My Eureka Discovery of the Meaning of Worship

Why do we worship? I have been exploring this question for a few decades now, and finally I have found an answer that is very satisfying to me. I have found that worship has a certain meaning in the Semitic religions that has the power to transform our earth to heaven. However, unfortunately, this meaning has been lost, and worship has degenerated into a meaningless ritual in the Semitic religions. Hence, instead of transforming our earth to heaven, it has transformed our earth to hell. Here I am making a plea to the members of all the Semitic religions to regain the lost meaning of worship, so that our earth can become heaven.  

When I think of my quest, I often think of Archimedes’ quest. When he finally found an answer, he ran along the street naked shouting Eureka. He was so excited that he didn’t even realize that he had no clothes on. He was very much excited at his finding because it was the result of a very long and tedious quest, and an answer dawned on him like a revelation unexpectedly when he had almost lost hope about finding an answer. This is true about my quest too. I made this quest regarding the meaning of worship almost all my life, and I almost lost hope of finding an answer, and unexpectedly an answer dawned on me like a revelation. I also felt like running along the streets shouting Eureka. Those who saw Archimedes running along the street mistook him to have lost his mind. Even if Archimedes had stopped and explained his discovery to them, they wouldn’t have appreciated his discovery because neither did they make the quest nor did they understand the significance of the discovery. This is true about my discovery too. Almost all people I have shared my excitement of this discovery have failed to understand its significance, for they have never asked the question ‘Why we worship’.

If you have read this far, you belong to the few people who hunger and thirst after truth. I earnestly request you to continue reading and find out what I have discovered from a lifetime of search. I am going to explain in the simplest possible language the meaning of worship that has the power to transform our world.  

The Background of my Quest

Let me begin explaining the background of my quest. I was born and raised in a family that follows the Eastern Orthodox Christian practice of worship. Our parents were very strict about having family prayer twice a day -- morning and evening. We assembled in the front room, sang a hymn, read a couple of chapters from the Bible, stood up facing the east, and recited prayers from a prayer book. On Sundays, we went to church, had special morning prayers, followed by Holy Eucharist. I also had Sunday school where I learned about our religious beliefs and practices. As I grew older, I happened to come in contact with Christians from other traditions, and I noticed that they vary in their beliefs and practices. For example, some of them followed an order of worship as given in a book, while some others had an informal way of worship. I noticed that we use several expressions in Syriac and Greek in our worship, whereas Christians from some other traditions do not use such expressions in their worship.

When I noticed diverse ways of worship, I wanted to know which one of them is the right way? I was asking “how” about the various aspects of worship in the various traditions. Slowly I realized that my how-questions can be satisfactorily answered only if I can answer the why-questions about worship. Thus I turned from the how- questions to the why-questions about worship. Finally I arrived at the most fundamental question about Christian worship -- why do we worship at all? How did worship originate, and and what purpose does it serve in our life?

Worship in Semitic Religions

I noticed that all religions have worship. However, I decided to limit myself to the Semitic religions for the time being primarily because I don't have sufficient background knowledge to study about the worship practices of other religions.

The Semitic religions have daily and weekly worship as well as yearly worship days. The Jews worship two to seven times, Muslims worship five times, and traditional Christians worship seven times a day. The daily worship consists of singing hymns, reading from scriptures, and reciting specially made prayers in specific format. A day in a week is devoted for worship in the Semitic religions -- Friday in Islam, Saturday in Judaism, and Sunday in Christianity. The weekly prayer is an elaborate form of daily worship with hymns, scripture readings, and reciting of prayers. They gather in their holy place -- synagogue, church, mosque, and they have communal worship led by a leader -- Rabbi, priest/pastor, imam. All the three religions observe several yearly holy days with elaborate worship. Thus these three religions have more similarities than differences in their worship practices.

Worship in Ancient Judaism

We may safely conclude that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity inherited their worship practices from the ancient Judaism. By ancient Judaism, here I mean the Judaism until their temple was destroyed in AD 70. If so, how did worship evolve in ancient Judaism? Why did the ancient Jews worship? What meaning did they ascribe to worship?  

We can see that the ancient Judaism had worship practices similar to all other ancient peoples. They did various kinds of sacrifices, and such worship continued in their temple of Jerusalem even at the time of Jesus. The sacrifice-centered worship was led by priests. One of the twelve tribes was a priestly tribe-- the tribe of Levi. They had an elaborate system of doing sacrifices, which is described in the Book of Levi in the Bible. The question of how the practice of doing sacrifices originated is worth exploring; however, it is beyond the scope of this paper. Anthropologists have come up with various explanations of the origin and meaning of sacrifices, but evidences are lacking to make any conclusions.  

The ancient Judaism also developed the practice of getting together once in a week. They probably inherited this practice from Mesopotamians. They probably sang hymns in their meetings praising God/gods. One of the ten commandments was to observe Sabbath, the weekly holiday. The hymn of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis presents God as observing Sabbath, and the hymn was probably sung on Saturdays when they got together to worship God.

Whenever the priesthood corrupted, there evolved another kind of leadership called prophets, who revolted against priests and corrected them as needed. They asserted that God is not pleased by the sacrifices, but by following the will of God. When the Jews were taken abroad in slavery by Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians, they lost the opportunity to follow their traditional worship practices, which encouraged them to evolve a non-temple and non-sacrifice based way of worship consisting of singing hymns, reading scriptures, reciting prayers. Later when they returned to their homeland, they brought back their new way of worship. Thus along with their temple worship, they also had their weekly synagogue worship, in addition to their daily worship at their homes. We read in the Bible about Jews worshiping both in their temple and in their synagogues. Once their temple was destroyed in AD 70, their sacrifice-based worship came to an end, and modern Judaism has only their Synagogue worship on Saturdays, and their daily worship in their homes.     

The hymns they used to sing during worship in their homes and synagogues were put together to become the Book of Psalms. They also had their scripture readings. They read primarily from the Books of Moses. They also read from the Books of prophets. Scribes were a group of people specialized in the skills of reading and copying the Scriptures in scrolls.

During worship, the congregation faced toward Jerusalem. They stood, bowed, knelt or prostrated as if a group of people approach a king.     

Later as Christianity evolved from Judaism, they inherited the synagogue worship practices. They erected their places of worship (church) like the synagogues. The congregation faced east as if they stand before the throne of God. They stand, bow, kneel, or prostrate. Their worship consists of the same elements as in Jewish worship- hymns, scripture readings, and prayers. They combined the sacrifice-based worship and the synagogue worship in the Eucharist.

Later Islam evolved in a cultural background where there were Judaism and Christianity, and it evolved a worship pattern very similar to the synagogue worship.

Whatever I have said so far is common knowledge about worship, and I have only put the information together as a background. But what I am going to say next is not common knowledge. I must say that this is my discovery because I haven’t read this anywhere, nor have I heard it from anyone.

Why do we Worship?           

In order to answer the question why we worship, I haven’t considered the sacrifice-based worship at all, but I have considered the synagogue worship of praising God. God has been praised for some greatness of God. I examined the content of hymns and prayers in worship in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to find out what greatness God has been praised for.

The first thing people might have noticed about God is that God is all-powerful. God has the power to control the natural forces such as rain, wind, and lightening. Eventually they might also have praised God for knowing everything. They also realized that God lives forever. People praised God for omnipotence, omniscience, and for immortality. It was not an objective knowledge at all, but a derived knowledge. We humans have limited abilities, limited knowledge, and we live for a short time. From this we assume that God, the creator of the world, has all abilities, all knowledge and live forever.

Eventually something very important was found about God, that God is holy, which means that unlike we human beings or angels, God doesn’t do anything wrong or bad or evil. God does only what is good and right. We may ask why God alone is holy. We may think of a very simple reason. We do errors out of our ignorance, but God, who has all knowledge, won’t commit any errors at all! I noticed that in all the Semitic religions, God is praised primarily for one greatness -- being Holy. 

As I mentioned earlier, I belong to the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, and the liturgy we use has been translated from Syriac, which is another form of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. These prayers were in use in the early Christianity, and they must have come from the Jewish liturgy. The simplest order of worship we use is called a kauma, and it is recited all the time we pray. Each of the seven times of prayer begins and ends with a kauma. This Syriac word means stand, which must have been an instruction to stand while reciting this. The kauma has as its central part the Trisagion, which is praising God holy three times as the angels do in the vision of Isaiah.

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!

Heaven and Earth are filled with the praises of God!

God is praised for being Holy. It is repeated three times to give emphasis. This is further expanded in the kauma as follows:

Holy art thou, O God!

Holy art thou, Almighty!

Holy art thou, Immortal!

God’s holiness is mentioned meaningfully for the first time in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah, a prophet of the 8th century BC, had a vision of angels praising God for being holy. It was immediately after king Uziah died of leprosy. It is possible that the people of that place must have been blaming God for the death of the king, for he was a great king who administered the land successfully for about half a century, and the land prospered during his time. It was believed in those days that leprosy was a punishment from God for sins. Uziah being a very good king, the people couldn’t find any justification on the part of God for punishing him. In the vision, Isaiah saw that the angels were not blaming God, but they were praising God for being holy. It must have been a misunderstanding on the part of the people to assume that Uziah was punished by God with leprosy. Isaiah realized that God alone is holy, for God, knowing everything, does everything right, but we, out of our ignorance, err in our thoughts, words and deeds.

The Syriac statement,  kaadeesh aat aloho, may be translated in English as Holy is God! This statement asserts beyond doubt that God alone is holy. This knowledge is derived from the understanding that no human being or angel is holy. Thus the statement ‘God alone is holy’ is synonymous with the statement ‘none of us is holy’ or ‘it is human to err’.

The knowledge that God alone is holy has an important practical implication. Once we realize that it is human to err, it becomes easy for us to forgive each other and to seek forgiveness from each other. Thus praising God holy becomes the basis of a peaceful existence for us. Isaiah understood this. As he had this vision of angels praising God, he became aware of his own unclean tongue. He had also blamed God along with the other people for punishing Uziah. When he admitted his tongue was unclean, immediately he was forgiven.

Coming down in history, we do not know who else has had a clear understanding of this other than Jesus. Jesus repeatedly asserted that God alone is good and perfect. If so, people cannot be classified into righteous and unrighteous, for all people are of the same category before God. We all err, and realizing this, we will be willing to seek forgiveness and forgive others.

It seems that Christianity was built upon this revolutionary understanding, which must have been the yeast that had the power to transform an entire civilization. Jesus rightly named it the Kingdom of Heaven, for when people forgive each other and seek forgiveness from each other, our earth can be transformed into heaven!

Meaning of Worship Hidden

However, within a short time, this understanding was hidden under a pile of beliefs, doctrines, superstitions, and meaningless rituals. The statement “Holy is God” lost its meaning. It began to be uttered in worship to mean God is holy. Holiness was seen as one of the attributes of God. The word “Holy” has been used to describe many other things such as Holy day, Holy Bible, Holy church, and Holy people, and God became just one of the Holy ones. Christianity, instead of transforming our earth to heaven, degenerated into a religion that offered salvation in the other world after death. Its worship degenerated into a meaningless one, and it developed elaborate systems of rituals under the leadership of a hierarchy of priests. Down through history, there have been several attempts to uncover the lost understanding, but no attempt has been fully successful.

Islam may be seen as such an attempt to regain the lost understanding. Although it could partially recover certain aspects of the original, it could not regain the lost understanding fully. Muslims place so much stress on living a life according to the will of God. But they have gone to the other extreme of believing that we were created to worship God. Thus worship is presented as an obligation. This is a deviation from what we see in Isaiah’s vision, in which the angels praised God not out of obligation, but out of their wonder. When we see the greatness of God, the praise comes from the innermost soul by itself. Moreover, Muslims, stressing a life of surrender to God, believe that we are nothing but God’s servants. In the original understanding as explained by Jesus, although we surrender ourselves at the feet of God as servants, God never treats us as servants but as children. The prodigal son surrenders himself at his father’s feet as a servant, but the father accepts him as his son.

Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Martin Luther and others was another attempt to regain the lost understanding. Although it was successful in overthrowing the enslaving dominance of the Roman Catholic church, it was unsuccessful in regaining the original understanding. The infallibility of the pope was replaced by the infallibility of the Scriptures.

The enlightenment in the following centuries was another attempt. Although it elevated human dignity by regaining our freedom to think, it went to the other extreme of overthrowing God, which has been suicidal for humankind.  

The socialist movement, a child of enlightenment, was another attempt to regain the lost understanding and bring heaven on earth. However, that too has proved a failure, for it believes in forceful and violent conversion of earth to heaven.

The western liberalism, another child of enlightenment, through its system of education, is trying to educate the people, and bring about heaven on earth. However, with its Godless view of the world, it is destined to fail as well.  

Almost half of our world’s population belong to the corrupt Semitic religions, with its piles of superstitions and rituals, that offer salvation in the other world after death. Of the remaining, a quarter of the population belong to the reform movements, such as socialism and liberalism, that try to overcome the corruption of these religions. The remaining quarter belong to the eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. The eastern religions have often served to point out the corruption in the Semitic religions, but they have not been very successful, for they have often been influenced in turn by the Semitic religions.  

Regaining the Original Meaning

Isaiah’s vision, in which God is praised for being holy, seems to be the beginning of a revolutionary understanding of worship. Hence the trisagion, praising God holy three times, became the focus of Jewish worship, which later became the focus of Christian worship as well.

The hope for a peaceful world lies in regaining the lost understanding of worship in Semitic religions. We need to regain the vision of Isaiah and affirm along with the angels that God alone is holy, for God alone is all-knowing, which implies that we with our limited knowledge err in our thoughts, words and deeds. With this understanding, we will be quick to seek forgiveness from each other and will be quick to forgive each other. Thus we can convert our earth to heaven (sorry for the repetition, for this is the primary point I am making here). Jesus tried to regain the vision of Isaiah for his generation proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of heaven, but soon after his time, the religion that formed in his name got corrupted making our world even worse than before.

I am making a plea to the Christians all over the world to regain the vision of Isaiah as explained by Jesus. Once Christians regain this understanding of worship, Jews and Muslims also can regain this understanding, and we can together make our earth a heaven. I started examining the liturgy of eastern Orthodox Christianity, the one in which I was born and raised. Later I found that my findings can be relevant to all the Christian traditions. As I continued my quest, I realized that my findings can be relevant to all the Semitic religions. As this is about the peaceful coexistence of all humanity on the face of the earth, non-Semitic religions wouldn’t have anything against these findings, and will be willing to accept it wholeheartedly.

Conclusion

Dear reader, if you have read this far, I owe you my sincere gratitude, for you have spent some of your time to find out a discovery which is, I think, of great importance. I like to hear from you. Your input will help me tremendously to make this presentation even clearer and sharper. 

Let us join hands in bringing heaven on earth!  

As The Heavenly Angels Worship: The Basics Of Christian Worship For Young People

 Christian worship has been my primary topic of study and research during the past four years. I sought answers to the fundamental questions of worship such as what is worship and why we worship. During my research, I made a discovery of the meaning of Christian worship, and I felt like running through the streets shouting Eureka! I knew that I have hit upon a crucial information about worship that the early fathers knew, but has been forgotten since then. I found that the Christian worship is closely related to the Christian life, and also to the christian message. Here I am presenting my discovery in simple language so that even children can read it and understand. Hope this new discovery will lead to a revival in Christianity. 

A Malayalam version of this book was published a year ago, and it was welcomed enthusiastically. After reading it, Dr. D. Babu Paul commented that it is the most beautiful book that has recently appeared in Christian literature. Benyamin, the novelist, wrote in its foreword that this book is a path to true Christianity, and that it will open an eye within us so that the worship we participate won’t be the same any more.

This book answers the fundamental questions of worship such as what is worship, why we worship, and how we may worship. It exposes a crucial information about worship that the early fathers knew, but has been forgotten since then. The author, a former school teacher in the United States, presents the meaning of Christian worship in simple language so that even children can read it and understand. Hopefully the information presented in this book can lead to a revival in Christianity.  

This book is available for purchase online in USA from this link.   
https://www.createspace.com/6789623 
In Europe, try Amazon.com

Developing A Meaningful Liturgy

The vision of God as seated on a throne above all other thrones, and of the angels praising God was a transforming experience for Prophet Isaiah. When the members of a community get together in a house of God, they see themselves as joining the heavenly host in singing the praises of God. They repeat the same trisagion as sung by the angels, and strive for the same vision of God and transforming experience as Isaiah had. This vision and experience within the walls of a house of God helps them see the world as the real house of God and live a meaningful life in the light of this vision.

 

The Jewish community, to which Isaiah belonged, developed this view of worship based on Isaiah's vision. Their poets expanded the praise of angels to beautiful psalms, which were included in their worship. Later Christianity and perhaps Islam also inherited this view of worship. Within Christianity, the various traditions expanded the praise of the angels into psalms in diverse styles and languages. In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition I belong to, Mor Aprem, a saintly poet of the fourth century, wrote beautiful psalms in Syriac, which were included in the worship. In the following centuries, inspired by Mor Aprem, more fathers wrote psalms, which were also included in worship. The set of prayers, psalms, and Bible readings included within worship came to be known as liturgy. It has come into its present form by its various phases of evolution in the past 15 centuries. Originated primarily in Syriac, its translations into modern languages such as Malayalam, English, and Hindi are used by today's community.

 

The one concern a lot of members of this community raise about this liturgy is its length. They raise this concern mostly in informal contexts including online groups. When some people call for the need of reducing the time of liturgy, some others oppose it vehemently arguing that any reduction of time will affect the essence of the worship. Those who call for a reduction in time claim that the liturgy in present use is the result of years of modification and expansion, and a shorter liturgy helps the congregation participate in it meaningfully. They also claim that the liturgy can be made shorter just by avoiding unnecessary repetitions.

 

One group focuses on reducing the length of liturgy, while the other group focuses on retaining its length. Thus both groups focus upon the length of liturgy. This writer is convinced that the solution to the problem lies in a shift of focus -- from length of liturgy to a meaningful participation in the worship. Let me clarify this further with an example of what happened a few years ago in a youth meeting in Houston, Texas. After a lecture, Yuhanon Mor Meletius, a bishop of the Indian Orthodox church, let the participants ask questions, and a young woman asked, "When are we supposed to sit during the worship? Do we have any rules regarding when we are supposed to sit and when we are supposed to stand during our worship?" Mor Meletius answered somewhat as follows: "Standing represents respect. That is why we stand during worship. But this does not mean that we should always stand during the worship. Especially the old and the sick should not be asked to stand at all. Whether we stand or sit, we need to be respectful in the house of God." I think if someone asked a similar question about the length of worship to Mor Meletius, he would answer somewhat as follows: How long we should worship is not the main issue. That the worship should be real and meaningful is the main thing. A prayer rising from the depth of our hearts even for a moment's time is real and meaningful, but hours of prayer rising just from our lips is not meaningful.

 

So the question we need to ask now is not about the length of liturgy. Let us ask if our worship is real and meaningful. If not, we need to find out how we can make it meaningful. Once we find it out, then we may turn to the next question about the length of liturgy. First things first.         

 

How Meaningful is our worship?
Let us look at the first question-- how meaningful is our worship? Last Sunday I was in a church which has about 150 families. The worship started with morning prayer at about 7:30, and it was over by 10:30. At 7:30, there were less than 25 people. At 8:00 there were about 50 people, by 8:30, about 100, by 9:00, about 200, and by 9:30, there were about 300 people. The majority of people were not present during the morning prayer. Almost half of the congregation got to the church toward the end of the Eucharist. I don't think that this is an isolated situation. This seems to be how almost all the parishes in this community function. There could be exceptions. Week after week, priests tell the congregation that they need to be at the church at the very beginning of the worship, but in spite of all the exhortations, warnings, and threats, the majority of them continue the habit of coming late.

 

At the beginning of the Eucharist, a few people walked forward to receive absolution, and the priest prayed for a few seconds placing his hand on each. Toward the end of the Eucharist, the same people walked forward to receive the Holy communion from the priest. Once the Eucharist was over with a farewell from the priest, there was a sermon, announcements, and special prayers for the departed, for the sick, and for those who celebrated their birthday and wedding anniversary that week. 

 

Out of the 150 families, there were about 300 participants on a regular Sunday, which is not bad. Church is important for them, and they come to church, and they regularly contribute to the church. They pay for the priest to do the church services fully and completely; however, the majority of them do not think that they need to attend the worship service from the very beginning. Even when they do attend, they do not care what is being prayed or what song is being sung. They probably think that whatever the priest prays is on their behalf, and so their absence does not make any difference. It seems that the worship service doesn't make much sense to them. They can't relate this to their real life in the outside world. They feel like their coming late or early to the worship service doesn't make much difference in their life. They feel like they are not supposed to understand the worship service. They don't feel like they are joining the heavenly host in praising God. There is no wonder most of the people come late to the church, for they do not understand worship. How can you engage in something which doesn't make sense to you? If the Holy Eucharist made sense to them, they wouldn't complain of the length of service. But because it doesn't make any sense at all, it appears even longer than it actually is.  

 

The first priority now is to regain the meaning of our liturgy. The church fathers who created this liturgy knew its meaning. They could relate it to their real life. But today we repeat the prayers and songs in the liturgy like parrots without knowing what it is or why we do it. We need a rebirth of the age of Mor Aprem so that we can really worship God along with the angels. We need saintly fathers like Mor Aprem among us to write psalms.

 

Our liturgy, which began short, grew bigger down the centuries as more and more prayers and songs were added. Our liturgy must have been very small before Mor Aprem's time. During and after his time, his prayers and songs were included in the liturgy. After another century, more prayers and songs came from Mor Balai. After another century, even more songs and prayers came from fathers like Mor Semavoon Kookoyo, Mor Yakob of Serug, and Mor Severios of Antioch, and our liturgy grew even bigger.  Creativity stopped by seventh century, and no more new prayers or songs were written. 

 

For the last thirteen centuries, we have been reciting the prayers and songs written by the fathers of 4th, 5th and 6th centuries. Instead of slavishly parroting their prayers and songs, we should have followed their example and written prayers and songs as they did in their time. For example, we have prayers for those who travel on land and water written by our fathers. If they were alive today, they would include prayers for those who travel in the air as well. There were no airplanes in 4th century, but today a lot of people travel in airplanes. New prayers and songs need to be written for our times.

 

Let us imagine a situation in which you meet Mor Aprem in heaven. You run to him with excitement to greet him. You say, "Mor Aprem, I am so excited to meet you! We have been praying the prayers you wrote, and we have been singing the psalms you composed. We have recited them for over fifteen centuries without making any changes to them. We kept your prayers and songs as precious treasures, and we transferred them from generations to generations. Don't you feel excited?" Mor Aprem can't believe what he just heard. You take him down for a visit to your own church, where you stay invisible and participate in the worship. After the worship, you return to heaven with Mor Aprem. He doesn't seem excited. He says, "I don't feel proud of what you are doing in your churches. When I wrote them, the people of my time really understood the meaning of my prayers and songs, and so they could participate in the worship meaningfully.  Today after all these centuries, in a different time and place, with such a wide gulf in culture and view of life, I don't think people understand them. My prayers and psalms do not rise from your hearts but only from your lips. If you have any respect for me this is not what you would do. Instead of slavishly singing my songs, you will follow my example and write psalms and prayers that suit your time and place and view of life."

 

The question of how the liturgy which was meaningful for our fathers has become meaningless for us may be illustrated with a story I happened to hear. Once upon a time there lived a doctor who made very effective medicines with rare herbs. As he approached the eve of his life, he wrote down the procedure in detail for his successors of how the medicines can be made. The prescription of one of the rare medicines started as follows: 1. Have the cat in a cage, 2. Assemble the following ingredients. Etc.... Years or even centuries later, one of his successors started making the medicine using this prescription. He looked at the very first item in the procedure-- have the cat in a cage. What to do? There is no cat in the home. He didn't want to skip any of the steps fearing that it might affect the effect of the medicine. He sent his assistants to his neighbors in search of a cat to be caged.

 

There was nothing wrong with the doctor in creating the medicine or in writing a detailed procedure of how to make it. But there was something seriously wrong in the way it was understood by a later generation. Without even thinking of the purpose of each step, they wanted to follow it literally. There was a difference in the two contexts. In the original context, there was a cat at home, and it was necessary to keep it safely away to keep the medicine free from the cat hairs. But in the later context, there was no cat at home, and so they had no need to bother about the first step. The procedures of a church sacrament are very much like the procedures of making a medicine. The ones who originally created the sacraments knew the meaning of each step in the procedure, but centuries later, when the same sacraments are repeated following their procedures, there is a danger of mindless repetition. Instead of following the procedures literally, we need to strive for a purposeful and meaningful following of the procedures. The difference in contexts need to be considered.   

 

The Two Contexts of Our Liturgy
Judaism had three times of prayer--Evening, morning, and noontime (Psalm 55:18). We read that Daniel prayed three times a day (Dan. 6:11) But they seemed to have four times of prayer on Sabbath and other holidays. However, some people prayed more than three times. "Seven times a day I have given praise to thee" (Psalm 119:164). Some prayed even at midnight (Psalm 118:62). In Roman cities a bell marked every third hour, which probably helped the Jews and Christians to schedule their times of prayer.  

 

By the fourth century, there were Christian monasteries, where the inmates devoted enough time for seven times of prayer each and every day. They gathered together to pray every third hour except the one at 3 am. The prayer of each time begins and ends with a Qawmo, like introduction and conclusion. Between the two Qawmos, there are several long and short prayers, songs, and Bible readings. Prayer was the one most important thing in the monastic way of life. Out of the sixteen wakeful hours, they spent three to five hours everyday for prayer. They spent the remaining time for study, manual work, etc. The monastic way of life created such a deep impression upon the psyche of a civilization that they wanted to change the entire church, and eventually the entire world, into a big monastery. People were expected and encouraged to follow the monastic way of life with seven times of prayer a day. The monastic way of life was seen as the standard and norm, and the non-monastic people were expected to follow the same lifestyle in their churches and homes.

 

Even today there are monasteries, and the inmates have seven times of prayer as it was done in the monasteries of 4th and 5th centuries. However, the non-monastic people, who live a regular life in their homes and work places cannot realistically live a monastic life with seven times of prayer like the monastic inmates. If praying is what the monastic people primarily do, farming is what the farmers primarily do, and woodwork is what carpenters primarily do. If some formers and carpenters are willing to pray seven times a day, they must be welcome to do so. But all farmers and carpenters should not be expected to pray seven times a day. Also they should not be made feel guilty for not praying seven times a day.

 

Outside monasteries, worship happens in two places: homes and churches. Monastery is a place where people live and work all the time. They go outside a monastery very rarely. In such a setting, seven times of prayer is realistic. A home is different from a monastery. They stay at home at night, but they go to their work places during day time. This context doesn't permit them to pray every third hour. A church is different from a monastery and a home. A church building is a place where people gather once in a week and on other special days for a limited time. Praying every third hour is not possible in this context as well.

 

Thus there is a clear difference between the original monastic context of the liturgy and the non-monastic context. This problem was recognized long time ago, and monastic prayers were adapted for homes and churches. Non-monastic people were allowed to put together the seven-time prayers into two groups and pray them in morning and evening. On a Sunday morning, right before the Holy Eucharist, the prayers of three times are put together-- 6:00 am, 9:00 am, and 12:00 pm. Each time's prayer begins and ends with a Qawmo. Even when the three times' prayers are put together, all these Qawmos are recited. Thus we recite a Qawmo six times in the morning. The sixth one is often moved to the very end of the Eucharist.

 

At home, people usually pray two times-- morning and evening. In the morning they have to pray the prayers of 12:00 am, 6:00 am, 9:00 am, and 12:00 pm. In the evening they have to pray the prayers of 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm, and 9:00 pm. They have to begin and end each time's prayer with a Qawmo. Thus in the morning they have to repeat a Qawmo eight times, and in the evening six times.

 

Putting the prayers of various times together may not sound like a sensible idea if we think about it. Imagine that you live away from your home, and you call your parents once everyday. You are about to go to a remote place from where you cannot make phone calls. You will be back on the seventh day. So how do you make the phone calls? Altogether you are supposed to make seven phone calls in seven days. You don't want to miss any one of them. So you plan to make four calls together before you leave, and three calls after you return. You take your phone, dial the number and call, and after the call you hang up the phone-- the first call. You make three more calls like this in the same order. When you come back you make three calls like this. What do you think of this? No one with a normal state of mind would do so. If this sounds senseless, how can we divide the seven times of prayer into two? Prayer is communication with our heavenly father just like a phone call, and putting together prayers is a very mechanical and thoughtless act.

 

Well, one might argue that prayer is not only communication with God, it is also a spiritual exercise. Agree. Imagine that you do physical exercise for an hour once a day. You are going to make a trip, and you can't do exercises for seven days. Will you do four days' exercise together before you leave, and three days' exercise after you return? 

 

Monastic lifestyle cannot be made a model for the non-monastic lifestyle, and the non-monastic people should not be expected to follow a monastic lifestyle. Our present liturgy originated within monastic lifestyle, and they can be used without much change in our monasteries. Prayer is the main thing they do in monasteries, and they can find enough time to recite all the prayers in all the seven times every day. But the monastic liturgy cannot be used as such in non-monastic life, for their life at home and work places doesn't permit them to pray every third hour. However, monastic liturgy may be used in non-monastic setting if it is sensibly adapted. 

 

Adapting Monastic Liturgy for a Non-Monastic Setting
A few years ago, the leaders of this community realized that it is unrealistic to expect people to pray every third hour, or pray very long prayers at their homes, and they prepared a modified shorter version for morning and evening prayers to be used at home. It is called Kudumba Araadhana Kramam in Malayalam. This is an example of adapting monastic liturgy for non-monastic setting.

This liturgical reform to shorten the morning and evening prayers at home needs to inspire and guide further reforms. The prayers at the church may also be shortened. We may develop a revised morning prayer before the Holy Eucharist with just one Qawmo instead of six. We may also recite fewer prayers and sing fewer songs meaningfully rather than recite too many of them mechanically.

 

A regular Sunday worship takes three to four hours now. Special celebrations like Nativity, Hosanna, Passover, Easter, and Pentecost last for four to five hours. Good Friday, which usually lasts six to seven hours, has four times of prayers in addition to special prayers of the cross, each lasts more than an hour. Each time's prayer begins and ends with Qawmo, and they have prayers, songs and Bible readings.

 

I believe the Holy synod, the highest decision-making body of this community, has appointed a committee to reform our liturgy. Even if the committee proposes a reform, it can't be practiced unless it is accepted by the community in general. The Reform committee also needs to make the people aware of the need of such a meaningful revision.

 

In many churches there are special prayers after the Holy Eucharist for those who celebrate their birthday and wedding anniversary, for the sick, and for the departed. Also in many churches the priest makes a sermon after the Eucharist. A sermon and prayers after the Eucharist do not sound that meaningful because the priest turns toward the congregation and says a farewell at the end of the Eucharist. A farewell is meaningful only if it is the last item, and if the people leave immediately after that. We need to modify the liturgy of the Eucharist in such a way that the farewell occurs at the very end, which means that the sermon and the prayers need to be placed before the farewell.

 

Once we realize that the non-monastic lifestyle is different from the monastic lifestyle, we will also realize that there can be two versions of liturgy-- a monastic version and a non-monastic version. People in non-monastic setting should have the freedom to choose the monastic version if they want. For example we may have two versions of the Holy Eucharist-- a monastic, long version that takes about an hour and a half to two hours, and a non-monastic, shorter version that can be completed in about thirty to forty-five minutes. In a church setting, the church members may have the freedom to choose their version by majority voting.  

 

Earlier, I described what I saw in a church recently. Now let me describe what I would like to see there. The morning prayer starts at 8:00, and the entire congregation is already present. No one comes to church after 8:00. The morning prayer lasts for about 15 minutes, and the Holy Eucharist starts at about 8:15. People do not come forward for individual absolution, for all people are prepared to accept the holy communion, and so there is common absolution. The priest gives a sermon of five minutes immediately after the gospel reading. The entire congregation accepts Holy communion. There is a system in place for giving communion to the entire congregation within five minutes. Special prayers for the sick, the departed, for those who celebrate birthday and wedding anniversary-- all these happen within the Eucharist. The priest says farewell, and the congregation departs by 9:30.

 

Would we rather have a Sunday worship that lasts an hour and a half with all the people present the entire time or one of three hours with the majority of the participants arrive only toward the end? We may ask the same question about the Good Friday and about all the other special festivals. Would we rather have a Good Friday celebration of three hours with everyone in the congregation present all the time or one in which the majority are present only toward the end as it is now. If the prayer of each 3rd hour takes half and hour, and the special prayer of the cross takes an hour, the total time can be three hours. If we can get all the people attend the worship in its entirety, this is worth considering.

But we cannot have a rapid transition from a longer version to a shorter version. Only a slow transition over a long period of time will be accepted by a community. During the transition period, some people may want to stick to the longer version. In order to accommodate both those who want a long version and those who want a shorter version, some adjustments and sacrifices will have to be made. For example, there may be a short version and a long version of Good Friday liturgy, and people should have the freedom to participate in either one. The long version from 8 am to 3 pm, but the short version may be from 12 pm to 3 pm. Those who want the long version will start coming from 8:00 am, and those who want the short version join them at 12: 00 pm. Those who choose the short version should not be made to feel guilty.

 

Conclusion
A meaningful worship is central to the healthy life of any faith-based community. Without a meaningful liturgy, a meaningful worship is not possible. A meaningful liturgy will enable the entire congregation to participate in the worship in a meaningful and purposeful way. A liturgy that is literally understood cannot be meaningful. In order for liturgy to remain meaningful, the difference in contexts needs to be considered. A liturgy suitable for monastic setting may not be suitable for non-monastic settings such as homes and churches. Also a liturgy suitable for one culture may not be suitable for another culture at a different place and time.
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Dear Reader,
   If you took time to read this all the way to the end, you are obviously among the few people who care for worship and the liturgy we use. I really like to hear what you think about what I have said here. Please let me know if you agree or disagree with the main idea here. If you fully agree, cannot fully agree, or if you disagree, please tell me why. Please be frank, and express your honest opinion. Please write briefly, clearly, and to the point. I hope to learn a little more from you. Click on comments underneath, and post your comment. If it does not work, please email me at johnkunnathu at yahoo.com.