On Tuesday, November 22, 2022, on the eve of the 120th anniversary of the great consecration of St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York by St. Tikhon (November 23, 1902), members of the Youth Department of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA took part in a missionary Divine Liturgy.
A portable table of oblation was set up in the church, on which the head of the Youth Department, Priest Julian Ryabtsev, performed the rite of the Proskomedia with explanations. All those gathered could watch the priest’s actions, hear commentary on the symbolic meaning of preparing the Gifts to be consecrated, after their transfer to the Altar, by the true High Priest — Christ — through the action of the Holy Spirit, and name themselves and their relatives as particles were taken from the prosphoras for the living and the departed.
The hymns of the Liturgy were sung by a youth choir under the direction of Antonina Panfilova; participants of the weekly youth gatherings at the cathedral read the Epistle and served at the service. The rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, prayed at the service.
At the end of the service, Priest Julian addressed those gathered with words of instruction on the virtue of gratitude, which Christians must cultivate in themselves by contemplating the depth of meaning of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ as the highest expression of God’s loving and saving design for His creation, called to the deification of human nature distorted by sin. He also noted that the sense of gratitude should extend to the holy builders of the cathedral who labored for it, and be expressed in care for the church, in knowledge of church services and in a conscious love for them.
In conclusion, Fr. Julian thanked everyone who took part in the missionary Liturgy through singing, reading and prayer, and presented Antonina Panfilova with a holy prosphora, congratulating her on her debut as director of the youth choir.
