1. THE PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT·
DIALOGUE
After returning the censer to the server, the deacon goes to the
right side of the priest. Standing together before the altar, they
say:
Heavenly King, Consoler, Spirit of truth, everywhere
present and permeating all things, Treasury of blessings
and Giver of life, come and dwell within us, and cleanse us
from every stain and save our souls, 0 gracious One.
Then making three small bows :
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, and divine
favor toward men [twice].
Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your
praise (Ps. 50:17).
Comparable to the " Come, Holy Spirit" of the Latin Rite, the
prayer " Heavenly King" is primarily theological. Being God,
equal to the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is King of Heaven,
King of All. Towards the end of his life, Christ spoke of the Holy
Spirit as the Paraclete (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). This Greek
word means literally" one called in," as helper, pleader, defender,
advocate. Some versions of the Scriptures retain the Greek word
" Paraclete " in their texts. 1
Others, including the Slavonic, render
it as "Consoler." 1
This is satisfactory only if the word is
understood to include the assistance, protection, advice, and inter-
cession required to sustain and increase spirituality or deification.
1 E.g., Syriac Peshitta, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic and the Vulgate (Sixtine-
Qementine edition).
•E.g., Syro-Palestinian, Armenian and Georgian. The Slavonic Version was
translated from the Greek in the ninth century by SS. Cyril and Methodius, the
" Apostles of the Slavs, " probably from the Antiochene text then used in Constan-
tinople. Many scholars maintain that the earlier codices differ from the later in
that they present many Hesychian and Caesarean readings. Gennadius of Nov-
gorod completed the Slavonic text on the basis of the Vulgate in the fifteenth
century.

2. St. John, who offers in his Gospel the fullest theology ofthe Holy
Spirit, quotes Jesus as calling the Holy Spirit" the Spirit ofTruth"
who "will teach you all things" (John 14:17, 26). The prayer
"Heavenly King" is directly inspired by a later text from St. John:
" But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the
Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, shall
give testimony of me" (John 15:26). The expression "Spirit of
Truth" is neuter in Greek, but it is immediately followed by the
masculine personal pronoun "he" (lxe:rvoc;), which has a strongly
determinative sense : " this particular one. " This clearly indicates
that the Spirit is a person. Furthermore, the Spirit of Truth is
addressed in this prayer as a person, and divine attributes are ascribed
to him, making him the equal of the Father and the Son.
The divine attributes and external works are common to all
three Persons. Each one possesses the divine nature, and each one
operates in virtue of infinite wisdom, power, goodness, etc. Yet,
certain attributes and works are appropriated ad extra to each Person
individually.
To the Holy Spirit are attributed the works of love. Since love
is especially manifested in doing good, to him is ascribed the giving
of every good gift. This is shown by the fact that he is addressed
here as the " Treasury of blessings. " The greatest work of love,
however, is the sanctification of souls by grace. First and foremost
is the gift of sanctifying grace which gives supernatural life, the
very beginning ofthe life of God in the soul; hence, the Holy Spirit
is addressed also as the " Giver of Life, " as in the so-called Nicene
Creed.
The Holy Spirit, the immediate author of sanctifying grace, is
communicated to the soul in the form ofjustification. a " Come and
dwell within us," we plead in this prayer.
The doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls is
developed by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians : " Know
you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you?" (I Cor. 3:16; cf. I Cor. 6:19). The relation of
the Holy Spirit to the soul of the just is that of an indweller. It is
• " The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit who
is given to us" (Rom. 5:5). Our italics.

3. not the same as the substantial union of body and soul in man, nor
as the hypostatic union of the eternal Word with the human nature
in Christ, for the Holy Spirit is not united with the just soul as one
person with himself. Man remains an independent person after
his sanctification or deification by the presence of the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit remains distinct from the just man.
The Church Fathers strongly rejected the doctrine of Nestorius,
who maintained that the union between the eternal Word and the
humanity of Christ was the same as that existing between the Holy
Spirit and the souls ofthe just. Christ as man is the true Son of God
because he is one and the same divine person as the eternal Word,
while the just man is merely an adopted son of God because he
does not become one person with the Holy Spirit dwelling in his
soul. Yet, the union between the Holy Spirit and the soul of the
just man is real, in a literal sense, as the Fathers have always
maintained.
" Cleanse us from every stain and save our souls. " The for-
giveness of grave sins is an essential part of justification and, hence,
also of eternal salvation. Justification is a spiritual renewal and
regeneration; it means that sin is really destroyed, but not necessarily
every stain or effect ofsin. The plea in this prayer is for a cleansing
of " every stain " so that nothing remains to mar the supernatural
beauty of the soul. The desire is for perfect purification.
This incomparable prayer to the Holy Spirit, which is used at the
beginning of almost every Byzantine service, was introduced into
the Divine Liturgy some time during the thirteenth century. '
After praying for the indwelling ofthe Holy Spirit and for perfect
purification, the priest and deacon repeat twice the hymn of praise
which the angels sang at Bethlehem to announce the great news of
the Messiah's birth. Recited here at the beginning of the Divine
•MS. of Library of Patmos, N. 719 (Dmitrievsky, Opysanie liturgicheskikh
rukopisej khraniaschikhsia v bibliotekakh pravoslavnago vostoka, Vol. II, Euchologia
[Kiev, 1901], p. 173); also the fourteenth century MS. of Sophia Library, N. 523
(Krasnoseltsev, Materialy dlja istorii chinoposlidovania liturgii sv. Joanna Zlatoustago
[Kazan, 1889], p. 14); MS. N. 274 of Count Tolstoy's Library, p. 3 (Petrovsky,
Histoire de la redaction slave de la liturgie de S. Jean Chrysostome,
XPYCOCTOMIKA, p. 882, n. 4); Liturgikon of Isidore, Metropolitan of Kiev,
in its Ustav; cf. MS. Vat. Slav., N. 14, fols. 123-124.

4. Liturgy, after the Bethlehem symbol offered by the proskomi.dia,
this angelic hymn announces the same glad tidings. Christ will
come to dwell among us on the altar in the Divine Liturgy with
~s real Eucharistic presence.
The text ofthe hymn (Luke 2:14) is somewhat different from that
of the Douay Version (which follows the Vulgate rendering). The
text here is that commonly used by the Greek Fathers, with eMox(oc
(good will) in the nominative case, though the manuscript evidence
favors the genitive eu8ox£ixi:; (of good will), as the Vulgate has it. 5
Luther and the King James Bible follow the common Greek version
of the text. What is this good will ? Some scholars translate
eMox(oc as the perfection of the desire for God. Others maintain
that eu8ox(ix (good will) is "divine favor," "divine good will" or
" pleasure. " This seems the closest to the original Greek. If we
accept this meaning, it makes little essential difference whether
eu8ox.Loc is in the nominative or the genitive. The word refers to a
proclamation of God's good will toward man, the mercy which
moved the Father to send his Son to redeem the world, God's desire
to save all men.
The first words of the hymn " Glory to God in the highest " are
an expression of the angelic recognition and praise for the greatest
work of God. An angel speaking to man about God must speak
in terms that man's intellect can understand : the phrase " jn the
highest" praises God by fixing his throne in the highest heaven,
since the Jewish mind had long before formed the idea of God's
excellence by placing his throne above the heaven of the stars.
With Christ's birth, honor is restored to God, peace (the fullness
of supernatural, salutary goods) is restored to the world, and the
perfection of God's favor is restored to man. At the altar ofsacrifice
this joyful message of the angels has its perfect fulfillment; the
highest glory is rendered to God, since an infinite Person, Jesus
Christ, sacrifices himself to his praise and glory; true peace, divine
favor, pardon and reconciliation are granted to man.
Finally, verse seventeen ofPsalm 50 is recited : by accommodation,
•The text would then read:" Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace
to men of good will. " There is still another possible rendering of the text :
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth; peace to men of good will."

5. it becomes a prayer to God that he open the lips of the celebrants,
that they may render praise in performing the divine mysteries.
Blessing and Sending Forth the Deacon
Priest and deacon go to the holy table, where the priest kisses the
Gospel Book and the deacon the holy table itself.
Inclining his head toward the priest and holding the orar with three
fingers of his right hand, the deacon says :
It is time to sacrifice unto the Lord. Bless, sir.
The priest blesses him, saying :
Blessed is our God at all times, now and always and for
ever and ever.
Deacon: Pray for me, sir.'
Priest : May the Lord direct your steps.
Deacon : Remember me, holy sir.
Priest: May the Lord remember you in his kingdom, at all
times, now and always and for ever and ever.
Deacon : Amen.
The deacon then makes a small bow and, while holding the orar with
the first three fingers of his right hand, leaves the sanctuary through
the north door, since the royal doors are not opened until the little
Entrance. 7
He takes his place before the royal doors and reverently
makes three small bows. With each bow, he says in a low voice:
0 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your
praise (Ps. 50:17).
Like the reverent kissing of icons, the kissing of the Gospel
Book and the holy table by priest and deacon shows the love mingled
with awe due to holy things. The Gospel is holy because it contains
the words and life of our Saviour, the holy table because the same
Saviour will come to offer himself upon it for our sins. But there
•The Russian recension has:" Pray for me, holy sir."
' In many Catholic Ukrainian churches, the royal doors are opened by the
priest before he goes to the holy table, just at the end of the proskomidia while the
deacon is incensing. They remain open until the end of the Liturgy.

6. is deeper meaning than the mere kissing of two objects intimately
connected with the Divine :Liturgy. Since the Gospel Book repre-
sents Christ and the altar his throne, kissing them really expresses
the love and awe which is in the heart of the celebrants for Christ
himself; the kiss, then, is a greeting of love and peace. The deacon,
since he has lesser Orders than the priest, dares to kiss only the
throne (altar).
This ritual was borrowed from pagan antiquity : custom dictated
the kissing ofthe temple threshold when one entered it. The pagan
altar was honored with a kiss, 8
also the family table at the beginning
ofa meal. The kiss served to show reverence for something that had
had a formal religious dedication pronounced over it. With the
coming of Christianity, the practice served a Christian purpose.
Kissing the altar seems to have been adopted into the Syrian Liturgy
before the end of the fourth century; from Syria, the practice
quickly spread to its dependent Churches and thence to the West.
The short dialogue between priest and deacon is moving. Like
a child going away from its parents for a while, the deacon simply
says," It is time to go, pray for me," and finally," remember me."
The words establish a perfect understanding of the hearts.
At the Divine Liturgy, the deacon always represents the angel
of the Lord. His office consists in ministering and " flying" from
the holy table to the people of God, and from the people to the
holy table. He knows he is unworthy : that is why he humbly asks
the priest for prayers. The priest sends him out with a blessing
and a prayer that the Lord direct his steps and remember him in
his Kingdom.
The lips of the deacon, being human, are powerless, dumb before
the glory of God's work of love, the Eucharistic Sacrifice. God
himself must open those human lips and give them power in order
that the deacon may worthily perform his task. That is why he
prays : " 0 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your
praise."
• Similarly, the images of the gods were greeted by a kiss or even by a kiss
thrown to them from a distance, e.g., Minucius Felix tells us of Caecilius throwing
a kiss of greeting to the statue of Serapis when he passed it (Octavius, 2, 4 [CSEL,
II, 4, I. 22]). The Italians still "blow" kisses at statues.

7. When Leo Thuscus, relying on documents of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, translated the Liturgy of Chrysostom into Latin
about A.D. n8o, he included a dialogue between priest and deacon
identical to the present one except for one sentence. 9
This does
not mean that at the time this form of the ritual was accepted
throughout the Byzantine Church. Slight differences appear in
most of the thirteenth and fourteenth century sources. Some, for
example, have the priest and the deacon merely making three bows
before the altar after the "0 Heavenly King" prayer, the deacon
saying, " Bless, sir, " and the priest blessing him. 10
Other sources
have both the priest and the deacon kissing the altar, the deacon
saying "It is time to sacrifice, Father, to the Lord," and both
reciting Psalm 50. 11
The fourteenth or fifteenth century Litur-
gikon of Metropolitan Isidore, however, has the priest kissing the
Gospel Book and the deacon, the altar. Then the deacon bows his
head before the priest and, while holding the orar with three fingers
of his right hand, says to the priest : " It is time to serve the Lord,
sir, bless (me)." The rest ofthe dialogue is identical with today's. 19
• Instead of the priest answering " May the Lord direct your steps, " his trans-
lation reads : Prosperos faciat Dominus Deus gressus nostros sua gratia, nunc, et
semper et in saecula saeculorum (" May the Lord God direct our steps favorably by
his grace, now and always and for ever and ever"). F. Claudius de Santes, Liturgiae
Sive Missae Sanctorum Patrum Jacobi Apostoli et fratris Domini, Basilii Magni, e
vetusto codice Latinae translationis, Ioannis Chrysostomi, Interprete Leone Thusco
(Antwerp, r562).
10 MS. of Sophia Library, N. 523 (Krasnoseltsev, op. cit., p. r4); also MSS.
of the Roumiantsev Museum, Nos. 398, 399 (cf. A. Petrovsky, op. cit., p. 882).
Almost identical rubrics are found in the MS. of Sophia Library, N. 526 (Krasno-
seltsev, op. cit., p. 7) and th MS. of the Library of Count Tolstoy, N. 274 (op. cit.
p. 4).
11 MS. of Sophia Library, N. 523 (op. cit., p. r4); cf. also MS. of Moscow
Synodal Library, N. 38r (Krasnoseltsev, op. cit., p. 22).
11 Liturgikon of Metropolitan Isidore, its Ustav (cf. MS. Vat. Slav., N. r4, fol.
124).