Divine Liturgy
What is Vespers?
Vespers is the evening prayer of the Church. In Coptic parish life, it commonly takes the form of the Raising of Evening Incense: psalms, the Thanksgiving Prayer, incense, litanies, doxologies, the Creed, Gospel prayers, absolutions, and hymns according to the day or feast.
Vespers teaches the Church to end the day before God and to prepare for the coming liturgical day. Saturday Vespers, for example, looks toward the Sunday Divine Liturgy. Feast Vespers looks toward the feast being celebrated.
Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Evening Incense And The Liturgical Day
The Church's prayer fills the whole liturgical day. Evening prayer receives the day that has passed and turns the heart toward God before the next day begins. The incense makes visible what the Psalm teaches: prayer rising before God.
In the Coptic order, Vespers is especially connected with preparation. The faithful give thanks, ask for mercy, remember the saints, and pray litanies for the Church and the world. The service trains the parish to begin worship before the Eucharistic Liturgy starts.
How It Relates To The Liturgy
Vespers is a true prayer service that prepares the Church for the Liturgy by teaching thanksgiving, repentance, intercession, and watchfulness. When Vespers is prayed before a Sunday or feast, it lets the parish enter that worship before the morning service begins.
- Coptic Rites (1): Raising of Incense, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Teaching slides on incense, prayer, liturgical order, and reverent participation.
- Coptic Liturgies, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Overview of the Divine Liturgy, the three Coptic liturgies, and the principal parts of the Eucharistic service.
- Coptic Rites (3): Liturgy of the Word, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Teaching slides on the Pauline, Catholic Epistle, Praxis, Synaxarium, Gospel litany, Creed, and related rites.
- The Agpeya, Mighty Arrows Magazine, SUSCopts. Introductory article on the Book of Hours and daily prayer.
Vespers: The evening prayer service, often joined to the Raising of Incense, preparing the Church to enter the coming liturgical day in prayer.
Incense: Fragrant offering used in worship as a biblical sign of prayer rising before God, especially around the altar, Gospel, icons, clergy, and faithful.
Creed: The Church's shared confession of faith, proclaimed in the Liturgy before the Eucharistic prayer as the faithful stand together in apostolic belief.
Divine Liturgy: The Church's central Eucharistic worship, where Scripture, Creed, offering, thanksgiving, consecration, and Communion are gathered into one prayer before God.
Intercession: Prayer offered on behalf of another. The Church asks the saints to pray with and for us because they are alive in Christ.