Anaphora Prayer: "We offer You, Yours of Your own, in behalf of all and for all"

This prayer comes from the Anaphora of the Divine Liturgy. Most people, when they look at this prayer, notice the offering of "Yours of Your own" to God, and recognize that the prayer is talking about the sacrificial offering of Christ at the altar.

What struck me today, as I listened during Divine Liturgy, was the latter portion: "in behalf of all and for all." Who are the "all"? Does all mean all members of the Church? All persons living on earth? All persons on earth and those deceased? Or, does all refer to something more encompassing than man alone, such as all creation?

Certainly the redemption of man is the main concern of Christ in his sacrificial offering. This is clear in Christ's priestly prayer, just before he offers himself up (John 17). However, it should be noted that redemption affects not man alone but all creation. The New Covenant brings forth a New Creation in which all things are made new. The Bread and Wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, and God's divine energies permeate and transform all things unto him. I believe St. Irenaeus said something similar with his theme of "recapitulation" of all creation into Christ. St. Paul, even earlier, writes: And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Experience of God in the Orthodox Church

Many Christian groups tout their special relationship with God--experiencing God in a living, true way. Some, Pentecostal, speak of God giving them prophesies and having the Holy Spirit working through them in the Speaking of Tongues. Others, such as found amongst the evangelical Protestants, claim to "know" God in a personal way (God speaks to my heart). As a Roman Catholic, I found much of this to be over-emotionalism. I then held (and still do, albeit differently) that one knows God through prayer. This is what was found in the CCC and what was commonly held by Catholics. But I knew that the Catholic Church was much more subdued than the Protestant churches. Yes, Catholics experience God, but there are different degrees of experience of God, and usually only the great saints (or those in a great life of sin who are suddenly knocked off their horse) experience God in a extraordinary way. Not all Protestants though focus on the "extraordinary" made "ordinary." Many Lutherans, as I'm finding out, focus on the working of grace in everyday circumstances, not in "supernatural" oddities.

The Orthodox have, what I think, to be the soundest understanding of experiencing God. One experiencing God in the Liturgy, in the mysteries--in short, in participating in God's energies. In an interesting way, while the Orthodox do not shy away from the possibility, even the multitude, of healing miracles, be they of soul, body or both, they are very wary of visions and the such that, in the Western way, seem to be more easily accepted as having a divine source. In Orthodoxy, visions and dreams of angels, deceased spirits and the like are more often than not seen as the artifice of the Devil rather than of holy source. Sometimes the visions are of God, but not in all or even most cases. I notice that in Roman Catholicism there is some hesitation in believing personal revelations, as in the case of Bayside prophesies, Maria Valtorta, etc. However, even this considered, recognition of the possibility of diabolical influence is not as prominent. This is especially the case when the theological issues are not as present: e.g. spirits claiming to be purgatorial spirits in need of prayer, spirits of the saints appearing, angelic appearances, etc. Perhaps I am wrong, but this has been my experience. Eastern monastic writings have a strong influence on the East, and it may be this influence that makes the East more wary of these encounters.