Priest: Let us stand well. Let us stand in awe. Let us be attentive, that we may present the holy offering in peace.

People: An offering of peace, a sacrifice of praise.

Priest: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

People: And with your spirit.

Priest: Let us lift up our hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord.

People: It is proper and right.

Priest: (in a low voice) It is proper and right to sing to You, bless You, praise You, thank You and worship You in all places of Your dominion; for You are God ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever and ever the same; You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit. You brought us from inexistence into being, and when we fell, You raised us up again. You did not cease doing everything until You led us to heaven and granted us Your kingdom to come. For all these things we thank You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit; for all things that we know and do not know, for blessings seen and unseen that have been bestowed upon us. We also thank You for this liturgy which You are pleased to accept from our hands, even though You are surrounded by thousands of Archangels and tens of thousands of Angels, by the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring with their wings,

Priest: Singing the victory hymn, proclaiming, crying out, and saying:

People: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to God in the highest.

(The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom - pp 19-20)

The Holy Anaphora is the core of the Divine Liturgy. It is one long prayer that the priest offers in dialogue with the people. It is also one of the oldest sections of the Divine Liturgy, going back to St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil; some fragments go further back to apostolic times.

The name Anaphora comes from the Greek verb anaphero - to bring up, hence, to offer. It describes an offering that we bring up to God, the offering of the bread and wine to be consecrated at the altar in heaven. It begins with a call to attention for all the faithful, so that they may bring the holy anaphora (offering) in peace. Hence the name holy anaphora refers by extension to the prayer that makes the offering real.

The main reason for the prayer is the consecration of the gifts. Indeed, the offering that starts as bread and wine is transformed in the very offering of Christ’s body and blood on behalf of our sins. The altar on which it takes place is really the altar in heaven, and the celebrant is really our Lord Jesus Christ. This does not mean that we crucify Christ again and again, but rather that we are transported back the unique event of His Crucifixion and receive the full benefits of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.

This most solemn experience is preceded by the introductory dialogue that we study today. The priest blesses the people with the apostolic blessing used by St. Paul (2 Corinthians 13:14). The people bless him back with the equally ancient formula “and with your Spirit.”

The call of the priest “let us lift up our hearts” is the final reminder to leave behind this world and allow ourselves to be transported into the Kingdom. The heart signifies the core of our being. Our bodies might still be on earth, but our hearts are swung into heaven, where we experience mysteries that cannot be expressed in human words.

Just as our Lord prayed and thanked God before He made His greatest miracles, we make it a point to thank God before the consecration of the gifts. We praise Him for Who He is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We thank Him for creating us from things that are not (2 Maccabees 7:28), for never giving up on us when we fell from grace, but instead granting us the kingdom of heaven, for blessings seen and unseen that we might or might not be aware of. Finally, we thank Him for accepting the humble liturgy that we are offering to Him, even though thousands of angels and archangels (the two group of angels closest to us), as well as the Cherubim and the Seraphim (the two groups of angels closest to God) continuously offer praise around the heavenly throne, singing the thrice-holy hymn. They exalt God as the Lord Sabaoth (Hebrew for “of hosts, of armies”), and they chant Hosanna in the highest (Aramaic interjection meaning “save, I pray”).

(to be continued)