Before I talk about the relationship between the Bible and the liturgy, it may be useful for me to define what the liturgy is first, then what the Bible is second, and then we talk about living the Holy Book in the liturgy.
Firstly: Liturgy (briefly and quickly) is the divine worship, that is, the divine services and mysteries through which we receive Christ Jesus in His fullness, in the biography of His life, through the feasts and occasions that we perform in the Holy Church: such as Christmas, the divine appearance, the transfiguration... in which we remember the life of Christ on earth. As well as in the divine mysteries that involve us and bring us into Christ Jesus in a real and actual way, and in the Eucharist (the sacrament of thanksgiving) in particular, Christ Jesus is presented to us with His precious body and blood. The liturgy, then, is the prayers and rituals that we practice during the liturgical year in all its phases, whether it is in the daily cycle in our daily prayers, or in the weekly cycle as are the prayers distributed over the week, or in the annual cycle.
In the liturgy, the Lord Jesus appears to us in person in every sense of the word and not as a symbol, image, or illusion. His beloved face appears upon us, and we participate with him. We enter into the mystery of his suffering, death, and resurrection, so we die with him in truth in the liturgy for our old, false, old self, and each of us rises with him as a new person in the Lord in every sense of the word. This is the liturgy...it is this act that brings us into Christ Jesus, it involves us in the life that is in Christ Jesus in truth, so we share with Christ in the suffering that he endured on the cross and we rise with him in truth, attaining all the good things that came from the cross, resurrection, life, and salvation...
As for the Holy Book, it is the word of God - it is not human words - it was written by human beings, namely the apostles, the holy men of God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of course. The Word of God is also the Lord Jesus, so the Holy Bible - we can say - is the Word of God, which is the Lord Jesus...
The liturgy presents to us the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Bible is the Word of God... It is the Lord Jesus as well... In a little while, I will talk about this topic and stop at it a little...
From the above we find that the Holy Bible and the liturgy do not talk about two separate topics. The Holy Bible presents what the liturgy presents... There is the great secret of piety that the Apostle Paul speaks about (1st Epistle to Timothy 3:16), which is the Lord Jesus, and around this secret the Holy Book revolves as well. Liturgy... We are talking about the Lord Jesus, the great mystery of piety, which appeared at the fullness of time for our salvation. The liturgy gives us the Lord Jesus, and the book is the word of God, that is, the Lord Jesus.
Thus, the truth is one: the Lord Jesus, the liturgy, the Holy Bible, the prayers, the fasts, the vigils, the Holy Fathers, all tradition, and all life in the Church are multiple aspects of the action and experience of the Holy Spirit in the Church, in the lives of the Holy Fathers, in the lives of believers who experience life with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only mystery. The Alpha and the Omega, the first and last in our lives...
Now I will present some ideas about the connection, cohesion, or close relationship that exists between the Holy Book and the liturgy... The Holy Book constitutes the first and most important source for the liturgy, and we will give examples of that: We note that in the midnight and evening prayers, the hours, sunset, sleep, the Divine Mass, and the sacraments, there is an essential station, which is the book. holy. We all know, for example, that the beginning of the Mass is with “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit...” and then a group of praises and hymns, “With the intercessions of the Mother of God...” and what follows. Then the small entry takes place, and after “Holy God” comes the message and the Gospel... in the composition of the Mass service. In the Eucharist, there is an essential part of reciting passages from the Holy Bible, from the New Testament: from the Gospels, from the Acts of the Apostles, and from the Epistles...
We note that the Holy Bible is an essential part of the liturgy... Here it is necessary to say a side note, which is that in the first centuries in the Church, more than two texts were recited in the Divine Liturgy. We usually read a passage from the Epistle (or the Acts of the Apostles) and a passage from the Gospel, but In the past, he used to recite four or five texts: two from the Old Testament (from the Torah and the Prophets) and three from the New Testament (this was done in Antioch in our country)... Later, for reasons of brevity, he arranged for only two passages to be recited...
We also note that there are passages of praise, that is, praises and hymns, taken as they appear in the Holy Bible. We will mention some examples.
A hymn that we know in Vespers: “Now let your servant go, O Lord, in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples...” It is the hymn of the elder Simon when he received Christ in his arms upon his entry into the temple (Luke 2:29). And also, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because He has looked upon the humility of His servant...” which we chant in the Matins prayer, and we sing with it: “You who are more honorable than the Cherubim...” These are passages from the New Testament that were taken literally as they are and used in the liturgy. So the Bible and the New Testament, in particular, constitute a major source for liturgy.
Let us also reflect on the feasts that we celebrate in our liturgical year... There are feasts that belong to the Lord and we call them sovereign feasts, such as Christmas, the Theophany, and Easter... There are feasts that we call parental feasts that belong to the Mother of God, such as the Dormition of Our Lady and the Birth of Our Lady, and there are the feasts of saints in their various ranks, including martyrs and high priests. And righteous people... If we look at the composition of the holidays, we notice that their roots stem from the Holy Bible... The Lord’s holidays, for example, we took from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles... For example, when we celebrate the divine appearance, we commemorate the divine event mentioned in the New Testament when Christ came and was baptized by John in the Jordan... and many saints. The ones we celebrate are people mentioned in the New Testament. We celebrate the prophets and many of the saints mentioned in the Old Testament.
The liturgical calendar, or the liturgical calendar, is based on the Holy Bible because it is essentially based on the life story of the Lord, which he lived when he appeared as a human in human form and was incarnated by the Virgin Mary for our salvation.
If we contemplate the Great Week... the Passion of the Lord, his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to the heavens, and the sending of the Holy Spirit... where do we get these holidays from? Holy Thursday, the crucifixion, the Passion Service (the Twelve Gospels), the funeral on Friday, Holy Saturday, the descent into hell, and the resurrection on Easter Sunday... This sequence was not improvised, but came from the Holy Bible, from the New Testament, what was recorded about the Lord and what was known about him in tradition as well. the church.
When we talk about the Holy Bible as a source for liturgy, we must mention the existing church liturgical norms that are followed in the church and which are their source from the Holy Bible: such as fasting, prayers, prayer times, and others. We see that the spiritual jihadist practices, which have a prayerful, devotional and ritual character, are mentioned in the Holy Bible... The Lord Jesus himself fasted, the men of God in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament all fasted, and we took this matter from them, that is, to fast and how to fast...
Also, the liturgical language and the ritual language are taken from the Bible. We say, for example: baptism, chrismation, anointing, the Eucharist, the sacrament of thanksgiving, the Lord’s table... and other ritual expressions. All of these expressions, or let’s say the “liturgical dictionary,” come from the Holy Bible, and more than that... Many of the services, such as the sacrament of thanksgiving, baptism, and chrismation, we complete as the apostles completed them, as it was preserved from the lives of the Lord Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament, and we are now completing what we received from the apostles. Which they received from the Lord Jesus.
How do we complete the Eucharist?... Christ sat with his disciples at the Last Supper and said to them: Do this in remembrance of me... And he says in the Acts of the Apostles: “And they devoted themselves daily to the breaking of bread (that is, the Divine Mass) and to the prayers and to the teaching...” So the Apostles established the Eucharist from the beginning, They recorded for us the things that they were completing, and we took from them, and we are currently completing what they completed and what they received from the Master...
That is why the Apostle Paul says: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you: “The Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread and gave thanks... and likewise also the cup... For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 1). :23).
If we read chapters 11 and 14 of the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, we see the Apostle Paul talking about the tables of love and the Eucharist (the sacrament of thanksgiving) that was being performed at that time, and he gives some recommendations regarding that. Our rituals of thanksgiving, baptism, and others are rooted in the Bible. Based on the liturgical data contained therein, especially the New Testament, the current service that we hold in our days was built. Through the Apostle’s remarks mentioned above, we notice the presence of biblical readings, that is, passages taken from the book literally, and thus we see the Holy Bible as an essential source for the liturgy.
secondly: It is worth mentioning here that the liturgy also influenced the text of the Bible. The liturgy preserved the Word of God, and when the text of the Bible was written, the liturgy lived in the believing community had an influence on the formulation of what was written, of course, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and I will give an important example of that.
There are three passages in the New Testament that talk about the Lord Jesus sitting with his disciples at the Last Supper and about his institution of the sacrament of thanksgiving. The first passage is in the Gospel of Matthew, the second is in the Gospel of Luke, and the third is in the Apostle Paul. If we read these passages, we notice that they have the same content, with some differences in terms of the text. This is explained below:
We read in the Gospel of Matthew: “And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I will no longer eat of it until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me.
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 17:22-20).
As for Paul the Apostle in (1 Corinthians 11:23-27). He says: “For I received from what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread and gave thanks and said, ‘Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” Likewise also the cup after you had supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This, whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” It is a very important text about imitation and submission.
We have, then, three texts that agree in content but differ in wording. We heard what the Apostle Paul said, “I delivered to you what I received from the Lord.” The apostles were faithful in a very precise way to give what they received and to deliver what they received without any addition or subtraction. Therefore, the apostolic tradition was the standard for the church, because the apostles were the ones who received the new gospel and they were the ones who delivered it as they received it, and as the Apostle Paul says: “If we, or an angel from heaven, preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). The apostles who They had such great precision in delivering what they received from the Lord. They left us three texts that were backward in terms of wording, so how do we explain this? The explanation is simple: We know that the New Testament was written between the years 60 and 90 AD, and the Book of Acts tells us that the believers were gathering and breaking bread, that is, in Jerusalem they were gathering and breaking bread, as well as in Alexandria and Antioch... and they were repeating the words that the Lord had taught them to say. These texts were said in local traditions and in liturgical practices during the administration of the Eucharist here and there, and when the books of the New Testament were written down at a later stage, they were written down as we received them from the Lord, carrying in their wording the imprints of local practice in the churches. Critics and researchers have agreed that these texts were written as they were said in liturgical meetings and were then used by the fathers, apostles, and writers of the Gospels. For example, the Apostle Paul uses the phrase in his letters: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Amen” (Romans 16:24) This is a Eucharistic text, and we hear it today in the Divine Mass when the priest says from the Royal Door: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” This Eucharistic text was taken by the Apostle Paul and used in the Holy Bible.
The Lord Jesus is the secret of piety, and the Bible and the liturgy present the Lord Jesus. There is a passage from the Epistle to the Philippians (2:5-11), which is a very beautiful passage. The Apostle Paul says: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of A servant made in the likeness of people. If he was found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every man might acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This is a text that was used in the Eucharist and liturgical meetings.
From the above, we find that the Holy Bible, on the one hand, is the source of the liturgy in many rituals, practices, customs, customs, and holidays, and, on the other hand, it was written in the church that lived by the Holy Spirit in the liturgy, the mystery of Christ Jesus. When the Holy Book was written, it came from this church life, which is based mainly on the liturgy, in the Eucharist (breaking of bread), prayer, fasting, and so on. The Holy Book came under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit from this life and from this coexistence. The liturgy and the book are intertwined with each other.
Third: Here we affirm that the Holy Bible is included in the liturgy. If we consider our liturgical books, such as the Hours, the Triode that we use during the period of fasting, the Benedictionary that we use in the period between Easter and Pentecost, the Book of the Comforter that we use from after Pentecost until we enter into fasting again, and the Book of the Minion that contains the feasts of the saints, we see that they contain material. Rich writing that occupies a significant amount of the entire book.
Assuming that the complete text of the New Testament has been lost, we can, through liturgical books, reassemble the material constituting the original text of the New Testament, as it is contained and distributed as successive recitations on every feast and occasion and in the dawn and sunset prayers. The Psalms, for example, are recited in their entirety during each week. We also notice that during the period of Great Lent and in the Book of Triodi, new biblical passages are added to the divine services (in addition to what is usual during the year). In the sixth hour prayer, he reads from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and in Vespers, he reads from the Book of Genesis and the Book of Proverbs, so that when The period of fasting ends, and we have read, in the aforementioned services, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Genesis, and the Book of Proverbs in the church from the Book of Triodi.
Reciting passages from the Holy Bible and interpreting them was and still is an essential element in the liturgy, and this is what we see in all divine services. In the wreath service, a message and the Gospel are recited, as well as in the funeral service, baptism, and the Divine Mass, and in the services of the feasts of saints and the dawn and sunset prayers...
Fourthly: The liturgy is organized in the spirit of the Holy Bible, and the holy fathers who wrote the liturgical texts knew the Holy Book by heart, so when they organized these praises, they came imbued and molded with the spirit of the Holy Bible, and I will give some examples.
In the first week of Lent, in the Great Sleeping Prayer Service, we read the Canon of Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete, called “The Great Canon,” which is a large collection of hymns.
If we read this law, we notice that the saint absorbed the Holy Book in its Old and New Testaments, and that he crafted with tremendous experience this text of reverential praise, in which he cries out the cry of supplication: “Have mercy, O God, have mercy on me” (which is the petition that echoes the severance of the law) with all reverence, reverence, repentance, and contrition. How did he express this feeling in multiple hymns that form a poetic poem of 256 lines, in which he brought multiple images and many characters from the Bible and clothed them for the repentant human soul, either by staying away from the ugliness of some of the characters mentioned in the Bible or to acquire the virtues of others. For example, we cite an example of the passage in which he uses a background, which is the story of Lot, when he says: “Oh soul!! Shame like Lot from the path of sin. Flee from Sodom and Gomorrah, flee from the flame of every bestial lust” (Part Two, Third Valleys). “Oh soul!! Don't become a pillar of salt by looking back. Let the example of the Sadomites terrify you” (Part IV, Odes III).
We notice that he used people and incidents from the Holy Bible and projected them onto the human soul, and we read in the ninth verse: “O soul!! I have brought to you from Moses the creation of the world and from it every legal book that chronicles for you the just and the unjust. Why did you resemble the first two of them, but you were similar to the second if you sinned against God? “Where we see him providing the human soul with examples from the Holy Book and saying,” “Oh soul!! I have brought you examples of the new book to guide you in reverence. So, be jealous of the righteous, and turn away from sinners and seek Christ’s favor through prayers, fasting, purity, and reverence.” “Christ became man and called the thieves and prostitutes to repent. Repent, O soul. For, behold, the door of kingship has been opened for you, and he will come forward and be seized by the Pharisees, tax collectors, and adulterers when they return.” Christ saved the Magi, summoned the shepherds, made the assembly of children martyrs, and honored Simon and the old widow, whom you were not jealous of, O soul, neither in their actions nor in their conduct. But woe to you if you are tried.” “The Lord, after fasting in the desert for forty days, finally became hungry, displaying his human nature. Do not relax, O soul, even if the enemy attacks you. Rather, confront him with prayer and fasting, and he will defend himself from you completely.”
It is worth mentioning here that the Book of Triodi, which we use during the period of Great Lent, opens its prayers on the Sunday of the Pharisee and the tax collector with the hymn: “Let us not pray, brothers, a Pharisee, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but let us humble ourselves before God, and through fasting let us shout with the voice of the tax collector, saying: “O God, forgive us sinners,” composed against the background of the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector mentioned in the Gospel (Luke: 9-14).
We mention another very beautiful example: The Paraklesi service is held during the period of fasting of the Virgin Mary in the month of August, and “Praklesi” is a Greek word that means supplication or supplication offered to the Mother of God... The Paraklesi is a canon composed of a group of hymns consisting of nine stanzas each. We call each syllable a hymn, and the first syllable of each ode is the poetic meter and measure for the troubadours or for the pieces that follow them. On the other hand, in the Holy Bible, there is a group of hymns that we call Biblical hymns and we use them in worship during the morning prayers during the period of fasting: the hymn of Moses, the hymn of the Prophet Habakkuk, the hymn of Daniel, the hymn of the young men who were thrown out of the fiery furnace without being harmed by the flames of the fire... and others. If we take the first piece, From each verse of the Paraclesi canon, and comparing their content with the hymns, we note the following: There are nine biblical hymns used in the liturgy, and there are nine hymns in the Paraclesi, and each hymn matches its corresponding biblical hymn: (that is, the first piece of the first hymn with the first hymn, and the third with the third... And the ninth with the ninth) So the liturgical text, which is a hymn to the Virgin Mary, is taken from the Holy Bible and organized in the spirit of the Holy Bible. We cite an example of this:
“The Israelite people crossed over the dampness as if they were on dry land, fleeing from the Egyptian misery, so they shouted and cried out to our Savior and to our God, we will praise” (The Paraklesi, The First Valleys). The hymn speaks of the Israeli people’s exodus from Egypt and their crossing of the Red Sea on dry land... and the first hymn from the Holy Bible (the Book of Exodus, Chapter 15) talks about the same topic when Moses stood and praised the Lord after his exit from Egypt. As for the sixth verse of the Paraclesi, it says: “I pour out my supplications before the Lord, and I declare my sorrows before Him, for my soul is filled with evil, and my life has come close to hell. So I pray to you like Jonah, crying out to you: raise me up from corruption, O my God.” It is the subject of the sixth Biblical hymn (Book of the Prophet Jonah, chapter 2), which the Prophet Jonah said when he was in the belly of the whale... and also the ninth Biblical hymn: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because he has looked upon the lowliness of his servant...” It is a passage from the Gospel (Luke 1: 6) It was introduced into the liturgy with the hymn “You who are more honorable than the Cherubim,” which is repeated as a refrain after each verse of the hymn...
So there is an overlap, correspondence, living, and real and actual experience of the Holy Book, which is the word of the Lord. This experience of the great mystery of piety, which is the Lord Jesus, was cast in texts, whether they were biblical texts (which is the New Testament) or liturgical texts (the praises used in worship).
Finally, we mention that the Holy Bible also explains after prayer, prostration, and life in the church. Here I give two examples: The first... We recite in every Divine Mass, after the message and before the Gospel, a prayer or revelation in which the priest asks us to trample our carnal desires so that we can hear the life-giving word, which is the Gospel. That is, we affirm in the Church that the Holy Bible is the Word of God. The Word of God is not read or interpreted like any other book. The Word of God is read and interpreted in order for you to understand, so that through these words you can reach what God wants from you, because the Word of God is for you and the book is not a historical book and not a story. That is why it is not read like a book and is not interpreted like a book... For example, we say in the Acts of the Apostles “to whom he showed himself.” He lived with many proofs after his suffering, and he appeared to them for forty days and spoke about the matters pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 3:1), but we do not find in the text what he said to them... Is it reasonable that what the Lord said during these forty days had no value and that is why the apostles did not write it down? !! This is the submission that the Apostle Paul spoke about... That is why we emphasize that the Holy Bible is not like any ordinary book...
I mention another example: In the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 24) there is the incident of the disciples of Emmaus: The Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples of Emmaus as they were going to their village. He walked with them and spoke to them, and they did not know that he was the Lord, even though they were two of his disciples. And when the day was over, he went in to dine with them... And when they sat down to eat, “Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him...” He remained walking with them all day, and he was the Lord, and they did not know him, so much so that they said to him: “Are you alone a stranger to Jerusalem...” But when he sat with them and broke They recognized the bread (that is, he performed a liturgical act) and their eyes were opened. Here we wonder that if the two disciples of Emmaus were walking with the Master and did not know him, how much more would many people who hold the Holy Book and read it not know him? The two disciples did not recognize Him until He blessed, broke, and gave food. Their eyes were opened and they recognized Him... They recognized Him when He broke the bread... And this is the liturgy that presents Christ Jesus to us, just as the text of the Holy Bible is the Word of God, which is the great secret of piety. The secret of piety is the Lord Jesus who came and whom I accepted. The Church lived it, preserved it, and transmitted it through liturgy, written text, and oral delivery.
The liturgy presents to us Christ Jesus, just as the text of the Holy Bible is the Word of God, which is the great secret of piety. The great secret of piety is the Lord Jesus, who came, was accepted by the Church, lived, preserved, and was transmitted through the liturgy, a written text, and an oral delivery. The truth is the Lord Jesus, and the recipient, transmitter, and interpreter of this truth is the Church. The Lord God gives us, by His divine grace, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His most pure and holy mother, and all the order of the holy and righteous fathers, He gives us this strength to open our eyes to this great secret, which is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may live with Him, purify ourselves, be sanctified, and discover that the truth is one, namely, the Lord Jesus, and that the Book The sacred is the Word of God, that is, the Lord Jesus, and that the liturgy presents to us one thing, which is the Lord Jesus, and that the Alpha and Omega in our lives is the Lord Jesus, and that the Lord Jesus is the one who sanctifies every human being who comes into the world so that we may be with all those who have satisfied him in his glory forever, Amen.
Metropolitan Youhanna Yazigi
Lattakia Archbishopric Bulletin
3 / 5 / 1998
until
12 / 7 / 1998
In the Holy Bible of Saint John the Golden, Qom
- Devote your free time to reading the Bible.
- If we explain the Scriptures, it is not only so that you can understand them, but also so that you can strive to improve your behavior.
- When we return home from church, we prepare two tables, one for food and the other for the Word of God. The husband repeats the teaching that was given, the wife receives it from his mouth, and the children hear it. Make your home a church because you will answer for the salvation of your children.
- She says, “Where is the benefit in hearing without applying?” Do not underestimate the gain when we know how to listen because we condemn ourselves and pity our condition and we will apply what we heard. He who does not even know that he is a sinner, when will he stop offending God? When does he blame himself?
- She tells me: “I work a lot and I have a wife and children who need food. I live in the world and I am not obligated to read the Bible as is the case for those who have left the world.” What do you say, my friend? I answer you, you need it more than the monks. Their lifestyle protects them from many enemy strikes. As for you who live in the midst of crowds, you are exposed to many surgeries. Everything that calls for impatience, envy, anxiety, despair, empty glory and other similar experiences that surround you. Therefore, you constantly need to draw your strength from the Bible.
- Do not say that such Christ-likeness is beyond human. It is a commandment from the Lord Himself, so how can you claim that it is an unattainable perfection? It is a transcendence that every human being must realize. Christ has given us the ways to imitate Him. Don't be afraid to look like him. Rather fear that you will not be like him
