Christ Amongst Us: An Easy To Understand Commentary on the Divine Liturgy According to the Writings of the Holy Fathers and the Experience of the Saints

From the Front Flap: Learn about the wonders of the Divine Liturgy! • What is the Divine Liturgy? • What happens if we are lazy about attending Church? • What happens during the Proskomide? • Why is the Gospel Book closed during the Small Entrance? • What does the Great Entrance symbolize? • What is the Trisagion Hymn? • What doors are referred to in the exclamation “The doors, the doors, in wisdom let us be attentive”? • When are the bread and wine transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ? • What is the wonder-working power of Holy Communion? • What is antidoron? From the Prologue: Proper nourishment during an individual’s childhood sets the foundation for good health for the remainder of his life. Similarly, a conscious participation in the Divine Liturgy from a person’s childhood sets the foundation for their spiritual health and progress—it provides all the spiritual provisions for a lifetime... With these thoughts in mind, we decided to publish a book about the Divine Liturgy intended for children and young people–a need we ourselves keenly felt as the parents of seven children. We based our project on theThe Divine Liturgy: A Commentary in the Light of the Fathersby Hieromonk Gregorios. The stories that we have included were taken from the remarkable bookMiracles and Revelations from the Divine Liturgypublished by the Holy Monastery of Paracletos. We offer this book as a small contribution and aid for every young person who wishes to place the Divine Liturgy at the center of their life, as well as for parents and catechists who work closely with children. Being aware of the sublime nature of the Divine Liturgy, we have not presented a mere simplification of the meaning(s) of the Mystagogy, since we know that a right understanding of the Service comes from experiencing it...We hope that the inclusion of stories and illustrations will assist the conscientious reader in their effort to better understand the Divine Liturgy.