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, so hand them in no later than during the Litanies before the Great Entrance (after the sermon)!
• 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 + 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 (Pregnant)’, which the priest will commemorate as ‘Name and the child to be born of her’.
• 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, as a parenthetical.
• The newly-departed (those within 40 days of their repose) should have “(ND)” written before or after 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 being united to Christ.

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, we 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 our behalf. Even if we aren’t used to filling out a slip, consider starting.

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
Prot. – Protopresbyter (Greek/Serbian)
Pr. – Priest
Adn. – Archdeacon
Pdn. – Protodeacon
Dn. – Deacon
Sdn. – Subdeacon
Rd. – Reader
Mka. – Matushka
Pres. – Presbytera
Kh. – Khouria
Dna. – Diaconissa