In Lent, on ordinary days, fasting is severe, but on Saturdays and Sundays fasting receives something of the light of the Resurrection, the garments are no longer dark, but bright. Fasting continues, but it receives the consolation of the Liturgy, that is to say, of Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ. This reality opens up a world of light and joy through which man understands the mystery of fasting and of being nourished by God. There are days of celebration within Lent.

During the week, however, one climbs to the heights of abstinence and prayerful silence, and on these days of sorrow and repentance, the Church has made a liturgical compromise, keeping the fasting specific to Lent, but allowing Communion during the Mass of the Most Holy Sacraments, which is an extended rite of the kingdom. It differs from the other Liturgies of Orthodoxy in that the Bloodless Sacrifice is not celebrated during it. This is celebrated on the preceding Sunday, and the Liturgy of the Offerings is a preparation for Eucharistic communion.

The Liturgy of the previously consecrated gifts was first set down on paper by St. Gregory Dialogus (540-604 AD), who was papal legate at Constantinople. For a while he was thought to be the one who came up with the idea, but the general opinion nowadays is that he simply wrote down what was being served in Constantinople. In the Liturgy of the Most High, he is still remembered as the traditional author. This liturgy is also mentioned in the Canon of the seventh-century Quinisext Synod.

The liturgical man, who lives vibrantly the temporal rhythm of being enveloped in the Church, cannot be separated from the Eucharist, longing for God’s nourishment becoming the air that the soul breathes throughout the Church year, but especially in Lent. In the history of the Church, the faithful could not live even for a week without the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, so the Church has ordained such a liturgical ordinance for their kingdom.

If we are to understand the origins and liturgical meaning of this rite we need to understand the practice of frequent communion and unending love for the Body and Blood of the Lord. The need for the Liturgy of the Gifts came from the need for communion, not a few times a year, but every week or even more often.

The foundation of Orthodoxy means daily Liturgy, uninterrupted liturgical and Eucharistic rhythm, and living God’s Mysteries every moment. In the Protestant world, the Liturgy has atrophied and has become a mere ananmnmnnesis, performed symbolically and then replaced by Scripture readings. The absence of the Liturgy in the life of the Church, however, leads to spiritual death, for without the immortal nourishment, the Church suffocates and dies. The Church, that is, the Body of Christ, becomes an amorphous, if still honorable, institution based on rationalistic principles and power-driven. This happened through the reformation. By Liturgy is meant the whole life of the Church and every aspect of ecclesial communion become alive and working through the Liturgy: Homiakov said: “Christianity is understood by those who understand the Liturgy”.

Lent is precisely the fierce struggle with the sin within us, which becomes burning with abstinence and painful with the soul addicted to sin. That is why we need the Mass as we need air, and the Mass of the Gifts shows precisely this: that we cannot fast from this world without nourishing ourselves with the world beyond, we cannot hunger for earthly things without nourishing ourselves with God. Lent is the recovery of the Eucharistic consciousness of the world, the re-entry into heaven and our resting at home in the rest of the heavenly Bridegroom’s love. The Kingdom of God is precisely the immortal banquet with the Lamb of God, the Eucharist made permanent and made all things in Christ-loving human persons. The fallen flesh needs heavenly nourishment in order to cast off the automatisms of sin, the addiction to pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Fasting without Eucharist is a mere exercise in ascetic virtuousness, and Eucharist without fasting is a wedding presentation without preparation.

The Liturgy of the Offerings is united with Vespers and is usually celebrated in the evening, after a full assembly of priests and faithful, giving the saving food which gives life to the world. In this way fasting becomes heavenly through the Eucharist, and the Eucharist is taken with severe ascetic preparation, revealing its heavenly origin and destination. The fast before Mass is therefore truly hunger and thirst (literally) for God, followed by the food and drink of immortality. The sick, the elderly who are unable to fast and children have Saturdays and Sundays for communion. The Black Fast before the Liturgy of the Offerings is a marathon of eternity and a prophecy of the age to come.