The Friends of Mount Athos Book Reviews

© 2009

Hieromonk Gregorios, The Divine Liturgy. A Commentary in the Light of the Fathers. Translated by Elizabeth Theokritoff. Mount Athos: Cell of St John the Theologian, Koutloumousiou Monastery, 2009. 370 pages. 30 euros hardback. ISBN 978-960-89067-9-2. Distribution (outside Greece and Cyprus): Denise Harvey, 340 05 Limni, Evia, Greece (orders@deniseharveypublisher.gr).

The earliest surviving commentaries on the Divine Liturgy are the sermons given in the fourth century by bishops to the newly baptized, who had just participated in the Divine Liturgy for the first time. This may seem strange, as it meant that the newly baptized had no idea what they were taking part in as they experienced the liturgy for the first time, but it emphasizes a truth: that the Divine Liturgy can only be understood on the basis of experience. This point is fundamental to the approach of Hieromonk Gregorios’s commentary on the Divine Liturgy, now available in an excellent English translation, and superbly printed by Denise Harvey (though this is revealed only indirectly). There are, of course, lots of commentaries on the Divine Liturgy, but whereas some of them give the impression of having been written by someone who has never attended it, this one has the clear purpose of deepening our experience of participating in the Divine Liturgy. This is mainly achieved by Fr Gregorios sharing with us his own profound experience of praying (at) the liturgy, an experience that has been seasoned by his wide and wise knowledge of the commentaries and comments of the Fathers from St Cyril of Jerusalem to St Symeon of Thessaloniki and St Nikodimos the Hagiorite, by way of Dionysios the Areopagite, St Maximos the Confessor, St Germanos of Constantinople, Theodore of Andida, to mention those most quoted, as well as some comments from recent Athonite elders. We are taken through the liturgy step by step, and given a meditation that often takes the form of quotations from a range of the sources just mentioned. Fr Gregorios’s favourite is St John Chrysostom himself, quoting not just from his baptismal homilies, but also from other homilies, especially on the Scriptures. A good example is his comment on the first petition of the great litany:

The road that leads to the Divine Liturgy is peace of soul. Without this peace, we cannot take part in the Liturgy: ‘Without tranquillity of thoughts, the human intellect cannot explore hidden mysteries.’ Real participation in the eucharistic Mystery is proportionate to our inner peace: ‘The more the heart ceases to be disturbed by recollections of external things, the more the intellect is astounded by understanding divine meanings.’

The quotations here are from St Isaac the Syrian.

These quotations are carefully chosen so that there are both comments that expound in the simplest way and comments (as in the example given) that introduce a depth of understanding we may one day hope to reach. It is really a work to be used as a stimulus to meditation on the meaning of the Divine Liturgy, as part of our preparation for participation in it. To read it continuously (as a reviewer is required to do) is certainly not the best way to approach it, though it is so readable that many readers will quickly find themselves lost in it. It will yield its deepest fruits, however, as it is read and reread and pondered over.

A brief introduction gives a survey of the early development of the eucharistic liturgy, leading up to the three liturgies still used in the Orthodox Church – those of St James and St Basil the Great and then, discussed at greater length, the liturgy that forms the basis of the commentary in this book: that of St John Chrysostom whose life is also discussed. Fr Gregorios (writing in 1982) is more sanguine about the literal authenticity of the liturgical texts than most scholars would be nowadays. Nonetheless the spirit of the liturgies can be traced back to their eponymous authors – at least with St Basil and St John – and the currently-used texts certainly borrow from their supposed authors. A final introductory section sketches the theology of the Divine Liturgy as recapitulating the entire divine economy, as a theophany of the Trinity, as a concourse of heaven and earth, ending with reflections on how the Eucharist constitutes the Church itself; for Fr Gregorios, truly ‘the Eucharist makes the Church’. We are then taken through the Divine Liturgy prayer by prayer, beginning with the initial rite of the Kairos, which gives Fr Gregorios an opportunity to introduce the notion of liturgical time, in which the events commemorated become contemporary with our celebration of them, the vesting of the celebrants and the rite of the Proskomidi, all of which takes place out of sight or sound of the laity (usually), though an understanding of this contributes enormously to any participation in the liturgy. We are then taken through the liturgy itself, from the opening proclamation of the blessedness of the Kingdom to the final rite of thanksgiving for Holy Communion; an appendix gives the sermon attributed to St John Chrysostom read at the end of matins in the Easter Vigil. All the way through, Fr Gregorios’s comments and quotations from the Fathers invite us to pause and ponder on the richness of meaning contained in the Divine Liturgy.

This is a book that deserves a warm welcome and a wide readership. In taking us ever more deeply into the wealth of meaning of the Divine Liturgy, it is a wonderful gift to the Church.

Fr ANDREW LOUTH

Durham