Liturgy and Parousia Conference

presented by Protos. Dionisie Ignat for the faithful from

Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada

On Sunday, March 21, 2021, on Orthodox Sunday, believers from the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada participated in the first conference of the Lent Conferences series - Through the doors of repentance to the joy of the Resurrection organized by the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian. The guest of the afternoon was Protos. Dionisie Ignat from the Monastery of St. Elijah - Albac / Archdiocese of Alba-Iulia who spoke to the faithful about Liturgy and Parousia.

The church includes in itself the time of salvation:

“The Divine Liturgy is the center of our spiritual life, the center of the Church. It is not only a symbol, a remembrance or a commemoration of what our Lord Jesus Christ did at the Last Supper in the presence of His disciples, but it is a reactualisation and a permanent continuation of the Last Supper according to the command given by Christ Himself who he says: Do this in remembrance of Me (Luke 22:19). Why did Christ leave us this commandment? Because: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes (I Cor. 11, 26). But by this we announce at the same time the Resurrection and Ascension and Descent of the Holy Spirit! The Liturgy includes and relives all the events of Christ's life from his birth to his ascension to heaven, but also events in the life of the Church such as the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the celebration of Christ's friends, ie the saints of all times whom Christ will gather with Him at the Parousia - when He will come on the clouds of heaven to judge the world, as it says in Revelation Chapter XI. The Liturgy is the eternal sacrifice for the redemption of the sins of the world! It is the sacrifice that frees from the bondage of the powerless Law to deliver us from sin and death - that is why we begin the Liturgy with the gesture of raising the Prosphora, of the Agnet, the Lamb Who takes away the sins of the world and say the words Redeem us from the curse of the Law!”

The Christian lives in the Church the experience of eternal life in a dynamic manner:

“The authentic life of a Christian is an experience between already and not yet (in the kingdom of heaven). Thus, the life of an authentic Christian is a liturgical life, a life at the center of which is the Divine Liturgy and the Holy Eucharist, the food of eternal life. Every presence at the Liturgy is a transmutation of us from earth to heaven: In the Church of Your Glory sitting, in heaven it seems to us to be! we say at the Matins Service. And each communion is a foretaste of eternal life, it is an experience between already and not yet. We are really in Heaven and not yet, we are truly sharing eternal life, Christ but not yet fully! We confess this fact every time after Holy Communion when we say: O Christ, great and most holy Pascha! O Wisdom and Power of God! Grant us to partake more truly of You in that never-ending day of Your kingdom!”

The Church makes the faithful man live in anticipation the coming of the Lord, that is, the Parousia:

„If we live the center of the Liturgy, the Holy Eucharist, as already and not yet presence we can say the same about the Parousia. The Greek word originally in theological language means the second coming of Christ, or the end of the world. On the one hand we already live this in the Sacrament of the Liturgy where Christ comes not only humbly in the form of bread and wine, but also as a Judge before humankind and as King of glory and as Conqueror of hell and death as we say at Easter and whenever a Church is consecrated, when the bishop knocks (strikes) with the Holy Cross in the doors of the Church and says: Lift up kings the gates and lift up eternal gates and the King of Glory will enter! The Liturgy thus becomes not only a service of the people or in the service of the people as is the etymological meaning of the word Liturgy. In the Septuagint it translates the Hebrew word abodahwhich means the ministry of priests in the Old Mosaic Law. The term Liturgy enters the Christian vocabulary and designates the ministry of priests on the one hand, but also any work of preaching the Gospel also becomes a Liturgy according to the words of the Savior Christ: Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power (Mark 9: 1).”

The conference ended with a series of questions - answers related to the main theme.

(notes by Fr. Nicolae Codrea)