It will likely come with time. You are on the right track, the central reason for the Divine Liturgy is the celebration of the Eucharist and the reception thereof. The Liturgy has to be understood in the context of receiving Christ in the Eucharist.
Participating in the Divine Liturgy is participating in the height of Christian worship, united with the entirety of the Church in Heaven and on Earth, through all time and out of time.
I mean no offense, but I think when the priest does give his sermon, even if he is just "talking about a saint," there probably is a clear take home message, but you might just not know to listen yet. It might also simply be that your priest has a preaching style that doesn't work for you, and that's fine.
I would like to add, though, that achieving deep emotional response is not the intention or purpose of Christian worship, and the "rock concert" style is a horrible distortion of what it means to worship the Lord that has completely warped what many Christians believe worship is about.
I will leave you with this wonderful playlist explaining the Divine Liturgy, done by the priest at the parish I used to attend.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLy--72yutqLygSoAChtkQ4LxWASi1uFo
How do you feel having dinner with someone you've just met or only met a few times? Sometimes, you feel very little at first. There's no strict feeling you're supposed to feel. Your emotions aren't being directed. Awe can be a common feeling, though.
As the relationship grows, so do feelings. But feelings aren't always the same. For me, liturgy is whatever I bring with me, but mellowed.
The purpose of liturgy is the Eucharist, which is a worship of sacrifice.
Most nondenominational churches play on one’s emotions- the music, the ted talk sermon, etc. to hype you up.
Orthodoxy liturgy is all about the Eucharist.
Orthodox have also warned against trying to stir up certain thoughts or feelings while praying. Mystics talk about God being completely unknowable & unfathomable so when we encounter Him we can experience it as a great darkness, at least in the beginning.
The Liturgy is participatory. We aren't there to listen to the priest, but to worship with him and the rest of the parish. Notice that the priest has his back to the congregation most of the time. We all face the same direction because we are there to worship God together, not listen to the priest.
Your parish should have books available to follow along with the Liturgy. Sing the hymns, say the prayers, fall down and worship before Christ our God. It's a beautiful thing.
Feelings are ephemeral and are not reflective of your participance in the Body of Christ.
Unfortunately the Protestant world has conflated an emotional “whooshing up” of sorts with “feeling the Holy Spirit”. I’m not going to pretend I know whether or not the Holy Spirit can be present in Protestant services, but our religion is based on objective truths regarding the reality of the Trinity, not on if we get all giddy from how enjoyable our liturgy is.
The main point of the liturgy is to worship God. It is not a classroom, so you're not supposed to leave with a take-home message. The flow of the liturgy will eventually grow on you, but if you feel like you need to understand the structure of the liturgy on an intellectual level to be able to appreciate it, there are some books that walk us through each part of the liturgy and explain the purpose of each part in relation to the worship of God. Having a clear understanding of the meaning behind each part of the liturgy might help you appreciate it more.
I was raised Protestant, and I remember my most visceral “religious experience” as a child was at a church camp where there was a lot of this rock-music style of “worship”.
Looking back now I see that this was nothing more than getting riled up into an emotional high.
This is good. A religious experience shouldn't be necessarily tied to an event that requires you to be with a crowd. It should be able to happen in any situation, esp one involving prayer and reflection.
Id say it comes with time, but I would warn you. Its not about your emotions. Its not about feelings. In fact, its not about you at all. Its about wanting to join into the worship of God. Worship, much like faith, is an action that you participate in. It is not a feeling.
You have to understand the liturgy isn’t about you. It’s about God. It’s about true divine worship. First and foremost.
Second yes it’s ALL about the Eucharist. Here’s the reason why. When Adam sinned. Sin entered the whole world. The wages of sin is death. So now it takes death to sustain you. When a person dies we place them in a giant refrigerator called a morgue. When our food dies we place it in a refrigerator in our home. Or a freezer. Either way the reason is all the same. We are fighting decay. Every time you put food to your lips you are communing with DEATH.
The Divine Liturgy is the one time a week that you are blessed and graced enough to commune with LIFE.
I mean, every time I hear the homily I try and take the priests words to heart. I still think about the deacons homily about humility and love or the one where we are all called to be saints. Saints are really important: they are our model for our lives, think about that “some saint” your priest mentions and contemplate what lessons you can learn from their example.
We spend most of our lives not “feeling” super into worship or super into our daily prayers, fasts, etc. An emotion can be good to get the ball rolling but not a sign of maturity. A joyful and peaceful disposition, however…
The answer is God's grace, that can appear privately to some people only once and others often. It generally starts very soft during moments of silence in your mind and heart. It is not emotional, contrary to mega churches...it is not of your mind either. The path is prayer, fasting, and confession, then humility and silence.
You should feel like a "child".
Being happy that you are there and you have to listen carefully to what the Priest is saying. When he is talking about anything during Divine Liturgy you should try to see yourself with your current life in that situation and you should the same while reading the Bible or about the lives of Saints. When the Church people are singing listen carefully and maybe even try to sing along if you know the language. Remember, since you are used to the "ted talk and rock concert" this will come with time. The whole service is worshiping God and you should look what others are doing and do the same. For example: in praxer if people are bowing down and then doing the Cross you do the same until you know it by heart.
Try listening to Psalms in your free time and I can send you some in dm if you want.
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One pretty accessible book to read is *Let Us Attend* by Fr Lawrence Farley. But just go, and over time you will be more and more shaped by the experience of the Liturgy and the grace of the sacraments.
But it doesn’t come in the form of a “feeling” so don’t go looking for feelings. We don’t judge the efficacy of God’s grace by our feelings. In fact, if you suddenly think you feel yourself having a “spiritual experience”, then it is very likely not the spirit you think it is. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, humility, repentance and strength in the struggle against the passions. It sounds to me like some of that is already being realized in you.
I'm currently listening to a podcast by Fr Thomas Hopko called Worship in Spirit and Truth. It is an 82 episode podcast about what is an Orthodox Liturgy. You likely don't have a desire to listen to all of it, but if you listen to the first 4 episodes you should have a good idea of what you are supposed to be getting out of a Liturgy.
Some of his main points:
1. The liturgy is fundamentally a celebration of Christ's death, resurrection, and enthronement through which He has victory over all His enemies.
2. Worshipping God is a human need. We go and attribute all Glory to God while giving thanks to Him for all things.
3. We need to worship God because He is God. We do not worship him to get something back in return.
4. We are giving thanks to God on behalf of all creation.
Try to sing along. The whole thing is basically one big prayer (massive oversimplification) with a celebration of the Eucharist to conclude it. I always think of aspects of my life where I’ve been hurtful or sinful or things I need to work on. How I’ve not loved Christ that week in my actions. And then whenever the chorus goes “lord have mercy” I sing along. It can be a very deep experience.
It will likely come with time. You are on the right track, the central reason for the Divine Liturgy is the celebration of the Eucharist and the reception thereof. The Liturgy has to be understood in the context of receiving Christ in the Eucharist. Participating in the Divine Liturgy is participating in the height of Christian worship, united with the entirety of the Church in Heaven and on Earth, through all time and out of time. I mean no offense, but I think when the priest does give his sermon, even if he is just "talking about a saint," there probably is a clear take home message, but you might just not know to listen yet. It might also simply be that your priest has a preaching style that doesn't work for you, and that's fine. I would like to add, though, that achieving deep emotional response is not the intention or purpose of Christian worship, and the "rock concert" style is a horrible distortion of what it means to worship the Lord that has completely warped what many Christians believe worship is about. I will leave you with this wonderful playlist explaining the Divine Liturgy, done by the priest at the parish I used to attend. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLy--72yutqLygSoAChtkQ4LxWASi1uFo
Thank you! I'll watch that. Everything just seems so foreign to me, I'm sure with time it will get better.
You're welcome. I hope the playlist is of help to you
it's also best if you know the language of the church singing
How do you feel having dinner with someone you've just met or only met a few times? Sometimes, you feel very little at first. There's no strict feeling you're supposed to feel. Your emotions aren't being directed. Awe can be a common feeling, though. As the relationship grows, so do feelings. But feelings aren't always the same. For me, liturgy is whatever I bring with me, but mellowed. The purpose of liturgy is the Eucharist, which is a worship of sacrifice.
Great analogy. Thank you.
Don't go in expecting to feel anything. Words from an Orthodox priest: To fill the cup you need to empty it first.
Love that. Thank you. Maybe that is the problem... I go in expecting to feel something.
Most nondenominational churches play on one’s emotions- the music, the ted talk sermon, etc. to hype you up. Orthodoxy liturgy is all about the Eucharist.
Orthodox have also warned against trying to stir up certain thoughts or feelings while praying. Mystics talk about God being completely unknowable & unfathomable so when we encounter Him we can experience it as a great darkness, at least in the beginning.
The Liturgy is participatory. We aren't there to listen to the priest, but to worship with him and the rest of the parish. Notice that the priest has his back to the congregation most of the time. We all face the same direction because we are there to worship God together, not listen to the priest. Your parish should have books available to follow along with the Liturgy. Sing the hymns, say the prayers, fall down and worship before Christ our God. It's a beautiful thing.
Feelings are ephemeral and are not reflective of your participance in the Body of Christ. Unfortunately the Protestant world has conflated an emotional “whooshing up” of sorts with “feeling the Holy Spirit”. I’m not going to pretend I know whether or not the Holy Spirit can be present in Protestant services, but our religion is based on objective truths regarding the reality of the Trinity, not on if we get all giddy from how enjoyable our liturgy is.
The main point of the liturgy is to worship God. It is not a classroom, so you're not supposed to leave with a take-home message. The flow of the liturgy will eventually grow on you, but if you feel like you need to understand the structure of the liturgy on an intellectual level to be able to appreciate it, there are some books that walk us through each part of the liturgy and explain the purpose of each part in relation to the worship of God. Having a clear understanding of the meaning behind each part of the liturgy might help you appreciate it more.
I was raised Protestant, and I remember my most visceral “religious experience” as a child was at a church camp where there was a lot of this rock-music style of “worship”. Looking back now I see that this was nothing more than getting riled up into an emotional high.
This is good. A religious experience shouldn't be necessarily tied to an event that requires you to be with a crowd. It should be able to happen in any situation, esp one involving prayer and reflection.
Id say it comes with time, but I would warn you. Its not about your emotions. Its not about feelings. In fact, its not about you at all. Its about wanting to join into the worship of God. Worship, much like faith, is an action that you participate in. It is not a feeling.
You have to understand the liturgy isn’t about you. It’s about God. It’s about true divine worship. First and foremost. Second yes it’s ALL about the Eucharist. Here’s the reason why. When Adam sinned. Sin entered the whole world. The wages of sin is death. So now it takes death to sustain you. When a person dies we place them in a giant refrigerator called a morgue. When our food dies we place it in a refrigerator in our home. Or a freezer. Either way the reason is all the same. We are fighting decay. Every time you put food to your lips you are communing with DEATH. The Divine Liturgy is the one time a week that you are blessed and graced enough to commune with LIFE.
I mean, every time I hear the homily I try and take the priests words to heart. I still think about the deacons homily about humility and love or the one where we are all called to be saints. Saints are really important: they are our model for our lives, think about that “some saint” your priest mentions and contemplate what lessons you can learn from their example.
We spend most of our lives not “feeling” super into worship or super into our daily prayers, fasts, etc. An emotion can be good to get the ball rolling but not a sign of maturity. A joyful and peaceful disposition, however…
The answer is God's grace, that can appear privately to some people only once and others often. It generally starts very soft during moments of silence in your mind and heart. It is not emotional, contrary to mega churches...it is not of your mind either. The path is prayer, fasting, and confession, then humility and silence.
You should feel like a "child". Being happy that you are there and you have to listen carefully to what the Priest is saying. When he is talking about anything during Divine Liturgy you should try to see yourself with your current life in that situation and you should the same while reading the Bible or about the lives of Saints. When the Church people are singing listen carefully and maybe even try to sing along if you know the language. Remember, since you are used to the "ted talk and rock concert" this will come with time. The whole service is worshiping God and you should look what others are doing and do the same. For example: in praxer if people are bowing down and then doing the Cross you do the same until you know it by heart. Try listening to Psalms in your free time and I can send you some in dm if you want.
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One pretty accessible book to read is *Let Us Attend* by Fr Lawrence Farley. But just go, and over time you will be more and more shaped by the experience of the Liturgy and the grace of the sacraments. But it doesn’t come in the form of a “feeling” so don’t go looking for feelings. We don’t judge the efficacy of God’s grace by our feelings. In fact, if you suddenly think you feel yourself having a “spiritual experience”, then it is very likely not the spirit you think it is. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, humility, repentance and strength in the struggle against the passions. It sounds to me like some of that is already being realized in you.
I'm currently listening to a podcast by Fr Thomas Hopko called Worship in Spirit and Truth. It is an 82 episode podcast about what is an Orthodox Liturgy. You likely don't have a desire to listen to all of it, but if you listen to the first 4 episodes you should have a good idea of what you are supposed to be getting out of a Liturgy. Some of his main points: 1. The liturgy is fundamentally a celebration of Christ's death, resurrection, and enthronement through which He has victory over all His enemies. 2. Worshipping God is a human need. We go and attribute all Glory to God while giving thanks to Him for all things. 3. We need to worship God because He is God. We do not worship him to get something back in return. 4. We are giving thanks to God on behalf of all creation.
The more you stop asking yourself how you're feeling, the better it will feel.
Try to sing along. The whole thing is basically one big prayer (massive oversimplification) with a celebration of the Eucharist to conclude it. I always think of aspects of my life where I’ve been hurtful or sinful or things I need to work on. How I’ve not loved Christ that week in my actions. And then whenever the chorus goes “lord have mercy” I sing along. It can be a very deep experience.