When ordinary Christians say that they go to church for the Divine Liturgy, they generally mean that they go to church to follow the sacrament. But the Divine Liturgy isn’t a spectacle that we simply follow, nor a concert of hymns and readings that we listen to. It’s a divine work, which is celebrated by God’s priest together with His people. The very word ‘liturgy’ means ‘the work of the people’ (Greek ‘leitos’, which derives from laos = people)*. It follows, then, that ‘I go to church for the Divine Liturgy’ means: ‘I go to church and I participate in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. I go to church in order to work at a divine task’. And this task ...
