THE DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. JAMES (11)


The Oblation

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The priest: Remembering, therefore, His life giving sufferings, His saving cross, His death, and burial, His resurrection on the third day, His glorious ascension into heaven, and His sitting at Your right hand, O God, and His second glorious and awefilled appearing, when He shall come with glory to judge the living and the dead, and render to every one according to their works:

We, sinful men, offer unto You, O Lord, this holy and bloodless sacrifice, praying that You not deal with us according to our sins and iniquities; but that in Your mercy and unspeakable loving kindness, passing by and blotting out the just sentence against us, You might grant us Your heavenly and eternal gifts, which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which has not entered into the heart of man, the gifts that You, O God, have prepared for those who love You; and reject not, O loving Lord, the people for my sake, or for my sin's sake: Then he says, thrice: Your people and Your Church beseech You:

 

People: Have mercy on us, O Lord our God.

 

Again the priest prays (the Invocation): Have mercy upon us, Almighty God. Have mercy upon us, O God our Savior. Have mercy upon us, O God, according to Your great mercy, and send forth on us, and on these offered gifts, Your all holy Spirit.

 

Then, bowing his head, he prays: Your sovereign and life giving Spirit, who sits upon the throne with You, O God our Father, and with Your only begotten Son; the Spirit who spoke in the Law and in the Prophets, and in Your New and eternal Testament; who descended in the form of a dove on our Lord Jesus Christ at the river Jordan, and rested on Him; who descended on Your apostles in the form of tongues of fire in the upper room, in the holy and glorious city of Zion, on the day of Pentecost: this Your all-holy Spirit, send down, O Lord, upon us, and upon these offered and holy gifts. And rising, he prays aloud: That in His coming, and by His holy and good and glorious appearing, He may sanctify this bread, and make it the holy body of Your Christ.

 

People: Amen.

 

Priest: And this cup the precious blood of Your Christ.

 

People: Amen.

 

The priest alone, standing: That to all who partake of them they may be for the remission of sins, for life everlasting, for the sanctification of their souls and bodies, for bearing the fruit of good works, for the establishing of Your Holy Catholic Church, which You founded on the rock of faith, that the gates of hell may not prevail against it; and for delivering Your Church from all heresy and scandals, and from those who work iniquity, keeping it and hallowing it until the fullness of time. And having bowed, he prays: We present them to You also, O Lord, for the holy places, which You have glorified by the divine appearing of Your Christ, and by the visitation of Your all holy Spirit; especially for glorious Sion, the mother of all the churches; and for Your Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church throughout the world: even now, O Lord, bestow upon her the rich gifts of Your all holy Spirit. Remember also, O Lord, our holy fathers and brothers, the bishops and presbyters of all the world, who faithfully share and distribute the word of Your truth. Remember also, O Lord, every city and country, and those of the true faith dwelling in them, granting them peace and security. Remember, O Lord, all Christians sailing, traveling, and sojourning in strange lands; our brothers and sisters suffering bonds, prison, captivity, persecution, and exile; and all who labor in hardship, under torture, and in slavery. image Remember, O Lord, the sick and afflicted, and those troubled by unclean spirits, granting them speedy deliverance and healing from You, O God; and for their salvation. Remember, O Lord, every Christian soul in affliction and distress, needing Your mercy and succor, O God; and grant the return of the erring. Remember, O Lord, our fathers and brothers in your service, toiling and ministering unto us, for Your holy name's sake. Remember all, O Lord, for good. Have mercy on all, O Lord, be reconciled to us all. Give peace to the multitudes of Your people. Put away scandals: bring wars to an end. Make the uprising of heresies to cease. And grant Your peace and Your love to us, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth.

Remember us, O Lord, and grant us favorable weather, peaceful showers, beneficent dews, abundance of fruits, and crown the year with Your goodness; for the eyes of all wait upon You, and You give us our food in due season: You open Your hand, and fill every living thing with gladness.
Remember, O Lord, those who bear fruit, and labor in the holy service of Your Church; and those who remember the poor, the widows, the orphans, the strangers, and the needy; and all who have implored us to remember them in our prayers. Moreover, O Lord, be pleased to remember those who have brought these offerings this day to Your holy altar, and remember for what intention each one has brought them, and with what mind, and all those persons whom we have just recommended to You. Remember me also, O Lord, Your humble and unprofitable servant, according to the multitude of Your mercies and the magnitude of Your compassion. Remember as well the deacons who surround Your holy altar, and graciously give them a blameless life, keep their ministry undefiled, and purchase for them a good and holy life, that we may find mercy and grace, with all the saints that have been well pleasing to You since the world began, from generation to generation: our fathers the patriarchs, the prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, teachers, saints, and every just spirit made perfect in the faith of Your Christ.

 

Then the priest prays, aloud: Hail in the highest, our all holy, pure, most blessed, glorious Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary!

 

All: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with You; blessed are You among women, and blessed the fruit of Your womb, for You did bear the Savior of our souls.

 

Singers: Truly it is right to bless You, the Godbearer, the ever blessed and allblameless, the Mother of our God, more honorable than the cherubim, and incomparably more glorious than the seraphim. You, who did bear with purity God the Word, true Mother of God, we magnify You.

 

Again they sing: In You, highly favored, all creation rejoices, the host of angels, and the race of men: Hallowed temple, our spiritual paradise, pride of virgins, of whom God was made flesh and in whom our God, who existed before eternity, became a little child. For He made Your womb His throne, and Your bosom more capacious than the heavens. In You, O highly favored one, all creation rejoices. Glory unto You!

 

Deacon: Remember us, O Lord our God.

 

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The priest, bowing, says: Remember, O Lord our God, the spirits of the just and all the living whom we have mentioned before You, and all those whom we have not known, or neglected to mention, who are of the true faith, from right-eous Abel unto this day: give them rest in the land of their desire, in Your kingdom, in the joy of paradise, in the bosom of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, our holy fathers; where pain, and grief, and lamentation have fled: there where the light of Your countenance looks upon them, and enlightens them forever. Make the end of our lives Christian, acceptable, blameless, and peaceful, O Lord, gathering us together in the company of Your elect, when You will, and as You will; only without our shame and transgressions; through Your only-begotten Son, our Lord, and God, and Savior, Jesus Christ: for He is the only sinless one, who has appeared on the earth.

 

Deacon: Let us pray: For the peace and safety of the whole world, and of the holy churches of God, and for the purpose for which each one has made this offering this day, according to their desire; and for all those standing here before You, and for all men and women:

 

The priest prays aloud: Wherefore, both to them and to us, do You in Your goodness and love:

 

People: Forgive, remit, pardon, O God, our transgressions, volun-tary and involuntary; in deed and in word; in knowledge and in ignorance; by night and by day; in thought and intention; in Your goodness and love, forgive them all.

 

Priest: Through the grace, and compassion, and love of Your only begotten Son, with whom You are blessed and glorified, together with Your allholy, and good, and life giving Spirit, now and ever, and for all eternity.

 

People: Amen.

 

Priest: Peace be with all:

 

People: And with your spirit.

 

Deacon: Again, and always, in peace let us pray to the Lord: For the holy gifts presented here to the Lord God, sanctified, precious, heavenly, unspeakable, pure, glorious, awe-filled, and divine; Let us pray: That the Lord our God, having graciously received them upon His holy altar above the heavens, as a sweet and spiritual fragrance, may send down upon us in answer the divine grace and gift of His all-holy Spirit; Let us pray. Having prayed for the unity of the faith, and the communion of His all-holy and adorable Spirit; Let us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life, to Christ our God.

 

People: To You, O Lord.

 

The priest prays: O God and Father of our Savior Jesus Christ, You are the glorious Lord, the blessed Essence, the bounteous Goodness, the God and Sovereign of all, who are blessed for all eternity, who sit upon the cherubim, and are glorified by the seraphim, before whom stand a thousand thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand hosts of angels and archangels: You have accepted these gifts, offerings, and fruits brought unto You as a sweet and spiritual fragrance, and have been pleased to sanctify them, and make them perfect, O good One, by the grace of Your Christ, and by the presence of Your all holy Spirit.

Sanctify also, O Lord, Eternal Father, our souls, and bodies, and spirits; and touch our understanding; search our conscience, and cast out from us every evil imagination, every impure feeling, every base desire, every unbecoming thought, all envy, vanity, and hypocrisy, all lying, deceit, every worldly affection, all covetousness, vain-glory, indifference, vice, all passion, anger, malice, all blasphemy, every motion of the flesh and spirit that is not in accordance with Your holy will:

 

(Aloud) And count us worthy, O loving Lord, with boldness, without condemnation, in a pure heart, with a contrite spirit, with unshamed face, with sanctified lips, to dare to call upon You, the holy God, Father in heaven, and to say. . .

 

The People: Our Father, who are in heaven: hallowed be Your name; [and so on to the doxology.]

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