MAR 9: PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY – 6:00 PM (LIVE-STREAMED).
DIVINE LITURGY OF PRESANCTIFIED GIFTS E-VERSION: PresanctifiedGifts
Streaming via Facebook Live. https://www.facebook.com/saintscyrilandmethodius/
Parishes live-streaming in the Diocese can be found here: https://www.eparchyofpassaic.com/livestream
THE DIVINE LITURGY OF THE PRESANTIFIED GIFTS E-VERSION (note – this is a “draft,” but if you don’t have a book, it can guide you): PresanctifiedGifts
or you can purchase from Byzantine Seminary Press at the following: https://www.byzantineseminarypress.com/the-divine-liturgy-of-the-presanctified-gifts-peoples-version-with-music/
The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated during the Great Fast, and provides the faithful with the opportunity to receive Holy Communion on those days when the Eucharistic Sacrifice is not celebrated. The word “presanctified” indicates that the “gifts” (the Body and Blood of Christ) which are distributed at the service are those consecrated at a previous Eucharist. Information about the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts from the Metropolitan Cantor Institute: https://mci.archpitt.org/liturgy/DivineLiturgyPresanctifiedGifts.html
On March 9th we commemorate the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste or The Holy Forty. At that time, 40 soldiers openly confessed themselves Christians & were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night so they would freeze to death. One confessor yielded & renounced his Christianity in exchange for the warm baths near the lake. A guard who kept watch over the martyrs beheld a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them and thus proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and joined the remaining 39 & the number of 40 remained. At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still showed signs of life, were burned & the ashes cast into a river. Christians, however, collected their remains, and the relics distributed throughout many cities. Veneration of the Forty Martyrs became widespread & numerous churches were erected in their honor.
