Introduction to Christian Liturgy

Frank C. Senn

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780800698850
• eBook ISBN: 9781451424331
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

1. What are the names of the principal order of service?

2. How did this order develop throughout history?

3. What is the lectionary and how does it work?

4. What are the parts of a eucharistic prayer?

5. What is the difference between a “High Mass” and a “Low Mass”?

1. What are the names of the principal order of service?

The principal order of service has various names, most of which reflect the fact that it is centered in the meal known in 1 Corinthians 11 as “the Lord’s Supper” and in the book of Acts as “the breaking of bread.”

The term Eucharist was applied to this meal liturgy by Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr. From the third century on, it was applied more to the eucharistic prayer than to the whole liturgy. But in the modern liturgical renewal movement, “Eucharist” has emerged as a preferred term for the meal liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. designates this service as “The Holy Eucharist.”

While the term Eucharist was also used in the Eastern churches, their term for the principal service is Divine Liturgy.

In the Roman Rite the term for the chief service is “Mass” (Missa). This term comes from the dismissal at the end of the service: Ite missa est (which is hard to translate; what is “It is sent”?). Martin Luther kept the term Mass in both Latin and German, although the term “Divine Service” (Gottesdienst) was also used.

The sixteenth-century Reformers also preferred the name “Lord’s Supper” because of their partiality to the apostle Paul. The First Prayer Book of King Edward VI (1549) calls this service “The Supper of the Lorde and The Holy Communion Commonly Called the Masse.” The Second Prayer Book (1552) designates it “The Order for the Administracion of the Lordes Supper or Holye Communion.” In the Anglican tradition the service was usually called simply “Holy Communion.” In the American Lutheran Common Service tradition, the names “The Service” and “The Communion” appeared on facing pages of hymnals. In Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), the name given is “the Service of Holy Communion.”

Some Protestants might argue that for them the Service of the Word is the principal order of service because that is what is celebrated on most Sundays throughout the year. However, the very reason that the Protestant Reformers in the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican traditions used the ante-communion as their Service of the Word is because they thought it pointed toward the fullness of this order in the communion service.

2. How did this order develop throughout history?

Word and meal existed together in the principal Christian liturgy from the beginning, probably because the prevailing cultural form of the banquet that the early church used was the symposium, which included readings and discussion as well as eating and drinking.1 In the previous chapter we traced the historical and cultural factors that contributed to the development of this form. Here I provide outlines of historical instances of the development of the principal service.

A. Sunday Liturgy in Justin Martyr’s First Apology, c. 150

This is the first full description of a liturgy of word and meal, presumably as it was done in Rome since Justin is writing to the Roman Senate. The following outline combines the orders of service in chapters 65 (Baptism) and 67 (Sunday).

Reading from the “memoirs of the apostles and the prophets” by lectors

Preaching by the president

Common prayer

Greeting of peace

Transfer of gifts of bread and wine mixed with water

Eucharistic prayer by the president “to the best of his ability”

The people assent saying “Amen.”

Breaking of bread

Distribution

Dismissal

Collection for the poor left with the president

Extended distribution of the consecrated elements to the absent by the deacons

B. The Jerusalem Liturgy, c. 385

This order of service is reconstructed on the basis of references in the Mystagogical Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem and the Diary of Egeria.

The congregation assembles, men on one side, women on the other, clergy in the apse

Lessons read by readers interspersed with psalms sung by a cantor with the assembly responding to a refrain (antiphon)

The series of readings ends with the Gospel read by a deacon or a presbyter

Homilies given by the presbyters and finally by the bishop

Blessing and dismissal of the catechumens

Blessing and dismissal of the candidates for baptism (energumens or competentes)

Blessing and dismissal of the penitents

Prayers of the faithful in litany form led by the deacon, the people responding: Kyrie eleison; the bishop offers the concluding prayer

The kiss of peace exchanged by the clergy with each other and the people with each other

Loaves of bread and cups of wine brought to the altar

Apostolic greeting from the bishop and Sursum corda

Eucharistic prayer, including the Sanctus and institution narrative and concluding with intercessions and a doxology

The Lord’s Prayer accompanied by another diaconal litany

“Holy things for the holy people” with the response “One alone is holy . . .”

Breaking of bread and communion administered by the bishop (bread) and a deacon (cup)

Psalm 33 sung during communion

Episcopal blessing and diaconal dismissal

C. The Byzantine Divine Liturgy in Codex Barberini, Gr. 336, c. 800

The Byzantine Divine Liturgy developed in the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul), which had earlier been called Byzantium. It is the second largest liturgical rite in Christendom after the Roman Rite. While this codex is from the early ninth century, it undoub...

Table of contents

• Introduction What Is Pastoral Liturgics?
• Liturgy—A Practical Science
• History and Culture
• The Principal Order of Service
• The Liturgy of Time
• The Church-Year Calendar
• The Church Year: Advent through Lent
• The Church Year: Holy Week
• The Church Year: Easter and Beyond
• Life Passages
• The Liturgical Arts
• Participation in Worship
• Afterword
• Chronology of Events and Documents
• Glossary of Liturgical Terms
• Notes
• Index