The Divine Liturgy, continued...

Sorry I haven't gotten back to this, but The Illness took over here for a while. So now we take up where we left off, just after the Creed.

Prayer to God the Father

Priest: It is fitting and just to sing to Thee, to praise Thee, to thank Thee and adore Thee in every place of Thy dominion; for Thou art God ineffable, incomprehensible, invisible, illimitable, Thou and Thy only begotten Son, and Thy Holy Spirit. Thou didst bring us out of nothingness into being, and didst again raise up the fallen, neglecting nothing until Thou didst bring us to heaven, and didst grant us the kingdom to come. For all this we thank Thee and Thy only-begotten Son, and Thy Holy Spirit, for all the mercies, visible and invisible, which have been granted us, those of which we know and those of which we do not know. We thank Thee, likewise, for this liturgy, which Thou hast deigned to accept from our hands, even though there stand before Thee thousands of Archangels, and hundres of thousands of Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, those with six wings and many eyes, who soar aloft, singing the song of triumph, crying aloud, raising their voices and saying:


Response: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosannah in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosannah in the highest.

Priest: With these blessed powers, Lord, lover of mankind, do we also cry out and say: Holy are Thou and most holy, Thou, and Thy only-begotten Son, and Thy Holy Spirit. Holy art Thou and most holy, and most fitting is Thy glory; Thou who didst so love the world, that Thou gavest even Thy only-begotten Son, that every one who believes in Him may not perish, but have life eternal. Who, coming and fulfilling the entire mission for us, on the night on which he was betrayed, or rather, gave himself for the love of the world, taking bread in His holy, most pure, and immaculate hands, giving thanks, blessing, breaking, gave to his holy disciples and apostles saying:

Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, for the remission of sins.

Response: Amen.

Priest: Similarly the chalice after the supper, saying:

Drink you all from this, this is my blood of the new law, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.

Response: Amen.

Priest: Remembering this saving commandment and all that was done for us: the cross, the grave, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming,

Thine own, of Thine own, we offer Thee, of all and for all.

Response: We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we thank Thee, O Lord, and we pray to Thee, our God.

Prayer to God the Holy Spirit
Epiclesis

Priest: Lord, Thou who at the third hour didst send Thy Holy Spirit upon Thy apostles, do not take Him from us, O merciful One, but renew Him in us who pray to Thee.

Deacon: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew within me a spirit of righteousness.

Priest: Lord, Thou who at the third hour didst send Thy Holy Spirit upon Thy apostles, do not take Him from us, O merciful One, but renew Him in us who pray to Thee.

Deacon: Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

Priest: Lord, Thou who at the third hour didst send Thy Holy Spirit upon Thy apostles, do not take Him from us, O merciful One, but renew Him in us who pray to Thee.

Deacon: Bless the holy bread, Father.

Priest: And make this bread, indeed, the honored Body of Thy Christ.

Deacon: Amen.

Deacon: Bless the holy chalice, Father.

Priest: And what is in this chalice the honored Blood of Thy Christ.

Deacon: Amen.

Deacon: Bless both, Father.

Priest: Transforming them with Thy Holy Spirit.

Deacon: Amen. Amen. Amen.

Priest: That they may be, for those who will partake thereof, unto the awakening of the soul, unto the forgiveness of sins, unto the imparting of the Holy Spirit, unto the attainment of the heavenly kingdom, unto complete trust in Thee, but not unto judgment or condemnation.

Again, we bring Thee this rational service for those asleep in the faith, Ancestors, Fathers, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apsotles, Preachers, Evangelists, Martyrs, Confessors, Teachers, and for every soul that has slept in the faith.

Especially for our most holy, pure, most blessed, glorious Lady and Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary.

Response: It is truly fitting that we bless thee, bearer of God, who are forever blessed and most innocent and the Mother of our God. Thou who are more honored that the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond comparison that the Seraphim, thou who undefiled, gavest birth to God the Word: thee, the true Mother of God, do we praise.

Priest: Be mindful first, O Lord, of our Most Holy Father, Pope Benedict, our Metropolitan Lucian, our Most Reverend Bishop John Michael, granting them to thy holy churches in peace, safety, honor, health, and length of days, faithfully teaching the work of Thy truth.

Response: And of all Thy people.

Priest: And grant us, with one mouth and with one heart, to praise and glorify Thy most honored and most worthy name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit(+), now, and always, and forever and ever.

Response: Amen.

Priest: And may the grace of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you all.

Response: And with thy spirit.

Next, another Litany, and then the Our Father. Stay tuned.
(image from http://www.christusrex.org/www1/citta/B3-Cathedra.html)