The Preparation and the Lord’s Prayer

Between the anaphora and the reception of Communion, the Liturgy prepares the assembly to approach the holy Gifts. This file treats the litany before the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer itself, the priest’s elevation of the Lamb with “Holy Things are for the holy,” the fraction of the Lamb, the commixture, and the zeon — the pouring of warm water into the chalice, a rite unique to the Byzantine tradition.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

The Litany and the Lord’s Prayer

After the anaphora and its commemorations, a litany prepares the faithful for Communion: “Having remembered all the saints, again and again in peace let us pray to the Lord,” with petitions for the consecrated gifts — “that our God, who loveth mankind, having received them upon his holy and heavenly and noetic altar… may send down upon us the divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit” — and for the whole day, ending with the petition that the assembly may be made worthy “to dare with boldness and without condemnation to call upon thee, the heavenly God, as Father” (Divine Liturgy; Hapgood, Service Book). This introduces the Lord’s Prayer, sung or said by the whole congregation: “Our Father, who art in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9–13). Its place here is exact and ancient: the epiousios bread of the fourth petition — “give us this day our daily [or ‘supersubstantial’] bread” — has been read since the Fathers as pointing to the Eucharist, so that the Church asks for the very Bread it is about to receive (Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5.15, on “daily bread” as the Bread of life; Cabasilas, A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, trans. Hussey and McNulty, SPCK, 1960, ch. 35). And only the redeemed, made sons in the Son, may call God “Father” with boldness — hence the priest’s introduction (Schmemann, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom, SVS Press, 1988, ch. 12). The Lord’s Prayer is followed by the prayer of inclination, said over the bowed heads of the people.

“Holy Things Are for the Holy”

The priest then lifts the consecrated Lamb above the diskos and exclaims: “Let us attend! Holy Things are for the holy” (Greek Ta hagia tois hagiois) — the ancient summons to Communion, attested already in the fourth-century mystagogy (Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5.19). The words are a warning and an invitation at once: the holy Gifts are for the holy — for those sanctified and prepared — and yet no one is holy of himself, so the people answer with a confession of the sole holiness of Christ: “One is Holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.” The exchange expresses the whole paradox of Orthodox eucharistic piety: the faithful approach the Mysteries not because they are worthy but because Christ alone is holy and makes them so (Cabasilas, Commentary, ch. 36; Schmemann, The Eucharist, 1988, ch. 13). During the communion of the clergy the choir sings the Communion Verse (koinonikon), the proper psalm-refrain of the day.

The Fraction and the Commixture

The priest now performs the fraction, breaking the elevated Lamb along the lines scored into it at the proskomedia into four particles, marked (from the seal IC XC NI KA) IC, XC, NI, KA. He arranges them on the diskos in the form of a cross, saying, “Broken and distributed is the Lamb of God, who is broken yet not divided, who is ever eaten yet never consumed, but sanctifieth those who partake thereof” — a formula that confesses that Christ, though broken in the fraction, is not divided but wholly present in each portion (Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; Hapgood, Service Book; Taft, The Precommunion Rites [A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, vol. V], Pont. Or. Inst., 2000). The particle marked IC is placed into the chalice — the commixture — while the priest says, “The fullness of the cup, of faith, of the Holy Spirit,” reuniting the Body and the Blood as a sign of the one living, risen Christ (Taft, The Precommunion Rites, 2000). The particles NI and KA are reserved for the communion of the faithful; the XC particle is for the clergy.

The Zeon: The Warm Water

There follows a rite peculiar to the Byzantine tradition, the zeon (Greek zeon, “boiling/warm”): the deacon pours a small quantity of hot water into the chalice, the priest blessing it with the words, “Blessed is the fervor [warmth] of thy saints, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages,” and the deacon adding as he pours, “The fervor of faith, full of the Holy Spirit” (Divine Liturgy; Taft, The Precommunion Rites, 2000). The zeon carries several layers of meaning that the tradition has attached to it. Most anciently and practically, the warmth signifies that the faithful receive the living, life-giving Body and Blood of the risen Christ — not cold and dead but warm with life — so that the Communion is of the Lord in his resurrection, not merely a memorial of his death (Taft, The Precommunion Rites, 2000; hub essay, Orthodoxy: The Divine Liturgy). The warmth is also read as the fervor of the Holy Spirit, poured out at Pentecost, and the water itself as recalling the water that flowed with the blood from the Lord’s pierced side (John 19:34). The custom is documented in the Byzantine rite from the medieval period and is one of the marks distinguishing Byzantine Communion practice from that of the other rites (Taft, The Precommunion Rites, 2000; Wybrew, The Orthodox Liturgy, SVS Press, 1990, ch. 7).

With the fraction, commixture, and zeon complete, the chalice holds the Body and Blood, warm with the life of the risen Lord, ready for the communion of the clergy within the sanctuary and then of the faithful — the subject of the companion file (the reception and thanksgiving).

See Also

References

  • Taft, Robert F. A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Vol. V, The Precommunion Rites. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 261. Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute, 2000. (The Lord’s Prayer, “Holy Things for the holy,” the fraction, the commixture, and the zeon.)
  • Cabasilas, Nicholas. A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy. Trans. Hussey and McNulty. London: SPCK, 1960. (The Lord’s Prayer and “Holy Things for the holy.”)
  • Cyril of Jerusalem. Mystagogical Catechesis 5.11–19. Trans. NPNF, Second Series, vol. 7. (The Lord’s Prayer and “Holy Things for the holy” in the early rite.)
  • Schmemann, Alexander. The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1988. (The Lord’s Prayer and the approach to Communion.)
  • Wybrew, Hugh. The Orthodox Liturgy. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1990. (The zeon and the communion rite.)
  • Hapgood, Isabel Florence. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church. (The texts of the fraction and the zeon.)
  • Scripture: Matthew 6:9–13; John 19:34.