the apostolic liturgy of St James, Brother of God, also called the Just
Last Friday morning, I had the great blessing of celebrating the Liturgy of St James for the very first time. The spiritual wealth and profound holiness of this Eucharist offer a feast of theology and divine sweetness to all! Consider that this is the full-flowered liturgy, the foundation of which was the formative liturgy for the fathers of the church: St Basil, St John Chrysostom, and so on.
With the blessing of my bishop, I prepared for this by studying and preparing with great care. Two neighboring priests, my friends, Frs Catalin and Stephen, concelebrated with me. Ms Vanessa Hanna led the chanting and the choir with full competence and beautiful voices. We began the liturgy at 6 AM and concluded it at 8, so we see that it needed 2 hours to complete, in a prayerful manner. (We did not serve Matins or any other preparatory service, only the pre-communion prayers–a practice firmly established in our parish).
Next year, God willing, as St James Day occurs on a Saturday, we will preface it with Matins, and invite many more to share in this festal liturgy.
First, in this post, a presentation about the SHAPE of the liturgy, then in a later post, some reflections on its MEANING.
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The Liturgy of St James, according to the best manuscript evidence, has the following shape. (With my bishop’s blessing, I used the text of the liturgy as published in Thessalonica, by I. Fountoules. I prepared a translation into English which you can see here. There is no English translation of this text of the Liturgy of St James; you can find one here, but it is based on a heavily Byzantinized version and is thus greatly modified from its traditional form).
I. Preparatory Prayers in the vestry, then Initial Prayers.
II. Entrance with the Gospel (clergy enter, place Gospel book on the amvon)
III. Litany of the Trisagion, and the Trisagion Hymn.
IV. Scriptural Readings:
A. Prophetical Reading.
B. Apostolic Reading, which is preceded by a full prokeimenon.
C. Gospel Reading, which is preceded by a full Alleluia-psalm, then a litany. After the Gospel, a homily may be given; then there is another litany, “Let us devote ourselves to extended prayer.”
V. Dismissal of the Catechumens, “… Know ye one another! The doors!”
VI. The Proskomidia (= the Offertory), in which is sung, “Let all mortal flesh keep silent…” and in which the bread and wine are carried by the deacon and placed upon the holy Table and then prepared there for the Eucharistic Sacrifice. “As we step into Thine awesome court, O Lord…”
VII. The Symbol of Faith, “I believe in one God…”
VIII. The Salutation (Kiss of Peace), consisting of a preparatory prayer, the actual exchange of Peace, and a concluding prayer.
IX. Preparation for the Holy Anaphora, consisting of preparatory prayers and the catholic litany which mentions every state of life.
X. The Holy Anaphora of St James:
A. The Opening Dialogue (common to all liturgies, universally)
B. The Eucharistic Prayer, with the Words of Institution.
C. The Epiklisis: “…that having visited by means of His holy and good and glorious Presence, He may sanctify this bread and make it the holy Body of Christ, … and this Cup the precious Blood of Christ.”
D. The Commemorations of the Living in all states of life, while the choir chants “Remember them, O Lord our God.”
E. The Commemoration of the Saints, like above. This is a very lengthy section, with a sustained catalogue of the holy ones of all time.
XI. The Lord’s Prayer, preceded by a litany and followed by a prayer with bowed heads.
XII. The Elevation, Fraction, Union, and Communion
A. Elevation of the Body: “Holy things are for the holy” and the choir begins the chanting of the Communion Psalm (Ps 33, “I will bless the Lord at all times”) with one of its verses as the refrain, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” During the chanting of the Communion Psalm,
B. The eucharistic Lamb is divided, then conjoined and the Communion of the Clergy takes place.
C. The Communion of the Faithful: then the deacon brings out both the diskarion and the poterion (paten and chalice) with the words, “With fear of God and faith, draw near!”
XIII. Final Thanksgiving (”Let my mouth be filled with Thy praise…”) with Prayer of Bowed Heads and diaconal dismissal, “Let us depart, in the peace of Christ.”
The clergy compose the holy things, placing them in order, and complete the Liturgy with “Prayers in the Vestry (Diakonikon)”
In my next installment, I shall write about certain aspects of this liturgy.
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