The Central Moment of the Liturgy

Taken from the collection of articles by Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic) “Christ – the Alpha and the Omega”, Liturgy and Spirituality:

“The whole word, including man, was fashioned as God’s ‘Economy’ (household) and destined to become the Kingdom of God. The whole world has its liturgy, its function or service, which consisted of a free and loving communion of creation with God the Creator in the Holy Spirit. It was said concerning the Creation of the world that ‘the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters’ (Gen. 1:2), because the Spirit of God hovered above the whole material creation – over the world and at the creation of man. ‘The Lord God…breathed in his [man's] nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul’ in the Holy Spirit (Gen. 2:7; cf. I Cor. 15:45, cf. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Basil the Great, etc.). From this it follows that life and the true functioning, action and operation of this God-created world, and especially of man as its crown, should be one continuous liturgy – a continuous communication, a living fellowship with God in the Holy Spirit. In other words, it should be one continuous liturgical, eucharistic way of living, existing, acting and behaving, and, together with this, a eucharistic way of participation (communion) in God through the Holy Spirit. In this eucharistic way of living everything is received from God as a gift of His goodness and love, and everything is returned to God with gratitude and offered as liturgy, so that again everything might be returned to us by Him as divine grace for life and immortality. ‘Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, in behalf of all and for all’ – this is what our Church confesses and how it acts in the central moment of its Liturgy.”