When the Bishop celebrates the Divine Liturgy, he frequently blesses the people with the *dikirotrikiron*—a pair of liturgical candlesticks, one holding two candles and the other three.
The two candles symbolize the two natures of our Lord
Jesus Christ—the God-Man—namely, the divine and the human. The three candles,
naturally, symbolize the Holy Trinity.
During the chanting of the Trisagion Hymn, the Bishop
offers a special prayer to the Lord, invoking a blessing from on high upon the
Church and blessing both the clergy and the laity with the *dikirotrikiron*.
He refers to this body of the faithful and the clergy
as the "Vine," drawing upon the imagery Christ used to liken the
relationship and unity between believers and Himself to a vine (see John 15).
The act of blessing the faithful in the shape of a
cross while this prayer is intoned follows the precedent of the cross-shaped
blessing Jacob bestowed upon his grandsons—Joseph’s children, Ephraim and
Manasseh (see Genesis 48)—which serves as an Old Testament prefiguration of the
grace of the Precious Cross.
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