the Lamb placed on the diskos during the Proskomedie. To the left are other prosphora which will be used during the service.

The Lamb (Greek: άμνος, amnos; Old Church Slavonic: Агнецъ, agnets) is the square portion of bread cut from the prosphora in the Liturgy of Preparation at the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. The Lamb is placed in the center of the diskos. The prosphoron from which the Lamb is cut is a loaf of leavened bread, formed in two layers to symbolize the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures of Christ. It must be made only from the finest flour, yeast, salt and water, and is stamped on top with a seal forming a Greek cross and the Greek letters IC, XC, and NIKA (which stand for, "Jesus" "Christ" and "Victory"), indicating that through the Cross and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has gained the victory over sin and death. The portion of the loaf demarcated by the seal will be cut out as the Lamb.

Liturgy of Preparation[link]

When the priest cuts the Lamb from the prosphoron, he uses a liturgical knife called a "spear", with a blade shaped like a spearpoint to recall the spear used at the crucifixion to pierce Jesus' side. As he cuts along the four edges of the seal, the priest says the words from Isaiah 53:7-8, which St. Philip interprets as referring to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross (Acts 8:32-33). The priest repeats a phrase from the prophecy as he cuts along each of the four sides of the seal:

• on the right side: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter."
• on the left side: "And as a spotless lamb before His shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."
• at the top: "In his humiliation his judgement was taken away."
• at the bottom: "And who shall declare His generation?"
• as he removes the Lamb from the prosphoron: "For His life is taken up from the earth."

the Lamb with particles.

He then places the Lamb face down on the seal, and cuts it cross-wise almost all the way through, leaving it connected as one piece by the seal. This will facilitate the fraction after the anaphora. As he makes these cuts, he says, "Sacrificed is the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sins of the world, for the life of the world, and the salvation thereof."

He then stands the Lamb upright again, and pierces it with the tip of the spear on its right (the priest's left) below the seal, saying, "One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and straightway there came forth blood and water. And he that saw it bare witness, and his witness is true." (John 19:34-35)

There are other particles also cut from prosphora as part of the Liturgy of Preparation. These commemorate the Theotokos, nine ranks of saints, the living, and the departed. These smaller particles are arranged around the Lamb on the diskos. A metal frame, the asterisk or star-cover, is placed over the diskos to support the small veil with which it is covered. This veil remains in place until the diskos is set upon the altar. The priest will then cense the aër and place it over both the diskos and chalice, where it will remain until just prior to the Great Entrance, when the bread and wine are carried to the Holy Table for the consecration.

Communion[link]

At the anaphora only the Lamb is actually consecrated; the other particles are considered to remain only bread.

When it comes time for Communion, the priest will divide the Lamb into four portions, breaking it along the cuts in the underside made during the Liturgy of Preparation. The deacon will say, "Break, Master, the Holy Bread." And, as he breaks it, the priest says, "Broken and distributed is the Lamb of God; broken, but not disunited; ever eaten, yet never consumed; sanctifying all who partake thereof." He then puts the four portions of the Lamb on the rim of the diskos in the form of a cross. They remain in this arrangement only briefly.

The upper portion (that has IC on the seal) is placed whole in the Chalice to signify the oneness of Christ. The deacon says, "Fill, Master, the Holy Cup." As he places the particle in the Chalice, the priest says, "The fullness of the Holy Spirit."

The lower portion, (with XC on the seal) is cut into smaller particles with which the clergy are communicated.

The portions on the left and right (with NI and KA, respectively) are cut into much smaller particles. These are placed into the chalice and used to communicate the faithful.

Presanctified Liturgy[link]

During Great Lent, it is not permitted to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on weekdays. For that reason, on Wednesdays and Fridays during Great Lent, and on Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week, the faithful receive Holy Communion from Lambs which were consecrated on the previous Sunday and reserved for a service called the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

See also[link]

• Prosphora
• Body of Christ
• Host (Holy Communion)

External links[link]

• Photo of the Lamb on the Diskos

Look up lamb in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Lamb or The Lamb may refer to:

• A young sheep
• Lamb and mutton, the meat of domestic sheep

Film, television and theatre[link]

• The Lamb (1915 film), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in his screen debut
• The Lamb (1918 film), a silent short comedy starring Harold Lloyd
• Lamb (film), a 1986 drama starring Liam Neeson
• LaMB, a 2009 animated telefilm
• The Lambs, an American theatrical organization
• The Lamb, an uncompleted film project by Garth Brooks about the fictional musician Chris Gaines

Literature[link]

• The Lamb, a 1789 poem by William Blake
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, a 2002 novel by Christopher Moore

Music[link]

• Lamb (rock band), a 1969-1973 American rock band
• Lamb (band), a 1996-present UK electronic music duo
  • Lamb (album), a 1996 album by the duo
• The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or just The Lamb, a 1974 album by Genesis
• Love. Angel. Music. Baby., a 2004 album by Gwen Stefani
• "The Lamb", a song by Aphrodite's Child from 666

Places and buildings[link]

• The Lamb (island), an island in the Firth of Forth, Scotland
• The Lamb (pub), a pub in Bloomsbury, London, England
• The Lamb Ground, a football stadium and home of Tamworth F.C., England
• Lamb, East Lothian, a place in East Lothian, Scotland

Products[link]

• L.A.M.B., a fashion line by Gwen Stefani
• Lamb's, a brand of rum

Religion[link]

• Lamb (liturgy), in the Orthodox Church, a cube of bread offered at the Divine Liturgy
• Lamb of God, a metaphorical reference to Jesus Christ

Science[link]

• Lamb (crater), a lunar crater
• Lamb., the botanical author abbreviation of Aylmer Bourke Lambert
• LamB porin or Maltoporin, a membrane protein of gram-negative bacteria
• LAMB syndrome or Carney complex, a medical condition

Other uses[link]

• Lamb (surname), a list of people with the last name
• Auto-Moto Society of Latvia (LAMB), an FIA member organization
• Light Armoured Motor Battery (LAMB), a unit of the British Army's Machine Gun Corps

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Lamb"
• Lam (disambiguation)
• Lamba (disambiguation)
• Lamm (disambiguation), a German surname

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

A Bishop celebrating the Divine Liturgy in an Orthodox Church in Prešov, eastern Slovakia.

Wedding ceremony at Kiuruvesi Church in Kiuruvesi, Finland

Liturgy (Greek: Λειτουργία) is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions.

The word, sometimes rendered by its English translation "service", may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy (Greek: Θεία λειτουργία) and Catholic Mass, or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat^[1] and Jewish services. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy is a communal response to the sacred through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance. Ritualization may be associated with life events such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death. It thus forms the basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy. Methods of dress, preparation of food, olication of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgical activities.

Ancient Greece[link]

The familiar sense of the word is an extension of the technical term in ancient Greek, leitourgia, signifying the often expensive offers of service to the people, and thus to the polis and the state.^[2] Through the leitourgia the rich carried a financial burden and were correspondingly rewarded with honours. The leitourgia became both mandatory and honorific, supporting the patron's standing among the elite. The holder of a Hellenic leitourgia was not taxed a specific sum, but entrusted with a particular ritual, which could be performed with greater or lesser magnificence. The chief sphere remained that of civic religion, embodied in the festivals: M.I. Finley notes "in Demosthenes' day there were at least 97 liturgical appointments in Athens for the festivals, rising to 118 in a (quadrennial) Panathenaic year."^[3] Eventually, under the Roman Empire, such obligations, known as Monera, devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden that was not avoided^{[clarification needed]} when possible.

Christianity[link]

Main article: Christian liturgy.

Frequently in Christianity a distinction is made between "liturgical" and "non-liturgical" churches based on the elaboration and/or antiquity of the worship; in this usage, churches whose services are unscripted or improvised are called "non-liturgical". Others object to this usage, arguing that this terminology obscures the universality of public worship as a religious phenomenon.^[4] Thus, even the open or waiting worship of Quakers is liturgical, since the waiting itself until the Holy Spirit moves individuals to speak is a prescribed form of Quaker worship, sometimes referred to as "the liturgy of silence."^[5] Typically in Christianity, however, the term "the liturgy" normally refers to a standardized order of events observed during a religious service, be it a sacramental service or a service of public prayer. In the Catholic tradition, liturgy is considered to mean the participation of the people in the work of God and in the liturgy Jesus Christ is considered to continue the work of redemption in union with his Church.^[6]

The term "liturgy" can also be used as a precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those who do not (hence leitourgia = work of the people).^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Book of Common Prayer
• The Book of Common Worship of 1993
• Divine Liturgy
• Divine Service (Eastern Orthodoxy)
• Divine Service (Lutheran)
• Eucharist
• Mass
• Roman Rite
• Sacrament
• Holy Spirit

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Baldovin, John F., SJ (2008) Reforming the Liturgy: a Response to the Critics. The Liturgical Press
• Bowker, John, ed. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-213965-7.
• Bugnini, Annibale, (1990) The Reform of the Liturgy 1948–1975. The Liturgical Press
• Dix, Dom Gregory (1945) The Shape of the Liturgy
• Donghi, Antonio, (2009) Words and Gestures in the Liturgy. The Liturgical Press
• Johnson, Lawrence J., (2009) Worship in the Early Church: an Anthology of Historical Sources. The Liturgical Press
• Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold, eds. (1978) The Study of Liturgy. London: SPCK.
• Marini, Piero, (2007) A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal. The Liturgical Press
• "What Do Quakers Believe?". Quaker Information Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2004.

External links[link]

• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Orthodox Tradition and the Liturgy
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Liturgy
• Contemporary Christian Liturgy Website History, theory, practice
• The Indult Tridentine Rite of Mass
• Work of the People
• Yejeonhak Baeumteo: Online Community for Liturgical Resources (Korean)
• Dictionary of Catholic Liturgy
• Liturgie-Kontor "Maria Magdalena" (Texte zu Gottesdiensten im Kirchenjahr)
• 15th century liturgy for the deceased, written in Gothic Textualis script, Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries
• Eastern Orthodox Christian Liturgy Website Liturgy