk

of the young you learnt a long time ago so that you can tell your children.

That it is to be circular, infinity – no beginning no end. And then there is the

stamp which has written on it agios otheos, agios is-sheros, agios athanatos.

And then there is one big cross and around it another twelve small crosses.

The big cross is called the Spadikon which comes from the word despota (el

sayed). And this part is the half that the priest which is holding the

sacrafice (zabiha) eats so that we do not break it. It has an important role

which and is put into the chalice with the blood and the Priest takes it

before all the people. So he is taking the Spadikon. The twelve crosses

represent the twelve disciples. And then the five holes. Then you find that

when the priest is choosing the Lamb he does his hands like this. And they

say why don’t you do them like this. Who did them like this? Jacob. While he

was blessing the children of Joseph, Manasseh (and Ephraimh). But take care

he does the sign of what? The cross. Because I am choosing what? The

Redeemer who will be crucified on our behalf. And even Jacob when he was

doing this he was representing the cross exactly like the serpent of Moussa

this was one of the symbols representing the cross. As if we were waiting for

the Saviour to be crucified on our behalf. So Abouna chooses the korban and

sees the best one and then he takes water and does what? Baptises it just

like when Christ was being baptised. Now, He was born, then He was

baptised and after He is baptised Abouna takes off the Spadikon – it’s

amazing stuff. He puts the cross if the korbana is like this and has inside it

the main cross and the twelve around it he wraps it and puts the cross like

this as if he is making the Lamb carry the cross. And he rotates around the

altar with it. This represents Jesus’ preaching spreading the Gospel. And

after that he prays the Thanks-giving prayer after he has (blessed it three

times) he puts the Lamb in the patin and the wine (abarka) in the chalice

then he covers everything with something called el prospherin and on the

prospherin he puts a triangular (corporal) lefafa. Now we have put the

hamal in the tray and now this is the death of Christ and burial and this is

now the rock at the tomb and the triangular lefafa (corporal) is the seel of

Pontius Pilot. After that Abouna begins to read the tahleel (absolution) if

you notice you will find him reading the absolutions to those who are serving

and to the congregation and with this the offertory is finished.

(4) Readings & (5) Sermon:

We move to the Readings. We sit and listen as you know to the following

readings: the Pauline, the Catholic and then the Acts and then the

Sinaxarium and then the Gospel and with it the Psalm and then the Sermon.

All of this is called Liturgy of the catechumens that is for those who are

going to listen to the Sermon and know the teachings of Christianity before

being baptised. These people used to after that only attend reconciliation

and leave the church but then after we say the reconciliation prayer we find

Abouna lifting the prospherin and the prospherin had bells in it (galagel). So

when he lifts the prospherin it was like there was an earthquake and this is

with the resurrection of Jesus. Children who are just catechumens will not

be able to attend with us after that so here is the Lord was born, baptised,

evangelised the world and then was crucified and buried was resurrected

and ascended to heaven so you may leave now for He has reconciled with us

and that is it. And that is why you find that after the catechumens leave

who are the pagans who enter Christianity but are yet to be baptised they

do not attend with us the mass you find Abouna saying the Lord be with you

all – so where was He, wasn’t He with us. No because there was some

disturbance because the catechumens left. So He says lift up your hearts we

say they are with the Lord. So here we entered something called the

Catechumens Mass.

These readings show that our church is very biblical and we read each

liturgy how many chapters from the Gospel – nine. What are they? In the

vespers Psalm and Gospel in the baaker Psalm and Gospel and in the Mass

Psalm and Gospel that is six. Then there is the Pauline. Catholic and Acts

that’s nine. During fasting we take things from the Old Testament the

Prophecies. Then see in Pascha how much we read during Passion Week we

read a lot in the tasabeeh. We read a lot from the Bible. Our church is very

biblical in its doctrine and its rituals, very biblical. To the depth / bottom of

the church it is very biblical. When you listen to the Gospel in a humble

spirit you are going to learn a lot you are going to repent.

(6) Story of Salvation:

Enter here now the Story of Salvation and if you look you will find we start

from the beginning we speak to the Father and we tell Him God the eternal

who created us and placed us in the paradise … you destroyed by the lifegiving

manifestation of Your only Begotten Son Our Lord God and Saviour

Jesus Christ. You have filled the earth with the peace from the heaven by

which the host of angel glorify You saying… (pg 33 from the Holy Liturgy

book) and then According to your goodwill O God, fill our hearts with your

peace, cleanse us from all blemish, all guile, all hypocrisy, all malice and

the remembrance of evil entailing death. And make us all worthy O our

Master to greet one another with the holy kiss. Here I am speaking to the

Father the creator who created heaven and earth. Then we say on page 38

what we said before May the Lord be with you all. Lift up your hearts. Then

on the bottom of page 38 we read “Right and worthy, right and worthy,

truly indeed it is right and worthy. O you who are Master…” – we are

speaking to the Father “…Lord, God of Truth. Being before the ages and

reigning forever. Who dwells in the highest and looks upon the lowly. Who

has created the heaven, the earth…” who is that – the Father, the Creator

“… the sea and all that is therin. The Father of Our Lord, God and Saviour

Jesus Christ. By whom You have created”. Take care the creation was not

done by the Father without the Son. The father created Heaven and earth

by the Son in the Holy Spirit. The three are working together. “Who sits

upon the throne of His holy Glory, and who is worshipped by all the holy

powers”. And also before whom stand the angels the Arch angels, the

principalities, the authorities, the thrones, dominions and the powers. You

are He around whom stands the Cherobim full of eyes and the Seraphim with

six wings praising continuously without ceasing saying and we say the

Cherobim worship you… All of this is the creation – the first stage. When we

sinned now the salvation. Lets see what they say. Now we have come to the

role of the Son and the redeemer. Also redeemed us through the will of the

Father and the work of the Holy Spirit. Agios, Agios, Agios… who formed us,

created us and placed us in the paradise of joy… … story of salvation and

when we disobeyed your commandments by the guile of the serpent we fell

from eternal life were exiled from the paradise of joy you have not

abandoned us to the end but have always visited us through your… tells us

the story of the prophets. And in the last days… what happened? You did

manifest yourself to us who is sitting in darkness and the shadow of death

through your only begotten Son our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ who

of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Virgin Mary. He doesn’t need someone to

teach them anything if he attends the mass and found the story of salvation

and incarnation and the birth from St Mary. Was incarnated (pg 43) and

became man and taught us the ways of salvation granted us the birth – this

is the baptism. From on high through water and spirit he made us unto

himself a congregation – this is the church. And sanctified us by your Holy

Spirit – this is the work of the Holy Spirit. The redemption done by the three

hypostasis. But the Son redeemed us and this was through the gift of the

giving of the Father. He loved His own who are in the world, and gave

himself up for our salvation onto death which reigned over us, whereby we

were bound and sold on account of our sins. He ascended into Hades through

the cross… who is this… the Father, the Son? We are now in the work of the

Son with us. He rose – that’s the Father isn’t it? Still. From the dead on the

third day; he ascended into heaven and sat at your right hand, O Father.

What is missing from the story? The birth of Christ and His life. He has

appointed a day for recompense, on which He will appear to judge the

world in righteousness and give each one according to His deeds. And then

we tell Him ok He was crucified. He was finished you tell Him finished what?

The crucifixion we today we do the continuation of it through the Eucharist.

He instituted for us this great mystery of Godliness for being determined to

give Himself up to death for the life of the world, He took bread into His

holy, spotless, unblemished, blessed and life giving hands. He looked up

towards heaven to you, O God, who are His Father and Master of everyone,

He gave thanks, He blessed it and sanctified it. He broke it, gave it to His

own Holy Disciples and Saintly Apostles saying “take eat of it all of you”

shall be broken for you and for many for the remission of sins.” This was

page 46 we go to page 47 we will go to the cup. Likewise the cup also after

supper mixed it of wine and water. Gave thanks, blessed it and sanctified it

and said take drink of it. And then He says to us on page 48 every time you

shall eat of this bread and drink of this cup you proclaim… this is our

message to the world and then… therefore, as we also commemorate His

Holy passion, His resurrection from the dead (pg 49) His ascension into the

heavens, His sitting at Your right hand, O Father – His second coming.

Everything in the life of Christ is put in front of me for all the story of

salvation. After that you will find on page 50 I want you to read the things

that are said secretly there. Abouna prays a prayer because the deacon says

worship the Lord in fear and trembling. So we say to Him we praise you, we

bless you, we serve you O Lord and we worship you (inaudibly) He says what

Abouna and we ask you O Lord our God we your sinful and unworthy servants

we worship you by the pleasure of your goodness that your Holy Spirit – this

is the whole trinity. The Holy Spirit does what? Descended now upon these

gifts set forth – upon us and upon the gifts. You will find Abouna (yershem)

himself and then the (congregation). Take note that at this stage its Abouna

who is (ersheeming). After it becomes the body and blood he doesn’t

(ershem). Abouna doesn’t (ershem) the congregation or himself until erini

pasi. Take care of what Abouna does. He says erini pasi and then he says

etfadal enta I am now Emanuel. You are not body and blood so now after

the Holy Spirit the body and blood… so we tell Him purify them, change

them, manifest them and sanctification as the sanctification of your sin.

Then Abouna goes and (yershem) the Lamb three times and this bread He

makes into His Holy body. And he bows down and (ershems) the wine three

times… and this cup also the honoured blood of His new covenant. After that

it’s finished. Even the bishop of he was holding his staff he puts it aside its

rude the Lord is present. And after he was blessing the congregation he

stops because the Lord blesses them now.

(7) Litanies:

And since the Lord came in our midst say now your litanies ask for all that

you want. The whole congregation can request it’s a chance. Who ever

wants something tells Him. Look if John Howard came here everyone would

ask for what they want from him and of course he won’t listen to you. He

will say tell my secretary. You tell his secretary and it will go to the

garbage. But the Lord will not. You are with Emanuel now so tell Him what

you want. I don’t want to ask you what the litanies are because you just

said them. We ask for everything but we will add to them on behalf of the

departed and that’s why we bring in the commemoration of saints. And we

say Lord repose the souls that you have taken and take them to your

kingdom as the Lord is in our midst. We ask for all our requests.

After this we go onto the Fraction and this differs of course from season to

season. 1 These days we are in … It all speaks about the birth of Christ.

Notice that tomorrow when we pray God willing the fraction will be of the

birth of Christ. And in the annual … Or if it is Saint Mary’s feast there is a

special fraction. The resurrection has a special fraction etc… And of course

this dividing of the body also has certain meaning and is not only words. One

third and then two thirds and the pole of the Korbana and the bottom part

which makes four pieces so there is a specific order. He divides during the

Fraction and he divides the body into parts and after that you know by the

final prayers “Amen, Amen, Amen, I believe, I believe, I believe” this is the

body, this is the blood that He took from Saint Mary given for our salvation

and remission of sins and eternal life to those who partake of it. And after

that Abouna begins to distribute the body and blood to the believers and

after he totally finishes he doesn’t leave any of it because a long time ago

the lamb of the Passover cannot last till the next day. And even Christ after

the crucifixion should not have been on the cross till the next day.

Therefore we do not preserve or keep anything of the sacraments till the

next day. Other churches do this but we do not because we will pray again

tomorrow. So we begin to distribute the body and blood to the believers and

at the end Abouna after he totally finishes he takes some water and sprays

it and says: Ya Malak hasa…… remember us…………..because there is an angel

guarding the sacrifice now we are asking him to go to Heaven and intercede

on our behalf. And then Abouna throws water on the congregation as a

symbol of purification and then we go outside and say we were in heaven,

when can we return again so we can attend the liturgy. The liturgy is an

excursion from the earth to the heavens that’s why we take the fullness of

Christianity through the liturgy we have the Lord Himself inside us and thank

you very much. 1 Hour 28 minutes

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS:

To take our oblations and present them before the Lord when we have the

Lord Jesus Christ on the altar before us?

The sacrifice (zabeha) was finished when Jesus was here there was nothing

left in the tray. This is one of the things which makes us not keep the

sacrifice till the second or third day. That’s it the Lord is now inside us.

Since He is inside us and the angel is ascending so I tell him it is different if

the Lord is not dwelling within us. But the Lord is dwelling in us so we ask

the angel ‘Eskorna amam al rab ekhfer lana khat-i-ana’ (remember us in

front of the Lord and forgive us our sins) and the things we are going to do

everyday after that. And when we are outside the church we ask the angels

‘ya malak eshfayo-fena, kediseen eshfayo fena’ we ask the for the

intercession of the saints. Therefore if the Lord is at the alter we would not

say this, but after it is distributed, nothing is left; He is dwelling in us not

among us.

I didn’t quite understand the concept behind the fractional prayer? What

does it mean?

When we are undertaking the fraction we remember the season that we are

in, the occasion that we are in. It is true that the sacrifice (al zabehaa) all

along the year. But now that we are in the fast of the nativity, we

concentrate on the nativity. If we are in the fast of the Great Lent we

concentrate on ‘fasting and prayer, fasting and prayer’ and if we are in the

resurrection and so on. This is done in order for the church to keep you in

alert concerning the season that we are living in. It makes us all unified

through this ritual. Together we remember the nativity. Together we

remember the Apostles. Together we remember the St Mary. The fraction is

fixing this idea and unifying the believers towards one occasion that we live

together. It gives the sense of oneness

Why is it necessary to prayer the fractional prayer only during the breaking

of the bread?

It is regulations, is he (the priest) going to break the bread without

speaking. Also keep in mind what He said ‘this is my body which shall be

broken for you’ Truthfully the bread is being broken we remember the

crucifixion, but when you remember the crucifixion, you do not forget the

occasion that you are in, that is if it is the nativity, the resurrection and so

on. As the crucifixion is all year, it is of the whole year. But each occasion

has its memory.

Sometimes the fraction has litanies (requests)?

It is your right to have some requests after the fraction is completed. While

you are kneeling you may have requests but they are silent (in secret). Here

Abouna says all that he wants and remembers those who are in certain

tribulations. Even the fraction has litanies. We ask from the crucified. It is a

prayer by itself, in it has an occasion and in it devoting our lives. Purify our

eyes in order for us to receive communion. It is a preparation towards taking

the Holy Communion.

Why in the mass before they say ‘He took the bread and He gave thanks and

He blessed it’ they talk about Him rising. He has appointed a day for

recompense…. He ascended into the heavens and sat at the right hand of

the Father….So He already rose then after they say He took bread?

He is telling a story until he reached the heavens. This is the story of the

life Our Lord. But with this story I remember it, so this story can stay with

me. So after I tell the story I begin to remember it so what is it that I

remember about it - the body and blood of the Lord. So I start speaking and

praying.

I have a friend who is allergic to wheat and flour – siliac disease?

If this is the case they can manage it is only a little proportion of it. I can

manage the blood only. The blood only can work for both the body and

blood. When a young baby has communion we give them only a little bit of

blood. We take the spadikon (the central cross of the body) and put it in the

cup and we take from the blood and we bless the body three times all over

the body can be the body and blood and the blood can be both. For instance

when we go to someone who is sick and cannot swallow we take the body

and the blood, but I only take a little of blood on my finger and touch his

tongue and give him some water. I have a deacon with me who has not had

any water as the priest would have had some to drink. Therefore blood can

only be sufficient.

Having the blood is there a risk for contracting contagious diseases?

This is not a strange question. This is a question we have studied in the Holy

Synod because some people were worried about contagious diseases.

Number one it’s faith, this is understood, it’s the body and the blood of the

Lord. Number two there is a percentage of alcohol in the blood. If there was

no alcohol it would not work there has to be because the grape juice plus 7%

alcohol not a lot. The reason for this is because this is a symbol of the

difference between the humanity and divinity. And the alcohol is

inflammable. So the alcohol 100% will kill any microbes. So now I have the

faith and I have the alcohol. And the third thing is that most of these

diseases that we are afraid of such as aids can only be contaminated blood

to blood which means it cannot live in the saliva or in the air. We did a

study in a lab in Egypt on the monks without anybody knowing and nobody

transferred any diseases to each other and of course the monks have

communion every day. The person who ran the research was the person who

was concerned about the contagious diseases and infections. After a while I

went to visit her and she said she has done statistics for everything and she

found nothing,

If someone has the flu or virus or something should he tell the priest not to

have communion?

It should not reach to this as the virus will die in the alcohol and we give

them communion in the hospitals and nothing happens

Relating to the agbia is it historically known who wrote it and how we got it?

It was put by the church in ancient ages. And then even if we made it up

today it’s full of blessings. One, It is made up of Psalms of David which is

the best prayers about somebody who said “I am prayer”. Two, what is in it,

the occasions that we spoke about now about the life of Christ to keep you

attached to the Lord the whole day. Three, there is preaching by itself. It is

full of commandments so that when you read it you benefit from it. Four, it

has Gospels. Five, it has some nice litanies according to the occasion which

is being celebrated. It is marvellous by itself. So it was put and we took it as

part of our tradition from the ancient ages.

Why is the spadikon eaten by the Priest only?

Because you have one of two solutions. Firstly, the priest is the one who

accepts the sacrifice even if there is someone higher than him not serving.

So number one reason is the sacrifice. When the Priest comes to take

communion who takes the spadikon – you cannot break it because this is

representing Christ so the Priest takes it. So number one is the sacrifice and

number to it is representing Christ and we should not break it.

Is there any reason for the names that are mentioned in the commemoration

of the Saints?

We choose a collection from the Saints and it’s a type of regulation. If you

like to continue you will never finish.

What is the meaning of Ana-fora?

Ana-fora is a Greek word which means prayers of the mass. It comes from

the word form which is the changing of the body and blood from bread and

wine but I am not sure what it means literally. (It comes from lift up your

heart).

||    Pope Shenouda    ||    Father Matta    ||    Bishop Mattaous    ||    Fr. Tadros Malaty    ||    Bishop Moussa    ||    Bishop Alexander    ||    Habib Gerguis    ||    Bishop Angealos    ||    Metropolitan Bishoy    ||