§ 110. Teaching on the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. On Wednesdays and Fridays and certain other days in the fast, after the Hours and the Typica, we celebrate the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which is the third most common Liturgy served by the Orthodox. The Liturgy is so-called because in it the Holy Gifts consecrated on the previous full Liturgy, and thereafter kept in a tabernacle on the Holy Table, are offered and imparted to communicants. The origins of this Liturgy stretch back to the very first ages of Christianity, and particularly in those regions where the custom persisted of having a brotherly meal after the Liturgy. The faithful had a flaming desire to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ more often, but at the same time they considered that it was inappropriate to have the celebration of a full Liturgy, a festive service linked to a meal, during a period of fasting and sorrowing over one’s sins, and so the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts came to be used then instead of the full Liturgy. Linked to this there was another ancient custom which perhaps contributed to the idea: that of keeping the Holy Gifts (sometimes even in the home) for the communion of the sick and for other people, who were unable to attend church. Because keeping the Gifts at home was not always circumspect, in the course of time it was resolved to reserved Them only in church, and the Christians would commune from Them at Vespers having kept the whole day strictly fasting. It is for this reason that, as we will see below (§ 111), the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served within the context of Vespers. The ordering and composition of the service is linked to the names of two great church writers: Saint Athanasius the Great, the Archbishop of Alexandria (+ 373 A.D.), who composed several of the prayers and laboured to spread the celebration of the service in the Egyptian-Alexandrian regions; and St Gregory the Great, the Dialogist (+ 604 A.D), who is especially attributed with the formation of the service, not as it was served in the Greek Church but in the Roman, although this latter harked back to an earlier Greek one. The Sixth Œcumenical Council appointed that the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts should be celebrated during the Forty Holy Days (Lent). And so, this usage was established both to safeguard the strictness of the fast and to ensure that the faithful could partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord daily.

§ 111. An Overview of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Fundamentally this Liturgy is served within the context of Vespers, as is particularly clear from its beginning, although the first exclamation is that which begins a full Liturgy, “Blessed is the Kingdom.” Generally it follows the order of Vespers until the Entrance and the “O Joyous Light.” We have the proemial psalm, the litany, kathisma, little litany and “Lord, I have cried,” with appointed verses. The kathisma is, however, read as three separate stases with little litanies between them. During this, the priest takes the Presanctified Gifts from the tabernacle and places them upon the discos (paten) which is placed on the opened antimension. Then he censes round the Holy Table three times, and then holding the discos above his head, he transfers it to the prothesis table. Then he pours wine into the chalice and covers the Gifts with the veils.

The entrance is either with the censer or, if there is to be a reading from the Gospel, with the Gospel Book. After the entrance the prokeimenon, and then a reading from Genesis or Exodus followed after a second prokeimenon by a second reading from the Proverbs of Solomon or from the Book of Job. Immediately before this second reading, the deacon exclaims “Command.” The priest then takes the censer and a lighted candle in his hands, and standing before the Holy Table, exclaims “Wisdom. Upright!” Then, turning to face the people, he exclaims “The Light of Christ illuminateth all!” This exclamation is an indication that the service was from its beginning an evening service, because it links to the time when at the onset of dusk the lamps were lit in church. The exclamation also tells us that the Divine light also lighted the Old Testament prophecies, which prefigured and prepared for Jesus Christ. When the priest makes this exclamation, the faithful fall prostrate to the ground, indicating their lowliness before the Eternal Light, the Lord Jesus Christ.