The Readings and the Homily

At the heart of the Liturgy of the Word stand the Scriptures and their proclamation: the Prokeimenon and the Epistle, the Alleluia and the Gospel, and the homily that opens them. This file describes the readings and the sermon, the litanies that follow, and the ancient dismissal of the catechumens that once separated the Liturgy of the Word from the Liturgy of the Faithful.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

The Reading of Scripture

The public proclamation of Scripture is one of the oldest and most stable elements of the Liturgy, attested already in Justin Martyr’s second-century description of the Sunday synaxis, where “the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits,” before the president’s sermon and the eucharistic prayer (Justin, First Apology 67; trans. ANF 1). The Byzantine rite retains this word-service in developed form, framing the two New Testament readings — Apostle and Gospel — with responsorial psalmody.

The Prokeimenon and the Epistle

Before the Epistle the reader and choir sing the Prokeimenon (Greek prokeimenon, “that which is set before”), a short refrain of one or more psalm-verses that varies with the day, the tone, and the feast, and serves as a thematic threshold to the reading (Divine Liturgy; Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy, SVS Press, 1990, ch. 5). The Epistle (Apostolos) is then read — a passage from the Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline epistles, or the Catholic epistles, appointed by the lectionary (the Apostolos book) in a course that runs through the year. The reader announces the source and chants the reading; the priest blesses the reader, and the people are addressed with “Peace be unto thee that readest.” A notable feature of the Byzantine lectionary is that the Book of Revelation is never read at any liturgical service — a distinctive of the Eastern tradition, connected historically to the slow and contested reception of the Apocalypse into the canon in the Greek-speaking Church (hub essay, Orthodoxy: The Divine Liturgy; on the canon, cf. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament, Oxford, 1987).

The Alleluia and the Gospel

After the Epistle the Alleluia is chanted three times with its psalm-verses, while the deacon censes the holy table, the icons, and the people — the incense honoring the Gospel that is about to be proclaimed and figuring the sweetness of the word (Divine Liturgy; Germanus, On the Divine Liturgy, trans. Paul Meyendorff, SVS Press, 1984, on the incense). The Gospel is then read from the ambo or before the Royal Doors by the deacon (or the priest), introduced by “Wisdom! Attend! Let us hear the holy Gospel,” and framed by the people’s acclamation “Glory to thee, O Lord, glory to thee” before and after. Because the Gospel book is an icon of Christ the Word, its proclamation is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word — Christ himself speaking to his Church (Cabasilas, A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, trans. Hussey and McNulty, SPCK, 1960, ch. 21; Schmemann, For the Life of the World, SVS Press, 1973, ch. 2, on the Word). The Gospel lectionary runs in an annual cycle beginning with John at Pascha, Matthew after Pentecost, and Luke in the autumn, with Mark filling the intervening weeks.

The Homily

A homily (sermon) on the appointed readings customarily follows the Gospel — the breaking-open of the word for the assembly. Preaching after the Scriptures is apostolic in pattern (Acts 20:7–11; Justin, First Apology 67, “the president… admonishes and exhorts to the imitation of these good things”), and the Fathers regarded it as integral to the Liturgy of the Word; St. John Chrysostom, whose very name means “golden-mouthed,” was the supreme model of the liturgical homilist (St. John Chrysostom). In practice the placement varies: in much Russian and ROCOR usage the sermon may be given after the Gospel, or after Communion, or at the dismissal, according to local custom; the homily is not a fixed structural unit of the rite in the way the readings are, but a strongly encouraged and near-universal element (hub essay). Its proper matter is the opening of the Scriptures just read, so that the word proclaimed is also the word explained and applied.

The Litanies and the Catechumens

After the Gospel and homily come the concluding litanies of the Liturgy of the Word: the Augmented Litany (“Let us all say with all our soul and with all our mind,” with a threefold “Lord, have mercy”), often with commemorations of the living, and, on appointed days, a Litany for the Departed. Then follows the Litany for the Catechumens — “Pray, ye catechumens, to the Lord… that the Lord may have mercy on them… catechize them in the word of truth… unite them to his Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church” — and, at its end, the solemn Dismissal of the Catechumens: “As many as are catechumens, depart; catechumens, depart; as many as are catechumens, depart. Let none of the catechumens remain” (Divine Liturgy; Hapgood, Service Book).

This dismissal marks the ancient seam between the two halves of the Liturgy. In the early Church the two-stage structure was disciplinary as well as structural: the unbaptized under instruction (the catechumens) were admitted to the readings, prayers, and homily — the “Liturgy of the Catechumens” — but were sent out before the mysteries, which were reserved to the baptized faithful. This disciplina arcani, the “discipline of the secret,” guarded the Eucharist from the eyes of the uninitiated and heightened the awe surrounding it (Taft, The Byzantine Rite, Liturgical Press, 1992; Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis and Mystagogical Catecheses, on the reserve toward the uninitiated). With the practical disappearance of the adult catechumenate after the Christianization of the empire, no one in fact leaves at the dismissal today; yet the Church has retained the words, both as a memorial of the ancient discipline and as a summons to solemnity — a reminder that what follows is the holy of holies of the Church’s worship. In parishes with active catechetical programs the litany for the catechumens has taken on renewed meaning, and some traditions have restored an intention for them (hub essay). Immediately after the dismissal the two short litanies “of the faithful” open the second half of the Liturgy, and the assembly moves toward the Great Entrance (the Cherubic Hymn and the Great Entrance).

See Also

• The Enarxis and the Little Entrance — the opening that leads to the readings
• The Cherubic Hymn and the Great Entrance — the movement into the Liturgy of the Faithful
• Lex orandi, lex credendi — the Liturgy, the Scriptures, and the Fathers
• St. John Chrysostom — the model of the liturgical homily
• Orthodoxy: The Church Fathers — the patristic reading of Scripture the homily continues

References

• Justin Martyr. First Apology 65–67. Trans. ANF, vol. 1. (The readings and the sermon in the earliest synaxis.)
• Cabasilas, Nicholas. A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy. Trans. Hussey and McNulty. London: SPCK, 1960. (The Gospel as the appearing of Christ the Word.)
• Germanus of Constantinople. On the Divine Liturgy. Trans. Paul Meyendorff. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1984. (The incense and the proclamation.)
• Taft, Robert F. The Byzantine Rite: A Short History. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992. (The dismissal of the catechumens; the two-part structure.)
• Cyril of Jerusalem. Procatechesis and Mystagogical Catecheses. Trans. NPNF, Second Series, vol. 7. (The discipline of the secret.)
• Wybrew, Hugh. The Orthodox Liturgy. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1990. (The Prokeimenon and the readings.)
• Metzger, Bruce M. The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. (The Greek reception of the Apocalypse.)
• Hapgood, Isabel Florence. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church. (The litanies and the dismissal of the catechumens.)
• Scripture: Acts 20:7–11; and the annual Gospel and Epistle lectionaries.