"The Work of the People"

I love liturgy. Liturgy, in Latin, means “the work of the people” and I love the work of the people. The liturgy is the work that we do to worship our God. Personally, I love traditional liturgy. I especially love the Kyrie. ‘Kyrie Eleison’ means “Lord have mercy”. I love the Kyrie because it helps me to start worship accordingly. To start worship asking for God’s mercy upon me, my community, my world – it just seems to be right. Then I found out a little bit about the history of the Kyrie. While the words ‘Lord have mercy’ are ancient, even pre-Christian, the long complicated melodies (of the middle ages) were basically begun to add length to the start of the service so that the priests could have plenty of pomp and circumstance as they entered the long center aisles of the old European churches.

Suddenly, I didn’t like the Kyrie anymore. It wasn’t about God. It was about men wanting attention. So, I’ve had to rethink the Kyrie. I decided that after all, I still love it. I especially love Setting 8’s Kyrie. It has a great Latin beat. I still like beginning worship by reminding myself how much I NEED God’s mercy. No matter how hard I try to do “the work of the people”, I will never do enough for the supreme being. I need God’s love and mercy, and I need the Kyrie.

“Kyrie Eleison, on our world and on our way, Kyrie Eleison, every day.
For peace in the world, for the health of the church, for the unity of all;
For this holy house, for all who worship and praise,
Let us pray to the Lord, let us pray to the Lord.”