April 23, 2019 699 0 Does Wine Turn into the Blood in Case of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts? The Orthodox Church holds an amazing and sublime service called the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during the Great Lent. This Liturgy is ‘abridged’,…
April 19, 2019 620 0 Cherubic Hymn and Great Entrance: What (Not) To Do? The Cherubic Hymn is a preliminary or prefatorial chant to the Eucharistic Canon, which culminates in the transmutation (that is, a sacramental transformation) of…
April 5, 2019 254 0 Who Is Who in the Church, or Who Keeps the Worship Running Archimandrite Dositheus (Mikhailiuk), a professor of Kiev Theological Academy, on those who perform and participate in worship. Father, who are those people who perform…
April 2, 2019 2023 0 When Is Communion Forbidden During the Lent and Why? There is no such thing as a prohibition of communion in the Orthodox Church. The Sacrament of Eucharist is the ultimate sacred ritual there…
March 7, 2019 734 0 8 General Rules for Readers in the Orthodox Church With all reading in Church, certain rules apply: 1. Never read while walking or moving around. 2. It is not necessary to make the…
February 6, 2019 759 0 The Divine Liturgy: The Facts that You Didn’t Know The Divine Liturgy is the most important divine office. There are countless articles and books describing it. In the same way that the Liturgy…
January 25, 2019 115 0 Divine Liturgy as a Work of Love The Consumer It’s easy to view church as just another “commercial service.” After all, we’re used to all sorts of services in our society….
January 3, 2019 587 0 The Sense and Role of the Great (Royal) Hours Canonical hours are a type of special, fairly brief divine offices that mark certain times of day, at which a certain important event of…
November 15, 2018 499 0 Where Do Liturgical Colors Come From? Today, the Church uses priest and temple vestments of various colors. There is even a full-fledged system of liturgical colors where each holiday has…
November 9, 2018 131 0 Do We Really Need So Many Services? “Fr. Dustin, aren’t all those extra services (feast days, Vespers, Matins) just for monks and retired people?” Here’s my brief response. Before explaining the…