The Anaphora is the Eucharistic prayer at the heart of the Divine Liturgy. It’s the moment when we offer the bread and wine to God and the Holy Spirit transforms them into the Body and Blood of Christ.
The word itself means “offering” or “lifting up” in Greek. That’s exactly what happens. We lift up the gifts to the Father, and something real occurs.
When It Happens
You’ve just finished singing the Creed with everyone else. The priest and deacon have a brief exchange, and then the priest begins: “Let us stand aright, let us stand with fear, let us attend, that we may offer the Holy Oblation in peace.” That’s the doorway into the Anaphora. Everything that follows until we pray the Lord’s Prayer together is part of this central prayer.
If you’ve been to a Sunday Liturgy at St. Michael’s, you’ve heard it. It’s not a separate service or an optional add-on. It’s why we’re there.
What Actually Happens
The structure moves through several movements, like a symphony building to its climax. The priest begins with thanksgiving, praising God for creation and salvation. We join the angels in singing “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth.” Then comes the remembering.
The priest repeats Christ’s words from the Last Supper: “Take, eat, this is My Body… Drink of it all of you, this is My Blood.” But this isn’t just historical recitation. In Orthodox worship, remembering means participating. When we remember Christ’s death and resurrection in the Anaphora, we’re not looking back at something distant. We’re entering into that saving reality.
Then the epiclesis. This is the explicit invocation of the Holy Spirit. The priest asks the Father to send the Spirit upon the gifts and upon us. “Make this bread the precious Body of Thy Christ, and that which is in this cup the precious Blood of Thy Christ, changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.”
Something happens here. The bread and wine become what they weren’t before. We don’t claim to explain the mechanics. We’re not interested in medieval philosophical categories about substance and accidents. We just know that Christ is truly present, and the Holy Spirit makes it so.
After the epiclesis come the intercessions. We remember the Theotokos, the saints, the living, the dead. We’re standing at the throne of God with the whole Church, those in heaven and those still struggling here in Beaumont or anywhere else.
Which Anaphora We Use
Most Sundays you’ll hear the Anaphora of St. John Chrysostom. It’s the standard one for the Byzantine tradition, which includes us Antiochians. On ten specific days during the year (the Sundays of Great Lent, Holy Thursday, Holy Saturday, the vigils of Christmas and Theophany, and the feast of St. Basil), we use the Anaphora of St. Basil the Great instead. It’s longer and more elaborate, but the structure’s the same.
Both go back to the fourth century. Both have been prayed by millions of Orthodox Christians across centuries and continents. When you hear these words, you’re joining that communion.
Your Part in It
You’re not watching the Anaphora happen. You’re participating. The priest can’t do this alone. When he says “Let us give thanks unto the Lord,” you respond “It is meet and right.” When the gifts are offered, you sing “We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, and we pray unto Thee, O our God.” Your “Amen” at the end isn’t a formality. It means “Yes, this is true, I agree, I’m part of this offering.”
Some people find it hard at first, coming from churches where the pastor does everything up front while the congregation sits and listens. That’s not how the Liturgy works. The Anaphora is something we do together. The priest’s role is specific and essential, but he’s leading the prayer of the whole body.
If you’re still learning when to stand or what to say, don’t worry about it. Just be present. Listen to the words. Let them sink in. You’ll pick up the responses soon enough. What matters is that you’re there, part of the Church offering this sacrifice of thanksgiving, receiving the gift that comes back to us transformed.
Next time you’re at Liturgy, pay attention when the Anaphora begins. It’s easy to zone out during the longer prayers, especially if you worked a twelve-hour shift at the plant the night before. But this is the moment everything’s been building toward. This is where heaven and earth meet, where the Holy Spirit descends, where we become what we receive.
