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Blessed Is the Kingdom, Now and Forever: Reflections on the Divine Liturgy
Pray the Divine Liturgy instead of just watching it. Understand and appreciate the mystery so that the Divine Liturgy becomes more powerful and meaningful for your life.
Many Orthodox Christian “witness” the Divine Liturgy without being real participants in it. Perhaps this is why Orthodox Christians are perpetually late or miss the Divine Liturgy altogether. After all, for many, it is just a ritual that will be repeated virtually the same way next week. When we examine each petition and action of the Divine Liturgy, we realize that each one calls us to participate.
The word “liturgy” comes from two Greek “leitos” (meaning “people”) and “ergon” (meaning “work”). Liturgy literally means “the work of the people” and implies that this is a divine work of all the people. When one comes to worship and truly does the work of the Divine Liturgy, it becomes more than a ritual; it becomes alive.
The Divine Liturgy is a parable. To the untrained eye and the unopened heart, it is a ritual involving a man in robes, a choir, altar boys, processions, incense, and candles. But to the one whose heart is open, whose eye is trained, and who yearns to experience God in the Divine Liturgy, the Divine Liturgy opens the gates to the kingdom of heaven and allows the most common of people to enter the kingdom of heaven for a short period each week.
Blessed Is the Kingdom, Now and Reflections on the Divine Liturgy will help the reader understand and appreciate the mystery that unfolds before us each time this service is celebrated. This book will arm you with knowledge on how to pray the Divine Liturgy so that this service will become more powerful and meaningful in your life.
Many Orthodox Christian “witness” the Divine Liturgy without being real participants in it. Perhaps this is why Orthodox Christians are perpetually late or miss the Divine Liturgy altogether. After all, for many, it is just a ritual that will be repeated virtually the same way next week. When we examine each petition and action of the Divine Liturgy, we realize that each one calls us to participate.
The word “liturgy” comes from two Greek “leitos” (meaning “people”) and “ergon” (meaning “work”). Liturgy literally means “the work of the people” and implies that this is a divine work of all the people. When one comes to worship and truly does the work of the Divine Liturgy, it becomes more than a ritual; it becomes alive.
The Divine Liturgy is a parable. To the untrained eye and the unopened heart, it is a ritual involving a man in robes, a choir, altar boys, processions, incense, and candles. But to the one whose heart is open, whose eye is trained, and who yearns to experience God in the Divine Liturgy, the Divine Liturgy opens the gates to the kingdom of heaven and allows the most common of people to enter the kingdom of heaven for a short period each week.
Blessed Is the Kingdom, Now and Reflections on the Divine Liturgy will help the reader understand and appreciate the mystery that unfolds before us each time this service is celebrated. This book will arm you with knowledge on how to pray the Divine Liturgy so that this service will become more powerful and meaningful in your life.
398 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 21, 2019
11 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 12, 2024
If you feels the prayers of the liturgy are boring and repetitive please read this book. Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis did a phenomenal job in walking through the Divine Liturgy, explaining all the rituals and reflecting on every phrase. I listened to the audiobook, but I recommend you to buy the book as well because there is a lot of prayers that you can go back to whenever you feel you are bored during the liturgy. I promise you after reading this book you will see the liturgy with different eyes and enjoy every part of it.
January 15, 2025
A very thorough and thoughtful walk through the Divine Liturgy. Having just finished the book, I already placed my bookmark back to the beginning and this will stay on my end table to continue reading and reminding myself daily of the glorious blessings of the Liturgy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews