Certainly, we have many opportunities to pray as a community, especially during Great Lent and Holy Week. Christians are also instructed to pray in secret, to stand before our God privately and commune with Him in prayer. There are other moments that arise during our day when a prayer or praying comes naturally. Still, the majority of our days are not spent in prayer and doing so appears impractical and extremely difficult.

Fortunately, within the Holy Tradition of our Church there is a method of constant prayer. The Jesus Prayer has been practiced by everyday Christians and champions of the Faith for thousands of years. The prayer itself comes from scripture, in the Gospel of Mark and Luke we hear of the blind man who wanted Jesus to restore his sight. Sitting by the road he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10.47, Luke 18.38). The prayer is also rooted in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. In the Temple we hear that the tax collector , “. . .would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner’ (Luke 18.13). In Her wisdom our Church combined these two prayers into the form we use today, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner.”

This short and simple prayer is easily memorized. Yet, the power and message of this prayer is profound. It was the prophet Joel who wrote that, “all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2.32). The Jesus Prayer places the name of the Lord constantly upon our lips and so by praying this prayer we are moved ever closer towards salvation. The Jesus Prayer also reminds us of another mystery of our salvation, the Holy Trinity. Again scripture instructs us that it is only through the Holy Spirit that we are able to confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, (see 1 John 4.1-6, 5.6). God is Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Jesus Prayer brings to mind this reality. Our salvation comes through the saving work of the Trinity, One God in Three Persons. This mystery is experienced, but not explained, by the use of the Jesus Prayer. Finally, the Jesus Prayer reminds us of our fallen condition. Jesus warned us to, “watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26.41). In order to avoid the temptation to sin we are told by Jesus to be vigilant through prayer. Prayer animates the soul and makes possible its mastery over the flesh. We were created with both a body and a soul, but in our fallen state it is the body that rules the soul. God is Spirit (John 4.24) and if we are to grow into the image of God our souls must come first. We must become spiritual beings not ruled by the cares of the flesh (Romans 8.1, 8.4, 8.5-17). The Jesus Prayer when practiced energizes our souls and moves us away from the many temptations to sin that surround us.

The Jesus Prayer can be used at every moment of our lives. Regular use of the Jesus Prayer can transform our morning commute, the meetings we attend, our time on the treadmill, or the time we spend folding the laundry or doing other household chores. Through it, constant prayer becomes possible so that even in our sleep the Name of the Lord is constantly on our lips! Combining this prayer with the use of a Koumboskini or Prayer Rope is a sure way to keep God the Trinity in our hearts and minds. The Jesus Prayer is a sure weapon against the many assaults and attacks of the evil one and his demons. Many of the soul’s greatest enemies like gossip, the tendency to complain, lust, pride, jealousy, and anger become easier to overcome when we are in constant prayer. Therefore, resolve today to make constant prayer a goal by using the Jesus Prayer. You can begin by incorporating set times to practice it, or you can begin by simply praying this prayer throughout your day. Whatever the case may be, begin your journey to constant prayer today!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner!

Anyone interested in learning more about the Jesus Prayer and how it can change your life, should read, “The Way of the Pilgrim.”

Did you know that over forty psalms contain the word, sing in them? That means that singing is one of the themes in almost thirty percent of the psalms. When you stop to consider that the psalms were ancient Israel’s book of prayer you begin to realize that making music was central to Israel’s worship. In fact, singing is probably the most ancient form of prayer. Compare the worship of ancient Israel with that of our church today, and you will find the same emphasis on song. The Divine Liturgy is almost entirely sung and singing is still the main form of communal prayer.

There are many interesting aspects related to prayer and song. One of them is how we learn. Think of the way we teach children their ABCs, we sing to them that well known song: “A, B, C, D, E, F, G. . .” Certainly we have heard a child sing the alphabet long before they could write or recognize any letters. Hymns were and still are the fastest and easiest way to teach ourselves and others about the Faith. Hymns are also the surest way to remembering our church’s complicated theology. Another aspect of song and prayer is how enjoyable it can be. My own experience as a parent has proved to me how much we all love to sing from an early age. My daughter, Alexia, loves to sing, and singing captivates her in a way the spoken word cannot. Both of my daughters find singing a more fulfilling way to pray, and they will stand with me and sing hymn after hymn before they go to bed. It is sad but also a bit odd, how by the time we are teenagers we begin to feel that we can no longer sing. By the time we are adults we no longer sing, and the hymns of the church become unknown and unused. This is unfortunate because being hymn illiterate means our prayer life, both our private and communal prayer life, becomes limited and even suffers. Finally, there is one last aspect to song and prayer that I would like to highlight and that is the way song can capture the human experience. Through song we can more effectively express our joy, our sadness, or our confusion than we can through simply speaking or reading a written prayer. Song can capture our emotions in a profound if not mystical way. Therefore hymns give us a way or a means to expressing what is occurring in our lives.

It is time for us to reclaim song as prayer and to place the hymns of our church into our prayer life. Community hymn singing requires that each of us participate, so that we can add our voice to that of the communities’. I encourage you all to purchase a hymnal and to begin to learn how to praise God in song. Keep in mind that it is never too late to return to something you loved to do as a child and to sing to your God.

One opinion, or should I say statement, that comes up fairly often when people talk to me is one I am sure many of you have either heard, said, or thought at one time, and it goes something like this: “I don’t need to go to church to be a good person.” The truth is, if you have either said this, or thought it, you were right. You don’t need to come to church to be good a person. Sometimes, faithful attendance only makes people worse.

It may seem strange for some of you to hear a clergyman say this in a church newsletter, but it’s true. I myself am proof that the statement is true, although I am in church a lot; probably more than anyone at St. Catherine but Father Lou, I am still a sinner.

To add to this line of thinking, I have often observed that all around me there are people who are good, kind to others, and giving, and not all of them go to church, many of them do not even believe in God, and very few of them are Christians. It would appear that being a Christian does not always or automatically change one’s behavior. Why it may seem at first to be an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, but one can actually be a bad Christian. One can be mean, vindictive, cynical, dishonest, stubborn, unscrupulous, even hateful, and still call themselves a Christian.

So what gives? Why are we in church anyway? In some Gospel passages, we are certainly asked to do some pretty incredible things, like lend money to those we know will not repay us, do good to those who treat us poorly, and love those who hate us. And there is nothing easy about any of this, especially when you consider how hard it is just to treat those who love you with respect and understanding, let alone your enemies.

So, if these things are true, why do we attend church? Do we come because we are good people, because we are righteous and worthy of admiration, and praise? Are we somehow better than those who stay at home, or better yet, spend their Sundays sleeping?

Jesus was once asked, “‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ And [He] answered [those who questioned him], ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” Church, it appears, in this passage, is not for good people, but sinners, just as a hospital is for the sick. Notice the words Jesus chose to describe his work: the work of the Church, sickness, wellness, Physician.

The Church, then, is place for those who are sick and in need of a cure. It is not a courtroom, and it is not a place where the good are rewarded and patted on the back for their many good deeds, nor is it a place where the guilty are charged and sentenced. Rather, it is a place for people who are in desperate need of help and know it.

Maybe this is why so many of us do not feel like we get anything out of church; we have not realized we need help. For us, church might not be a spiritual operating room, but a place to be entertained, moved, engaged, and uplifted, instead of operated on, stitched up, and transfused, or should I say transfigured and transformed. And the last I checked surgery was never entertaining, at least not for the one on whom the surgery is being performed. .

We are in the church because we are not well, and we need the Good Physician to heal us. We even call the Great Mystery of Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Medicine of Immortality. Despite knowing all of this, people are often shocked when they come to Church and find sinners. They are amazed that people are not loving and friendly.

I had the same problem with Church until a wise man once asked me, “Who was at the last supper?” I thought perhaps he was asking me a trick question, so in my head I quickly reviewed the facts, and doing a quick count, I answered “The Twelve Disciples.” “All of them?” my teacher asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice. Hesitantly, I answered, “Yes.” Looking at me intently, he asked me a more profound question: “Even Judas the Betrayer?” Again thinking I was being trapped, I replied even less sure of myself than before, “Yes, even Judas.”

At this point this wise man went onto say to me, “You mean to tell me that Jesus shared the last supper, his last supper on Earth, with his betrayer? In the heart of the greatest mystery, at the pinnacle of Jesus’ work, the Betrayer is found?” “Yes,” I stuttered. “Well,” he said, “What does that tell us about Jesus?” This time not waiting for a reply, he went onto to explain that Jesus brought a sick man, Judas, into the heart of the last supper because he still hoped to cure him.

What was the cure that Jesus administered? What was the medicine? Here, I think of the words Jesus uttered during this sacred meal, “Take eat; this is my body. . .Drink of this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant.” Jesus gave this to Judas Himself. Amazingly, He did not give up on trying to revive His patient, even though many of us would have pronounced him dead on arrival. The truth is that we shouldn’t be surprised or shocked to find the church full of gossips and liars; this is how Jesus set it up.

Therefore, finding our way into the Kingdom, and thus finding ourselves in church, has nothing to do with being good. Rather, it starts with recognizing that we are not. Of course, recognizing we have a problem is only the first step. Jesus began his ministry on Earth with the words, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” So, entering the Kingdom begins by recognizing our brokenness—our need to be made whole again.

It happens when we understand that going to church brings us face to face with our Great Physician. It continues when we come to comprehend that the Mystery of receiving Him is by far more important than hearing something interesting, feeling good about ourselves, or spending an hour and a half entertained. Offering Christ in the mystery of communion is a perfect solution for those who are sick and need to be made well in the great hospital we call the Church.

So, those who say you don’t need to come to church to be a good person are correct, but if you desire to unite your life with Christ’s, if you think something greater than moral perfection is possible, go to church. For the goal of the Christian life is nothing short of union with God.

No one had to prod me or remind me to drive out to Denise’s house. Seeing her was and is never onerous or burdensome, never an obligation but always, only a great joy. I kept and still keep pictures of her close at hand so that when we were apart I could be reminded of her. And no one ever had to remind me to do nice things for her, to remember her birthday, or our anniversary, or St. Valentine’s day. Seeking to please her and to bring a smile to her face was and is as natural as breathing.

Years later, I am reminded of these sweet memories at the oddest times. For instance, when I find myself standing in front of the holy altar for one of the many divine services we enjoy in our Cathedral parish and I get a glimpse of the great mystery of God’s love for us and how far it surpasses our own, even the intense love of a young starry-eyed engaged couple, I stand in awe of it. God’s love for us so lavishly demonstrated in the coming of the Son of Man into the world and His giving of His body and blood to us in the eucharistic gifts so that we might be in union with Him stuns me to silence.

But the real curiosity for me stems from the degree to which Orthodox in this country today hold the precious gift of His love and our participation in it in the divine services of the Church in such slight regard. I don’t mean for this column to devolve into a screed but I am absolutely mystified at the institutionalization of our meager liturgical life these days. Understand that, not having been raised Orthodox and not having enjoyed in my youth the full flowering of prayer as it resides in the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox Church, I’ve not yet learned to take it for granted. For me, the sine quo non of my prayer life is to gather together as a praying community and offer our collective prayers to the God who listens. That so few even make the attempt to do so today strikes me as a monumental tragedy.

Blessed as we are with a beautiful edifice in which to worship, we are a magnet site in Denver for Cathedral tours. School groups, retirement centers, non-Orthodox catechism classes, civic groups, and others frequently come to the Cathedral to see the splendor of our iconography. And typically during these tours and presentations the question will arise; “What is being Orthodox all about?” One could respond to such a question in a myriad of ways. But I always speak first about prayer as I tell them that if they really don’t like praying, coming frequently to church for services, saying one’s prayers in the home and throughout the day, they may not really find Orthodoxy to their liking since, at least in my estimation, to be Orthodox is to pray. And yet I have begun to feel a bit uneasy about such brash statements when I look at the very sparse participation in our services.

That virtually no one attends Sunday Orthros these days has been long recognized as established fact. That Saturday and festal Vespers services, where they are still even scheduled, attract only that mere handful of “religious fanatics” or people with “nothing better to do” goes un-remarked and unchallenged. That the vast majority of Sunday Church goers arrive whimsically at any time of their choosing, even as late as “With the fear of God, faith, and love draw near” has become so entrenched is taken as normal.

How did we arrive at so pitiable a state?

In the interest of full disclosure I would have to start by assessing blame to us celebrants. Sir Thomas More’s famous maxim to King Henry the 8th that “silence gives consent” comes here to mind. Inappropriate actions become bad habits if left unchecked and uncorrected. Correction of such actions carries inherent risks but as priests we are called to lovingly correct as part and parcel of our, or more specifically Christ’s, priestly ministry. And many people have come to be abused of the strangest and most heterodox notions of what the divine services are all about. Some attend the services to “hear the beautiful music,” others to “witness the pageantry” of the liturgy, and still others to hear beloved languages and affirm national and cultural affinities, all quite laudable aims I suppose but quite irrelevant to what corporate prayer is all about. For, correctly understood, leitourgia is about none of these things. Rather it is about the leitos, the people of God, offering up their ergon, their energy and efforts to God in prayer. The very word “liturgy” then implies an active and not a passive role on the part of those present. Again, here I blame us as celebrants for allowing the malaise of non-participation to fester unchecked. Is it little wonder that our people today deem the liturgical tradition of the Church to be quite irrelevant to their day-to-day lives when – even when they attend the services – they are relegated to the role of passive observer? I have even heard Orthodox people tell me “You know, Father, I don’t need to go to Church to pray!” Or, “I can feel close to God anywhere.” I have even heard Orthodox people tell me that in lieu of regular attendance at the divine services they enjoy listening to their favorite self-styled televangelist! Now, as a former protestant, I might have expected to hear such unenlightened pap to come tumbling out of the mouths of the heterodox but to hear it from our own parishioners is staggering!

This unhappy situation has given rise to a false dichotomy today vis-à-vis our own orientation toward the services. One the one hand there are those who neglect the services and dismiss the form and formulae of the typikon is quite meaningless. For them, we are free to change, alter, cut, and experiment with our liturgies as our whims direct with no appeal whatsoever to the liturgical traditions of the Church or the blessing and oversight of our Hierarchs, without which we skate on very thin ice. And on the other hand we see an entrenchment of rigid rubrical formulae such that one begins to wonder if we’re worshipping a liturgy or worshipping God in a liturgy. When, as recorded in the second chapter of St. Mark’s gospel, the Lord was questioned by the Pharisees about the disciples eating ears of corn on the Sabbath, he replied; “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” (ver. 27) Both positions are extreme in that both fail to address the very real spiritual needs of an American Orthodox community now largely ignorant of their own spiritual heritage of prayer. Our situation is like that of an heir to vast riches living in squalid poverty because he doesn’t know what he possesses.

Our people today are wandering in needless ignorance through a mine field of soul-corrupting entertainments and distractions and the remedy that they need but do not know to seek is to be found in a return to our corporate life of prayer. In the divine services of the Church time itself is rendered sacred. Xronos, that unrelenting time of Shakespeare’s refrain “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day and all our yesterday’s have lighted fools the way to dusty death,” becomes for us the kairon of the Kingdom of God. Our people need not carry the weighty burden of meaningless time. In the offering up of the eucharistic gifts matter itself and all of the cosmos is rendered sacred as an offering to Christ in response to His love. We are twice sacred, having been created in His Image and then having been redeemed by His coming. Our people need to know that God’s loving providence is not limited to Sunday mornings. They must come to see themselves, their families, and everything that possess as a gift from God. And in the offering up of the eucharistic gifts, work and human toil find their ultimate fulfillment as well. We don’t offer up mere grapes and stalks of wheat but bread and wine. We are invited to “work together with” – in synergeia – the Holy Spirit to offer Him the elements to be transformed in the Divine Liturgy by which we are united to Him in the one chalice.

Like my opening muse on the youthful exuberance of young love, we must come to see our life of prayer in the Church not in the cold transactional language of “obligation” or (Panagia mou!) “good luck.” Instead, we must enter into the life of prayer as an offering up of our love for God. Is it that we don’t love God today and so disregard being with Him or is it that we don’t know how to love God because the link between the divine services and our spiritual life has been so long neglected? To be an Orthodox Christian is to pray, just as to be in love with someone is to desire that person’s presence. Desire is the missing element! God’s desire for us is so strong that He stops at nothing to demonstrate it for us. Conversely, our desire for Him is or seems to be so meager that being in His presence in the divine services is just not worth the effort.

What’s to be done to correct this very sad state?

Do we throw up our hands and simply say; “well the real Church has always been very small,” and descend into a type of fortress mentality, holding the services as our own unique property to be meted out only to those few who share our enthusiasm? I pray not. Christ the Good Shepherd bids us leave the ninety and nine to pursue the one so we must surely leave the one to pursue the ninety and nine! Do we continue to forego the liturgical tradition of the Holy Church of Christ in favor of programs, concerts, lectures, sports, festivals, cultural events, committees, and whatever new idea blows into our midst from the flea-market of popular religion? God spare us from such a fate!

We need to first become persons of prayer ourselves for we cannot give to others that which we do not first possess. We need to foster a love for prayer and for standing in Christ’s loving presence. We need to kneel at the feet of the Crucified One and beg his mercy on us that we might complete our lives according to His designs. And having done this, we must patiently but relentlessly teach and educate our parishes to connect to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the divine services of the Church. A return to pastoral liturgics is needed to move beyond the entrenched/whimsical paradigm we are held in thrall to today. Kat oikonomeia, or “by economy” only works if it stems from an awareness of what has always been considered normal. But it breaks down if our traditions are forgotten and we’re just making it up as we go along.

Let us so love Jesus Christ that being with Him in our daily personal prayers and in our corporate life of liturgical prayer becomes for us our raison d’etre and not merely an afterthought. Let us learn or re-learn to live our lives in a liturgical way, according to the rhythm of the Church’s life of corporate prayer. And in so doing let us leave behind the tired husk of dead quasi-religion and pseudo-spirituality that masquerades as a living faith today. To do anything less is to deny the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the peril of the souls of men and women for whom He came and bled and died and rose from the dead as Lord and Victor. May it never be said of us that we have “neglect(ed) so great a salvation” (Heb. 2:3) “Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb. 10:25).

In Christ,

Fr. Apostolos Hill

On that day, the topic was the services of the Church. Very quickly I knew they would be turning to me. I was, after all, the closest they had to an insider. Like many of us, they began to critique our services with the often-repeated complaint, “they are so long and repetitive. Why can’t you guys trim some of it?”

In my conversations with many of our faithful, I hear the same sentiment repeated time and time again. I would have to admit that I too have voiced my own frustration at the length of our Sunday service.

Recently we read, in one of the Sunday Gospels, the story of a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years. This too is a long time. In the passage, we are told how she approached Jesus in secret in order to touch the fringe of his garment, which immediately healed her. The Lord perceived that power had gone out from him, and he questioned the crowd surrounding him saying, “”Who was it that touched me?’ When all had denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the multitudes surround you and press upon you!’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me.’”

Today, more often than you would think, our own Church is indeed very crowded. And many even claim Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christianity, after all, is still the world’s largest religion. Similarly, we read how, on that day, a great crowd surrounded Jesus. In fact, we are told that the crowd was so large that the people even pressed upon Him.

A few weeks ago, I attended a Bronco game, and the experience of being in a large crowd can be exhilarating. I am sure many of you can relate to the excitement of being caught up in a crowd. It can make you feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself. A crowd can even have its own identity, and a crowd can literally move you in a certain direction.

Yet, being in a crowd can be a lonely experience. You can quickly become just “one” of the crowd, nameless, faceless, unknown, and unknowable. By being in the crowd, you can lose your identity – the crowd can end up being how you are identified. More to the point, being in a crowd, or following the crowd can keep us from being clear about who we are and what we truly need to be alive and well. The Church would say that being in the crowd can keep us from reaching out in order to be known and in order to be healed.
My own sense of the woman in the Gospel passage is that she wanted to be healed, and this ultimately led to her being known. The great mystery or wonder of this story is that in a crowd, she became herself again. Who she was became clear, was recognized, and restored. Jesus was not okay with leaving her alone. Rather, he wanted to know who she was. True healing, then, seems to be wrapped up in this concept of being known, and knowing others.

To remain in the crowd, being nameless and faceless, is safe, but it is also a path devoid life. Knowing this, it was not okay with Jesus that this woman just slip back into the crowd. Once she came forward, Jesus drew her towards him by desiring to know whom she was.
Ask yourself why was it that power only left Jesus for this one woman? For we know that many people pressed upon and came into contact with Him. Incredibly, only this woman was healed by touching the fringe of his garment. As for the crowd, it was not affected; she was the only the person.

Like her illness of twelve years, Church is long. And sometimes when we are ill-prepared to be in Church, we quickly get distracted and even resentful. Even when we crowd the chalice to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we find that no power is imparted onto us; we remain unaffected, still sick. Yet, something greater than the fringe of Jesus’ garment is available to us.

Beginning with myself, I question my reasons for pressing forward to receive Communion. Do I act as one of the crowd, or am I a person willing to enter into relationship with Jesus? Like this faithful woman, am I desiring to be healed, do I approach in fear and trembling, ready to come forward to be known by the Lord? Have I the faith to approach with confidence? Have I set aside the length of my illness? And have I gone against the crowd? Am I looking to take something or encounter Someone?

In reality, Church isn’t too long for us, just as twelve years wasn’t too long for this woman. We just need to understand what is happening. Meeting the Lord, however long it takes, is worth the wait. Just think of that woman who waited twelve years to be healed and, like her, simply observe the masses and do the opposite. Avoid going with the flow and instead, chart a path to Christ.

The service is very different than anything one might label as worship in America. Knowing this and that this was their first experience of Orthodox worship, I was eager to hear what they thought. I joined them in the Fellowship Hall after the Liturgy. There, I asked if they wanted to share with me how the worship of the Orthodox Church compared to their previous worship experiences. The mother of the family looked at me shook her head and said, “Wow, the whole service was so focused on God.”

Such a reaction is not common. Many people, whether they are Orthodox or not, react to Orthodox worship negatively. The most common complaint I hear is, “I didn’t get anything out of it.” While other people have very similar opinions, such as, “The service is too long,” “It is sooooooo boring,” and “It’s very repetitive.”

Unfortunately, such comments prove to me that the object of worship for most people is themselves. Most of us, whether we realize it or not, want worship to be centered on us, to gratify us. We want the service to move us, stimulate us, feed us, or inspire us. Yet, true worship is not about us; it is about God. This means that true worship cannot be directed towards us.

Take the time someday to investigate modern American worship. It is so directed towards the individual. Many churches today use focus groups to try and determine what style of worship will best attract potential congregants. In fact, most Seminaries have courses that look and feel much like the advanced marketing courses you find in a Business School. Worship, like most things in today’s culture, is being promoted in a way that fits our tastes.

Still there is more to this emerging trend than merely a focus on self. Basically, we have forgotten why the first Christians gathered to worship in the first place. If we want to know what the Apostles did, all we need to do is turn to the Book of Acts and read. When we do, we will find that when they came together to worship, they celebrated the Eucharist (Acts 2.42, 20.7).

What, then, was the purpose of Christian worship that had focused itself entirely on God? It was and is in a word: Eucharist. In true Christian worship, the Body and Blood of Christ is distributed and received. This is the ultimate goal of Christian worship. In fact, Christians years ago were so committed and focused on this reality that they literally would risk death rather than miss receiving Holy Communion.

The true Christian is the one who lives between Divine Liturgies. The Christian is the one who, upon receiving Christ in the Eucharist, immediately seeks the next opportunity to do so. Therefore, when one lives truly as a Christian, attending Church infrequently becomes an impossibility. For it is only in the worship of Christ’s Church that the Mystery of communing with the Risen Christ through the Holy Chalice is made possible.

Such a liturgical consciousness is rare today. Few of us live between anticipating and receiving the Eucharist. Worship is about us, and communion is treated with a casualness that would shock any one of the Apostles. In fact, the Church long ago decided that a Christian had effectively excommunicated themselves when they missed receiving the Holy Body and Blood of Christ more than three weeks in a row! How many of us, at some time or another, are guilty of doing just that?

Of course a return to worship cannot occur without repentance, without a true change of mind and heart. We must be willing to humble ourselves, thus turning the focus of worship away from ourselves and towards God once again. It is only then that we will begin to understand what it means to live in anticipation of receiving God through Holy Communion. When this happens, we too will be able to exclaim, “Wow, when I worship, my whole being is focused on God!”

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10.23-25