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Setting the Services >

The Divine Liturgy

This section of the website explains how to set the service (that is, choose the changeable liturgical hymns to be sung) for the Divine Liturgy.

As you can see from this chart, the variable parts of the Divine Liturgy are:

• The antiphons and entrance hymn
• The troparia and kontakia
• The prokeimenon
• The epistle reading
• The Alleluia
• The Gospel reading
  
• Magnification and irmos (feasts only)
• The Communion Hymn

Ordinary weekdays provide the greatest latitude for the celebrating priest and cantor. The hyms of the Divine Liturgy can be those chosen for the saint of the day, for the day of the week, or for a special intention. See Setting the Divine Liturgy on ordinary weekdays.

On feastdays, the readings and hymns are those of the feast. See Setting the Divine Liturgy on feastdays.

Sunday is always a celebration of the Resurrection. If a feastday falls on Sunday, the feastday hymns are added to the Sunday hymns. (On the greatest feasts, the feastday hymns alone are sung and the Sunday hymns are omitted.) See Setting the Divine Liturgy on Sunday.