Mokranjac intended to compose a litu based on motives of all the eight modes of Serbian chant, but he wrote only the Liturgy aft the first mode; its original title was the Divine service of St. John Chrysostomos. Written after the Serbian folk chant (from the end of the 18th century), it bears witness to the author's ability to form a fine entity by stylizing those tunes. His way of harmonizing them, with frequent use of words of secondary scale degrees, resulted in an archaic though distinctly Slavonic note, and his ruaenious use of polyphonic elements enhanced the expressiveness of the melodic line in each voice.
After the calm, homophonic opening canticle Svjati Bože (Holy God) and the simply harmonized choral responses following Alleluia, comes fee most elaborate and important part of the liturgy, the impressive Cherubic hymn (Iže heruvimi -We who mystically represent the Cherubim) which shows best the above mentioned characteristics of Mokranjac's way of handling his material.
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The brief, lapidary canticles Oca i sina (The Father and the Son), Dostojno i pravedno (It is meet and right so to worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost...) and Svjat (Holy, holy, holy Lord of Sabaoth) are similar by their thematic material and purely homophonic textures, whereas the next, Tebe pojem (We sing Thee, we bless Thee, we give thanks to Thee, o Lord), with a telling contrast achieved by juxtaposing to it the softly sounding quartet in the middle part Dostojno jest (It is very meet to bless Thee who didst bring forth God) are characterized by a broader elaboration of the material and richer texture of be choral part. After a new series of choral responses and a brief canticle Jedin Svjat (One is holy, one, Jesus Christ...), similar to the preceding parts, the long Pričasten (Hvalite gospoda – O praise the Lord from heaven, sung during holz communion) develops and the soloist and tutti groups sing alternately in its second part.
The succinct canticles Blagosloven grjadij (Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord), Vidjehom svjet (We have seen the true light) and Da ispolnjatsja (Let our mouth be filled with Thy praise, o Lord) form an entity followed by the serene, lively, moderately polyphonic canticle Budi imja Gospodnje (Blessed be the name of the Lord) which ends the Liturgy in bright F major.
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