adapted from an article by Fr. John Strickland

As we prepare to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, everyone is encouraged to provide the names of those they love – and those they are struggling to love – to be commemorated at the Liturgy of Preparation, commonly known as the Proskomedia (from the Greek Proskomidē, ‘an offering, an oblation’). This is the preparatory part of the Liturgy, occurring before the opening proclamation “Blessed is the Kingdom…” It takes place at a small table in the northeastern corner of the sanctuary, called the Table of Oblation; it is also called the Proskomedia Table, the Prothesis (Greek: ‘setting forth’), or Zhertvinnik (Slavonic: ‘place of offering’). During the Proskomedia, the priest prepares the bread and wine which will be offered at the Anaphora (the Eucharistic Oblation, or ‘offering up’), the central part of the Liturgy when the Holy Spirit descends on us and changes the offered gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ.

At the Proskomedia, the priest cuts a large cube-shaped piece of bread, which we call the Lamb, and places it at the center of the plate, called the paten. He then surrounds the Lamb with particles of bread taken from the prosphora loaves, the loaves of bread which are offered forth by the faithful. These include particles commemorating saints, including the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, the Apostles, the saint(s) of the day, and many others. The priest also takes particles from the prosphora which commemorate our ruling hierarch, the clergy, and various others. These others include “this God-protected land and its Orthodox people”, as well as “all Orthodox Christians who have departed this life in the hope of the resurrection to eternal life in Thy communion, O Lord who lovest mankind.” But the commemorations of the Proskomedia do not end there.

In fact, the greatest number of names offered do not belong to saints being commemorated. They belong to the faithful – both living and departed – who are, with the saints, members of the body of Christ, beginning with the members of our parish. A membership list is kept at the Proskomedia Table for this purpose, as well as a list of all those buried from our parish. In practice, at a parish with such history as ours, the full list of the departed parishioners (over 800 names) is only offered at the seven Memorial Saturdays throughout the year; instead, on Sundays and weekday Liturgies, only those whose annual memorials fall during the coming week are commemorated.
But the commemorations do not end with the parishioners either. They continue with all those living and departed members of the Body of Christ, the Church, for whom our parishioners have asked the priest to pray. This is why every member of our parish is encouraged to send in names for commemoration, using the commemoration slips available in the narthex.

All of these commemorations are placed on the paten about the Lamb, the cube of bread which represents Christ, and which will become His very Body at the Liturgy. Thus, an icon of the Church is placed before us, and the universal character of our Saviour’s sacrifice is revealed symbolically at the Proskomedia: our Lord is enthroned, and with Him reign His Mother and all the saints, joined by the faithful living and departed, the great host of the Church Triumphant and Church Militant, who with the saints are praising, worshipping, and supplicating our Lord.

After the Anaphora is completed, and the clergy commune of the Body and Blood, the remaining portions of the Lamb, which had been changed into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, are placed into the chalice with the wine-become-Blood. The Body and Blood is then offered to the faithful at Holy Communion. After the clergy and faithful have communed of the Body and Blood of our Lord, the chalice is returned to the altar and all the particles, offered in the name of the saints and of the faithful living and departed, are wiped from the paten into the chalice, being suffused with God’s Blood (God’s life!) and united with God’s Body. This is done with the words “Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those remembered here, by Thy precious Blood, and through the prayers of Thy saints.”

However, our participation in Christ’s saving work doesn’t end with our praying for living and departed Orthodox Christians, represented by their particles of bread which symbolize eucharistic union with Christ, and therefore membership in His Body, the Church: Even those who are not Orthodox may be remembered at the Proskomedia, not with particles of bread, but by name, prayerfully said by the priest over the paten. By this, we hope and pray that, by means of the Ark of Salvation – the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: the Orthodox Church – all the world might be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires that all might be saved.

The Church declares that there is no more efficacious prayer for the living or departed members of Christ’s Body than the act of prayerfully uniting them to Christ our Saviour by offering them up alongside the Eucharistic Oblation, symbolically uniting them to Christ Himself, by whose Body and Blood we are saved. Likewise, there is no greater prayer for those who are outside the Church, than to ask the Church to pray for them alongside the Eucharistic Offering, that by the Church – Christ’s depository of grace – all the world might be saved.

With this purpose in mind, all our parishioners are encouraged to participate in the prayerful preparation of our Eucharistic offering, by sending in commemoration slips with lists of those for whom you wish the priest to pray. These are found in the narthex.

Using Commemoration Slips

At the Proskomedia (Liturgy of Preparation), the priest commemorates the living and the departed. For Orthodox Christians who are united with Christ in His Church, he places a small particle of bread on the paten before the Lamb, the portion of bread which will be offered up and become the Body of Christ. For non-Orthodox, he prayerfully reads their name, without placing a particle on the paten. After Holy Communion, these particles are wiped from the paten into the chalice, which contains the Body and Blood of the Lord, with the words “Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those remembered here, by Thy precious Blood, and through the prayers of Thy saints”, symbolizing their saving union with Christ. We hope and pray that those outside the Church, commemorated without a particle, are saved by the Eucharistic prayers of the Church.

To commemorate the living, please use the red side of the slip; for the departed, the black side. Use as many slips as needed, making sure to differentiate between Orthodox and non-Orthodox commemorations.

When & Where Do I Offer Commemorations?

• Please offer commemoration lists before the beginning of the Liturgy; it is best to do so at Vespers or Matins before the Liturgy.
• Place commemoration lists in the commemorations box to the left of the altar, in the confessional area.
• Commemorations can be added to the paten up until the Great Entrance. If offering them after the start of Liturgy, give your slip to one of the acolytes on the left side of the altar. After the Great Entrance, when we sing the Cherubic Hymn, commemorations cannot be added.
• Commemoration lists offered throughout the week will be read by the priest at the next Liturgy to be celebrated, unless a note is added at the top of the slip, requesting a specific date; e.g., “For 9/26/24”.
• If desiring the commemorations to be made for longer than just the upcoming Liturgy, please check “retain for 40 days” or “retain for 1 year”; new slips should be offered at least every year.

How Do I Offer Commemorations?

• Below are some guidelines, which are generally followed across our parishes, which all our babas and yiayias knew, but which are often forgotten here in America. Everyone should be aware of these rules, and try to follow them, as they reflect our theology and help the priest to offer them prayerfully, without him having to figure out what to say:
• Write legibly, in print rather than cursive.
• While you are writing down the names of living and departed, commemorate them with a clean heart, sincerely wishing them good, and striving to remember those whose names you are writing down. This is already a prayer.
• Write one name per line; those with double names, including those who retrain their birth name while having a separate baptismal name, should be written with a hyphen on a single line; e.g., ‘Katherine-Elizabeth’.
• Proper Christian names received at baptism (or, for the non-Orthodox, full names) should be used; no nicknames or short forms: i.e., Theodore, not Ted; Margaret, not Peggy; Alexander, not Sasha; Anastasia, not Stacy.
• Do not include surnames (last names), secular titles, or professions of those commemorated; these are titles we receive from and in the world, not from the Lord and His Church.
• Do not indicate their relationship to you (they are being given to the priest to pray, who does not share your relations).
• If wishing to commemorate an entire family, use the first name of the head of the family, or the one most in need of prayers, then write “+ his/her family”; e.g., “James and his family”.
• A household can be commemorated as “Father + Mother + their children”; e.g., “John + Michelle + their family/children”. This is one of the few exceptions to the guideline of “one name per line”.
• Pregnant women should be commemorated as ‘Name + CB’, short for ‘Name and the child to be born of her’, which the priest will say in full.
• Clergy and monastics should be given their proper titles (Priest, Deacon, Hieromonk, Monk, Reader, etc.), not their honorifics (Father, Mother, Vladyka, etc.). Abbreviations are encouraged (see below). So, not Father Joe, but Apr. Joseph; not Mother Seraphima, but Nun Seraphima; not Mother Christophora, but Abbess Christophora.
• Clergy wives should be given their honorific title: Matushka (Mka.), Presbytera, Khouria, Pani, Diaconissa, etc.
• Those on active duty (among the living), and those killed in action (among the departed), can be written with the title “Soldier/Warrior”.
• One who is near death should have “(dying)” or “(near death)” added after their name.
• The newly-departed (those within 40 days of their repose) should have “(ND)” written before their name.
• Children under 1 year of age can be given the title ‘Infant’; those under 7, ‘Child’.
• Intentions (‘grieving’, ‘cancer’, ‘studying’, et al.) should generally NOT be included on commemoration slips at the Divine Liturgy, where we are praying for the salvation of human persons in their wholeness. Their needs and intentions are known to God. If desiring special prayers for travel, sickness, etc., please see the priest separately.
• Pets CANNOT be included, as they are not persons.

Concluding Words on Commemoration Slips

A concrete example of ‘bad’ commemoration slip usage would be “Aunt Tillie Smith”. It is the priest who will be offering the prayer, and she isn’t the priest’s aunt; her nickname shouldn’t be used, but rather her baptismal/saint’s name; and the surname is just something the priest must spend time and mental energy parsing out. Instead, simply write “Matilda”.

Of course, it is important to remember that, if offered in love, you can’t really offer these commemorations in a ‘wrong’ way. Children are going to innocently just put ‘grandma’ on the slip; in such cases, the priest will look to the name in the “Offered by” field, and say “Daniel’s grandmother”. However, following these customary rules concerning the offering of names on commemoration slips really does help the priest to efficiently and prayerfully offer them on your behalf.

Ecclesiastical Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are encouraged when filling out commemoration slips:
Pat. – Patriarch
Met. – Metropolitan
Abp. – Archbishop
Bp. – Bishop
Archm. – Archimandrite
Hmk. – Hieromonk
Protopr. – Protopresbyter (Russian Title)
Mit. Apr. – Mitred Archpriest
Apr. – Archpriest (Non-Greek Title)
Prot. – Protopresbyter (Greek Title) Pr. – Priest
Adn. – Archdeacon
Pdn. – Protodeacon
Dn. – Deacon
Sdn. – Subdeacon
Rd. – Reader
Mka. – Matushka
Pres. – Presbytera
Kh. – Khouria
Dna. – Diaconissa