Lift Up Your Hearts” (The Sursum Corda). A cry of faith introduces the Prayer of Great Thanksgiving. It has many scriptural resonances. Lamentations 3:41, has the exact words, while Psalm 24:7 & 9 are a similar dialogue. Then there is Christ’s command to “Love God with all your heart.” (Mark 12:30) while Paul speaks of Christians as being raised with Christ to see the things that are above (Colossians 3:1). These words, and the response “We lift them to the Lord”, can be found in the earliest liturgies we have. In the Latin West, Cyprian (250 CE) includes it. In the Greek East, Cyril of Jerusalem (350 CE) quotes it. Similarly it can be found in the earliest services in Syriac, Coptic and Armenian. In prayer, the faithful unite their hearts and minds with the Lord. Immediately worshippers are one with the faithful of both Old and New Testaments, and with Christians through all ages and around the whole world. In this is a cause to rejoice. But more: lifting our hearts to the Lord contains an element of living in the end time, when Christ is all and in all. Around the Lord’s table Christians dwell in time of a different kind. It is as if a liturgical Tardis has deposited worshippers at the heavenly banquet, when heaven and earth have passed away: a second cause for elation. This versicle, with the response “We lift them to the Lord”, is a profound act of faith and commitment.

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The Opening Prayer of Invocation. The opening of prayer in many liturgies is a prayer of invocation. This prayer includes story-telling, thanksgiving and the invocation itself. The story-telling is the means by which we identify which God it is we are talking to. Consider the opening line of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments): “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The God who addresses Israel here has a name, “Yahweh” (typically translated in English Bibles as Lord, with small capitals), and a history: “brought you out of Egypt”. The thanksgiving notes that the history God has with us is a saving one: “out of the house of slavery”. The invocation itself indicates that we cannot presume upon God’s being with us: God is free and is not simply “present” as divine ether waiting for us to acknowledge him. The call to God reflects the call to the people to gather to hear in the preceding Call to Worship.

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The feast of Christ the King. The feast of Christ the King (or the Reign of Christ) was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, making it a comparatively recent addition to the liturgical calendar. The celebration was established in the context of growing European nationalisms and a dispute between Italy and the Roman church regarding the sovereignty of the Vatican. It was originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October (the Sunday prior to All Saints, November 1), but was moved in 1969 by Pope Paul VI to the end of “Ordinary”. This location, at the “end” of the liturgical calendar, highlights the eschatological or end-time orientation of the celebration. The lectionary readings on this day refer to the coming consummation of all things under Christ. The take-up by many protestant church of the new common lectionaries of the 1970s, ‘80s and 90’s saw the feast become a regular feature also in protestant worship cycles. The liturgical colour for the Reign of Christ is white or gold.

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