By Mentor Panagiotis Skaltsis
In the ancient Cathedral, now the there of cash and wine by the join, or the celebration of the Supernatural of the Lovely Eucharist, other products were as well on offer and blessed, such as wheat, oil, honey, grapes and other fruits, as well as milk, cheese, produce, plant life, and even animals.The to begin with ecclesiastical retort to this old need comes to us from the 3rd Apostolic Lead, which, in order to stash the biblical-apostolic tradition of the there of innocently cash and wine at the Lovely Eucharist, it prohibited the need lesser from the Old Testament Law of sacrificing animals in the place of safety, as well as the there of eucharistic fruits and products now the Lovely Liturgy.
This Lead in regards to the eucharistic gifts innocently allows the there of new green wheat (new wheat stalks) and grapes, with the understanding that such an there is prepared for "the balanced time", that is, the time of the ripening of fruits, "not on offer as a penalty, but as the first-fruits of balanced fruit". This annual report there of wheat and grapes, as a blessing of first-fruits, had the praise of seeing that a polish to God, "Who has prone them to us for our fend for and healing".
The Synod of Carthage (419) insisted on separating the outer-eucharistic goods from the there and oblation of the Lovely Liturgy. In the 37th and 44th Canons of this Synod it was solemn not to mix the first-fruits of cash and wine with either honey or milk, but they are to be blessed alone "for they argument with the dedication of the Lord's Cadaver and Blood". The establishment there of "grapes and wheat" separately was legally recognized, in the go that they were perfectly the first-fruits and not a penalty, in shape following the formerly Apostolic Lead mentioned.
In some churches, so far, the priests continued, until the end of the seventh century at least, to mix grape beer with the Lovely Eucharist, and "according to a enterprise which has crave prevailed... spread each to the relatives at the self-same time". This focus was discussed at the Sixth Ecumenical Synod in Trullo (Quinisext or Penthekti, 691), which in its 28th Lead ruled that grapes are to be regarded as first-fruits so "the priests may bless them secluded [from the there of the oblation] and allocate them to such as intend them as an act of polish". In other words, they are blessed alone and prone to the join, apparently time was the Lovely Liturgy "to Him Who is the Bringer of the fruits by which our bodies are extended and fed according to His divine show".
Prayers for the first-fruits take been sealed in our liturgical tradition from the third century, and we as well pick up in liturgical manuscripts the "Chant for the Gift of First-Fruits" or "Chant Upon Gift New Fruits", such as, for relationship, grapes, figs, pomegranates, apples, peaches, etc. These nippy texts are full of polish to God, Who gives "every fruit for the gladness and diet of self-sacrifice". Man offers in return the "first-fruits", believing that this there is received from God. Level the there of the first-produce, expound is detached lively the memorial and communion of the gifts of God, and of course the background and want of eternal possessions and excitement.
Amongst this ancient tradition, in truth with the act of blessing the crop, they are appropriate to two trait ceremonies of the "Multifaceted Euchologion" ("Story of Prayers") and the circumstances protocol of Constantinople.
The to begin with ceremonial is testified to in the oldest liturgical codex, the "Berberini Euchologion" 336 (8th-9th cent.), noble "Chant by the Patriarch, Following the Reap is Normally Performed by the Ruler". From trice codexes we are discerning that this ceremonial, which had two prayers for the kings, took place in the Cathedral of Blachernae at the breakfast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, on Dignified 15th.
The attraction of this fact is barred by the specter of the queen who, as habitual, performed the beginning of the crop and on offer the Patriarch the new fruit of the vine. Balsamon mentions this fact, who healthy connects this with the annual report there of first-fruits, in truth of grapes, time was the Lovely Liturgy.
The above ceremonial of the crop is testified to and described by Royal leader Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (945-959) in his "Story of Ceremonies" in the part "All That Has Been Sealed for the Day of Reap to be Put the last touches on in Iereia". Frosty the palace, it follows that, in Iereia (Fenerbahce), a county positioned on the Asiatic sphere of the Bosporus, and via the rulers, officials and the queen, the Patriarch, on the day of crop, clothed in his phelonion and omophorion, blessed the grapes with the special prayer "now the church service".
In this ceremonial, which was accompanied with untrained hymns, expound was an buy of grapes relating the Patriarch and the queen, as well as a banquet, emphasizing the harmonious coexistence of sequential and ecclesiastical power, and it had the praise of a retort in opposition to pagan Dionysian elements which prevailed at the time now the crop, the arcane the grapes and the stow of new wine in jars.
So, it is clear that the Cathedral in treaty with an old need perfectly blessed the crop and the grapes, quickly following it did with the first-fruits and first-produce. Acquaint with is even a Lead requiring the blessing of wheat and grapes via they are consumed by the join.
A diminutive reality of this tradition is the blessing of the grapes on Dignified 6th, the breakfast of the Transfiguration. Acquaint with has survived even a special prayer, which is testified to in manuscripts from the tenth century under particular titles, such as "Chant of the Grapes", "Chant for the Chipping in of Grapes", "Chant for Grapes and All Fruits" and "Chant for the Vines and Grapes". It is a simple and succinct prayer, by which the Cathedral repute God, that dejected "dehydrate seasons, showers of rain, and sort weather" by His good-pleasure, "we who partake ther may be filled with joy; and upon relatives who proposition this fruit of the vine for use at Thy Divine Sum, may it dedicate leniency of sins, dejected the sacred and holy Cadaver and Blood of Thy Christ".
As we can see, expound is a clear fraternity relating the grapes and the Lovely Eucharist.
In higher manuscripts expound is resistant of unusual "Chant for the First-Fruits of Grapes and Figs on the 6th of the Month of Dignified on the Collation of the Transfiguration". It refers innocently to the blessing of the grapes and a clear proposal to spiritual pause approved by Christ and the eucharistic life.
In spite of that, expound is not a clear meticulous once upon a time the blessing of the grapes, which is an ancient tradition, became interconnected with the breakfast of the Transfiguration. If we attend to that this breakfast, which is in addition to the peak ancient of the Christian Cathedral, was with authorization prearranged in Jerusalem from the seventh century, and was in the Multifaceted calendar in the ninth century, we cannot exclude that this group was from the beginning. As well at that time, the end of the seventh century, expound took place, as we saw, the irrevocable split of the first-fruits from the there of the eucharistic gifts.
Of course the stuff is in time why we bless grapes on the breakfast of the Transfiguration. In the considerably old liturgical typikon of Kasoulon (12th cent.), it is noted that the blessing of the grapes took place by the Preacher on the 15th of Dignified, time was the Lovely Liturgy.
No matter which similar was done, as we saw, in Constantinople once upon a time on Dignified 15th the Patriarch blessed the grapes in the Cathedral of Blachernae in the specter of the queen.
Utmost sources enfold the blessing of the grapes with the Transfiguration. The Typikon Skull of Saint Neilos, a Hieromonk of the 13th century, says that "on this day we eat grapes, as the Cathedral shows in the typikon".
The Typikon of Saint Savvas considers it as well a tradition of the Fathers that the blessing of grapes be on the breakfast of the Transfiguration.
The self-same is true for the Typikon of Riga, which even determines quickly at what burst of the Lovely Liturgy this blessing takes place: "After the prayer via the ambon, we chant the apolytikion of the breakfast and the kontakion and the priest of the Lady prays and blesses dejected the appointed prayer the grapes positioned via the icon of Christ".
It appears that the time for the blessing of the grapes depended on the personal history of the withstand of each county and the label the fruits of these seats matured. So, it is not beyond belief the fact that in one place the grapes were blessed on Dignified 15th and lost in thought on Dignified 6th. Justly, according to hagiographic sources the there of grapes took place as well on the breakfast of the Glorification of the Lesson Cross on September 14th.
In spite of that, secluded from the climatic personal history, it is very likely that the group of the blessing of the grapes with the Transfiguration was contributed by the old ancient times start of this breakfast.
The Jerusalem Typikon correlates the breakfast of the Transfiguration with the Jewish breakfast of Tabernacles, and it is no stroke of luck that one of the readings of the breakfast, which was read at that time in Jerusalem, speaks quickly of the fuel of the zone, the vines and the fig foliage.
The blessing of the grapes now the Transfiguration is unstated, as well, dejected a theological, anthropological and astrophysical magnitude of this breakfast. The Lady "time was six days" or "about eight days" time was the prediction of His Blaze, "on a high size... was transfigured via them (Peter, James and John) and His edge shone following the sun, and His garments became white as light".
This is the Originator of the world, as well as the Supreme ruler of the eschaton. He is the vine "Who has His dive in the space, the kindling are on earth, the play a part is a vine sphere but weakening a dive, a vine that time was three days the kindling preserve the join of the renaissance".
It is natural, it follows that, that with the Transfiguration of the Lady the whole world is illumined and glorified. Enterprise is excited and acquires the gleam that tradition at one time had.
For this complain tradition responds with polish for this gift and this want, it references its Originator and repute Him, and the Cathedral in the peak balanced breakfast is wont to bless the world and the crop, Enterprise and the Eschaton, with recovery and want, confirming the recovery that began with God, and passing dejected character it leads to the emancipation of man.
The blessing of the grapes, on behalf of the crop of the world, is a liturgical act that emphasizes the doxological and eucharistic there of the material and the fruits of the earth to the Originator and God of all substance. Manager so, once upon a time this fruit of the vine gives us wine, which Christ blessed in Cana, to ostentation the transfiguration of the world in Christ, He as well gave it to us in the Psychic Supper as the element that, with cash, at the time of the Lovely Liturgy, are prepared incorrupt by changeability, new within the Lord's "Cadaver and Blood", the Lovely Eucharist.
As well this, the blessing of the grapes stresses the need for our incessant spiritual fruit-bearing and the transfiguring cruise of man, so that "proving that relatives who top in the reach your peak of their intrinsic worth shall be prepared noble of divine gloat".
