THE INCENSING AND COVERING OF THE GIFTS: I

Continuing the rite of proskomidia, the deacon takes the censer, puts incense into it, and says to the priest :

Bless the incense, sir.

And immediately he adds :

Let us pray to the Lord.

The priest blesses the incense in the censer with a sign of the cross, and says:

We offer incense to you, Christ, our God, as an odor of spiritual fragrance; receive it on your altar in heaven above, and send down upon us in return the grace of your most Holy Spirit.

From time immemorial, incense has been used in religious cere­monies. The Jews used it in the Temple. The pagans used it in their holy places.

Because it was" holy to the Lord," incense was to be burned and offered only to Yahweh. As far back as the time of the exodus, God expressly directed. how it was to be prepared, and also where, when and how it was to be burned (Exod. 30 ). The altar of incense stood in the sanctuary in a place of honor, between the seven­branched candlestick and the loaves of proposition. On this altar, a special incense offering was to be made to the Lord twice a day, at nine in the morning and at three in the afternoon, but the incense itself was to bum continually. The preparation and storing of incense was a function reserved to the Levites. 1

The custom of burning spices after the evening meal was common in all Mediterranean countries, but in the Jewish chabUrah supper, spices were brought in, blessed, and burned with a religious intent

1 For the use of incense on the day of atonement, see Lev. 16:12-14.

during the ceremonial of the lamp,~ except on Fridays, because of the Sabbath.

The first Judeo-Christians probably maintained this practice. There is no trace of opposition to it in the New Testament. On the contrary, the use of incense is mentioned as part of the ideal worship of heaven (Apocalyse, 8:3-4). The apostles and their disciples, being Jewish, were familiar with the hallowed use of incense in the Temple.

Aversion to incense developed during the persecution of the churches founded by Gentile converts, because of its intimate connection with pagan worship. The burning of incense before idols constituted a kind of sacrifice in the Greco-Roman world. Every Roman family, for example, offered incense to the household gods (/ares familiares) on the ca/ends, nones, and i'des of every month and on all important family occasions. Near the entrance to every temple stood an altar of burnt offerings, and inside the temple stood one or more smaller altars (f oculus, arula, crati"cula) for incense offerings.

During the persecutions, burning incense before the idols or the deified emperor was regarded as a sign of apostasy which, until A.D. 252, resulted in exclusion from the Ecclesi"a for life. Turi­ficati", "incense-burners," was the term used to qualify the apostates. 3

That is why Christian writers and apologists argued against the practice of using incense in their own services. ' Hence, it was not used during liturgical functions in the pre-Nicene, persecuted Church.

After the Peace of Constantine, the burning of perfumes or spices in churches was resumed, probably for olfactory reasons.

• During the first century A.D., the order of the respective blessings was dis­puted by the rabbinical schools : the school of Shammai taught that the lamp was to be blessed, the " thanksgiving " said, then the spices blessed and burned, in that order; the school of Hillel, on the other hand, held that the " thanksgiving " was to be said after the blessing of the lamp and that of the spices. Cf. Berakoth, Mishnah viii, 5, Tosefta, vi, 6 (pp. 68-69).

• Cyprian, Epist. ad Comelli Papae, X (PL 3, 788 A). Pudentius (405) even gives them a more derogatory name, turifer grex, the incense-burning crowd.

• Eusebius, Praep. Evangelica, iv, IO, where he cites Porphyry (PG 13, 786-787 [Sen.es graeca]), and iv, 13, citing Apollonius (PG 13, 788 [Series graeca]); Origen, Contra Celsum, viii, 17 (PG 8, 840 C-843 [Series graeca]), etc.

During the next century, it became widespread in Jerusalem, Antioch, and some of the cities in Italy, 6 again probably as a fumi­gation, without liturgical purpose. In the predominantly semitic churches of East Syria, incense-burning was regarded as a means of propitiation or atonement for sin (a thoroughly Jewish idea) as early as A.D. 363. 8

In Jerusalem, in the fourth century, incense was burned as a mark of honor. Etheria describes this ceremonial as occurring in the Office of Lauds, immediately before the reading of the Gospel by the bishop : " Behold, censers are brought in ... so that the whole basilica is filled with fragrance." 7 It is impossible to determine whether the incense was a mark of respect for the bishop or for the Holy Gospel. Incense, like torches, had been borrowed from secular practice. 8 From honorific to liturgical use, there was but a step. Incense was widely used by all the Churches of Christendom from the fifth to the eighth centuries. 9 In the Rite of Constantinople, one of the first references to its liturgical use comes from the sixth century when it was customary to incense the whole church at the beginning of the paschal office. 10 This incensing, however, may have been proper to the paschal office only or to some liturgical function other than the Mass. The first certain reference regarding the use of incense during the Divine Liturgy is contained in an early recension of the Commentary of St. Germanus (715-729) when he

•Chrysostom, In Matt. hom., 88, 4 (edit. Montfaucon 7, 830 DE); Etheria, Peregrinatio, chap. 24, ro (CSEL XXXIX, 73); Ambrose, Exp. Evang. Lucae, i, 28 (PL 15, 1545); de Cain et Abel, i, 19 (PL 14, 344 D~; Paulinus of Nola, Carmina, 14, roo (PL 6r, 467 B) and 26, 410 (PL 6r, 647 A).

• St. Ephraem wrote in his Carmina Nisibena (xvii) : " Thy burning of incense is our propitiation : praised be God who has hallowed thine offering. " Cf. Lietz­mann, Messe und Herrenmahl, Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Liturgie, 9 (Bonn, 1926), p. 86.

' Etheria, Peregrinatio (edit. L. Duchesne), Origines du culte chrt!tien, p. 515. A similar use of incense is described in the Apostolic Constitutions, II, 26, 8 tedit. Funk, I, p. 105).

• Cf. Atchley, A History of the Use of Incense in Divine Worship (London, 1909), pp. 51-56.

•E.g., Ps.-Dionysius, De ecclesiastica hierarchia, chap. 3, § 2 (PG 3, 425 B); also chap. 3, § 3 (PG 3, 428 D); James ofEdessa (703), De sacris mysteriis (Rahmani, I fasti della chiesa patriarcale Antiochena [Rome, 1920], p. xx). So also the ancient Greek Liturgy of St. James (Brightman, LEW, p. 32, 2-14; p. 32, 27-32; p. 36, 6-13; p. 4r, ro-32, etc.).

10 Eustratius of Constantinople, In vita S. Eutychii (PG 86, 2377 C).

explains the Alleluia chant. 11 The ninth-century Anastasian version of the same Commentary also mentions that there is to be incensing at the end of the proskomidia. 18

By the eleventh century, in certain dioceses, there were three instances of incensing during the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom : at the covering of the Gifts in the proskomidia, at the Great Entrance, and before the Communion of the faithful. 13 The first of these is described thus : " ... the deacon, when he accepts the thurible, says to the priest : ' Bless, 0 Lord, this incense. ' And the priest says : ' We offer incense to Thee, 0 Christ God, for an odor of spiritual fragrance. Send us the grace of the Holy Spirit, now and always. Amen. ' " 14 This prayer is similar to the present formula, although shorter. This first incensing at the covering of the Gifts in the proskomidia is found in most manuscripts of the Greco­Byzantine Liturgy from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. 15

Incensing in its present form was established only after the twelfth century. 16

The Slav Church seems to have followed its mother Rite as

11 N. 30 of said Commentary (edit. N. Borgia, Il commentario liturgico di s. Gemu.no Patriarcha Constantinopolitano e la versione latina di Anastasio Bibliotecario [Grottaferrata, 1912], p. 25).

11 Edit. N. Borgia, p. 21. 18 The Liturgy of S. John Chrysostom, trans. by Leo Thuscus, Liturgiae sive

missae sanctorum patrum : Jacobi apostoli et fratris Domini, Basilii magni e vetusto codice latinae translationis, Ioannis Chrysostomi, interprete Leone Thusco, De ritu missae et eucharistia (Paris, 156o), pp. 52-53, 57-58, 73.

" Ibid., pp. 52-53. u E.g. the twelfth-century Cod. Rossanensis (Vat.gr., 1970), edit. C. A. Swainson,

The Greek Liturgies Chiefly from Original Authorities (London, 1884), pp. 191 and 192, col. 1 : only two incensings, however, are given in the whole Liturgy, this iµid another at the Lesser Elevation. The Erasmian edition of the Liturgy (I. Goar, Euchologion, p. 104) has the same arrangement. Though the Typikon of S. Sabba in the thirteenth-century Cod. Athono-Protat., 72 (A. Dmitrievsky, Opysanie litur­gicheskikh rukopisej khraniaschikhsia v bibliotekakh pravoslavnago vostoka, Vol. III (St. Petersburg, 1917], pp. 119, 120, etc.) gives three incensings during the Divine Liturgy, none is at the proskomidia : they are at the Alleluia chant, before the Great Entrance; and at the end of the Great Entrance when the Gifts are deposited on the altar. Nicolas Cabasilas (1371), on the other hand, does mention this first incensing at the covering of the Gifts in the proskomidia (Liturgiae expositio, chap. II [PG 150, 389 CD]).

18 A history of this development is found in Dom Placide de Meester, O.S.B., Les origines et /es devefoppements du texte grec de la liturgie de S. Jean Chrysostome, XPYCOCTOMIKA, pp. 308, 313-314, 331, 333.

regards this first incensing, but the accompanying prayer is different. The twelfth-cennµy Liturgikon of Barlaam of Khutinsk, for example, already prescribes incensing of the Gifts at the proskomidia. 11

Today, the Byzantine-Slav Rite, no less than the Greek, glories in the abundant use of incense during its liturgical functions; it is indeed an integral part of their ceremonial.

Frequent and abundant incensing is pleasing to the senses : fragrant smoke rises in clouds. There is here a prodigal spending, for God's sake, as the sign of an outpouring of irrepressible love. It has come to symbolize many things. Mostly, the fragrant smoke signifies prayer going up to God. The basis for this symbolism is found in Sacred Scripture : " ... and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of the saints" (Apoc. 5:8). Again, " And another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer : and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer up the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne of God. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel" (Apoc. 8:3-4).

In the proskomidia, the deacon puts the incense into the censer while the priest blesses it. It then becomes a sacramental, an object dedicated to the Lord, possessing supernatural efficacy by reason of an official blessing and prayer of the Church. As a sacramental, it becomes a means of obtaining blessings from God. In this case, the blessing requested is the grace of the Holy Spirit, as is evident from the final words of the Prayer of Incense : " and send down upon us in return the grace of your most Holy Spirit. "

The expression "on your altar in heaven above" (or "on your heavenly altar'') is not contained in the eleventh-century Liturgy of Chrysostom (cf. p. 3r2, above). It must have been interpolated later, but the liturgical use of the expression itself is quite ancient. In the East, it dates back to about A.D. 300; in the West, certainly

17 MS. of Moscow Synodal Library, N. 343 (A. Petrovsky, Histoire de la redaction slave de la liturgie de S. Jean Chrysostome, XPYCOCTOMIKA, p. 864); the four­teenth or fifteenth century Molytovnyk-Sluzhebnyk (edit. Kowaliv), p. 6 of its text; the fourteenth or fifteenth century Liturgikon of Isidore, Metropolitan of Kiev, in its Ustav (MS. Vat. Slav. N. 14, p. 122).

to St. Ambrose, since his text of the Canon contains it. The various Eastern Liturgies refer to it frequently since the fourth century. In the preparation for Communion of the Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, 13, 3), the divine acceptance of the Gift is said to be ''on God's heavenly altar. " The Liturgy of St. Mark uses it several times; 18 so do the Greek St. J aines, 18 the West Syrian anaphoras of Timothy and Severus; 10 also the Byzantine Liturgy at this and other points. In the West, medieval commentators offered various interpretations, often unfounded. 21 In comparing parallel passages in the Oriental Liturgies where the expression is used, there is no reason for assuming any other meaning than the natural sense of the word. The heavenly altar is but a figure, probably stemming from the passage in Apocalyse (8:3-5) quoted above.

The Prayer of Incense contains three elements : the offering to God, the hope that he will receive it in heaven, and the request for grace.

The Star ( Asteriskos in Greek)

The star is a sacred utensil consisting of two pieces of bent metal, gold-plated, joined in the center, with a small star suspended from the intersecting point. Its purpose is practical : to prevent the particles from being touched by the veils that will cover them.

After the priest has blessed the incense and said the Prayer of Incense, the deacon says:

Let us pray to the Lord.

The priest incenses the star by holding it over the censer. He places it over the particles and says :

And the star came and stood over the place where the Child was (Matt. 2:9).

When the star is positioned over the paten, it hangs directly over the large host, or Lamb. It represents the star of Bethlehem,

1• Cf. Brightman, LEW, 115, 118, I22, I23 f. 18 Brightman, LEW, 36, 4I, 47, 58 f . .. Cf. Anaphorae Syricae (Rome, I934-I944), 23, 7I. 11 E.g., Remigius of Auxerre, Expositio (PL IOI, 1262 f.); Isaac of Stella, Ep. de

off. missae (PL I94, I889-I896); Paschasius Radbertus, De corp. et sang. Domini, VIII, I-6 (PL I20, 1286-I292); etc.

shining over the manger where the Child Jesus lay on the first Christmas night. The star itself is not the usual five-pointed figure of Christmas decorations, but the six-pointed one of the Jews, the Star of David. It is perhaps a more appropriate representation of the Bethlehem star than the five-pointed one : Jesus, according to his human nature, was a descendant of the House of David.

The symbolism of Bethlehem becomes clear precisely at this point when the star is placed over the Lamb : the star appears over the place where the Child lay. 21 The large host, or Lamb, lies on the diskos, or paten; in Bethlehem, the Christ Child lay in the manger. Around the large host, representing Christ, lie the small particles in honor of the Mother of God, the angels, the saints, the living and the dead; around the manger in Bethlehem were his Mother, the angelic hosts, and the chosen shepherds who were privileged to be summoned to the side of Christ. The shepherds were the chosen ones at Bethlehem; now, the chosen are the mem­bers of Christ's Church, militant, triumphant, and suffering. In Bethlehem, a star shone over the stable; in the proskomidia, a star hangs over the paten.

In the Byzantine Rite, the star is referred to as early as the last half of the eleventh century, although liturgical books, both Greek 93

and Slav, 84 do not mention it before the fourteenth century. It seems to have fulfilled originally a practical function only-to keep the veils from touching the hosts-rather than a liturgical need. Later, the star was given a beautiful liturgical symbolism, which writers and commentators of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries were careful to explain. 25

n " And the star came and stood over the place where the Child was " is taken from Matthew's account of what happened at Bethlehem (2:9).

•• The star is mentioned in the ordo of the Liturgy contained in the Typikon of S. Sabha in the Cod. Petroburgensis, 585 (cf. A. Dmitrievsky, op. cit., III, p. 185); also in the Constitution of Philotheus (Dmitrievsky, op. cit., II, Euchologia, p. 821. Cf. also S. Petrides, Astirisque (DAL, I, 3003) .

.. MS. N. 274, fol. 3, of Count Tolstoy Library and MS. of Moscow Synodal Library, N. 345 (Gorsky-Nevotrujev, Opysanie slavianskikh rukopisej Moskovskoj Synodal'noj biblioteky, Vol. III [Moscow, 1859), 1, 21); also the fourteenth or fifteenth century Liturgikon of Isidore, Metropolitan of Kiev, in its Ustav, MS. Vat. Slav. N. 14, fol. 121 .

.. E.g., Nicolas Cabasilas (1371), Liturgiae expositio, chap. 11 (PG 150, 389 C); Ps.-Sophronius of Jerusalem, Commentarius liturgicus, 3 (PG 87, 3985 BC); and Simeon of Thessalonica (1429), Dialogus, chap. 96 (PG 155, 285 D).

Before the gifts are cooered with the veils, the deacon again says :

Let us pray to the Lord.

The priest incenses the first of the small veils (by holding it ooer the censer) and covers the paten and the particles while he says Psalm 92 :

The Lord has reigned, he is clothed with beauty : the Lord is clothed with power and he has girded himself. For he bas established the world, which will not be moved. Your throne is prepared from of old; you are from eternity. The floods rise, 0 Lord, the floods have lifted up their voices; the floods lift up their waves with the sound of many waters. Wonderful are the surges of the sea : wonderful is the Lord on high. Your testimonies are become exceedingly credible. Holiness befits your house, 0 Lord, unto the length of days (Psalm 92).

The deacon prays :

Let us pray to the Lord. Cover (it), sir.

The priest incenses the second of the small veils in the same way as the first. He covers the holy chalice with it and says :

Your virtue, 0 Christ, has covered the heavens, and the earth is full of your praises.

Again the deacon :

Let us pray to the Lord. Cover (it), sir.

The priest takes the third veil, the aer, and i"ncenses it as the others. Then he covers both the paten and the chalice with t"t while he says :

Cover us with the shadow of your wings; drive away from us every enemy and foe. Make our life peaceful, Lord, have mercy on us and on your world, and save our souls because you are good and the Lover of mankind.

In the Latin rite, only one veil is used to cover the chalice and paten. In the Byzantine, there are three: a small veil for the paten; another small veil for the chalice, and a larger veil to cover both. The two smaller veils are usually called pokrovtsi in Slavonic (mean­ing " small coverings, small veils. '') The third veil, since it is larger than the others, is called pokrov but it is known also as the aer ( &~p, meaning " air "), because during the recitation of the Creed the priest waves it over the Holy Gifts and thereby" stirs the air."

These veils or coverings protect the Holy Gifts from dust, insects, etc. This practical function was soon overshadowed by what they were thought to represent : the swaddling clothes with which the Infant Jesus was wrapped. 1

While covering the holy bread and paten, the priest contemplates the mystery of Bethlehem : the beauty and power of almighty Yahweh, King of heaven and earth, hidden under the helplessness of a Babe! Wonder and praise for divine beauty and might are summed up in the words of Psalm 92. God's beauty and majestic power reveal themselves in nature. His works of creation are like a beautiful robe. He is the Lord of the world he has made, Master of the rushing waters and breaking waves. He has established not only the natural order, but also the moral. He is wonderful in both; beauty is becoming to his house forever. This juxtaposition of the physical and moral orders is found in many passages of the Old Testament.

In the prayer for covering the chalice, the priest praises the newborn Babe for his limitless good works. All the earth praises and exults with him. The benefits to man of his coming into the world are certainly incalculable, so immense that they " cover the heavens. " & a result, the whole earth is " full of his praise. "

In the final prayer of covering, the priest asks the newborn King for protection : " Cover us with the shadow of your wings, make our life peaceful, Lord. " If our enemies are driven away, vanquished, we will be safe, peaceful. The plea for mercy and salvation is tempered with hope : " because you are good and the

1 Later, as the drama of the Divine Liturgy progresses, they take on a different meaning : the winding sheets with which the body of Christ was wrapped for burial.

Lover of mankind. " The reason is childlike, Godlike, in its sim­plicity, humility, and truth. No better theological reason can be given. Chelovikoljubets, Christ the Lover of man (or mankind), is an expression containing a world of meaning and has become one of the distinguishing marks of Slav spirituality.

The Slavs seem to have been naturally attracted to the love that was in the heart of Christ, for not long after they adopted Christian­ity, they felt drawn to Christ as the Lover of man rather than to the original Byzantine concept of Christ as the Pantocrator, the emperor (tsar), all-powerful ruler, the severe judge. In the beginning, the Kievan Slavs accepted this severe, awesome concept of Christ the emperor and austere judge as part of their Byzantine heritage. This aspect of Christ's formidable justice and might was burned into their conscience. But little by little, the Slav heart felt attracted by Christ's all-embracing love, charity, and compassion.

Just as no one can truly appreciate the boundless, burning love of Christ without deep awareness of the sufferings endured by him in consequence of that love, so the Slavs were irrevocably, indelibly impressed by Christ's Passion, his utter humiliation, and his final supreme act of love, death by crucifixion.

The ideal of Christ as the meek, humiliated, gentle Lover of man appears in the earliest Slav writings; it is reflected in the lives of their greatest saints, St. Theodosius and St. Sergius. It is expressed in the countless icons of the Saviour holding the open Gospel Book with the words recorded by St. John:" A new com­mandment I give unto you; that you love one another .... " The love expressed in the Western devotion to the Sacred Heart is the very same that has drawn so many Slavs to Christ. 1

Since the whole rite of proskomidia represents the mystery of Bethlehem, the beginning of the hidden life of Christ while " He grew in wisdom and grace before God and men" (Luke 2:52), there is nothing which expresses this idea better than " hiding " the Holy Gifts (representing Christ, the Blessed Mother, etc.) with veils.

Though not actually of recent origin, the covering of the gifts is

• In Russian and Ukrainian iconography, the heart of Jesus is never exposed, for it is too sacred for man's unworthy gaze.

definitely one of the last additions to the ceremonial of the Divine Liturgy. Insofar as is known, none of the most ancient Greek texts mentions anything about it, neither do the most ancient com­mentaries. 3 It it only between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries that the rituals of incensing the veils (by holding them over the censer) and of covering the gifts became established, together with the corresponding prayers. At first, the ritual was simpler, • but during the latter part of the fourteenth century it was finally standardized almost as it is today. 6 Likewise, in the Slav branch of the Byzantine Rite, the gifts were being covered with veils in the late twelfth century.• Again, the ceremony at first was

• E.g., nothing is mentioned regarding this in the Commentary of S. Germanus of Constantinople (715-729), nor in the ninth or tenth century manusqipt of Grottaferrata r. B. VII, nor in the eleventh century Constitutian (AL<i"t"tt!;Lc; Tijc; 7tpoaxoµL8ijc;) in Ad Paulum Hypopsephium Gallipolitanum (edit. Mai), NPB, X, ii, pp. 167-169, nor in the eleventh century Cod. Burdett-Couts. III, 42 (cf. C. A. Swainson, The Greek Liturgies Chiefly from Original Authorities [London, 1884], p. 108).

•The ceremonial in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom as translated into the Latin by Leo Thuscus (fl. 1200) is still undeveloped : the accompanying prayers are brief and probably only two veils were used. As given in that Liturgy, the rubrics state : " While the deacon holds the thurible, the priest unfold~ over the thurible the sacred corporals that are to be put over the holy chalice; while these are being saturated with the odor of smoke, he says,' The Lord hath reigned; he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with power :md he hath girded himself. Thy throne is prepared now and always and forever.' Then he covers the chalice and adds, ' His virtue hath covered the heavens, and the eanh is full of his praise, now and always and forever'" (Our translation from the Latin in Liturgiae sive missae sanctorum patrum : Jacobi apostoli et fratris Domini, Basilii magni e vetusto codice latinae translationis, loannis Chrysostomi, interprete Leone Thusco, De ritu missae et eucharistia [Paris, r56o], p. 52). The Erasmian recension of the same Liturgy had prescribed three veils but the accompanying prayers were still brief: "For the diskos: '(His virtue) hath covered the heavens .... ' For the chalice : 'The Lord hath reigned; he is clothed with beauty,' etc. In putting on the large veil : ' And bright clouds have covered them. By the word of the Lord the heavens have been made firm, ' etc. " (Our translation, from the Greek in Goar, Euchologion, p. 104).

• The entire rite of covering the Gifts, for example, in the founeenth century Constitution of the Mass ordo in the Typikon of S. Sabba, Cod. Petroburgensis, 585 (A. Drnitrievsky, op. cit., III, p. 185) is very similar to that of today described above; so also in the Constitution of Philotheus (1345-1376); cf. A. Drnitrievsky, op. cit., II, Euchologia, p. 821.

• The covering of the Gifts with veils is mentioned in the Uturgikon of Barlaam of Khutinsk (1192) in these words : "And he (the deacon) covers the Gifts while he says : ' The Lord hath reigned. . . . ' In covering the chalice : ' The Lord is clothed with power.'" Our translation from the Slavonic in Gorsky-Nevostrujev, op. cit., III, p. 6.

simple, and even during the thirteenth century only two veils were used. 7 In the fourteenth century three veils were used, as today, but the accompanying prayers were changed somewhat from those used in the Greco-Byzantine Rite. 8 Today's ritual dates from the introduction of the Const£tution of Philotheus into the churches of the Ukraine and Russia in the late fourteenth century, though some texts of the next two centuries still contained the earlier forms. • Final uniformity in this matter was achieved by the reform of Patriarch Nikon (1654).

Incensing of the Prothesis and the Prayer of Offeri-ng

When he has covered the gifts, the priest takes the censer and incenses the whole oblation while saying :

Blessed is our God who is thus well pleased. 10

And the deacon adds : At all times, now and always and for ever and ever. 11

In saying the foregoing prayer, both the priest and the deacon rever­ently make a small bow. 13 The priest returns the censer to the deacon (or he may do so after the Prayer of Offering). Then the deacon says :

For the oblation of precious gifts, let us pray to the Lord.

The priest takes the censer and, without making any sign of blessing, says the Prayer of Offering :

0 God, our God, you have sent Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, to be our Saviour, Redeemer, and Benefactor through

7 Cf. A. Petrovsky, op. cit., pp. 874, 881. • For the covering of the paten and chalice, the same prayers were said as in

the previous century, but for the final covering of the Gifts with the large veil, the following was said : " Sanctity becomes thy house. " This, at any rate, is prescribed in Cod. Tolstoianus, 274, p. 3; also in Cod. 345 of the Moscow Synodal Library. Cf. Gorsky-Nevostrujev, op. cit., III, i, p. 21.

•E.g., MS. of Solovetzky Library N. 1023, p. 75; N. 1025, p. 87, etc. (A. Pe­trovsky, op. cit., p. 919); also the Liturgikon of Metropolitan Isidore, MS. Vat. Slav., 14, fol. 122.

10 "Glory be to You" is added to this exclamation in the Russian recension; also, the prayer is said three times.

11 In the Russian recension, since the priest says his part three times, the deacon answers three times.

11 In Russian churches, three bows are made because the prayer is said three times.

whom you bless and sanctify us; you sent him to become the bread from heaven and food for the whole world. Bless this oblation yourself and accept it on your altar in heaven. Since you are good and love mankind, remember those who have offered it and those for whom it is offered and preserve us from all fault in celebrating your divine mys­teries. For hallowed and glorified is the majesty of your most honored name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.

During the incensing, both priest and deacon bow before the gifts just as the shepherds and Magi bowed in adoration before the newborn Babe in Bethlehem. The incensing itself is to remind the faithful of the Magi's gifts to Christ, one of which was frankincense, an important incense resin. It is not the gifts, as lrenaeus carefully points out, but the inner intention, the offering of the heart that is decisive before God and pleasing to him. 18

Within the natural gifts of bread and wine is implied the internal oblation, the heart of every offerer; it rises heavenward like the clouds of incense. Thus t"s our God well pleased.

Then the priest formally presents these gifts to God in the Prayer of the Proskomidia. Its essence is the petition that God bless and accept the oblation on his altar in heaven; in return, that he "re­member " those who offer it as well as those for whom it is offered. Its first phrase, "0 God, our God," is filled with strong feeling. Acts of faith follow, faith in the incarnation, redemption, and true Presence : " You have sent Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, to be our Saviour, Redeemer, and Benefactor. . . . You sent him to become the bread from heaven and food for the whole world. " Through him in all these attributes man is blessed and sanctified.

Sanctification means "to make holy" as God is holy; hence, to make man like God. The Eastern Fathers boldly developed the con­cept of sanctification to its fullest degree, " theosis," "divinization," or " deification. " This process begun on earth will be completed in heaven and is the final goal of every Christian". Man's redemp­tion, sanctification, and salvation mean his deification. Basil

1• Irenaeus, Adv. haer., IV, 18, 1(PG7, 1024 f.); ibid., IV, 18, 3 (PG 7, 1026 f.).

describes man as a creature who has received the order to become God. 14 Athanasius teaches that God became man that man might become God. 16 The Byzantine Liturgy carried the same idea : " In my Kingdom, said Christ, I shall be God with you as Gods. " 11

St. Maxim.us wrote : "We remain creatures while becoming God by grace, as Christ remained God when becoming man by the Incarnation. " 17 Since man is composed of both body and soul and since Christ has saved and redeemed the whole man, deification involves the body also : " Man's body is deified at the same time as his soul. " 18 The complete, full deification of the body, however, must wait until the Last Day. The doctrine of deification has a solid biblical foundation; it is the constant theme of John's Gospel, the Epistles of Paul, and recurs in II Peter : " Through these prom­ises you may become partakers of the divine nature. " 19

The offertory nature of this prayer is obvious from its text. The bread and wine have been formally prepared and are now being presentend to God by the priest in the name of all the offerers. The first stage of offering is being completed (cf. pp. 509 f.). The bread is still only bread, the wine only wine, but they have become offer­ings; they have acquired a new characteristic : dedication to God (a sacramental in the Western sense).

" Bless this oblation yourself and accept it on your altar in heaven." Again, there can be no question of a real altar in heaven, for, strictly speaking, an altar is a place for offering sacrifice-and a real sacrifice such as we have here on earth does not exist in heaven. True, Christ in heaven is the High Priest and the Mediator for us before God. He presents his bloody death to God in order to apply to us the

"Basil, De Sancto Spiritu, IX, 23 (PG 32, 109); the expression he uses is 0eov y&vi:a6cn.

"Athanasius, De incar., 54 (PG 15, 958 C [Series graeca]); cf. also De decretis, 14 (PG 15, 1081 [Series graeca]); Gregory Nazianzen, Or., xxx, 14 (PG 20, 784 D [Series graeca]).

11 Canon for Matins of Holy Thursday, Ode 4, Tropar 3. 17 St. Maximus, Gnostic Centuries, 11, 88 (PG 90, 1168 A). 18 Ibid., 11, 88 (PG 90, 1168 A). 11 While the Eastern Fathers and writers spoke of deification, they did it in

the light of the distinction between God's essence and his energies; thus they avoid all forms of pantheism. Theosis means union with the divine energies, not with the divine essence. Man does not become God by essence, but is merely a " created God, " a God by grace or by status.

fruits of the redemption. From the Apocalypse (5:10; 20:6), we know that the blessed in heaven also are priests of God. Through Christ and in union with him, they offer unceasingly the sacrifice of praise, homage, and thanksgiving to the triune God. The most common interpretation of the heavenly altar here is that it symbolizes this heavenly sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Accordingly, in this prayer God is asked to bless our earthly oblation and to unite it with the heavenly oblation of the blessed. Since the latter, the sacrifice of the Church Triumphant, is always in God's presence and is entirely pleasing to him, so will our oblation be agreeably received by him if united with the all-pleasing sacrifice of the blessed in heaven. How this union of sacrifices is possible and takes places is a mystery.

The Prayer of the Proskomidia is the oldest prayer in the whole rite of preparation. It is the only one included in the texts of the eighth and ninth centuries. 20 The form then in use for the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, however, was different from that of today. The present prayer, originally contained in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, was substituted for it. In the Byzantine-Slav Rite, the Euchologia of the eleventh century already contain the Basilian formula of this prayer for the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, 81

but it was said just before the covering of the Gifts instead of after, as it is today. This was the nucleus around which the rest of the proskomidia was built.

The Proskomidia Dismissal

Standing where he is by the proskomidia table, the priest begins the dismissal with these words :

Glory be to you, Christ God, glory be to you. Deacon: Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the

Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen. Lord, have mercy [thrice]. Bless.

•• Cf. Codex Barberini, gr., 336 (Brightman, LEW, p. 309). 11 The first to have this Basilian formula in the Liturgy of Chrysostom was the

Liturgikon of Barlaam of Khutinsk (twelfth century), MS. of Moscow Synodal Library, N. 343 (Gorsky-Nevostrujev, op. cit., III, p. 6.

Then the priest pronounces the dismissal itself :

May Christ, our true God, through the prayers of his most pure Mother, through those of our father among the saints, John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and through the prayers of all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, for he is good and loves mankind. 22

Deacon : Amen.

This standard dismissal marks the end of the proskomidia or rite of preparation. A similar dismissal ends all Byzantine liturgical services. With the exception of a slight addition prefixed for Sundays, the dismissal of the Byzantine proskomidia never varies according to feasts or seasons as do the dismassals for the Divine Liturgy itself, the Vesper Service, Matins, etc. The proskomidia, the official rite of preparation for the Divine Liturgy, is now ended (see pp. 459 ff. for Dismissals).

Even in the earliest centuries, Christi.an assemblies ended with a dismissal of some sort. Yet, the dismissal of the pr<#omidia is one of the very latest additions to the rite of preparation. It is possibly that of the Canonical Hour of Sext as used in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. 23 Since the Hour of Sext was to be recited before the Divine Liturgy as a kind of preliminary preparation for it, it would have been natural also to have its dismissal end the rite of preparation, or the proskomidia. At any rate, some time during or after the fifteenth century the present dismissal formula became the standard ending.

" On Sundays, the priest prefaces the dismissal with : " May Christ our true God, who is risen from the dead .... , " etc. In the Russian recension of the dis­missal, the text reads slightly differently : instead of, " of our father among the saints John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople ... ," it has "of our father among the saints, John, Archbishop of Constantinople, the Golden­mouthed."

••Cod. Vat. gr. N. 573 (Krasnoseltsev, Materialy d/ja istorii chinoposlidovania liturgii sv. Joanna Zlatoustago [Kazan, 1889], p. 102). The fourteenth or fifteenth century Liturgikon of Metropolitan Isidore, in its Ustav, prescribes a dismissal (vidpust) without specifying its kind; cf. MS. Vat. Slav. N. 14, fol. 123.