Author: Rev. PhD. Vasile Gavrilă (“St. Nicholas”-Ghica University Chapel, Bucharest)
Keywords: Eastern Orthodoxy, Liturgy, Tradition, anaphora, prayers, novella
Abstract:
The Divine Liturgy is the centre of the Christian life and of the Liturgical Life of the Church; for this reason, around it have gravitated all the Liturgical Services, adjusted by the liturgical practice, by the Church Fathers’ writings, Church Canons, by special works (e.g. The Typikon, The Mount Athos Typikon or The Church local Typikons), or by the Service Books (The Archieratikon, Hieratikon, Orologion, Prayer Book, Octoechos, Triodion, Penticostarion, Menaion). The rules of the Typikon establish both the structure of the services, and the manner of doing them; at the beginning of the Church, the liturgical life was characterized by a strong Christian ethos, by the unity of faith and living around the Apostles and, later on, the bishop, with the Breaking of Bread in the centre and also the Baptistery; also we witness multiple manifestations, doubled by responsibility and sobriety (almost every bishop made use of his proper version of the Consecration Prayers of the Anaphora, without being essentially different form others). The New Covenant makes a renewal the sacrifice: the bloody, animal sacrifice is replaced by the Sacrifice of Christ the Redeemer, made present by the Church in the Eucharistic, bloodless Sacrifice, a Sacrifice of the heart and prayer: a Mystic Sacrifice. For this reason, the focus on the outer form of living and manifestation is moved on the inner form. Thus, the outer manifestation becomes the expression of the inner living, so that everything has a mystic character, though expressed in words, hymns and liturgical gestures. On the services done by the consecrated persons, people actively and consciously participate through prayers, chants and by an approval, also extant in the Old Testament, of great value, as shown by the entire Church Tradition: Amen! At a certain moment in history, a Nestorian bishop introduced the recommendation that some prayers should be said “silently”, or “in mind”. As a reaction, through the 137 Novella, enacted by the Emperor Justinian, the Church solved this error, deciding that, especially for the Anaphora – the Thanksgiving – to be spoken loudly, or solemnly, for everybody to hear and to gain soul benefit; of course, not all the local communities followed the recommendation, even if they were threatened with some punishment. In the present practice, in the majority of the ecclesial communities, on the basis of the recommendations made in the Hieratikons (to be read “silently/mystically”), the prayers that the clergy should say while doing the Liturgy, are said “in mind” or “silently”, as recommended by Narsai, the Nestorian bishop; in the recent years, some local Churches, as the Greek one, or some bishops and priests wish to return to the authentic practice of the Church, that of reading the prayers, at least the Anaphora, in a loud voice/solemnly. Following this tendency, some theologians or priests, or even monks started to criticize this return to the authentic tradition. They think that it represents an influence of West, and, out of ignorance, associating it with the Second Vatican Council, arguing that the Church has not offered an official decision, for the prayers to be read in a loud voice. But here follows one question: has the Church taken any decision that the prayers must be read “silently”, after the decision taken through Novella 137? The answer is: no; in other words: returning to the reading of the prayers from the Liturgy, especially of the Anaphora, in the hearing of everyone, is a tendency to restore the Liturgical Practice and the authentic Tradition of the Church and a proof of the following of the Imperial Novella.
Pages: 57-67