Liturgy (Greek: λειτουργία) is the customary public worship performed by a specific religious group, according to its particular beliefs, customs and traditions.
The word, sometimes rendered by its English translation "service", may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy (Greek: Θεία Λειτουργία), Catholic Mass, the Eucharist or Mass (Anglican Communion) or a daily activity such as the Muslim salah and Jewish services. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy is a communal response to the sacred through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance. Ritualization may be associated with life events such as birth, coming of age, marriage and death. It thus forms the basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy. Methods of dress, preparation of food, application of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgical activities.
The word liturgy, derived from the technical term in ancient Greek, leitourgia, signifies the often expensive offers of service to the people, and thus to the polis and the state. Through the leitourgia, the rich carried a financial burden and were correspondingly rewarded with honours. The leitourgia became both mandatory and honorific, supporting the patron's standing among the elite. The holder of a Hellenic leitourgia was not taxed a specific sum, but was entrusted with a particular ritual, which could be performed with greater or lesser magnificence. The chief sphere remained that of civic religion, embodied in the festivals: M.I. Finley notes "in Demosthenes' day there were at least 97 liturgical appointments in Athens for the festivals, rising to 118 in a (quadrennial) Panathenaic year." Eventually, under the Roman Empire, such obligations, known as munera, devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden that was avoided when possible.
Liturgy is a Christian term with several meanings:
Liturgy may also refer to:
The Eucharist in the Catholic Church is the celebration of Mass, the eucharistic liturgy. The term Eucharist is also used for the bread and wine when transubstantiated (their substance having been changed), according to Catholic teaching, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ
Blessed Sacrament is a devotional term used in the Roman Catholic Church to refer to the eucharistic species (the Body and Blood of Christ). Consecrated hosts are kept in a tabernacle after Mass, so that the Blessed Sacrament can be brought to the sick and dying outside the time of Mass. This makes possible also the practice of eucharistic adoration.
The Catholic Church sees as the main basis for this belief the words of Jesus himself at his Last Supper: the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20) and Saint Paul's 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 recount that in that context Jesus said of what to all appearances were bread and wine: "This is my body … this is my blood." The Catholic understanding of these words, from the Patristic authors onward, has emphasized their roots in the covenantal history of the Old Testament.
Arctica was an ancient continent which formed approximately 2.5 billion years ago in the Neoarchean era.
Arctica consisted of the Canadian and Siberian shields, and is now roughly situated in the Arctic around the current North Pole.
Arctica joined with the continents Atlantica and Nena about one billion years ago to form the supercontinent, Rodinia.
With the breakup of the supercontinent, Arctica's fragments have mostly stayed at higher latitudes.
The regions of Severnaya Zemlya, Svalbard, the New Siberian Islands, a small part of the Taimyr Peninsula, the northern tips of Alaska and Chukotka, some islands near Greenland (and the Kara Sea shelf) were apparently artifacts from the second time Arctica continent broke apart.
Arctica was chosen as a name because since its formation the continent and the cratons that broke away from it have spent most of their time in northerly latitudes.
"Arctica" is a song of Finnish symphonic power metal band Amberian Dawn's third studio album End of Eden, and the first single from the album. The song was released for free download on MySpace on August 23, 2010, and a music video produced for the song was released on October 20 through YouTube.Heidi Parviainen, Amberian Dawn's lead singer, has called Arctica her favorite Amberian Dawn song.
A music video was shot for the song in 2010, Amberian Dawn's fourth after River of Tuoni, My Only Star and He Sleeps in a Grove. The video was produced by Routafilmi and directed by Markus Nieminen, and released on October 20, 2010 through YouTube, at the same date of the End of Eden album release. The video varies between shots of the band playing against a red background, and scenes of an old alchemist with a magic amulet. By the end of the video, the alchemist manages to freeze the amulet to ice, and the band's background becomes white and icy.
"Arctica" was generally received as a good successor to the band's previous lead songs such as "River of Tuoni" and "He Sleeps in a Grove", but was also heavily criticised for repetition. HeavyLaw says, "the first single, "Arctica" is in this sense an index along the lines of self-plagiarism. Woefully predictable, it does not make enough justice to the talent of the group."Metal Sickness called it extremely catchy and one of their darkest songs yet, alongside "Talisman" portraying a more mature side of the band.
Arctica is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Arcticidae. In the present day this is a monotypic genus (contains only one species), however there are a number of additional species in the fossil record.
Species within the genus Arctica include
Living species:
The steam shall give birth to a glacier
The heath shall give way to sand
Bone shall become tusk
Hair shall become nail
Tooth shall cling to skull
Being shall become
The eternal return
Of fire
Asphault shall flow like water
Forest shall crowd out the worms
Nothing ever began
There was no dawn
The heat chars
The cold stabs
The wheat shall give way to chaff
Bone shall crack against bone
Being shall become
The eternal return