My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!
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THE PRAYER OF THE CHERUBIC HYMN
By His Eminence Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotis of blessed memory.
When the Cherubic Hymn, dearly beloved, is chanted, the priest stands before the Holy Altar Table and reads the following prayer:
"None is worthy, among them that are enslaved by carnal desires and pleasures, to approach or come near or minister before Thee, the King of Glory; for Thy Service is great and fearful even to the Heavenly Powers. Yet since, through Thine ineffable and immeasurable compassion, Thou hast without change or differentiation become man and taken the title of our High Priest, as Lord of All, Thou hast committed to us the celebration of this rite and of the Bloodless Sacrifice. For Thou, O Lord our God, alone dost govern all things in heaven and in earth, Thou Who sittest upon the Throne of the Cherubim and art Lord of the Seraphim and King of Israel, Who only art Holy and restest among Thy Saints. To Thee I persistently call, for Thou alone art righteous and ready to hear. Look upon me Thy sinful and unprofitable servant and purify my soul and heart
from an evil conscience; enable me by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, girt with the grace of the Priesthood to stand at this Thy Holy Table and to consecrate Thy Holy and Spotless Body and Thy Precious Blood. For to Thee I come near, bowing my neck, and Thee I beseech. Turn not away Thy Face from me, neither reject me from among Thy children, but consider me
worthy so that these Gifts may be brought near to Thee by me, Thy sinful and unworthy servant. For Thou art the Offerer and the Offered, the Acceptor and the Distributor, Christ our God, and to Thee we ascribe glory, with Thine Eternal Father and Thy Most Holy, Righteous and Life-Giving Spirit, now and forever and from "all Ages to all Ages." Amen."
This prayer of the Cherubic Hymn is one of the most inspired and moving prayers of the Divine Liturgy. Pious celebrants of the Most High at the time when they read it become filled with so much emotion, that the shed tears and their sobbings will not let them finish this superb prayer. How great is Christ, and how small and wretched is man! The Greatness of Christ and the wretchedness of man, who dares to approach the Holy Altar and offer the Holy Mystery--this prayer emphasizes these two things.
Christ! O Christ, Thou art the Master of All. Thou dost govern, Thou dost command all that is heavenly, all that is earthly. Thou art Lord of the Angels and Archangels, of the Cherubim and the Seraphim. Thou alone art Holy. Thou dost find gladness and Thou dost rest there where holiness is. Thou didst come from the heights of heaven here to earth. Thou didst come out of love for wretched man. A love which in the language of man cannot be expressed, and there is no measure to measure. Thy love is an endless ocean.
The priest, O Christ, what am I who ministers? I am thine unprofitable and worthless servant, who, even if I had kept all thy Commandments, even so I am not worthy to gaze upon the height of Thy Majesty. It is great and frightening thing for someone to serve Thee. With what hands can I touch Thee the Undefiled? With what tongue can I hymn and celebrate the sacred ceremony? I am afraid, Thou might reject me. Full of fear and reverence, Christ, I bend down, I worship Thee and beseech Thee...
The priest must feel always his unworthiness, especially during the time when he is celebrating and offering the Highest Mystery. He himself should not be in his place, nor any other man, regardless of how perfect he is, but one of the Angels and Archangels of the heavenly world. And this could be done. Namely, every time when a Liturgy is about to be celebrated, an Angel could come down from heaven, come here to earth, and celebrate the Holy Mystery. Nothing is impossible to God. Has not God sent Angels many times here to earth to execute His Commandments and serve the people? It would be possible for the Angels and Archangels to be entrusted with such a task.
What an astonishing phenomenon it would be, if upon entering the church we were to see an Angel celebrating at the Holy Sanctuary! But this task, which Angels and Archangels would tremble to perform, has been entrusted to priests. Christ gave them the power to conduct the Holy Mysteries. Saint John Chrysostom says that if we hypothesize that this spiritual power to remit sins and in general to perform the Mysteries were given to the Angels, because the Angels have no conception of sin and of the temptations which people experience, they would be unable fully to understand and feel the human tragedy; likewise the people would come into contact with Angels with great difficulty and reservations. But the priest, himself a sinful man who every day confronts temptations and fights the mighty fight against sin, sees on top of all that the weakness of people. He hears with great sympathy, as a fellow-sufferer, the sins of his fellow man, and is ready to give absolution to those who believe and sincerely repent.
Therefore let us thank Christ, because among the other benevolent acts toward mankind, He gave to men, to the priests, the spiritual power to forgive sins and to celebrate the Mysteries in general.
The priest as a man may not be rich and powerful, wise and learned, one who impresses worldly people; he may be humble and disdained. However, from the moment when he receives and wears, as the prayer says, "the grace of ordination," he receives authority which is higher than any other. For even the most powerful and rich and educated person, as a sinner, needs to have his sins forgiven. And only the priest can give this absolution in the name of Jesus Christ. Having this kind of spiritual authority, he is above kings. He is superior to the Angels and Archangels, because God did not give to any of them this authority to forgive sins.
These things indeed, which we write here about the priests, are spiritual matters, and only he who believes understands and feels them. And when he sees a priest, he honors him as he should, because the priest has spiritual power, as a representative of Christ on earth. Saint Cosmas the Aitolian used to say: "If you, my child, meet on your path both a priest and an Angel, first you must greet the priest and then the Angel, because the priest who performs and celebrates is superior to the Angels and Archangels."
Today, unfortunately, in an age of anarchy, unbelief, and corruption, the priests of the Most High are not honored, and the majority of them are not even aware of the highness of their office.
May the Holy Spirit enlighten us, so that indeed the priests might feel Whose soldiers they are, and the people might not despise and disparage them, but might honor them like the Angels of the Lord, the Creator of All. Amen. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George