The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

According to the church rule, the Liturgy of the Presanctified is celebrated only on the Wednesdays and Fridays of Great Lent, and also on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week. The Liturgy of the Presanctified, by its content, is a service to be performed toward evening, and so the main part of the service consists of the prayers of Vespers, to which a part of the ordinary Liturgy is joined. For the Liturgy of the Presanctified the Gifts must be prepared in the preceding week; that is, on Sunday, at the Liturgy, instead of one Lamb two more are prepared in addition, which are not used at the Liturgy (usually of that same week) but are kept on the holy table, in the tabernacle.

At the service of the Presanctified there is no new offering of the Gifts, since the “presanctified” Lamb (prepared in the preceding week) is used. Therefore at this Liturgy the prayers are performed with certain particularities.

On the weekdays of Great Lent (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are meant, if no feast falls on them) the church rule (the Typikon) forbids the celebration of the full Liturgy (the Liturgies of St John Chrysostom and of Basil the Great are meant) because of its festal character, since at that service exalted festal prayers are sung and festal readings are read. The Church established this form of service from of old and fitted it wholly to the conditions and the mood of the fast.

It is interesting that the worship of the early Christians was bound up with a common offering by the people. Bread and the wine of the vine were considered a special offering, which the Church used according to the rule in the services, while the part that remained was given out to orphans, widows and the needy.

After the prayer a common meal was set out, at which the flock gathered. These gatherings were called “agapes,” or meals of love.

This tradition comes from the very time of the apostles; it is spoken of in the apostolic canons. The first Christians received Communion almost every day in Great Lent. St Cyprian observed: “For us Christ is the bread of our being, and abiding in Christ we receive holy Communion daily, and by this we ask always that this bread of life may be granted us.”

The establishment of the Liturgy of the Presanctified belongs to the apostolic age; the Liturgies of the Presanctified of the apostles Peter and James are known. Its final form was given it by St Basil the Great. This is indicated by St Sophronius of Jerusalem in his work “On the Liturgies,” and by Athanasius the Great and other fathers of the Church.

Here we note too that in the Orthodox Church of Georgia the Liturgy of the Presanctified was celebrated, at least until the 12th century, according to the rule of St Basil the Great. One of the manuscripts of the 12th century testifies to this: “The Liturgy of the fasts renewed, spoken by holy Basil.” Later, both with us and in all the Eastern Churches, the order of the Presanctified known by the name of Gregory the Dialogist (6th century) became established in liturgical practice (St Gregory the Dialogist introduced into the Western Church a slightly reworked version of Basil the Great's Liturgy of the Presanctified, and for this reason this Liturgy received his name).

The Liturgy of the Presanctified is a special service, both by its rule and by its spiritual mood, and it is celebrated in Great Lent because Great Lent is an image of true repentance.