How to Benefit from the Holy Liturgy - Pope Kirillos Scientific Family

congregation to complete silence during the awesome
moments of the invocation of the Holy Spirit.
The priest stands and makes the sign of the cross over the
body three times, saying, "And this bread, He makes it into
the Holy Body which is His." Here the priest supplicates to
the Holy Spirit whom he called by reciting the previous
sacrament to transubstantiate the bread to the true body of
Jesus Christ. At that specific moment the transubstantiation
occurs in the bread to become the body of Christ. Here the
congregation cry out, "Amen, I believe", manifesting their
faith true in the transubstantiation of the bread to the true
Body. The response, being in the singular tense has specific
power and significance, for it is each person’s individual
proclamation of their faith and belief in the
transubstantiation.
Proclaim your faith, my beloved, strongly and definitely in
that transubstantiation of the bread to the TRUE BODY OF
JESUS CHRIST, do not let doubts aroused by the devil
affect you at any time.
The reason for doing the sign of the cross on the sacraments
before the Invocation of the Holy Spirit and sanctification, is
that the Holy Spirit had not yet dwelt upon us, and we were
unworthy to accept Him, until after the glorification of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. By His crucifixion and death
we won the pleasure of the Heavenly Father, so He granted
us His Holy Spirit, the greatest gift, as the Evangelist John
says, "For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus
was not yet glorified" (John 7:39), as He was not yet
crucified. The cross first, then the dwelling of the Holy Spirit
with His various gifts.
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