Boska liturgia jako terapeutyczne misterium Kościoła prawosławnego

Abstract

The Eucharist is the centre and source of the liturgical life in the Church. It is the most perfect synthesis of theology and spirituality. The Orthodox Christians do not only consider it as “the Thanksgiving” (the Thankfulness), or “the Commemoration of the Lord” or “the Lord’s Supper”, but also as the sacrament (Gr. μυστήριον), by which God can heal human beings. The therapeutic activity of the Divine Liturgy, as the Eucharist is called in the Orthodox Church, is not only limited to receiving the Body and the Blood of the Saviour in the Holy Communion. Better knowledge of and a mindful participation in the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrystostom make possible to discover, that it is the therapeutic mystery in the wider sense, because the one of its important purposes is to heal from sins, the addiction to sins and its effects in the spirit, mind, and flesh of every member of the Church and to strengthen the whole Community of the Faithful. The Divine Liturgy helps by its structure and the contents of liturgical texts to concentrate on the commemoration (Gr. άνάμνησις) of the Paschal Mystery. It is very important from the therapeutic point of view that during the Great Eucharistic Prayer the priest asks God to send His Holy Spirit both upon the faithful and upon the Bread and upon the Wine in the Chalice, and to make them the Precious Body of Christ and the Precious Blood of Christ (Gr. έπίκλησις). The text and the way of celebration of the Divine Liturgy involve the mind and senses of the faithful, making easier for them the entrance into the reality of the Kingdom of God and the experience of the communion with “the Holy” and in “the Holy Things” There is nothing magic in the therapeutic power of the Holy Communion. It always remains the gift of God in Trinity offered to man. The Christian, who in his created freedom, answers for this surpassing all understanding gift of God by his faith, hope and love can experience by the Eucharist that Divine healing Energy and confess: The Kingdom o f God is within us (cf. Luke 17:21).