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The Divine and Holy Liturgy

of our Father among the Saints, John Chrysostom

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by Archbishop Joseph Raya and Baron José de Vinck

$12.95 USD

96 pages — Hardcover, 7" x 10.25"

Alleluia Press, 2001

ISBN 0-911726-64-0

A handsome new setting of the celebration of the most awesome and sacred mystery of our Christian faith: the Divine Liturgy.

Here is a stunningly beautiful revised edition of Archbishop Joseph Raya’s translation of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the jewel and centerpiece of Byzantine spirituality. Archbishop Joseph here instills into his translation a renewed sense of reverence and awe before the immense majesty and incomprehensible love of God our Father.

This edition contains a new Foreword by Archbishop Joseph, explaining how the Divine Liturgy developed against the backdrop of the great ancient heresies about the Person and Nature of our Lord Jesus, and that as such it contains a full and serene exposition of who Christ is and why He came to earth. The Archbishop explores the meaning of our salvation and of the Holy Eucharist and Divine Liturgy on a cosmic level, a human level, and a psychological level, and shows how the gestures and rituals of the Liturgy should be performed and why they matter. He includes four prayers of thanksgiving, each hallowed by centuries of use by faithful Christians, and a helpful section giving additional directions for celebrants and offering clarifications of various aspects of the Divine Liturgy that may puzzle newcomers to the glories of Eastern spirituality.

Like all of Archbishop Joseph’s work, this edition of the Divine Liturgy doesn’t supply simply a text and some technical directions — rather, it is suffused with the Archbishop’s joy in Christ and enthusiastic love for Him.

From the Foreword

This Liturgy has been planted in the world as a paradise, a garden of living truth, a place of rebirth. It is essentially a Service of Praise, and Act of Glorification of God that includes a commemoration and re-enactment of the redeeming death and resurrection of our Lord and God Jesus Christ in the ceremony of Prothesis.

There is here a threefold celebration: first of all, the celebration of God-Trinity in the inner sphere of His life as Love, uniting Father-Son-Holy Spirit in the threefold embrace of a single Godhead. In the outer sphere of God's life, the Liturgy celebrates His relationship of love with His creation, the cosmos, and with humanity, stressing in a special way the divine dignity and infinite worth of the human person, man and woman.

There is also the celebration of the integrity of our Lord's divine person. He is the Son of God who became man. He penetrated our humanity with His very divine person, integrating Himself into the created universe and integrating the universe into Himself.

Finally there is the celebration of the Holy Spirit as Seal of assurance that the relationship of God Trinity with creation is a celebration of love.

The Divine Liturgy was developed in the course of the fourth and fifth centuries. The mystery of God has to be “choreographed” to represent human beings in the communion with nature, ancestors, and the Source of life, God Himself. That is the task of the Divine Liturgy: it celebrates the fullness of God's truths.

About Archbishop Joseph Raya

Most Rev. Joseph M. RayaArchbishop Joseph Raya, the first associate priest of Madonna House, was deeply involved in the American civil rights movement, and later, while serving as Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee, he campaigned for justice for Palestinians. A priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church who taught at universities in the U.S.A., Canada and Lebanon, Archbishop Raya is one of the world's foremost writers on Byzantine Christianity. He strives to bring a better understanding of the Byzantine rite Eastern Church to the Latin rite Western world.

Books by Archbishop Joseph Raya

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