Page 37 - The Priest, Summer 2015

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would meet the exigency of God’s utter holiness. Therefore, she always prayed to God the Father, particularly in the Latin tradition, through Christ in the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ instructed us to adore God “in Spiritu et Veritate.” (Jn 4:23)
In fact, it is only in the Holy Spirit can one truly adore Christ – that is, recog- nise His Divinity, according to the words of Saint Paul: “Nemo potest dicere, Dominus Iesus, nisi in Spiritu Sancto.” (1 Cor 12:3) In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray rst of all that God’s name be hallowed: “sancti cetur Nomen Tuum.” This means that when the faithful pray and worship God, they must be conscious that He is the All-Holy God, and must behave accordingly. Jesus Christ Himself, in His “High Priestly Prayer” (Jn 17), began by asking for the glori cation of both the Father and the (Jn 17, 1) and He referred to His Father as “Holy Fa- ther.” (Jn 17:11)
Therefore awareness of God’s deep ho-
ver since apostolic times the Church has shown deep concern
to offer a type of worship which
liness is the rst condition and is typical of Christian worship. And, naturally, it de- mands typical gestures of adoration, such as bowing, prostrations, and also silence, which expresses an interior attitude of awe and reverence. The most authoritative witness to these fundamental attitudes of Christian worship is the Book of the Apocalypse, which presents to the eyes of Christians the heavenly liturgy as the real model for worship on earth. The reference to the model of heavenly worship (speci - cally in the allusion to the angels) is the main and constant characteristic of the lit- urgy throughout two millennia, from the Apostolic Fathers up to the Magisterium of the Second Vatican Council.
Multiple witnesses to this attitude from the most ancient times include St John Chrysostom (4th – 5th century), who is a remarkable witness to the liturgical tradi- tion of Antioch and Constantinople. The liturgy of the Church has to be modeled by the heavenly liturgy of the angels. There- fore the Church on earth, in worshipping and adoring the Divine Majesty especially in the Eucharistic liturgy, has the duty to
Journal of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy
37
Bishop Athanasius Schneider ORC is auxiliary bishop of St Mary’s Astana in Kazakhstan, and a scholar in patristics. He was our keynote speaker at the 2015 national conference.
The sacredness of the Eucharist
in the teaching of the Fathers of the Church
by Most Rev Athanasius Schneider ORC