Praise! Praise! Praise!
Part I. Liturgy as a celebration
Let us praise the Lord for always being with us, for showing us the way, let us thank Him for our families, for our country, for His immeasurable grace and love! - That's enough, father, we understand, but what does this have to do with us? What is the use of this glory? Can't you just pray quietly?
I probably need to answer the last question about "pray quietly" first. The answer is no. We are invited to the celebration. We are called to celebrate the salvation that the Lord has prepared for us (remember the meaning of the word "liturgy"?). This is our joint work. Imagine that you have guests at your birthday party, and half of them just want to sit in a corner, read some book they brought with them, and watch what the others are doing. Wouldn't you wonder why they came? Wouldn't it look strange that they don't want to sing "Many Summers" together? Wouldn't you like to celebrate with all your guests in the best possible way? Would you care if you heard someone fake in the choir? And what would the person in whose honor the holiday was organized think? I am convinced that God, as a guest and the birthday person of the holiday, would be just as surprised!
As for fame and what relation it has to us - everything is simple here. We have many reasons to praise God. First of all, it is one of the manifestations of our deep gratitude for everything that someone did something for us, especially out of goodwill. We praise because we want the one who receives the praise to be open to us and listen to us. Believe me, a little praise can give wings! We praise to show how much we depend on and love that person. However, the most important reason is that when we praise a person, we open up in a special way to be able to hear them. For example, if I were to go to a celebration or rally in honor of the President of the United States, I suspect that the first thing I would expect would be a joyful atmosphere. Second, I would expect to hear a lot of praise for the leadership. And finally, I think that by joining in the praise of the president, I would become open to everything that I would hear from his mouth.
Obviously, the importance of what God said does not come in any comparison with what the president or any other mere mortal said. I hope I didn't get too hung up on this example with the president - you get my point. We persistently praise the Lord, because we depend on Him! Also, we should do everything possible to become open to Him and hear Him! We glorify the Lord, because only His Word and guidance help us. We praise the Lord for what we know and realize as gifts from Him, with the hope that we will be able to accept the part of His message that talks about loving one's enemies. Just as we say to our children, “Have I ever wished you harm, or asked you to do something that was bad for you? So why do you doubt me now?". Now more than ever we must listen to God's guidance and obey His laws (will), even if it is difficult for us to understand it at the time. Praising the Lord makes us open to accepting this great reality.
To better explain the purpose of praise, let's look at one of the phrases in the liturgy: "Mercy of peace, sacrifice of praise." By the way, liturgical texts in English do not have an exact translation of this phrase. This phrase perfectly sums up one aspect of our dynamic relationship with God. We give Him our praise, (after all, what else can we give Him but to give our lives into His hands) and He, in return, gives us the grace of peace so that we can continue to "live in peace, lead a quiet and peaceful life with dignity and piety" .
When we pray, we lay aside our earthly cares ("lay aside our sorrows"). During the Liturgy, we stop worrying about our mortgage, our taxes, not because they will take care of themselves, but because it requires allowing God to enter our lives. We need to get away from those "small" life worries for a while, and allow ourselves on the festive day to be happy with what we have, and in this way to fully let the Lord into our lives, review our priorities, and come to the Lord renewed with all the daily cares and worries. The problem is that we often get so caught up in our own concerns that we forget the presence of God in our daily lives.
The strength we get from experiencing God in the Divine Liturgy is exactly the strength we need for our daily concerns. God doesn't need that praise, we do, especially when it comes to making good decisions during the week! So, let's not be gloomy, let's smile, give praise to the Lord and sing Hallelujah!
Part II. Liturgy as a Eucharistic celebration.
Since the liturgy is a Eucharistic celebration, it can actually be compared to a Thanksgiving celebration. It would be really weird if we invited someone over for Thanksgiving dinner and they brought a peanut butter and jam sandwich and sat in the corner eating it alone or watching you eat. If they were vegetarians, we might be able to understand. It probably sounds strange, but something similar happens during the Liturgy. I mean those who pray the rosary or say some other prayer during the liturgy. Please understand me correctly - I am not against the rosary, but only when there is time for it. This also applies to those who want to read the church bulletin, however informative it may be, during the liturgy.
The tradition of praying the rosary during the liturgy can be understood. It began in the Roman Catholic Church, when the mass was conducted as a silent dialogue between the priest and the serving boy, because none of the faithful understood the Latin language. Knowing this, it is easy to understand why many pious people, instead of waiting for the bell that gave the signal for consecration or Communion, used this time for prayer. This was their only chance to participate in the service in any way.
Why did this practice appear in our church? Since the 9th century, a tradition has been established in our Church that all prayers, the Gospel, and liturgies should be prayed in a language that people understand. Even when the liturgy was celebrated in the Church Slavonic language, almost all people understood it, unless they spoke Ukrainian. And how many years have we served the liturgy in English! No one is forced to attend liturgies they do not understand.
Indeed, being at the Liturgy and praying for yourself alone is the same as coming to someone's dinner with your canapé. If you really can't eat what you're being offered, then any decent host will understand that. But this is not what we should do during the liturgy, our task is to participate in it as fully as possible! We fully immerse ourselves in the liturgy not only to hear thanks from others, but also to express gratitude ourselves. We are grateful not because we have problems, but in spite of them. We are grateful for the wonderful people and gifts we have in our lives. If we don't take a break from our worries and start enjoying life, we can easily become cynical. To prevent this from happening, we celebrate liturgies, offer praise and gratitude.
To understand the various aspects of the Divine Liturgy and its symbolism, we must first realize that the liturgy is a celebration. Everything else is derived from that. On this holiday, we thank the Lord for everything he has done and given us, and we ask him to continue to lavish us with his graces. You may think it sounds silly to celebrate and be happy. No. This is not the kind of celebration I mean. This is serious joy, or in other words, solemn joy. Unlike the generally accepted meaning of the word "solemn" as "sad", this word means "serious", "formal" and "sober". Thus, the celebration is not frivolous or a silly joke, but instead is a true joy that flows from God. This is based on the knowledge that no matter what happens, God always loves us and will always be with us. And for this we gratefully sing Hallelujah!
Written by +Fr. Pavlo Hayda
