Father Zacharias:  Requirements and Practice of the Divine Liturgy

We are surrounded by technology and distractions these days.  As Fr. Zacharias shares, there is no wilderness, no desert where you can go to get away from the modern world and focus solely on God.  So what are we to do?  Perhaps borrow from the advice that Fr. Zacharias’ spiritual father used to give to the monks under his care.  His counsel was to simplify, to focus on the Jesus Prayer and learn how to prepare for the Divine Liturgy and then celebrate it with attention and fear so that we can actually enter into the communion of the gift of the saints, into the communion of the body and blood of the Lord, and the grace of the Lord Himself.  Learn more about this in the following video from Pemptousia.

Draw Near:  Understanding Orthodox Worship

Many who experience Orthodox worship for the first time say that they’ve found their hearts true home.  As one presenter states in the following video, Orthodox worship is “the melody of the Kingdom, the fragrance of paradise.”  Learn more about this in the following video from the Archdiocese which explores some of the different aspects of our worship, including liturgical services, hymns, iconography, and the universal priestly calling of all people.  We’ll be sharing more videos from this series in the coming weeks.

If you’d like to explore this topic further, please consider the following resources:

From Shadow to Reality: Ancient Christian Worship — Fr. Tom Hopko speaks on the roots of Christian worship from an Orthodox perspective in this podcast from Ancient Faith Radio.

Worship and Life: Discovering Orthodox Christianity – Video from Holy Cross featuring Rev. Dr. Alkiviadis Calivas and Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris.

Orthodox Worship – an article about Orthodox worship from the Archdiocese.