People: We praise You, we bless You, we give thanks to You, and we pray to You, Lord our God.

Priest: (in a low voice) Besides we offer to You this spiritual worship without the shedding of blood, and we ask, pray, and entreat You: send down Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here presented, and make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ.

Deacon: Amen.

Priest: (in a low voice) And that which is in this cup the precious Blood of Your Christ.

Deacon: Amen.

Priest: (in a low voice) Changing them by Your Holy Spirit.

Deacon: Amen. Amen. Amen.

Priest: (in a low voice) So that they may be to those who partake of them for vigilance of soul, forgiveness of sins, communion of the Holy Spirit, fulfillment of the kingdom of heaven, confidence before You, and not in judgment or condemnation. Again, we offer this spiritual worship for those who repose in the faith, forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and for every righteous spirit made perfect in faith. (aloud) Especially for our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary.

People: It is truly right to bless you, Theotokos, ever-blessed, most pure, and mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, without corruption you gave birth to God the Word. We magnify you, the true Theotokos.

(The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom - pp 22-23)

We come now to the most solemn moment of the Divine Liturgy. Everyone kneels, awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit, that comes upon the faithful and upon the gifts presented - the bread and the wine. The people sing softly a hymn of praise to God - we do not ask for anything anymore, since we are about to receive the greatest gift of all: the most holy, life-giving Body and Blood of our Savior.
The priest prays over the gifts, asking God to transform first the bread into the precious Body of Christ, then the wine mixed with water into the precious Blood of Christ, and then he blesses both one more time. If a deacon is present, he answers each invocation with an Amen—so be it, repeating the Amen three times at the end. The faithful are encouraged to follow closely and say these Amen’s, since the Holy Anaphora, is a prayer of the whole church. The bloodless offering, as we discussed last time, is not only offered in fulfillment of all and for all those things that we have received, but, besides, it is offered on behalf of the whole church, including, but not limited to, those present.
Indeed, we are not only joined in prayer to one another, but to all the righteous people since the creation of man: from Adam and Eve, the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and the prophets of the Old Testament, to the Christian saints: apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics.
The first one to be singled out is the Mother of God, the most holy Theotokos ( the one who gave birth to God) and ever-virgin Mary. The people respond by chanting the beautiful hymn “Axion estin” (“It is truly right”). The second half of this hymn, starting with “More honorable than the Cherubim” was by St. Cosmas the Hymnographer in the eighth century, and it is part of the Matins service. The first half was revealed miraculously in the year 980 to an elder of the Monastery of Pantocrator on Mt. Athos. The angel Gabriel appeared to him in the guise of a monk, and sang this version during the Matins service. When asked to write it down, he miraculously inscribed it with his finger on a slate, after which he disappeared. The slate is preserved to this day in Constantinople, as evidence of the miracle. The icon in front of which this hymn was first chanted by the angel is the famous icon “Axion Estin” from Mt. Athos.

(to be continued)