The Divine Office "the Liturgy of Time"

In fact, it consists of the public ecclesiastic prayers, distinct from the Eucharistic and Sacramental prayers, through which the Church practices its liturgical life all the day, praising her Lord, honoring His saints, and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. This service aims at devoting all our time to the Lord, by singing psalms and hymns, enjoying the recitation from the Holy Scriptures, reading the sermons and sayings of the early Fathers, etc.

Through this service the Church asks the whole world, visible and invisible, the rational and irrational creatures, to give hymns to the Creator. Thus, the presbyter, participating with the congregation and the heavenly creatures, begins the service of the sacraments with a concentrated mind and a zealous soul seeking the fellowship with God.

Divine Office and Eucharist

The spiritual and theological movement of the Liturgy in the West is accompanied by two extreme theological theories concerning the relationship between the Divine Office and the Eucharist.

1 The first extreme is the increasing tendency to reduce the whole of the liturgical life of the Church to the Eucharist alone, not to regard it as the summit or center or source of this life, but in fact as its sole content. This attitude separates the divine office from the "Eucharist," and creates a gulf between the liturgical life and the whole life of the Church.
2 The second extreme is the liturgical theology which goes under the name of "mysterienlehre" and which is connected with the name of Dom Odo Casel and the Benedictine liturgical centre at Maria Laach. Casel seems to merge everything in a general mysteriological terminology. He fails to draw a clear line between the sacramental and non-sacramental worship. All worship appears as the manifestation of the expression of "mystery."
Fr. Schmemann says: "On the one hand, we have the danger of reducing the whole liturgical tradition to a single sacrament with a corresponding neglect of its other elements. On the other hand, we

have the widening of the concept of Sacrament to include all worship."

Our Orthodox Church, as usual, does not accept extremes. She holds the Divine Office as a liturgical worship, as a preparatory for celebrating the Sacrament, but it is not sacramental service.

The History of the Divine Office

The history of the Divine Office is co-extensive with that of the Church, since its foundation. It developed, especially when the "Monastic Movement," appeared in Egypt.

Although some liturgists, such as Fr. Dix see that this office was unknown in the apostolic age, there are other opposing theories that explain how it was an extension of the liturgical life that was practiced by the synagogues in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Eucharistic Service

The Eucharistic service, in fact forms one single act of worship, through which the Church offers the single sacrifice of her Bridegroom to God. At the same time it receives the same sacrifice as a divine Gift. But we can say that this inseparable act of worship was divided into two parts, since the apostolic age.

1 - The Liturgy of the Catechumens

Its main work is missionary and catechismal, but not ignoring its worshipping act. The catechumens listen only to a part of it: the lections, the sermon and some prayers, which the Church offers on their behalf, so that God grants them an understanding, wisdom and faith.

2. The Liturgy of the Faithful, the Eucharist, or the Anaphora

It is an act of worship, without lessening the indirect instructive attitude. Through it, the Church ascends to heaven by the Holy Spirit in the presence of the Father, in Jesus Christ.

The Synaxis and the Eucharist

Fr. Dix states that the initial core of the liturgy falls into two parts:

1 The "Synaxis," a Greek word means "a meeting." We call it "the liturgy of the catechumens." Some historians believe that "synaxis" applies to the Eucharistic service as a whole.
2 The Eucharist, i.e. the Liturgy of the believers.

These two parts, in Dix's opinion, were separate things, and each could be and frequently was held without the other. He proved this by saying that St. Justin's apology describes the Eucharist twice. At one time 1 it is preceded by the synaxis, and at another 2 only the conferring of baptism precedes it.

The next witness, St. Hippolytus, in His "Apostolic Tradition" also describes the Eucharist twice, at one time preceded by the consecration of a bishop and at another preceded by baptism and Chrism, but in neither case is it accompanied by the synaxis. But, not mentioning it, it does not mean that it was not performed. Perhaps the synaxis was held before performing them, i.e., after the dismissal of the catechumens, as they were not admitted during the performance of the Sacraments. And the two Fathers described the service after this dismissal of the catechumens.

This is not abnormal, for the Coptic Church - up to this day holds the consecration of a bishop or presbyter after reading the lections and before the beginning of the celebration of the Anaphora. And the presbyter can baptize at this stage so that the newly baptized person can receive communion on the same day.

However, Fr. Gregory Dix himself says that despite their separate origins and different purposes, the Synaxis normally preceded the Eucharist in the regular Sunday worship of all Churches in the second century. From the fourth century onwards the two were gradually fused until they were everywhere considered inseparable parts of a single rite.

The Offertory

The rite of the offertory was a part of the rite of the "Liturgy of the Faithful," but before the fifth century this rite was performed at the beginning of the whole liturgy, so that the people, on hearing the word of God and receiving the Communion would be prepared to renew their covenant with God.

For this reason I've preferred to discuss this rite as a third part of the liturgy, before discussing the other two parts.