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Because Great Lent is a season of [[repentance]], [[fasting]], and intensified [[prayer]], the Orthodox Church regards more frequent reception of communion as especially desirable at that time. However, the [[Divine Liturgy]] has a festal character not in keeping with the season. Thus, the Presanctified Liturgy is celebrated instead; the Divine Liturgy is only performed on Saturdays and Sundays. Although it is possible to celebrate this service on any weekday of Great Lent, the service is prescribed to be celebrated only on Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, Thursday of the fifth week of Lent (when the [[Great Canon|Great Canon of St. Andrew]] is read), and Monday to Wednesday of [[Holy Week]]. Common [[parish]] practice is to celebrate it on as many as possible of these days.
During Lent, many Orthodox faithful [[fast]] sometimes from midnight and sometimes the entire workday, not eating anything after the morning meal, until they break the fast with Holy Communion at this evening service. They have this anticipation to help them with this somewhat difficult [[ascetic]] discipline.
==Presanctified Liturgy==
The service consists of [[vespers|Daily Vespers]] combined with additional prayers and communion. The communion bread has already been [[consecration|consecrated]] and intincted with the precious Blood and reserved at the previous Sunday's Divine Liturgy. Unconsecrated wine is placed in the [[chalice]]. Local practice also varies as to whether or not this wine must be thought of as the Blood of Christ. The only practical effect of this variety is that the celebrant who must consume all the undistributed communion at the end of the service might or might not partake of the chalice when he communicates communes himself.
The service is preceded by the reading of the [[Typical Psalms]], and the Divine Liturgy's opening blessing, ''Blessed is the Kingdom...'' is used at the start of the part of the service that resembles daily vespers. Psalm 103, ''Bless the Lord, O my soul'' is read. The Great Litany is then intoned and then Psalms 119–133 are read. Then the choir sings ''Lord, I have cried unto Thee'' with [[sticheron|stichera]]. The priest makes an entrance with the [[censer]]. If the occasion is a feast, the entrance is with the [[Gospel Book]] and there is then an [[epistle]] and gospel reading for the feast day.
The choir sings ''[[Phos Hilaron|O Gladsome Light]]'', and the first reading, from [[Genesis]] (or [[Exodus]]), is read with a [[prokeimenon]]. Then the priest intones ''Wisdom, let us attend. The Light of Christ enlightened all men,'' and those praying [[prostration|prostrate]] themselves. The second reading, from [[Proverbs]] (or [[Book of Job|Job]]) is read.
In the second part of the service, the choir chants ''Let my prayer be directed as incense before Thee'', after which the [[Prayer of Saint Ephraim|prayer of St. Ephraim]] is read. After a [[litany]] the choir sings ''Now the powers of Heaven with us invisibly do worship'', and the presanctified Gifts are brought into the holy [[altar]] in a procession resembling the [[Great Entrance]] at a Divine Liturgy but in silence. There is no [[anaphora]] because the gifts are pre-consecrated.
==Annunciation==
If the feast of the [[Annunciation]] ([[March 25]]) comes on a weekday of Lent, which is the most common case, the Divine Liturgy of the feast is served in the evening [[Vespers#Vesperal_Divine_Liturgy|with Vespers]]. The Divine Liturgy of the Annunciation is the only celebration of the liturgy [[Liturgy of Saint St. John Chrysostom ]] allowed on a weekday of Great Lent. The Presanctified gifts will be reserved from this liturgy if needed for an upcoming Presanctified Liturgy of the same week.
==Liturgical day==
Since the prayer ''Vouchsafe, O Lord'' is not read in the course of the Liturgy of the Presanctified or at the service of Vespers with Divine Liturgy, the transition to a new liturgical day is not complete until the conclusion of those services. For this reason, the Presanctified or the Vespers with Divine Liturgy is considered as taking place on the day that is ending and not on the one that is beginning.
The significance is, if one receives Holy Communion on Friday at the Liturgy of the Presanctified, and again at Divine Liturgy on Saturday morning, one has communicated communed on two separate days, and has not violated the principle that one should communicate commune only once on a given day.
==History==
*[http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=69 Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts] from the website of the [[Orthodox Church in America]]
*[http://www.byzantines.net/liturgy/presanctified.htm Pre-Sanctified Liturgy]
*[http://www.saintjonah.org/services/presanctl_sluzhebnik.doc Pre-Sanctified Liturgy Sluzhebnik]
*[http://www.saintjonah.org/services/presanctified_lit.doc Pre-Sanctified Liturgy for the Choir and laity]
*[http://www.saintjonah.org/presanct/ Variable portions of the Presanctified Liturgy (Old Calendar) for the current year]
*[http://www.holy-trinity.org/liturgics/krivoshein-greekandrussian.html Some differences between Greek and Russian divine services and their significance by Archbishop Basil Krivoshein]
[[Category:Liturgics]]
[[fr:Liturgie des Saints Dons présanctifiés]][[ro:Liturghia Darurilor Înainte Sfinţitemai înainte sfinţite]]