The answer
a. At the beginning of the liturgical Absolution Prayer, the deacon says, “Bow your
heads to the Lord,” and then the bishop or priest asks the Master and Lord to grant absolution to those present while they stand or sit with their heads bowed.
b. In Great Lent and Jonah’s Fast, the priest or bishop begins the Matins supplications
by calling out: “Let us bow [or bend] our knees,” and with every supplication, he says, “And bow your heads to the Lord.”
c. During the epiclesis prayer (the descent of the Holy Spirit) the deacon cries out,
“Worship God in fear and trembling” as we bow down before the Body and Blood of Christ.
These three types bear the same spirit and goal, although each type has something that distinguishes it from the other two. In his personal worship, a believer often practices more than one type. The early Church Fathers discuss their spiritual experiences in bowing down before God, for example:
First, bowing down as a sign of one’s surrender of his life to God: St. Dionysius the Areopagite says, “All those who are ordained to the ranks of the priesthood, or those who are nominated for it, are required first to approach the divine altar and bow before it in order to proclaim the submission and surrender of their lives to God from whom they receive their consecration.”
Second, bending the knees for the sake of God’s intervention in human life: Eusebius of Caesarea says of the Emperor Constantine in his last illness: “The emperor himself … would seclude himself daily at a stated hour in the innermost chambers of his palace; and there in solitary converse with his God, would kneel in humble supplication, and entreat the blessings of which he stood in need.”32
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
31 See Fr. Matthew the Poor, Orthodox Prayer Life (Arabic) (2012): pp. 642–646.
32 Eusebius Pamphili, Life of Constantine 4:22 (NPNF II/1:545).