No, you should plan to arrive on time. But life happens, and if you must arrive late, enter quietly and reverently without drawing attention to yourself.
Here’s the thing. The Divine Liturgy isn’t a lecture that you can catch the second half of and still get the gist. It’s a single continuous act of worship that begins when the priest intones “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” and doesn’t end until the final blessing. When you walk in halfway through, you’ve missed part of what we’re doing together.
And we’re doing this together. That matters. The Liturgy is corporate worship. When someone arrives late, it disrupts the prayer of everyone already there. Heads turn. The door makes noise. Someone has to scoot over. It breaks the flow for people who came prepared to pray.
When Late Arrival Is Worse
If you do arrive late, pay attention to what’s happening before you walk in. Some moments are particularly bad times to enter. Wait in the narthex if the priest is reading the Gospel or giving the homily. Wait if he’s censing the church or if the choir is processing with the Gospel book or the holy gifts. Wait if people are receiving Communion. These aren’t arbitrary rules. They’re about not interrupting the most sacred moments of the service.
Your best bet? Ask an usher or someone standing in the back. They’ll tell you when to slip in.
The Southeast Texas Reality
I know what you’re thinking. You work a 6-to-6 offshore rotation and you just got back Saturday night. Or you’ve got three kids under five and getting everyone dressed and fed feels like an Olympic event. Or your mother-in-law who lives with you has dementia and Sunday mornings are unpredictable.
Those are real situations. The Church isn’t naive about them. But the pastoral answer isn’t “don’t worry about it.” It’s “do everything you can to be on time, and when you genuinely can’t, come anyway and enter reverently.”
Talk to your priest about ongoing schedule conflicts. Maybe there’s a Saturday Vespers you can attend. Maybe your situation calls for a different approach. But don’t just default to rolling in at 10:30 every week because you didn’t feel like setting an alarm.
Why This Matters Theologically
The Liturgy isn’t a religious service we attend. It’s the work of the people (that’s what “liturgy” means). We’re participating in something that transcends time, joining our voices with the angels and saints before the throne of God. When the priest says “Let us stand aright, let us stand with fear,” he means it. We’re about to consecrate the holy gifts. We’re about to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
You can’t do that if you show up for the last twenty minutes.
St. John Chrysostom, whose Liturgy we celebrate most Sundays, expected his congregation to be present for the whole service. The early Christians stood for hours. Not because they were more spiritual than we are, but because they understood what was happening. They were being transformed. They were receiving medicine for their souls. You don’t show up late to your own healing.
A Word to Visitors
If you’re visiting for the first time, you might be confused about when Liturgy actually starts. Many parishes serve Orthros (Matins) right before the Liturgy without a break, so when you arrive at the posted time, worship is already underway. That’s normal. Don’t panic. But now you know for next time.
The Bottom Line
Treat the Liturgy like what it is: the most important thing you’ll do all week. You wouldn’t show up late to your own wedding. You wouldn’t arrive halfway through your child’s graduation. This is bigger than both of those.
Set two alarms. Lay out clothes Saturday night. Get gas on your way home from work. Do what it takes. And when despite your best efforts you still end up late because the baby had a blowout in the car seat, take a breath, say a quick prayer, and slip in quietly when there’s a natural break. God knows your heart. But don’t make chronic lateness your pattern and tell yourself it’s fine.
The doors of the church are always open. But the Liturgy starts when it starts, and you should be there.
