THE  LITURGY

THE  BEST  EXPRESSION  OF  THE  CHURCH

     The Liturgy , through which the work of our redemption is
accomplished, most of all in the Divine Sacrifice of the Eucharist, is
the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their
lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real
nature of the true Church.  It is of the essence of the Church that
she be both human and divine, visible and yet invisibly equipped,
eager to act and yet intent on contemplation, present in this world
and yet not at home in it; and she is all these things in such wise
that in her the human is directed and subordinated tot he Divine, the
visible likewise to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this
present world to that city yet to come, which we seek.

     While the Liturgy daily builds up those who are within into a
holy temple of the Lord, into a dwelling place for God in the Spirit,
to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ, at the same time it
marvelously strengthens their power to preach Christ, and thus
shows forth the Church to those who are outside as a sign lifted up
among the nations under which the scattered children of God may
be gathered together until there is one sheepfold and one shepherd.

THE  CHURCH  WITH  CHRIST

     Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also He sent the
Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit.  This He did that, by preaching
the Gospel to every creature, they might proclaim that the Son of
God, by His death and resurrection, had freed us from the power of
Satan and from death, and brought us into the Kingdom of His
Father.  His purpose also was that they might accomplish the work
of salvation which they had proclaimed, by means of Sacrifice and
Sacraments, around which the entire Liturgical life revolves.

     Thus by Baptism and Chrismation men are plunged into the
Paschal Mystery of Christ: they die with Him, are buried with Him,
and rise with Him; the receive the spirit of adoption as sons
"through which we cry out Abba!: (that is `Father')" (Rom. 8:15),
and thus become true adores whom the Father seeks.

     In like manner, as often as they eat the supper of the Lord they
proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.  For that reason, on
the very day of Pentecost, when the Church appeared before the
world, "those who received the world" of Peter "were baptized." 
And "they continued steadfastly in the teaching of the Apostles and
in the communion of the breaking of bread and in prayers ... parsing
God and being in favor with all the people" (Acts 2:41-47).

     From that time onward the church has never failed to come
together to celebrate the Paschal Mystery: reading these things
which were in all the Scriptures concerning Him" (Luke 24:27),
celebrating the Eucharist in which "the victory and triumph and His
death are again made present," and at the same time giving thanks
"to God for His unspeakable gift" (11 Cor. 9:15) in Christ Jesus "in
praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:12), through the power of the Holy
Spirit.
CHRIST  ACTS  IN  THE  LITURGY

     To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in His
Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations.  He is present in the
unbloody Sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy, not only in the person of
His priest, the Altar Christos, but especially under the gifts of bread
and wine.  By His power He is present in the Sacraments so that
when a man baptizes it is really Christ Himself who baptizes.  He is
present in His word, since it is He Himself who speak when the
Holy Scriptures are read in the Church.  He is present, lastly, when
the Church prays and sings, for He promised: "Where two or three
have gathered in My Name, I am there among them" (Matt. 18:20).

     Christ indeed always associates the Church with Himself in this
great work wherein God is perfectly glorified and men are
sanctified.  The Church is His beloved Bride who calls to her Lord,
and through Him offers worship to the Eternal Father.

     Rightly, then, the Liturgy is considered as an exercise of the
Priestly Office of Jesus Christ.  In the Liturgy the sanctification of
man is signified by sings perceptible to the senses, and is effected in
a way which corresponds with each of these signs; in the Liturgy
the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of
Jesus Christ, that is, by he Head and His members, the faithful.

     From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is
an action of Christ the Priest through His representative the parish
Priest, and of His Body, the faithful, which is the Church, is a
sacred work or action of the people surpassing all others; no other
action of the Church of God can equal its efficacy by the same title
and to the same degree.

THE  POWER  OF THE  LITURGY   

     The Liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the
Church is directed; at the same time it is the fount from which all
her power flows.  For the aim and object of Apostolic works is that
all who are made sons of God by Faith and Baptism/Chrismation
should come together to praise God in the midst of His Temple, the
local church, to take part in the Divine Liturgy of the Sacrifice of
the Mass, and to eat the Lord's Body and drink His Blood
proclaiming His death and resurrection until He comes again.

     The Liturgy in its turn moves the faithful, filled with the Paschal
Sacraments, to be one in holiness; it prays that they may hold fast in
their lives to what they have grasped by their faith, the renewal in
the Eucharist of the Covenant between the Lord and man draws the
faithful into the compelling love of Christ and gains for them a
closer walk with God.  From the Liturgy, therefore, and especially
from the Eucharist, as form a fount, grace is poured forth upon us;
and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God,
to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward
their end, is achieved in the most efficacious possible way.

     
THE  FAITHFUL  MUST  TAKE  PART

     But in order that the Liturgy may be able to produce its full
effects, it is necessary the faithful come to it with proper
disposition, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and
that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in
vain.   

     Holy Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful realize
that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebration 
is demanded by the very nature of the Liturgy.   Holy Scripture
declares the such participation by the Faithful Christian people as "a
chosen race, a royal house, a priesthood, a holy nation, a people
God takes as his own" (1 Peter 2:9; cf. 2:4-5),  is their right and
duty by reason of their Baptism/Chrismation.

BIBLE  AND  WORSHIP

     Sacred Scripture is of the greatest important in the celebration
of the Liturgy.  For it is from Scripture that lessons are read and
explained in the homily, and psalms for portions of the Liturgy;
prayers and collects, are scriptural in their inspiration, and it is from
the Scriptures that actions and signs derive their meaning.  

ACTIVE  PARTICIPATION

     Liturgical celebrations are not private functions, but are
celebrations of the Church, which is the sacrament of unity, namely,
the holy people united and ordered under their bishops.

     Therefore, liturgical celebrations pertain to the whole body of
the Church; they manifest it and have effects upon it; but they
concern the individual members of the Church in different ways,
according to their differing rank, office, and actual participation.

     It is to be stressed that whenever rites, according to their
specific nature, make provision for communal celebration involving
the presence and active participation of the faithful, this way of
celebrating them is to be preferred so far as possible, to a
celebration that is individual and quasi-private.

LITURGICAL  INSTRUCTION

     Although the Divine Liturgy is above all things the worship of
the Divine Majesty, it likewise contains much instruction for the
faithful.  For in the Liturgy God speaks to His people and Christ is
still proclaiming His Gospel.  And the people reply to God in song,
mediation and prayer.

     Moreover, the prayers, addressed to God by the Priest who
presides over the assembly in the person of Christ are said in the
Name of the holy people and of all present.  And the visible signs
used in the Liturgy to signify invisible divine things have been
chosen by Christ or the Church under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.  Thus, not only when things are read "which were written for
our instruction" (Rom. 15:4), but also when the Church prays or
sings or acts, the faith of those taking part is nourished and their
minds are raised to God, so that they may offer Him their rational
service and more abundantly receive His grace.

     Through His voluntary sacrifice of Himself He took the place of
the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant performed in the Temple
at Jerusalem. At the Last Supper on the night when He was
betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body
and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate recalling back to mind
of the Sacrifice He was about to make on the Cross,  which
restored our human nature to its original perfection thus making it
possible for us to become "partakers of the Divine Nature" (2 Peter
1:4).  Lord instructed His disciple to continue this ritual of the Last
Supper in remembrance of His Sacrifice until He should come
again.  The Church of God began at the Foot of the Cross and
through His disciples and their successors became His beloved
spouse, the Church, entrusted with the power of His Spirit to
celebrate the Divine Liturgy and offer bread and wine which
through the power of the Holy Spirit would become the Body and
Blood of Christ.  A Sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of
charity, a Pascal Banquet, where the mind is filled with grace, and a
pledge of future glory is given to us.

     Holy Mother the Church earnestly desires that Christ's faithful,
to fulfill their obligation to be present at the Divine Liturgy and
when present at this Mystery of the Faith, not be there as strangers
or silent spectators; on the contrary, to participate as the word
Liturgy literally means "the work of the people".























                           THE  DIVINE  LITURGY

                         A  General  Introduction

     The Divine Liturgy is both a celebration of the Holy Eucharist
and a unbloodly Sacrifice.  For in the Eucharist, Christ as the "high
priest of the good things which have come to be" (Heb. 9:11) is
continually interceding for all men with God, His Father.  At the
same time the Eucharist is a Sacrament in which men receive the
Risen Christ, who transforms them with His redeeming grace. 
Under the appearances of good, bread and wine, Christ comes to
the faithful to instill in them the same spirit of love that led Him to
the Cross.

A  SACRED  BANQUET

     The Divine Liturgy of the Mass is truly a banquet, a meal at
which Christians can gather and express their love for God and for
all men.  The Risen Christ, Who is the only food at this meal, is the
only source of grace and life for men.  As such He unites all men in
Himself.  Because of this the Eucharist is the Sacrament of unity.

     The Liturgy is also a pledge of the final resurrection at the Last
Judgment and of their union with Christ forever.  For at Liturgy the
Christian is united to the Risen Body of the God-man, our Lord and
God Jesus Christ, Who has gone before us to prepare a dwelling in
Heaven for His faithful sons and daughters.  A Christian who
remains united to Christ on earth through the Eucharist is assured
of a place in the heavenly Liturgy to come.

A  MOST  SACRED  MYSTERY

     The Divine Mysteries are communicated to the people of God
throughout the Divine Liturgy of the Mass.  During the Liturgy of
the Word of God divine power strengthens the spirits of the faithful
as they listen attentively to the Scripture readings and homily.  In
the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Anaphora, the Word-Made-Flesh
communicates Himself under the Mystical Veil of bread and wine.

THE  ENTRANCE  RITE

     Before entering into the most Sacred Mystery of the Liturgy of
the Mass, the celebrant in a loud voice says: "Blessed is the
Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now
and ever and unto ages of Ages"  The Deacon and the faithful give
their assent to his blessing by saying: "Amen".

     This is the opening Sign of the Cross, through which our
awareness of the saving nature of Christ's sacrifice is expressed and
realized.  As the priest and people bless themselves by making the
Sign of the Cross.  In the Orthodox tradition, this is done with the
right hand, with the thumb, index and middle fingers joined together
at the tips.  These three digits represent the tree Divine Persons of
the Trinity.  Also the ring and little fingers are folded across the
palm, signifying the two natures - Divine and human - of Jesus
Christ.

     In making the Sign, the three conjoined digits are touched first
to the forehead and finally to the breast, thirdly to the right shoulder
and finally to the left shoulder.  This signifies that the truth of God
passed from the Children of Israel (on the right hand of God) to the
Gentiles (on the left hand of God).  This was a universal practice in
both East and West prior to the reign of Pope Innocent III at the
beginning of the 13th century, when most of the blessing was
changed in the West from left to right, and made with the whole
hand with all fingers extended.  It should be recognized that making
the Sign of the Cross is not merely a ritualistic maneuver.  To bless
is to acknowledge and proclaim; to make the Sign of the Cross is to
acknowledge the reality of the Kingdom before us.  As the
Incarnation signifies, the coming of Christ was to redeem body and
spirit; it promises an integrated redemption.  Making the Sign of the
Cross involves the body as well as the spirit in a direct act of
prayer.

     The priest's action are incredibly significant for he blesses the
Kingdom!  This blessing of the Heavenly Kingdom serves to declare
it, to show it forth, not merely to refer to it in terms of some remote
geographic paradise somewhere in the depths of space, or worse,
some utopian dream-world.  Instead it is the very Kingdom of God
proclaimed and actualized by Jesus Himself.  To bless the Kingdom
is thus to proclaim it, and to declare it to be the aim and purpose of
all existence.  And this opening blessing proclaims that tit is to this
Kingdom that we shall ascend for a while during the Divine Liturgy,
not symbolically but actually!  During this sacred time, we shall
ascend to the Throne, and it is to the assembled people of God,
gathered together in the Name of Christ to actualize and make
whole the Church, that this declaration is made.  The people of God
acknowledge it and express their acceptance of it, by signing
themselves with the Cross and pronouncing the word Amen, "let it
be so" with a loud and joyful shout.

     This coming together of the people of God is above all a joyous
one.  There is a sense of excitement, an anticipation of the glorious
things to come.  For the people are gathered together to enter
transiently into the dimension of the Kingdom, the journey to the
next world.  They will leave for a short time the cares and
preoccupations of this world behind and will stand before the very
heavenly Table and will partake of the Heavenly Banquet.  The
gathering of the people around their deacons and priests and their
bishop is the actualization of the Church and proclaims it to be
"catholic", for in the Orthodox tradition the world catholic does not
have merely the meaning of geographic universality.  On the
contrary, it derives from two Greek words - kath'olon - "concerning
the whole", or "concerning completeness".  That is to say, that
which is catholic is complete and entire, lacking nothing.  And, as
St, Ignatius of Antioch [d. 107 A.D.] acclaimed in his Epistle to the
Magnesians, wherever such a gathering comes together, there is the
fullness of the Catholic Church.  Thus it is now as with every part
of the Divine Liturgy, a seeming outward  simplicity expresses the
deepest, profoundest, and most glorious of truths!

     The Priest and faithful before entering into the most Sacred
Mystery of the Liturgy of the Mass, being by reciting Psalm 43 and
making their confession of guilt.  They express their unworthiness
to take part in Christ's sacrifice.

ENTRANCE  PRAYER

     The celebrant addresses the worshiping congregation with the
words, "The Lord be with you."  The greeting, which occurs every
time the congregation receives a summons or an invitation to join in
the prayers that follow, helps to bring the attention of the people to
an important moment in the Liturgy, and to invite all to enter
earnestly into the ensuring action, whether it be petition, offering,
consecration, or communion.  The invitation comes in "Let us pray"
that follows.

     The celebrant then goes up to the altar and kisses it.  This kiss,
which occurs at the beginning and end of the Liturgy of the Mass, is
an expression of reverence and honor for the sacredness of the
Altar on which Christ's unbloody sacrifice is made present.

KYRIE  LITANY

     Next the celebrant and people call upon Christ, the kyrios, the
Lord, to have mercy on His people.  The nine invocations are all
addressed to Christ as the one Savior and Lord of the universe.

GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS  -  GLORY  TO GOD

     This hymn of wonder at God's goodness and thanksgiving for
His great redemption combines the song the Angels sang on
Christmas night with words of praise for God and a direct appeal to
Christ for His help.  The Glory of God is a poem of praise that
takes it theme from the Angelic announcement of the beginnings of
salvation.  After praising God, the hymn quickly turns to Christ, the
Redeemer whose Paschal victory is being celebrated. 

THE  TRISAGION  HYMN   

     This is one of the most ancient hymns of the Christian Church. 
It is a hymn deeply Trinitarian in character, for those who are
addressed in this hymn are none other than the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.  Holy God is addressed to the Father Almighty, Holy
Mighty to the only-begotten Son, and Holy Immortal One refers in
turn to the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father through the
Son.

TRISAGION

     Again, there are pleas for mercy said by all. thatis, for steadfast
love and compassion.  For as we know, God is love: God is
all-compassionate; God all-knowing and all-understanding.  The
pleas for mercy, therefore are asking God merely to be Himself to
us, and to lift us up - we who are fashioned in His image - that we
may come to know Him and to His will.

COLLECT

     The Collect sets the tone for the Liturgy of the Mass of the day. 
With themes of joy, sorrow, prayer, and penance they keynote the
celebration of the different Mysteries of Christ's life throughout the
year, as well as the sentiment of those who love and serve God. 
Simple and clear in structure and relying mainly on the psalms for
their content, these prayers express trust in God, praise for His
greatness, and prayer for His help.

LESSON

     A scripture reading.  The Liturgy of the Mass is the expression
of the total salvific action of God on His people.  Scripture Lessons
bring to mind particular manifestations of God's action among men,
usually expressing the theme of the particular mystery of Christ's
salvation that is the focus of the Liturgical celebration at the time. 
Often it is a practical application of the day's Gospel or an
expression of how to make Christ's revelation meaningful in daily
life.

GRADUAL OR TRACT

     The Gradual or Tract echoes the Lesson and reflects upon it in
relation to the Feast and to our personal needs.  "Alleluia" meaning
"Praise unto God," is an exclamation of delight in Christ, the Light
of the world.  The Alleluia is a reflective introduction to the Gospel.

GOSPEL - GOOD  NEWS  OF  SALVATION

     The Gospel contains the good tiding of the salvation that God
has accomplished in Christ. It is the most important Scripture
Lesson and climaxes the Liturgy of the Word, in which the hearts of
the faithful are prepared for the offering and sacrifice to follow. 
The Holy Spirit speaks to the congregation through the inspired
word of God.  The homily that follows the Gospel enlarges on the
message contained in the Gospel and makes practical application of
its truth to man's daily activity.

NICENE  CREED  -  THE  SYMBOL  OF  OUR  FAITH

     The profession of faith, the Creed, that precedes the Offertory is
a community avowal of belief in God and God's revelation.  The
Faithful in unison express their belief in God the Creator, in Christ
the Lord, and in the gifts of salvation that have come men through
Christ and in the Holy Spirit.  

OFFERING  OF  GIFTS

     The prayers of the Offertory are concerned with the material
gifts of bread and wine that soon will become Christ's Body and
Blood.  The bread and wine are blessed and especially set apart and
readied for the action of the Canon that follows.  In the Offertory
prayers, the priest calls upon everyone to offer with him and
through him the host on the paten and the wine in the Chalice, for
they are soon to become Christ our savior.  Just as many grains of
wheat make one host and many grapes make one chalice offering,
so many members of the Christ make one Christ.  All of us together
offer the one sacrifice in the Name of all the members of Christ,
living and dead, and we offer it for all mankind.  Then we beg the
Holy Spirit, the Divine Sanctifier, to come upon our sacrificial gifts
and through them to hasten the sanctification of all men.

LIFT  UP  YOUR  HEARTS

     The Preface introduces the great prayer of the Church, the
Anaphora or Canon, It is a solemn invitation to prayer, but a prayer
of a special kind, a eucharistia, a prayer of thanks: "Let us give
thanks unto our Lord God."  The dialogue nature of the responses
shows the union of the Church, the priest and faithful, at the great
moment that the Eucharistic Prayer beings.

     The Preface expresses our consciousness that we owe God, who
is our Lord and Creator, the great praise and adoration.  In this
introductory prayer we also acknowledge the great gift of salvation
that has been given us in Christ and will soon be made present
before the worshiping congregation.  The Anaphora is the central
part of the Liturgy of the Mass.  From the Preface to the Our
Father the prayer of the priest and congregation rises as one
expression of gratitude to God for what He is and His merciful
salvation.

     After the Preface the celebrant asks God to receive the gifts on
the Altar.  We pray then for the living members of the Church,
especially all the Church and her clergy, for all God's people, for the
needs of all those present and for whom they offer the Liturgy and
for the departed.  Since the Liturgy of the Mass is not an individual
act, but the prayer of the Christian  Community, the intercession of
the Saints are requested.

EPICLESIS

     We can only offer to God those things which belong to His
creation and which are His in any case. And we offer them on
behalf of all created being and in thanksgiving for His creation, and
all that it embraces, in which we ourselves have our being and of
which we ourselves are a part.  The celebrant with great reverence,
now begins the invocation of the Holy Spirit.  Technically, this is
known as the epiclesis - a word which means "calling upon, calling
forth, or calling down upon".  The prayer is addressed to the
Father.

     The changing of the ordinary bread and wine into the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ is accomplished by the Holy Spirit in context
of the Kingdom, and involves the priest and people exercising their
royal priesthood.  We recognize that here is a great Mystery.  But
we also recognize that this manifestation of the Body and Blood of
Christ takes place not within the ordinary dimensions of space and
time, nor in the context of this fallen and changeable world.  Rather,
it takes place in the eternal, eschatological dimension of the
Kingdom of God, to which we spiritually ascend during the
Eucharistic Liturgy.

     Such a change can only take place within the context of the
Kingdom, rather than in a fallen world.  It belongs to the Kingdom,
and at this point in the Divine Liturgy, the two worlds touch - and
we are for a brief space spiritually elevated (not symbolically but
actually) to the very throne of God, where the transformation of the
gifts can take place.  This is accomplished by the Holy Spirit; not as
an automatic result of the saying of a magic formula, but by the
prayer of Christ Himself, united to His Mystical Body, the Church. 
All of the members of Christ are praying with Him and within the
all-encompassing power of His grace.

     It is through the epiclesis that the Holy Spirit is invoked upon us
and upon the Gifts, and manifests them as the Body and precious
Blood.  It has always been Orthodox teaching that this invocation
of the Holy Spirit is necessary and essential for the manifestation,
which is accomplished as a result of the invocation of the Spirit,
rather than by the words of Institution.  The Holy Spirit, who came
upon the last great day of Pentecost to initiate the Kingdom and the
Age to Come, carries us beyond the present realm and into the
heavens.  It is thus the Spirit who transforms the Church into the
Mystical Body of Christ, and thus shows for the simple gifts which
make up our offering in the Eucharist as a true communion with
Christ in the Holy Spirit.  This is what we mean by "consecration" -
and it is a function of the Spirit working within the Kingdom of
God, which is wrought for us through the Mystical Body of Christ.

THE  LORD'S PRAYER

     The Sacrifice within the Divine Liturgy of the Mass was
instituted as a family celebration, the sacred meal of the family of
God.  Those who belong to Christ are bound by intimate ties of
fellowship.  This fellowship is given reality in the reception of
Christ in Holy Communion.  The Lord's Prayer stands at the
beginning of the Eucharistic Banquet in the Liturgy.  It is the start
of the congregation's preparation to receive the Risen Christ.

     It is highly significant that throughout the Gospels Jesus Christ
frequently used two expressions that are totally unique to Himself. 
First, He uses the word "Amen", (Let it be so) before rather than
after making a definite statement.  Thus: "Amen, Amen I say unto
you ...", meaning: "let what I say be so", or "what I say shall be so"! 
This underscores His Lordship, His absolute authority.  In addition,
He refers to the supra-heavenly God, God the Father, as "My
Father".  Always, in referring to the Father, this familiar "My" is
used, thus identifying Himself in a fully filial relationship to the
Godhead.  No one anywhere else in Holy Scripture takes such
liberty!

     Yet in the Lord's Prayer, He extends to us fallen creatures the
incomparable and unique privilege of addressing the divine Majesty
of the Lord of all, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the
Creator and Ruler of the Cosmos, He Who is and ever shall be, as
"Father".  And not only as father, but Abba, a particularly endearing
Aramaic diminutive term perhaps best translated as "dad", or
"daddy", or "papa".  This is the God Who created and rules, the
God Who is not just heavenly, but is beyond all things.  The Greek
word is epouranion, supra-heavenly, to remind us that God is
beyond the heavenlies.  He transcends all that we know and can
conceive, and that we can approach Him on His terms alone. 

     That we may dare!  Dare to call the Lord of all "Daddy" even as
we would address our own parent!  Note that in the prayer, Jesus
tells to address God as "Our Father".  We are never told to address
Him as "my Father".  That degree of possessiveness is reserved
entirely to the Son of God - Jesus Christ - Who is His Son from all
eternity by nature.  We as human beings may yet become what
Christ is by nature through the operation of divine grace.  Thus in
that sense we, too, may become children of God and therefore
brothers and sisters of Christ, as it were, by adoption through His
infinite mercy and infinite love in the Holy Spirit.  And therefore
since we belong one to another and one in another, all partake
equally and uniformly of our human nature. We do so collectively
and never as individuals; we must address the living God as "Our
Father" and never in an individual or possessive way.

     The second observation concerns "give us this day our daily
bread ..."  In St. Matthew's text, the Greek word roughly translated
as "daily" does not in fact mean daily.  The word is epiousion, a
word which really means "supra-substantial" or "supra-essential",
and is thus mysterious to understand.    Opinions among the Fathers
of the Church as well as among more recent commentators on the
New Testament have differed on the meaning of this word. 
However, much of the evidence points to a translation of the word
in terms of the imperishable bread which is Christ Himself, and
which continues to be available to us in the Holy Eucharist.  Note
the words of Jesus Himself: "Then they said to Him, what shall we
do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and
said, "Amen, Amen, I say to you Moses did not give you the Bread
from Heaven, but My Father gives you the true Bread from
Heaven.  For the bread from God is He Who comes down from
Heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord,
give us this Bread always."  And Jesus said to them, I am the Bread
of life: he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who
believes in Me shall never thirst.  And yet I say to you that you have
seen Me  and do not believe."  (John 6:32-36).

     The earthly bread, the bread of this world will pass away but the
eternal Bread of Heaven, which is Jesus Christ, endures forever and
will bring us to the realization of our destiny, eternal life within the
Kingdom.  Therefore we pray "give us today our supra-substantial
bread" - that is, Christ Himself, that we may be sustained and
nourished and nurtured even unto salvation.

     We pray for God's Kingdom to come, and in doing so we utter
an eschatological prayer.  We offer a plea for the realization of the
Kingdom of God and for the Second Coming of Christ.  For the
realization of the Kingdom and its final and universals establishment
is the ultimate goal towards which we strive.  We pray also that
God's will be done even here on earth just as it is in the Kingdom of
Heaven.  In Gethsemane, on the night before His passion, Jesus in
His agony prayed to the Father, "If it be Thy will, let this cup pass
from Me; nevertheless, Thy will, not My will, be done!" (Matt.
26:39).  Thus we pray for the grace of God that we may be
enlightened and come to understand that alone we can do nothing. 
We realize that our fallen human will must be surrendered totally to
the Divine will, on all occasions and in all things, if we are to
achieve salvation.

     We pray for the forgiveness of our transgressions, that with an
important condition - that they will be forgiven only to the extent to
which we forgive those who sin against us.  For if we do not
forgive freely and without reservation, then neither will we be
forgiven.  This a pre-condition for salvation. We ask that we be no
led into temptation.  Clearly, God Himself will not lead us into
temptation.  He will not set traps for us like some capricious tyrant. 
But it has always been the Church's teaching that because of our
fallen condition, because the presence of the Adversary is always at
hand, temptation is always at hand.  Neither is if possible for us of
our own free will and by virtue of our own personal strength to
resist and overcome temptation.  Inevitably it requires the grace of
God to overcome demonic power.  We ask God not to lead us into
temptation,a nd that those trials which we must endure be tempered
by His mercy.  That through His grace we may not fall into
irredeemable condition of rebellion and final apostasy.

     We ask, therefore, that we be delivered from the clutches of the
ultimate Tempter, the Evil One; namely from the destroying power
of the Devil.  This is clearly the meaning of the original text, which
the Greek states simply "... but deliver us from the Evil One".  The
prayer concludes with a doxology and declaration of the faith: "For
Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, forever and ever!"

COMMUNION  IN  CHRIST

     After the recitation of the Lord's Prayer the celebrant expands
its petitions and ask God to free men from evils "past, present and
to come."   Before the priest beings his own preparation to receive
Christ, together with the community he calls upon Christ, the
"Lamb of God" who has freed men from their sins, to continue to
shed His mercy on those who need it, especially those who will be
receiving Him soon in Communion.

THE  BODY  AND  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST

     As the celebrant approaches each communicant he announces
the coming of Christ in the individual with the words "The Body
and Blood of Christ."  This ancient Christian formula expresses the
reality that each participant received.   In turn, the faithful respond
with "Amen," and so give voice to their belief in the Presence of the
Word-Made-Flesh.

THE  LITURGY OF  THE  MASS  TO  THE  WORLD

     After Communion the Liturgy proceeds quickly to its
conclusion.  The priest again sums up the prayers of the Church and
the worshipping congregation in the Prayers after Communion. 
Then the priest's words, "Depart in peace,"  are an invitation to all
present to make operative in the world the grace that they have
received at this Sacred Banquet.  The reply of the congregation,
"Thanks be to God," is their avowal of their commitment to follow
Christ's words, to bring the Gospel to every creature and to show
by their lives that Christ is risen.