And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.Isaiah 6:3
And the four living creatures had each of them six wings; and round about and within they are full of eyes. And they rested not day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.Revelation 4:8
Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.Luke 2:14
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Ancient Churches (Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican) is also one of the least taught/talked about, at least in the Western Churches. What I am talking about is the union of Heaven and Earth during the celebration of the Mass/Divine Liturgy.
This union is most evident when we sing praise to Lord of the Heavenly Host just the same way as the angels in Heaven (see above). For those of us who have been Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican for any amount of time those passages are familiar as part of the liturgy. "Holy, holy, holy" is from prophetic visions of how the angels worship in Heaven and the third is from the Lucan account of the Nativity and the angelic worship around the Baby Jesus.
Certainly here I would like to mention Sts Michael, Raphael and of course our Guardian Angels.
Heavenly Host pray for us to the Lord, Our God.
May God bless all who read my ramblings,
Adopt A Catholic Blog
2 comments:
I describe this liturgical union of Heaven and Earth as a Holy Tornado in my 6th grade Catechism class.
A holy tornado--that's awesome. :) I always wonder what form that Heavenly liturgy will take...or, more likely, what formS. As many ways as there are to praise God here on Earth, which is only a shadow of Heaven, I think it would seem lacking if we didn't have, for instance, the kind of worship/praise that only comes when standing at the edge of a vast cliff or mountain, and seeing God in creation. I don't spend much time worrying about it, b/c I figure we'll know when we get there, and in the meantime we just have to praise and worship God every way we can find here on Earth, from the incredibly mundane to the exalted.
Post a Comment