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THE DIVINE LITURGY OF ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

C.4 THE LITANY OF THE PRECIOUS GIFTS

The Great Entrance is followed by the Litany of the Precious Gifts, known in Greek as the Litany of Completion, named after its opening phrase: 'Let us complete our prayer to the Lord'. The petitions of this Litany are rather of a spiritual than of a material value. By the end of this Litany, in the same way as what happens in most cases, the priest reads a prayer. In this particular prayer the priest asks God to receive the supplication and the Sacrifice from His people for the remission of their sins. He also prays that the Sacrifice may be well pleasing to Him and hence that the Holy Spirit may be sent down upon the Holy Gifts and upon the people, who offer them.

Afterwards, the priest blesses the people. He lifts up his right hand over the people and makes the sign of the cross. The tips of three fingers are brought together, signifying the Holy Trinity, the other two form a cross or, according to other interpretations, the letter chi (Χ), the first letter of the word Christ in Greek. This might be expressed in the Church's idiom with the phrase 'peace he gives to them', i.e. he gives them Christ's peace. The faithful reply with a wish: 'And unto thy spirit'. Then the priest urges them to love one another, so as to confess their faith with one mind. In case there are co-officiating priests they ask one another's forgiveness—a gesture performed in the past by the people—so that united, mutually loved and mutually forgiven they confess that they believe in the Holy Trinity and thus are deemed worthy to receive Holy Communion.