Kunnathettu Tez Maria: The Holy Qurbana: the Divine-Human Encounter (extracts)Kottayam, 2006, OirsiThe Lord's Prayer: The Lord's Prayer, the queen of prayers, condenses the spirit of the entire Decalogue.1 Itsrecitation, seldom absent from any major service, becomes a constituent element of Christian worship and thepattern for Christian prayer2 by the end of the 4th century.3The Our Father recited with a qanona, which is taken from the Sanctus [Is 6:3; Ap 4:8] and is added at the be-ginning and the end of the prayer, has as its function the glorification of God.Theodore: The thrice-holy hymn manifests the characteristic elements of the divine vision of Isaiah. The greatservice which was being performed on high, the mystery of the Trinity revealed by the spiritual hosts repeatingholy 3 times is a sign of the economy of Christ by which all the earth was filled with divine glory.4Thus the glorification of God envisioned in the qanona has also a christological meaning. The doxological formwith which Our Father concludes in Didache is close to the one in the qurbana. The early patrist iterature hasstressed the incarnational implications of the qanona:"If we turn to early patristic commentaries on Isaiah we discover that the fathers understood Isaiah's vision asforeshadowing the incarnation in 2 separate ways. Why, they ask, does the biblical text speak of 'the wholeearth' being full of God's glory? Heaven one would expect to be filled with the divine glory, but the reference tothe presence of his glory on earth as well must point to some future theophany, in other words, the incarnation.A further allusion to the incarnation is discovered in the thrice repeated 'holy:' this the fathers see as a clear ref-erence to the trinity, revealed par excellence at Christ 's baptism”.5The Lord's prayer together with the angelic hymn at the opening of the qurbana makes the earthly celebrationheavenly. Moreover, as the prayer combines both OT and NT worship, it presents the redemptive ...