Why Do Some People Feel the Divine Liturgy is Boring?

It's understandable that individuals may have different experiences and feelings during the Divine Liturgy if they do not understand its purpose. The Divine Liturgy is a sacred and traditional form of worship that has been passed down from Apostolic times to commune with God.

The Divine Liturgy is a sacred ritual that involves the coming together of the Heavenly Kingdom and earthly life. It is not merely a performance or a formality. It is a time when we can enter into the presence of the God, participate in the mystery of Christ's sacrifice, and receive the actual Body and Blood of Christ. We do this each Liturgy to be cleansed, transformed, and strengthened in our ability to live as He commanded. 

If you find it boring it might be helpful to consider its purpose, to explore its content and identify the symbolism used. Every aspect of it has a spiritual meaning. Better understanding of the Divine Liturgy, will help make it more spiritually beneficial.

The Divine Liturgy encompasses a rich tapestry of traditions, rituals, prayers, readings and hymns that are always changing. Each Liturgy offers a different experience that varies based on the tone of music, the saints or feasts being celebrated, and the period of the liturgical year. This dynamic nature adds depth and variety to the Liturgy.

All senses are stimulated in the Divine Liturgy. The sense of hearing is stimulated by the beautiful music and the sounds of Scripture readings and prayers. The sense of smell is stimulated through the use of incense. The sense of taste is experienced in the taste of Holy Communion. The sense of touch is experienced when we venerate icons, when we kneel, or are blessed with holy water. The sense of sight is stimulated when we see the beauty of the icons, the light of candles, the actions of the processions and the colorful vestments.

There are eight tones of music used during the Divine Liturgy, along with melodies of various hymns that can greatly influence the overall atmosphere and emotional experience. Whether it's solemn chants, joyful hymns, or meditative melodies, the music aims to evoke a particular spiritual disposition, allowing individuals to connect with the sacred in diverse ways. Again remember the purpose, it is to connect with God.

Moreover, the celebration of various saints and feasts throughout the liturgical year brings a unique focus and theme to the Liturgy. This enables us to reflect on different aspects of our faith, commemorate important events in Christian history, and learn from the lives of holy men and women who have exemplified virtues and spiritual journeys.

There is a different Scripture lesson at each Liturgy based on the Church Lectionary, both a Epistle reading and a Gospel reading and then a sermon for understanding. Through these readings we learn about what God expects of us, teaching us how to become like Him for our salvation.

Recognizing the purpose of the Divine Liturgy and its changing nature, we are invited to be receptive and attentive participants seeking communion with God. Approaching the Liturgy with a clear purpose, an open heart filled with love of God, feeling humbled by our struggle to live up to His teachings, and seeking to receive the spiritual nourishment, the Divine Liturgy provides an opportunity for personal transformation and growth, fostering a deeper connection with God.

Some people develop an irreverent habit of coming late to the service and some even come after the sacred Scripture readings. This should be avoided. It indicates a lack in understanding the purpose of the Liturgy and lack of reverence toward God. For Orthodox Christians attending a Divine Liturgy is not something we do to fulfill some kind of obligation. It should be an intentional choice to enter a sacred space with the purpose to commune with God. This choice should be made based on love of God and a sincere desire to commune with Him. 

It is also important to properly prepare before attending the Liturgy. We are expected to be living an Orthodox way of life with a daily prayer routine, regular repentance, fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, and helping others. We should settle all our grievances before attending, asking for forgiveness and forgiving the transgressions of others. There is also a fast required beginning at midnight before a Liturgy where we have nothing to eat or drink. This enhances our desire, our sincerity, in anticipating a divine meal of His Body and Blood, an indescribable gift, that is offered in Holy Communion.

Remember that the Divine Liturgy, calls us to a deeper level of engagement and understanding, inviting us to commune with God, to grow in faith, humility, and love. The Liturgy is not intended to entertain or provide instant gratification. While it's natural to experience moments of restlessness or find certain aspects less engaging, approaching the Liturgy with the right purpose and understanding can open a receptive attitude leading to a more profound and transformative spiritual experience.

Reference

Divine Liturgy Explained: https://www.orthodoxprayer.org/Divine_Liturgy/Divine Liturgy-Introduction.html

The Divine Liturgy - Greatest Gift of All

The Greatest Gift.

The Divine Liturgy is the greatest of all gifts the Lord has given us. That is not to minimize all the other gifts we have received. It is He who has given us life. Also it is He who has given us the wonder and beauty of the earthly world He created for our sustenance and enjoyment. What beauty we find in the flowers, the streams, the forests, the mountains, oceans, lakes and deserts. In addition, the Earth is alive with so many amazing creatures. Beyond these gifts is His Incarnation where He came to transform human life so we could be untied with Him, His divinity. Through Him humanity is united with the divine. Also, He gave up His life voluntarily on the Cross for our salvation showing us the path to eternal life with Him by His Resurrection and Ascension. But, the greatest gift is what He has left for us, His Body and Blood that we partake in the Divine Liturgy. In this, even though Jesus is not physically with us, we are united with Him, in full communion with Him. We are filled with His love and His divine energies. This empowers us to continue to do His work, to be a temple of His spirit, and able to shine with a divine radiance His love to others. What a beautiful gift!

Never refuse this gift!

We should not refuse this gift ever. When we come to the Church each Sunday we should seek forgiveness for all our sins and prepare ourself out of our Love of Him by offering our thanks for His sacrifice and all He has provided for us. We should come with the purpose to partake of this gift. To ignore it and to sit by idly observing, we are in a real way refusing communion with God.

A grand mystical happening.

The Divine Liturgy is a coming together of the heavenly church and the earthly church. We are joined with the angels and the saints. We amplify the angelic voices when we offer hymns glorifying Him. We have icons reminding us of the presence power of the saints who also join us.

The Church is more than an Organization

It is too easy to think of the church as another organization or institution. Yes, we do have a council and a president and legal charter. We do need to support the maintenance of the church through our contributions, but all these activities are subordinate to what the Church is. It, with its members, is the Body of Christ. In the Liturgy we all are joined as one body as we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ. It is in this way we express our love and receive the strength do do His will.

God wants Union.

Remember that our God wants to be united with us out of His love. The Divine Liturgy is a gift that surpasses all things. We cannot afford to turn our heads at the time His gifts are presented and we are called to come and partake. When we ignore this call it is like we are shutting the door in His face. Instead, we must recognize our unworthiness and come forward to receive this gift out of our love and desire to be united with Him. Through our participation we are consecrating our whole being to be united with Him and to do His work

Saint Nicodemus says,

"Ask God, in Whom you believe and Whom you love that in you He increase love, a desire for unity with Him, and fervor of love for Him. 

"As you partake of this holy gift remember how powerful it is.  Allow it to nurture in you meekness, giving you greater patience in you daily work and a greater love of God."

“Through Divine Communion Christ implants in us the seeds of immortality, as He Himself said, ‘Whosoever eats My flesh and drinks my Blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:54).”

Inspired by Saint Nicodemus. What has God Done for Our Salvation, "The Greatness of the Divine Eucharist," pp 6-10

Why do we go to Divine Liturgy?

What are we looking for? A universal state of being within the Church; an inward state of being “conferred by Jesus,” experiences, feelings, longings, and visions.

Elder Aimilianos 

Elder Aimilianos points out that going to Divine Liturgy is a “movement from one place to another.” What are we to do when we leave the outside world and enter into the church?

To enter the church means to leave outside all those things that make up out life in the world...that which is ours and which belongs to us, our sin, our self will, and our desire... we leave behind not simply the things we see but even things we hope for.

He calls this a kind of “exile.” We enter into a clear free space that is like pure air. We should feel like we have entered into heaven, are standing there in its pure air. We have made a movement from one place to another. We are now in a place that contains no worldly pleasures. We feel we have been led to a foreign place where there is hope in a peace from all the cares and tribulations of an earthly life. We sense we have moved to a place that is closer to God.

When we enter into the open spaces of the church, we immediately experience a particular feeling, a feeling which confirms for us that here, in this place, our Helper is at hand. He is invisible, but you feel Him, as if He were rushing toward you, as if you could hear the sound of His breathing. He is your Helper, the One Who can deliver you, Who can redeem you, Who can satisfy your insatiable soul...

We come to Divine Liturgy to be close to God. Therefore we should go longing to see Him, to somehow feel His divine presence, to be united with the One we love above all else. When we do this our soul will be filled with a divine grief, recognizing what it lacks, yet desires. It will try to cry our seeking mercy, realizing that it cannot see God.

With this infilled longing we begin to pray. The Liturgy with all its hymns and prayers leads us in prayer. Our mind, being cleared of all our worldly cares begins to think about God. As the Liturgy progresses we begin to experience Him. We desire to taste Him, to receive His nourishment. Then in the Liturgy a divine table is set, beginning with the great entrance. With the whole choir of angels and the Saints joining in, the heavenly and earthly church becomes united. We call on the Holy Spirit and the gifts we brought as bread and wine become mystically transformed into Christ Himself.

We became aware of our separation from God before we entered the church and our sins that separate us from Him. We realize that the reason we came was to free ourselves from all the passions that cloud our heart. We see how difficult, if not impossible, it is to root these tendencies out. We acknowledge that it is only with God’s help that we can overcome our condition. We cry for forgiveness and repentance as we approach the Chalice to be joined with Him in Holy Communion. As we approach, we are in awe at the sweetness of God.

God is no longer the great absent one, but is greatly present and we begin to see His sweetness.

We also experience the pleasure of our soul as it becomes a participant in this union. When we participate in Communion our soul is nourished and we are given strength to help us overcome our worldly passions when we return to our earthly daily life.

But what is the reality for many Orthodox Christians? The elder tells us,

Most people go to church, present themselves to Christ, and leave without ever drawing out any of His strength, without experiencing His power, the way the woman with the flow of blood did (cf. Mt 9:20). And then say: “So what did I get from Christ? I came back from church the same person I was when I went.”

If we come to the church longing to see God, to experience Him, to receive strength from Him, we will leave a different person in some small way. Each time we are healed of our sinfulness bit by bit. 

The elder says, 

“This is why God has established this liturgical assembly. This is why He arranges for angels, archangels, and saints to be present here with sinners, so that each can give something to the other. The saints are here so that they can give their saintliness to the sinners. And sinners are here to convey to the saints their desire for their holiness, so they too, may be found in their company. We find all of this within the church, provided that all is still and silent within us, and that our gaze remains fixed solely on the drama unfolding before us.

When we come to church we are seeking an experience with God. Setting aside our worldly care and opening our heart to Him we will experience a renewed state of being conferred by Jesus. Everything comes from Him. Without our willing surrender, our recognition of our sinful state, we will gain nothing and return just as we were. All this has been established by Jesus for our healing, our perfection, the satisfaction of our spiritual seeking.

Reference: The Way of the Spirit, “On the State that Jesus Confers”, by Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra, pp 55-69

The Divine Liturgy is a Gift of the Holy Spirit

The Divine Liturgy is truly a gift of the Holy Spirit to humanity. It is an initiation into the mysteries of the Spirit, a mode of the revelation of God and of all things heavenly. There is nothing in the Liturgy which is not revelatory of the Godhead and of the energies of the Holy Trinity.

Because we know and believe that God is our Father, we view the church, especially when we celebrate the Liturgy, as our true home. We come in and go out freely, we are happy to be here, we make the sign of the cross, we light our candles, we speak with our friends, and it is easy to see that the Orthodox feel that the church is their home… The Liturgy is our family our gathering, our house. And what a spacious house it is! Together with us are those who are absent, along with sinners, and with the wicked, and the dead, indeed, even those who are in hell, but who may yet remember something about God….

So we come to church, to our true home, and we are truly glad. This is the greatest privilege which a Christian can have. Here we experience the grace of God. We experience our salvation, the results of the redemptive work of our God, of Christ, the great “High Priest.”… Christ lives for us, he prays for us, and raises his hands to the heavenly Father… He has not ceased to urge our saints — and particularly His Mother of God — to intercede for us to the heavenly Father, for our hearts, for our sins, for our pains, for the disappointments of our life…. So don’t think that when we go to church, we are simply entering and exiting an ordinary building. Instead, we go up to, and make our entrance into, the Holy of Holies, into the heavens themselves…

When we enter church, then, we are traversing the distance from church to heaven… We see the bread and wine, but who among us does not believe they are Christ? We inhale the fragrance of wine and bread, but who among us does not believe this to be the body and blood of he Savior?…This is a sacrament. This is what a “mystery” of the church means…

Our liturgy is an exceeding great gift. No one is worthy of such greatness. No one can do anything without God. He alone makes these magnificent blessings real, and places them in our hands and hearts.

…And for this we say: Thank you, Lord our God, because you have brought down the ranks of angels and raised us up to heaven. We are found worthy to stand before the heavenly Father. What blessedness! What happiness!

But let each of us ponder how great and rich God has made us; how highly he has exalted us, dispite the fact that we are sinners! “Woe is me,” said Isaiah the prophet, for God himself has descended upon me, and I am afraid I will die. And this is what we should also say when we come to church. We should be afraid, but we should also rejoice. We should tremble, but our hearts should also leap for joy, because we are embracing God, and God is embracing us.

So we have come to church, to the Liturgy! Let nothing disturb the tranquility of your soul. God is present. Wherever we look, God is before us! If we don’t see Him, this doesn’t mean He isn’t there, but only that our eyes are not used to seeing Him…

With the eyes of our mind, let us see the king for whom we sinners opened the way, and let us say with the Psalmist: “Come let us worship and fall down before Him and cry to the Lord… for He is our God.” (Ps 94.6-7) Let us open the depths of our hearts to the Lord, who is present here with us, and let us advance more each and every day, so that we will be able to discover everything that God, our redeemer, has done for us.

Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

An address give in Larnaca, Cyprus, 23 October 1988

Found it The Church at Prayer p67-72

Essence of a Spiritual Community

When we decide to join the Church we are joining a community of believers in the Trinitarian God who promises us eternal life.  As we come together in worship, we come as equals of all differing backgrounds, occupations, and ages. There are no earthly status parameters in this gathering.  We are all equal in our quest to be united with God in eternal life.  We realize that it does not matter what worldly success we achieve, but that our relationship with God is what is most important. The place of worship is beautiful with many icons and symbols of our community’s long history. We see images of martyrs who gave their lives for God over a thousand years ago. There are images of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God. We see the Crucifix and numerous icons about different aspects of the life of Christ.  This space is quite different that our normal worldly space, lifting us up to the reality that we are gathering together to enter into a heavenly realm, a place where earth and heaven are one.  This is the nature of the Divine Liturgy.  It takes us from our daily lives of worldly care to a heavenly realm where we are joined with the saints and angels to have a direct communion with God. In this egalitarian and beautiful environment with its 2000 year history and traditions we are humbled and are able to let go of our egotistical nature and seek mercy from God.  We praise and glory Him with prayers and hymns. We are surrounded with others who share our belief and quest to become united with Him and supported in His teaching that to love God we must love all those gathered with us as well as our enemies.  In this gathering we feel connected and one with each other as well as God.  We feel nourished, secure, and peaceful in our hearts. We experience a true sense of community that cannot be found in any other way except through our common relationship with God.

 St. Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 376-444) writes the following about the reason we all come together in this place of worship.

The Savior Himself declares, “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in him.” By this statement it is to be seen that Christ does not say He will be in us only after the fashion of some relation that is solely intellectual, but also through a participation truly according to nature. Just as if someone were to entwine two pieces of wax together and melt them with a fire, so that both are made one, so too through participation in the Body of Christ and in His Precious Blood, He is united in us and we too in Him. In no other way can that corruptible nature be vivified except by being united bodily to the Body of Him who is, by His very nature, life: that is, the Only-begotten. (Commentary on John, on 15:1) 

Through our partaking of the true Blood and Body of Christ we are in a real sense united as one Body in Him. This is the essence of an Orthodox Christian community based on 2000 years of Christian Tradition.

There is a new Book out titled Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton  which was recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal.  The author uses the surface attributes of our worship to theorize that we can build communities based on the outward elements of our worshiping community. He thinks we can take God away and use the artifacts of our worship to create meaningful communities. Without God, without our faith in His saving power, without joining with Him in Communion through partaking of His Blood and Body, there can be no such unity that this provides.  This atheist’s view is doomed to failure as he does not understand the true nature of the Church and our gatherings. We should be concerned about such secular views as it can easily permeate our own as well as our children’s world view.  True community only comes from a shared faith and a shared worship that includes Holy Communion of His real presence. We must practice it with faith and zeal for His love.  It is through our example that others such as this author clamor for the kind of community we too often take for granted.

Reference: Religion for Everyone