What is the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts?

by Fr. Thomas Hopko

Because of its Paschal character, the normal Divine Liturgy is not served on weekdays of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church. In its place, so that the faithful would not be left without Holy Communion, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served.

Preparation of the Gifts

At the Lord’s Day Liturgy, the priest prepares a “lamb” (the bread which becomes Christ’s Body at the Divine Liturgy), which is then consecrated together with the wine and is kept for the Presanctified Liturgy. On the evening when this liturgy will be served, the Lenten Vespers begins in the usual way. During the chanting of the psalms (kathisma), after the Great Litany, with prayer and incensing, the priest places the Pre- sanctified Gifts on the diskos. He carries them in solemn procession around the back of the altar table to the table of oblation.

Hymns and Readings

After the singing of the evening psalm, Lord I call upon Thee, with the special hymns for the given day, the evening entrance is made and the hymn Joyous Light is chanted. There then follow the two readings proper to Lenten Vespers, from Genesis and from Proverbs. Between these two readings, the celebrant blesses the faithful with the censer and a lighted candle proclaiming: The Light of Christ illumines all! This blessing sym- bolizes the light of Christ’s resurrection, which illumines the Old Testament scriptures, and our entire life, the very Light with which Christians are illumined through holy baptism.

After the singing once more of the evening psalm, Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense, the prayer of Saint Ephraim is read and the augmented litany is chanted. Then the Presanctified Gifts are brought in solemn, silent entrance to the altar table with sing- ing of the special entrance hymn:

Now invisibly the heavenly powers do minister with us. For behold, the King of Glory enters. For behold, the Mystical Sacrifice, all fulfilled, is ushered in. Let us with faith and love draw near that we may be partakers of life everlasting. Alleluia.

The prayer of St. Ephraim is read once again, with the proper litany and the special prayer before Holy Communion. The Our Father is sung and the faithful receive Holy Communion from the Presanctified Gifts to the singing of the psalm verse: O taste and see that the Lord is good. Alleluia.

After Holy Communion, we “depart in peace” with thanksgiving to God for His Coming. The special dismissal prayer asks God to help us complete the time of Lent and for the ability to reach a worthy celebration of the Great Feast of Pascha.

The evening reception of Communion at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is ful-filled after a day of prayer and fasting, with the total abstinence from food and drink at the very least from midday. Those who have fasted a whole working day in preparation for the evening participation in the Holy Sacraments, however, know the great difficulty of the effort, as well as the very special spiritual fruits which it brings from God.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is one of the great masterpieces of Orthodox piety and liturgical creativity. It reveals in its form and content the central Christian doctrine and experience, namely that our entire life must be spent in prayer and fasting in order that we might enter into a communion with Christ who comes at the end, as “a thief in the night.” It tells us that all of our life, and not only the time of Great Lent, or one day of the Fast, is completed with the presence of the Victorious Christ who is risen from the dead. It witnesses to the fact that Christ will come at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead and to establish God’s Kingdom “of which there will be no end.” It tells us that we must be ready at His coming, found watching and serving, in order to “enter into the joy of the Lord.”