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Across all historical Christian liturgical traditions, the Eucharistic celebration is divided up into two sections, the liturgy of the Word (focused on reading and teaching of the Scriptures), and the liturgy of the Eucharist itself. And across all of these traditions, since at least the third century, the Eucharistic rite has been prefaced with the … Continue reading Hearts Lifted High: The Sursum Corda

The other year when I was writing my series on the Sermon on the Mount, an idea that came up was that Christianity is an anti-religion. That is to say, religion as a phenomenon seems to tend towards behaviour-control, legalism, finger-pointing, and self-righteousness. This seems like something of a built-in default setting in our bruised … Continue reading God’s Sabbath Will: A Reflection on John 9

When I wrote last week about the prayer of general confession found the Book of Common Prayer’s Morning Prayer service, I mentioned an interaction I had with a  woman who used it for her justification for preserving Morning Prayer over the Eucharist as the primary Anglican liturgical service. While it is indeed a beautiful prayer, … Continue reading Thought, Word, and Deed: General Confession, Holy Eucharist

One of the things I enjoy about older forms of liturgy is how they are designed to tell the Christian story, through both their words and their actions. Nowhere is this better demonstrated in my experience than in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which is the main Eucharistic liturgy used in the Eastern … Continue reading Blessing and Blessed: The Antiphons

One of the themes that has emerged in this series is the idea that in liturgical prayer we pray what we believe. Few places does that become more apparent than in the canticle known as the Gloria, forms of which exist in every major Christian liturgical tradition: during the prayers of the Hours in the … Continue reading Singing our Story: The Gloria