The Anaphora of St. Basil is a complete proclamation of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are three components to this profession. The first is the mystery of the incarnation, that the Son and Word of God chose to take on the human nature for our salvation. The meaning of this mystery was expressed by quotations from Hebrews 1:3, the Letter to the Philippians 2:6 and the Old Testament prophecy of Baruch 3:38. Continue reading →

The Anaphora of St. Basil tells of the whole story of our relationship with God.

The story of the Garden of Eden reveals that as human beings, we have not trusted God, but instead thought that we could achieve glorification by our own efforts. By being unfaithful to the divine plan, “man disobeyed you, the true God who created him; he was led astray by the deceit of the Serpent, and by his own transgressions was subjected to death.” Continue reading →

The feast of Pentecost is the closing day of the Feast of Pascha, the Resurrection of our Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus in the form of tongues of fire. This was the fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). Continue reading →

The A n a p h o r a of St. Basil is read in the Divine Liturgies of the Great Fast and also on the Great Feasts of Christmas, Theophany and Pascha. The reason for this is that it is the most sublime statement of faith in our Liturgy. In it the whole story of our salvation in Christ is told, and, hearing it, we learn the basic message of the gospel. I’ve entitled these articles “our catechesis,” but they are more properly what is called “mystagogy,” the proclamation of faith by baptized, committed Christians. In the most holy times of our liturgical year, we tell how God has brought us salvation. It is more than instruction, it is our worship and confession of life in Christ. In the next few articles, I want to show how this story is told. Continue reading →

The feast of our Lord’s P a s c h a (Greek for “passover”) is celebrated for 50 days so that the 40 days of repentance is surpassed by the days of rejoicing and salvation. The Pentecostarion is the book of these 50 days.

The number 50 is found in the scripture, in the Acts of the Apostles, which tells us that on the 50th day after the Resurrection, “(the disciples) were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Continue reading →