The hope of the resurrection, the unity of the Church, and the power of love are nowhere so manifest as in the prayers of the living for those who have fallen asleep in the Lord. We all belong to the One Body of the Risen Lord Who has loved us to the end. We have all received the new commandment to love one another, including those who hate us, those who love us, those whom we know, those whom we know not, those now alive and those who have departed this life. Our unity in Christ as belonging to One Body and our love in Christ as manifested in prayer before the altar are the ultimate sources for the ancient practice of maintaining the holy diptychs, lists of the departed to be commemorated at the dread sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy.
The Church’s teachings on the diptychs were expressed early on by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem when he wrote, “What is the benefit to commemorating in prayer a soul who departs from this world either with sins or without? Consider a king who has banished someone who had given him offence. If that person’s relatives would weave a crown and offer it to the king on behalf of the one punished, would the king not grant remission for his crimes? God responds in like manner when we make supplications to Him on behalf those who have fallen asleep, though they be sinners, for instead of a crown we offer Christ sacrificed for our sins, propitiating our merciful God for them as well as for ourselves.”2 Saint John Chrysostom likewise admonishes the faithful to “not be weary in coming to the aid of the departed and in offering prayers on their behalf.”3 The episcopate, the presbyterate, the diaconate, the monastics, the minor orders, and the laity whose names are written in this book of diptychs have not only labored for Christ in this land, but have also paved the way for our sacred work in the American vineyard. Praying for those souls, who like us, also await the final judgment, is not only a sacred obligation, but also a treasured privilege. We can help those who have helped us and in the process be helped by them again. When we ask for the Lord God to remember their souls in His Kingdom, even as we ask that He remember us in His Kingdom, our compassionate Savior who had mercy on the wise thief is “faithful and just” to have mercy on them as well. And in so doing, the memory of death is also before our eyes encouraging us to work out our salvation while it is still day.
This Commemorative List of the Departed Servants of Orthodoxy in North America is offered for both those who are still in the land of the living and for those who now rest from their labors. The episcopate, the presbyterate, the diaconate, the monastics, the minor orders, and the laity whose names are written in this book are our fellow travelers, brothers and sisters in Christ whose ranks we will one day join. After all, as Saint Basil noted, “in this life we are all like travelers on a journey, hastening on to the same shelter. While one has reached his rest another arrives, another hurries on, but one and the same end awaits them all.”4 Until we reach that shelter and that end, we the clergy of the Orthodox Church in America are called to consult these diptychs especially commemorating those departed on the day in which we are celebrating the Divine Liturgy. We are also called to pray for the names written in this book on Meatfare Saturday, on Trinity Saturday, on the Second, Third, and Fourth Saturday’s of the Great and Holy Fast, as well as on the Saturday of Saint Demetrius. In so doing, we “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”5
+Alexis, Bishop of Alaska