It is a fearful thing to hate whom God has loved.

To look upon another – his weaknesses, his sins, his faults, his
defects – is to look upon one who is suffering. He is suffering from negative passions, from the same sinful
human corruption from which you yourself suffer. This is very important: do not look upon him with the
judgmental eyes of comparison, noting the sins you assume you’d never commit. Rather, see him as a fellow
sufferer, a fellow human being who is in need of the very healing of which you are in need. Help him, love him,
pray for him, do unto him as you would have him do unto you. (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk)
***************************************************************************************

Winter on the Norrish River near the Monastery of All Saints of North America,
Dewdney, B.C..
(see the Photo Album for more pictures PHOTO ALBUM.)
******************************************************************************************
*********
CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE:

1. ASCENDING TOWARD GREAT LENT

2. SACRAMENTS OR HOLY MYSTERIES
(The false teaching of "seven sacraments)
3. THE NATURE OF REDEMPTION.

******************************************************
"THE IKON CORNER"
Readings for Orthodox Christian Families
by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

ASCENDING TOWARD GREAT LENT

Readings for the five Sundays preceding the Great Lent.

STEP 1:
Longing for salvation; desiring to know Christ

ZACCHEUS SUNDAY
{Luke 19:1-10/1Tm.4:9-15}

"Behold, He has lifted up my head above my enemies who surround me, and I will enter into His tabernacle
and offer sacrifices of joy" (Ps.28:6).

Zaccheus of Jericho was a sinful man. As a tax collector, he was able to cheat and swindle people, especially
the poor, who did not have power to defend themselves.

Although he was surrounded at all times by demons who tempted him toward greed, cruelty and every
passion, his heart was not completely hardened. Somewhere, deep inside him, a longing gnawed, unfulfilled.
What could this longing be? What was it that the soul of this sinful man hungered for that could not be
fulfilled by all his wealth, possessions and authority?

Everyone in Israel had heard something about this new teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. Some said that He was a
holy prophet, others, a great teacher and healer. Many people spoke of His gentleness and compassion, while
others hated Him and spoke evil of Him.
 When Zaccheus heard that Jesus was coming to Jericho, he longed to see Him and discover Who He was.
Since Zaccheus was short in stature, the crowd which surrounded him prevented him from seeing Jesus. As a tax
collector, the crowd around him despised him and considered him an enemy, thus he was truly "surrounded by
enemies."
As Jesus approached, the desire in Zaccheus grew stronger and stronger. Spotting a sycamore tree with a large
limb, Zaccheus rushed to it and began to climb above the crowd of human enemies that surrounded him. This
was as far as he could go. Little did he know that Jesus was about to do the rest for him.
When Jesus reached the place where Zaccheus was, He looked upon him and called the sinner to Himself.
"Come, Zaccheus. I will abide with thee and heal thy soul." Zaccheus had lifted himself above the worldly
crowd and sought out Jesus, now Jesus would heal him and lift him above his spiritual enemies __ the hoard of
demons which also surrounded him. Soon, because Jesus Christ came to him and abode with him, Zaccheus
would become a friend to those who hated him. Healed by the co-suffering love of Jesus Christ, Zaccheus would
use his own newly found love to help heal the sorrow and want of those whom he had formerly hurt. The co-
suffering love of Christ began to take root in the heart of the sinful man and transform him.
By lifting himself up above worldly things, Zaccheus had taken the first step along the path to the Heavenly
Kingdom.
Let us, brothers and sister, on this day take our first step also. Putting aside the ideals and limitations of
worldly things, let us lift ourselves above the crowd, desiring with all our hearts to see Jesus and fully know in
our hearts who He is. As if climbing into the sycamore tree to see Him, let us begin our spiritual ascent toward
Great Lent, taking into our heart the Apostle reading for today, "This is a saying worthy of trust: we have put
our hope in the living God, Who is the saviour of all.... Be diligent in these matters...so that everyone may see
your progress" (1Tm.4:9, 15).

Ascending Toward Great Lent

STEP 2:
Seeking true humility and sincere repentance

SUNDAY OF THE
PUBLICAN AND PHARISEE
{Luke 18:10-14/1Tm.3:10-15}

"I humbled myself with fasting and my prayer returned to my own heart...as one in mourning and of
sorrowful countenance, so I humbled myself" (Ps.34:16, 17).

How many people enter God's temple thinking themselves to be righteous and without sin. They glance out of
the corner of their eye at someone they feel is less righteous than they, and secretly judge that person in their
heart.
Do they really believe themselves to be perfect, or are they only trying to hide from their own sins, justifying
themselves, so that they will not have to repent?

In today's Gospel reading we hear about another publican, one like Zaccheus whom we read about last
Sunday. Perhaps Jesus even had Zaccheus in mind when He told this parable, for on the next day that He entered
Jericho and called Zaccheus down from the sycamore tree.

As He was teaching the people what is necessary for them if they wish to enter the Heavenly Kingdom, Jesus
told them the following parable.

Two men went into the temple to pray. The first was a Pharisee, a proud, self-righteous man. Not only did he
boast of his holiness and sinlessness, but he cast a proud glance at the humble publican, bowed to the floor in
tears of repentance for his sins. "I thank Thee, Lord, that I am not like this wretch, but that I am sinless and
nearly perfect."

The Pharisee could not open his soul to God, for God sent the Great Physician to save us. The Pharisee, being
convinced that he was not ill, could not seek treatment from the Physician. As in the psalm quoted above, his
prayer returned to his own heart, but it returned as a curse and a condemnation, pumping him up with still
greater pride.

The publican, humbled by an awareness of his own sins, opened up his soul to God: "God, I know that I sin
much. I have no righteousness in me, so I can only hope on Thee and Thy mercy. Lord, have mercy on me a
sinner." This man's prayer also returned into his own heart, full of blessing and spiritual sweetness.
The holy prophet-king David, also bowed low with fasting and tears of repentance, once cried out to God, "I
know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me," but he understood that, "a sacrifice to God is a humbled
spirit; a broken and humbled heart, God will not despise" (Ps.50:3, 17).

Brothers and sisters, as we take this second step toward Great Lent, let us think upon this parable. Last week,
we learned to direct our desire away from the things of this world and toward our Saviour Jesus Christ. This
Sunday, we learned that it is impossible to approach Jesus if we have proud hearts and consider ourselves to be
righteous. Remember the verse we read before the Synaxarion today: "If you are like the Pharisee, draw back
and do not enter the temple; for Christ is inside and before Him, only the humble are acceptable."
It is a sorrowful thing to be "righteous," for if we are "righteous," all is lost. Jesus Christ did not come for the
"righteous," and so the righteous cannot be saved. He came only for sinners; for only sinners could hear the call
to repentance and answer, receiving Christ and His redemption (Mt.9:13).

As the holy prophets testify, fasting is an important path toward spiritual humility.
These past two Sunday's have taught us to desire and seek our Saviour with earnest longing and sincere
humility, and so we move forward toward the joy and sorrow of Great Lent.

***

The following is an arrangement of some of the special verses chanted at Vespers and Matins of the Sunday
of the Publican and Pharisee. They are arranged, not as separate verses, but in narrative form, so they can be
read as inspirational reading to help teach us the meaning of the day.

Brethren, let us not pray like the Pharisee, for whoever exalts himself shall be abased. Therefore, let us
humble ourselves before God, crying out with fasting, in the words of the publican: "God, forgive us sinners."
When the Pharisee entered with vainglory and the publican humbled himself in repentance, they both stood
before Thee alone, O Master. The one, through boasting, lost his reward, and the other, by his humble silence,
was made worthy of spiritual gifts. By those same sighs of repentance, uphold me, O Christ God, for Thou art
the Friend of mankind.

Almighty Lord, I have learned the effectiveness of repentant tears; for they saved Hezekiah from the doors of
death, and they saved the sinful woman from her repeated iniquities; they showed the publican to be more truly
righteous than the Pharisee. I implore Thee, O Lord, to number me among those who have wept such tears, and
have mercy on me.

Let us turn away from the wicked boasting of the Pharisee and learn the true humility of the publican, that we
may rise up crying to God with him, "Forgive us, Thy servants, O Christ our Saviour, Who was born of the
Virgin and willingly bore the Cross for our sakes, raising up the world with Thyself."
Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life; for in the early morn, my soul enters into the temple of
Thy holiness, clad in the polluted temple of my body. But since Thou art compassionate, purify me by Thy co-
suffering mercy.

Ascending Toward Great Lent

STEP 3:
Turning our lives around; dealing with conceit

SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON

{Luke 15:11-32/1Cor.6:12-20}

"By the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof. Those who had taken us captive demanded of us a song, and those who had led us
away asked of us a hymn, saying: Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a
strange land?" (Psalm 136).

Last Sunday, we learned of humility; not the false, fawning humility which people sometimes display before
those of higher rank or greater power, nor that supposed humility which is really cowardice. We learned of that
pure humility which comes from self-realization and self-knowledge. We learned of a two-fold humility: that of
an offender who is forgiven with tender love by the one he had offended, and the majestic humility of the One
Who forgives every offence with tenderhearted mercy. We realized that we were too small of spiritual stature to
see God and know Him, and so we lifted ourselves up the best we could to try to see Him. He saw our desire and
called us down from our "sycamore tree," so that He Himself could lift us up. As with Zaccheus, He did not
offer us judgment or condemnation, but healing.

We saw the awesome humility of God when Christ entered the home of the offender and dined with him. We
saw how Christ bestowed the transforming power of Divine Grace by means of compassionate love.
On the second Sunday, we beheld the beauty of humble repentance. On this third Sunday, the Sunday of the
Prodigal Son, we will bring the message of these first two steps together and gain a deeper understanding of
God and our relationship with Him.

Today, we hear of a son who grew weary of working in his father's fields and vineyards. "Give me my share
of the inheritance," he demanded. "I am weary of you and your house. I am bored and I want to seek the
excitement and thrills of the world out there, beyond your domain."

The father, because of his love and righteousness, respected the free choice of his son, though with great
sorrow. He had no obligation to give the son a share of the inheritance, but love moved him, for he did not want
to see his son go empty and naked into the world. He humbly bestowed gifts upon the rebellious son, desiring to
give him the means to survive until, perhaps, he would come to his senses.

Beloved of Christ, we also become rebellious children through our weaknesses, sinful desires and conceit. We
turn and depart from our Father's house, for we are weary of the constraint and weak in hope, and desire some
excitement from the allure of worldly things. But here is an amazing thing: though we turn away from God
because of the conceit of our hearts, He does not allow us to depart empty. Even as we depart from Him, His
love accompanies us and humbly urges us to return.

So the prodigal son set out, bearing his share of the inheritance, or rather a gift bestowed upon him by his
father. He wandered to a distant land, far from the paradise of his father's love-filled home and well-tended
fields. There, still bound by conceit, he squandered his father's wealth on the empty vanity of this world, with
debauchery and wild living. At last, he had absolutely nothing, and he stood empty and alone. Only when he
ended up tending swine, an animal unclean to the Jews, and even eating swill from their troughs, did his conceit
weaken. He began to realize the true inheritance of his father was not worldly wealth, but love and mercy.
He desired to be saved.
 When his conceit was broken and his soul touched by humility, repentance began to take root in his heart. He
realized what and who he had become, and he longed to turn his life around, to return to the father's house and
be, if possible, at least one of his servants. When repentance started to take hold, he began to hope on his father's
mercy.
Behold the wonder of the majesty of God's humble love. The son, seeking mercy that he might become at
least a slave, found a joyful forgiveness and was received as a beloved son. He did not even arrive at the father's
house and express his repentance with his lips, for the father saw him a long way off and rushed down the road
to meet him.
Looking down at the dust of the road, unable even to lift his eyes to meet the eyes of his father, the wretched
son stammered, "Father, I...I..." But the father did not wait for him to finish. With tears of joy welling from his
eyes, he embraced the son, "O my son, my son, you are alive. My dear, beloved son, you have returned to me.
Come, let us celebrate and rejoice together, for this my son was lost and has been found; he was dead and is
alive again."
Brethren, behold the wonder of the love and mercy of our God. For, the son was already forgiven in the
father's heart the very day he departed in all his conceit. The father did not spend all these days and years in
spiteful disdain of the son; he spent them in a daily concern for the son's well-being, a prayerful longing for his
return. The father's forgiveness was always there, waiting for him. He had only to desire to turn his life around,
go back to the father and partake of that forgiveness and love.
We depart from our Father through our own conceit and spiritual laziness also, and we go away and become
exiles from paradise. Following in the footsteps of Adam and Eve, of Cain, of Ham, the sons of Jakob and the
people of Israel, we depart from the Father's house, we go off into exile, or are carried away in exile and
bondage by Satan, through the conceits and delusions of the world, and of our own hearts. It is for this reason
that, on this day, we chant the hymn of the exiles, the 136th Psalm, "By the waters of Babylon."
But our father also waits for us daily. He stands outside the house, daily looking down the road with longing,
desiring to see us returning home again, finding our way through repentance.
In the parable, the son came to his resolve to repent and return home when he was brought to an involuntary
fasting. The forty day fast of Great Lent is given to us that we might, through voluntary fasting, with prayer,
search our hearts and minds and come to a firm desire to return home from exile. Great Lent represents for us
that very road upon which the prodigal son walked back home.
Here is the great mystery of our road, of Great Lent: at the end of our road home, we find the crucified and
resurrected Christ. You see, God was not content only to stand at the gates of paradise and watch for us to return
(which we could not have done by ourselves), but He sent the Only Begotten One out to search for us and lead
us home once more. Jesus Christ is the Father's "search party," sent out to seek and to find, and to bring us, lost
children, home again. He even gave His life for us so that we might know the greatness and power of His love.
Since we desire to see Christ and to know Him, and having learned of humble repentance, let us now resolve
to turn our lives around, and with hope on the love and mercy of God, walk the path of Great Lent back to our
Father's house.

Ascending Toward Great Lent

STEP 4:
Choosing our destination; planning the voyage.

SUNDAY OF THE LAST JUDGMENT

(Meatfare Sunday)
{Saturday: 1Ths.4:13-17/Jn5:24-30;
Sunday: 1Cor.8:8-9:2/Mt.25:31-46}

"The day of death is better than the day of birth" (Eccl.7:1).

"Why rejoice when a ship sets sail upon a perilous journey; rather rejoice when it safely enters its harbour"
(Hebrew commentary on Eccl.7:1).
 Brethren, when one is about to take a journey, it is wise to look ahead to the destination, and to plan the
voyage well. Many perils and dangers await the one who sets sail on a vast sea. No matter how well we plan,
our lives remain an uncharted course, for no one knows what the dawning of each day will bring, nor whether,
as dusk falls, he will live to see another dawn. Nevertheless, when a ship sets sail, not only the crew, but each
passenger has made his plans and preparations for the end of the journey, when the destination is finally
reached.
The Church has ordained that on this Sunday of preparation, as we make ready to sail on the voyage of Great
Lent, we look forward to the end of our journey and contemplate our destination.
On Saturday, we celebrated the "great memorial" service, commemorating all those who have fallen asleep in
faith, "in the hope of resurrection and life everlasting."
In this service, we not only commemorated those who have already departed this life, but we contemplated
the day of our own death. The Holy Church called upon us to remember that each of us must come to that final
hour of earthly life, and so prepare ourselves for it.
To bring us through to a complete awareness and contemplation of our destination, we celebrate in advance
the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment on this Sunday.
Contemplating the end of our voyage on the sea of this worldly life is by no means morbid, and not altogether
sorrowful. It calls upon us to prepare ourselves, through spiritual struggle and repentance, for those rewards
which the Lord has promised to the faithful. The verses and readings of the services for both Saturday and this
"Sunday of the Last Judgment" call to mind the terrible fate of those who do not take thought for their end, and
who do not prepare, through faith, love and spiritual struggle, to come before the judgment seat of Christ.
All this is done to help make us ready for the fast, so that we might understand fully the purpose and meaning
of our spiritual and physical fast, and make us aware of the nature of true fasting. Thus, in the Matins service of
this Saturday we chant: "Dost thou fast? Do not deal treacherously with thy neighbour. Dost thou decline certain
foods? Do not judge thy brother, lest thou thyself be judged and sent to that fire and burned like wax."
As the end of our voyage in this life is death and the last judgment, the end of our journey of Great Lent is the
glorious feast of the Resurrection of Christ. The end of both these journeys is summarized in a hymn of
Saturday's vespers:
"Thou, O Saviour, didst redeem us with Thine own precious blood. By Thy death, Thou didst deliver us from
a bitter death, and by Thy Resurrection, Thou didst grant us life everlasting."
As we read the hymns for this "Soul Saturday" and "Sunday of the Last Judgment," we find instructions for
planning our journey, navigational aids to plot the course of our voyage, a guide for making our preparations.
Beloved of Christ, bearing these things in our hearts, let us set forth on the journey of Great Lent with the
vision of our destination clearly before us and, seeing the end even as we begin, let us, with joyous sorrow,
make ready to depart, to cross the sea of Lent to Holy Pascha, to cross the sea of life to the longed-for harbour of
Paradise.
May our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ be the captain and navigator of our vessel, to the glory of His
Holy name, and of the Eternal Father and Life-bestowing Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Ascending Toward Great Lent

STEP 5:
Seeking forgiveness; Learning to forgive.

FORGIVENESS SUNDAY
(Cheesefare Sunday)
(Mt. 6:14-21/Rm.13:11-14:4)

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Mt.6:14).

There are two unforgivable sins mentioned by Jesus Christ in the Gospels. Everyone remembers that
"blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is never forgiven" (Mt.12:31), but few recall that failure to forgive others
means that they themselves will never be forgiven. Refusal to forgive is just as deadly a sin as blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is very clear about this, and it is urgent enough that He teaches it a number of times and in
different ways, and Apostle Paul felt compelled to repeat it, together with many warnings against judging our
neighbours.

Why does the Holy Church begin Great Lent precisely with the "Vespers of Forgiveness," wherein we each
search our hearts to root out all grudges and malice, and forgive one another? Because Great Lent is a time of
intensified repentance, when we seek God's forgiveness. That forgiveness of God, however, is not available to
those who have not forgiven everyone from the heart. Our lenten journey will be of little use to us if we have not
carefully forgiven others.

In the stichera for "Lord I have Cried," in today's Vespers, we chant:

Let us begin the fast with joy! Let us prepare ourselves for spiritual struggle! Let us cleanse both our soul and
body. Let us abstain from passions as we abstain from food. Let us rejoice in virtues of the spirit, and fulfil them
in love, that we may see the passion of Christ our God, and rejoice in spirit at the holy Pascha.

How could we begin the fast with joy if we are burdened with the fires of malice and hatred? If our souls are
unsettled and agitated by judgments against others, we cannot have the spiritual peace necessary to commence
the fast with a spirit of joy and hope.

Further in the stichera on "Lord I have Cried," we find a strong prayer of self-condemnation:

When I think of my deeds, O Lord, I am filled with fear, for I know that I am worthy of every torment. I have
despised Thy commandments, O Saviour....

Hearing this, many people are tempted by the thought, "Why should I feel this fear when I think of my deeds?
I have not committed any crimes and I have not done anything all that wrong. I have not robbed or murdered
anyone."
O brothers and sisters, do you not yet understand that our greatest, most deadly sins are the almost silent ones
we commit against our neighbours? The judgment, the condemnation, the slanders and gossip with which we
assault their souls are dreadful sins in the eyes of God, Who created them and loves them. Do we not realize that
in judging a neighbour, we are judging one for whom our Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and laid
down His life? Refusal to forgive and malice are, in truth, deeds that can deprive us of forgiveness, and send our
own souls into eternal torment.

Thus, by having us accuse ourselves in this manner, the Church is calling us to our senses and teaching us
how to struggle toward a true and sincere, heartfelt forgiveness of others; for it is not enough to only go through
a ritual of forgiveness and a form of repentance.

Stop and think, brethren, about whom and what you are judging while you pretend to be repenting. You
pretend to be more righteous than your neighbours, whose sins you see and gloat over, but if you were truly
righteous, you would see not their transgressions, but their suffering. If you had the spirit of Christ in you, you
would see not sin, but grief, and instead of judging, you would hasten to embrace your neighbour with tears of
compassion. Instead, wicked souls that we are, we puff ourselves up and heap judgment upon our brothers.
Do you not see how Satan has made you his toy? Do you not realize that you are merely using your brother's
weaknesses to mask your own sins, that you are using his transgressions to try to justify and cloak the vileness
of your own passions? When you judge your neighbour's fallings, you are really only trying to lie to yourself
about your own. If we were to be honest, we would have to confess that what we most despise in others is what
we most fear in ourselves.

Let us, therefore, now humble ourselves before our brothers and sisters, so that we may also be able to
humble ourselves before God. Thus, seeking forgiveness, let us first offer forgiveness and then, with the sails of
our vessel rightly trimmed, we may set forth on our voyage toward Holy Pascha, justly expecting the rich cargo
of blessings and grace which have been promised to us.

VERSES FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE ABOUT

FORGIVENESS AND JUDGING

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the
hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I
say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That
thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret,
shall reward thee openly.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Mt.6:14-
21).

***

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Mt.6:12).

***

Then Peter came to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till
seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I do not say to thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.
Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a certain king, who would take account of his servants.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought to him, who owed him ten thousand gold pieces. But since
he had nothing with which to pay, his lord commanded that he be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he
had, and payment to be made.

The servant, however, fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay
thee all that I owe. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and freed him, and forgave him
the debt.
But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him an hundred pence: and he
laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what thou owest to me. And his fellow servant
fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all that I owe. And
he would not: but rather cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
When his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told their lord all that had
been done. Then his lord, having called for him, said to him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all thy debt,
because thou desiredst me: Shouldest thou not also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had
pity on thee? And his lord was full of wrath, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was
due unto him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one the trespasses
of his brother (Mt.18:21-35).

***
Do not judge, and ye shall not be judged: do not condemn, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye
shall be forgiven (Lk.6:37).
 ***
Whoever you are, you are inexcusable if you judge others: for, in judging you condemn yourself, for you
yourself do the same things that you are judging (Rm.2:1).

***
Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For you shall be judged by the same judgment you pass against
others. The standard you use [against others] is the standard that will be used to judge you with (Mt.7:1-2)

***
Who are you, O man, that you judge another man's servant? (Rm.14:2).

SACRAMENTS OR HOLY MYSTERIES V. REV. TARAS KURGANSKY

FOREWORD
by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

The main aim of this Point of Faith booklet is to help reorient Orthodox Christians away from the
dry, scholastic Latin corruptions which have crept into our theology, toward the vital, living spirit of
authentic Orthodox Christian revelation and life.
One of the most unfortunate corruptions which has crept into catechisms and instruction books of
the Orthodox Church, is the false teaching about "seven sacraments." This teaching, which was
invented by Western Latin philosophers called "scholastics," is contrary to the divinely inspired
Tradition of the Orthodox Church, and the mind of the holy and God-bearing fathers of Christ's
Church. These "scholastics," replacing the Sacred Tradition with their own "traditions of men," wanted
to reduce Christianity and the Christian life to a set of formulas and a series of legal agreements
between God and man. They wanted to make the Christian faith follow a system of human, worldly
logic and rationalization. The term "sacrament" is borrowed from pagan Roman idolatry and military
formula, and indicates a legal oath.

According to the Latin teaching of "seven sacraments" there are exactly seven1 divinely authorized
ways to receive God's invisible grace through visible rituals. This teaching has led to a corruption of
the concept of grace, sanctification, the Christian life and the meaning of the divine services, which are
ranked as "holy" and "not quite so holy" by this teaching. Moreover, the teaching about "seven
sacraments" also corrupts the very meaning of the Church and the meaning of the "people of God" —
the faithful. The false teaching of "seven sacraments" reduces mankind's relationship with our Saviour
Jesus Christ to a set of legal formulas, a series of almost magical incantations said by the priest.
The Orthodox fathers never attempted to set boundaries on the working of God's grace in the Holy
Church. We must understand that, for the Orthodox faith, there are no "sacraments;" only the limitless
Holy Mysteries __ the mystery of the working of God's grace. Any attempt to number or define the
Holy Mysteries is not only arbitrary, but non-Orthodox. Orthodox patristic thought would never
conceive such an idea, and it has come to us exclusively from the juridical, legalistic formalism of
Roman Catholic scholasticism.
The following work of Fr Taras Kurgansky was written precisely to help free our spiritual thinking
and theology from the corruptions which crept into our books during the three hundred year "Latin
captivity of Russian theology," and the five hundred year Turkish occupation of the Orthodox
countries in the south. Fr Taras, and the whole patristic movement in pre-revolutionary Russia, desired
to free our texts from the false teaching of "seven sacraments," which equates chrismation with
"confirmation/first communion" and forces upon us the false teaching of a "sacrament of penance." In
Orthodoxy, we do not speak of "penance" (punishment; making satisfaction to juridical justice by
means of mortification and punishment dictated by the priest), but rather of repentance, metanoia (re-
thinking; changing our perspective; changing the direction of our lives) and healing. From an Orthodox
Christian point of view, sin is both an illness and a "falling short of the mark," and requires both
healing and transformation. The essential meanings of the original Greek words is 'amartia: (falling
short, translated as "sin") and : (to come to a change, translated as "repentance") that is, to "rethink" or
"change one's perspective." Punishment and forgiveness are mutually exclusive. The Orthodox concept
is a creative, progressive transformation and trans- figuration, a healing. The concept of "penance"
negates the doctrine of theosis, while the concept of repentance and healing is consistent with the
doctrine of theosis. For example, when a priest assigns a person to perform a number of prostrations
(metanoia) to help them with repentance, he does so because a prostration is a type of the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. We die with Christ and rise with Him; we die to sin and rise to life.
Prostrations are, thus, not a punishment, not a callisthenic exercise that assuages some deity's juridical
wrath, but a prescription for healing that is a type of dying with Christ to rise to life. Our hope is to
help continue the work of the patristic revival and the restoration among our people of an Orthodox
concept of the Holy Mysteries and the working of divine grace.

"Definitions" are not proper when we speak of Orthodox teaching, but the reader may need at least
a sketchy definition of some terms in order to more easily follow the discussion in Fr Taras
Kurgansky's paper, particularly to follow the application of the terms "Holy Mysteries" and "grace," as
they appear in the work. The two "outlines definitions" are drawn most directly from St John
Chrysostom, St Gregory of Nyssa, and St Isidor of Seville.

WHAT ARE HOLY MYSTERIES?

The meaning of the Holy Mysteries is outlined in two ways, as the word appears in the works of the
holy and God-bearing fathers.

First, the term refers to all those truths of the faith which unite us to God and lead us to salvation.
These truths were given by Christ to His apostles and established in the Church as the faith of Christ.
They were taught to new Christians as they grew and progressed in that faith of Christ. When these
truths are fully believed and assimilated, they are sources of grace; they bring one into communion
with the ever-present grace of God. The holy, God-bearing fathers, the successors of the Apostles,
refer to these truths or mysteries as dogmata. This term includes a mysteriological/mystical concept in
Orthodox Christian thought, as opposed to the rigid legal definitions and categories of Latin and
Protestant literalism and rationalism. St Basil the Great says that "the dogmas are kept in silence," by
which he indicates that they are assimilated by a spiritual growth and development, rather than taught
and learned ped- agogically, as in catechisms, etc. To be precise, the dogmata are learned in two ways:
First, by actually living them in a practical, spiritual way, and by prayer and contemplation.

Secondly, the term "Holy Mysteries" also refers to all those practices in the life of the individual,
which reveal and confirm the truths of Christ's faith. With references to specific divine services, the
term refers to any invocation, in a special service, asking God, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to touch,
fill and consecrate any person, act or thing. We must include in this, each time an Orthodox person
makes the Sign of the Cross.1
 These two ways of viewing the Holy Mysteries are not separate. They are one and the same. The
divine services are all revelations of, and teachings about, the truths of Christ's faith. How do they
unite us to God's grace? We do not know, and the "mechanics" of it are of no importance. We only
know, by God's promise, that they do. Here is a fact to consider in trying to understand the Holy
Mysteries: the divine services, whether baptism, the Liturgy, marriage, ordination, tonsure, blessing of
water or burial, are all Holy Mysteries. All of them not only teach us the truths of Christ's faith, but
bring us into a living, vital communion with those truths and impart to us the grace to assimilate and
live those truths.
All of them are spiritually transforming, provided they are approached with sincere faith, though
Baptism/Chrismation is usually held in a certain pre-eminence. This is not because it is a different
"species" of grace, or because the actions of grace have relative value, rather it is because
Baptism/Chrismation is a kind of door which admits us to the rest. It is like the entrance to the wedding
chamber, as in the parable, in which we can partake of all the good things of God. Holy Communion is
set apart. It is, first of all, the wedding feast, a grace-filled manifestation of one's union with the body
of Christ. Baptism/Chrismation reconciles us to God, uniting us to the Bride of Christ, the Holy
Church and brings us into the realm of grace in which all the rest is received. Holy Communion is
totally indispensable to our salvation, as Christ Himself said. It makes us one with Christ, bestows life
and sustains us. Holy Communion is rightly called "the medicine of immortality," and it is the means
of our glorification in Jesus Christ.
One might surmise then, that since these two mysteries are "indispensable," others are "relatively
dispensable." In scholasticism that is, in fact, what is taught. However, such a teaching presupposes
that redemption is a purely juridical act of vicarious punishment, and that salvation consists in either a
passive acceptance of that vicarial sacrifice, or participation in legally prescribed "sacraments" which
substitute for our own struggle toward illumination and sanctification.

What is necessary for salvation is a life-long struggle for illumination and sanctification, ending in
glorification by the Holy Spirit. Salvation depends on our own willing co-operation with God's grace.
Thus, Baptism is only the beginning of our regeneration, though it does bestow upon us a re-birth into
a covenant relationship with God in His holy Church. All the holy mysteries, which involve our willing
co-operation with grace, serve for the continuous process of our sanctification and illumination through
grace. There are external, physical actions involved precisely because we are creatures composed of
body and soul, the physical and the immaterial. We pray both body and soul, and we participate in the
grace of God, both body and soul together as one. Thus, there is both a material and an immaterial
aspect to all prayer and the body manifests its participation in these things physically. It is tragic and
shocking that "catechism" writers, so polluted by Western Scholasticism, forgot that Christian burial is
a Holy Mystery of the Church, just as is marriage and ordination, and the memorial services for the
reposed. If the burial service was not a Holy Mystery ("Sacrament") then the service could be offered
for non-Orthodox as well as believers. The services for those who have fallen asleep in Christ sustain
our communion with them in the Holy Spirit and express and preserve the integrity of the Church,
which is not separated into compartments by death. Indeed, the services for the departed reveal
another, profound meaning of the promise that "the gates of Hades [death] shall not prevail against the
Church."

WHAT IS "GRACE?"

For the sake of simplicity, and to avoid becoming philosophical and technical, we will offer this
outline explanation. Grace is an uncreated energy of God. It is uncreated and eternal. It is not
something that God created or creates for man, but an eternal energy of the Godhead. Grace, as a
special gift of God, is a coming together of God and man. We receive grace by being permitted to
participate in the energies of God to some degree. An act of grace is when man is brought into a
special moment of communion with the Holy Spirit. Grace is not a "thing" or an "attribute" of God,
and even though it is a "gift which God sends down" (Ja.1:17), it cannot be defined, limited or ranked
by degrees. It is God's act of lifting man up to Him and coming down to man, so that man shares in
something of God Himself, and from this, receives a consecration. If, for example, some saint receives
the "gift of working miracles," this gift is not something he possesses on his own, it is a result of his
nearness to God. God extends His blessing by working miracles through that person, and it is a
communion of that holy person with God.
Perhaps what we have said is already too much. The question of the Holy Mysteries and grace must
not be over simplified or over defined. An understanding of these things can never be intellectual and
can never be fully obtained from books, explanations or definitions. An understanding of the things of
God can only be assimilated through an actual living experience of them in a life of prayer,
contemplation, fasting, moral struggle and Holy Communion.

THE DIVINE SERVICES AND PRAYERS WHICH ARE

SPECIFICALLY REFERRED TO AS
"HOLY MYSTERIES."

"The Orthodox Church is a spiritual hospital"

The ways God works through His Holy Orthodox Church to save us and consecrate us are wondrous
and beautiful. He gives us His grace in ways which we cannot always see with our eyes. For this
reason, we call all these personal works of God "Holy Mysteries."
We must work together with God and cooperate with His grace in order to participate in it.
Moreover, the life in Christ is a life preeminently in His Holy Church. The Church was manifested by
God especially for this reason: to bring together as one people of all times, places, tongues and races,
and unite them together by the grace of His Holy Spirit, in a bond and unity of faith. This is the reason
for all the liturgical services, including those specifically referred to as holy mysteries: that we
understand that our redemption consists in the healing of the fallen human nature and its divisions, and
that the works of grace are accomplished in the unity and oneness of the faith, expressed in the synaxis
(coming together) of the people of God, in faith and love. For this reason, the Church has given us a
system of worship services in which, coming together, the people of God, led by the ordained clergy,
call down the grace of the Holy Spirit in mutual prayers, offered with love of God and neighbour. The
prayers are not "formulas," but revelations of the meaning of redemption and of the heavenly kingdom.
These prayers and worship services have been given us to help us understand these wonderful gifts of
God better when we do receive them.

God has given us not only visible divine services which are served in church by all the faithful
together, but prayers which we say any place and any time. In these services and prayers, we
communicate with God and turn our hearts to Him. When our hearts are turned toward Him, God
communicates with us by giving us the gifts of His grace to sustain us and make us stronger in faith.
The words of the prayers and the actions used in the divine services teach us about God's grace, how
He gives it to us, and what happens to us when we receive it. Neither the divine services nor the
prayers are "formulas," and the Holy Mysteries are not accomplished by liturgical formalism as if the
words and actions were magical. All these things — the elements of the liturgical services of the Holy
Mysteries — are revelations of the unity and oneness of the people of God, the faithful Orthodox
Christians, who share them all in common. The liturgical services convey meaning, bring the
community together and join the faithful in common faith and prayer. They maintain correct theology
and teaching and prevent any priest from being the centre of a personality cult. Since a liturgical
service can be equally celebrated by every priest and community, the Holy Spirit and divine grace are
the only "messages."
We are taught that the Orthodox Church is a spiritual hospital in which God treats our souls and
bodies and makes us well enough to enter the Heavenly Kingdom. How does God treat our spiritual
illnesses and give us His divine medicine? This is what the Holy Mysteries are for. Through them, God
gives the medicine of divine grace for the healing of our souls and bodies. In the Holy Mysteries we
also receive strength to live a truly Orthodox life. In the divine services, we all pray together, led by
our priest, and the prayers of all the people together bring these Holy Mysteries to pass and call down
the grace of God on us. We are one body praying together in love and faith. Because of this unity of
love and faith, God answers our prayers and heals us.

How many "Holy Mysteries" are there? There are many. The Orthodox Church does not have a
teaching of "seven sacraments" as some people think. The word "sacrament" is not even an Orthodox
word. There is no limit to the number of Holy Mysteries, just as there is no limit to the grace and work
of God. Every act by which God gives us His grace through the Orthodox Church is a Holy Mystery.

The whole purpose of the divine plan, the "economy" of God is the return of man and of all creation
to fellowship (koinonia) with God. To use the words of Apostle Peter, it is to make us partakers of the
divine Nature by grace (2Pet.1:4). When St Paul tells us that we are saved by Grace, what did he
mean? The answer comes with his words: the mystery hidden from ages and generation, but now made
manifest to His saints (Col.1:26). What is this mystery? Whereby when you read, you may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the children of
men, as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit (Eph.3:4-5). Christ is
the mystery of godliness: God was manifest is the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the nations, believed on in the world, received up into glory (1Tm.3:16).

How is this mystery communicated to us? The sectarians, in their delusion, think that it is by
preaching because they philosophize in Augustinian terms about created grace and subjective faith.
They think themselves merely declared righteous and have no concept of the transformation of created
being. They have no idea about the elevation of human nature to a higher genera, that is, theosis. How,
then, is this mystery communicated to us? How does He dwell in us and we in Him? By uniting
ourselves to Him. What do we call those united to Him? The Church. This is a great mystery; but I
speak concerning Christ and the Church (Eph.5:32). How are we united to Him? Baptism: everyone
who has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ, being baptized into His death and Resurrection
(Rm.6). Quite simply, we are baptized into the Mystery. Every person baptized into Christ is baptized
into the unity which God the Son came to accomplish by His Redemption: "having made known to us
the Mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the
economy of the fulness of times he might recapitulate all things in Christ, both that which is in the
heavens, and that which is on earth (Eph.1:9-10).

This unity is not merely a collocation of individuals, rather it is an organic unity: a unity between
God and man, man and man, man and the angels: Christ in all, all in Christ. How is this accomplished?
Baptism and faith are the start. The Eucharist, the Mystery of Mysteries, the crown of Mysteries, the
liturgical actualization of the mystery hidden before the ages.

This Mystery is communicated to all those who belong to Christ as His body, as the participants of
the new covenant of His Body and Blood. The divinity of Christ is communicated to us through this
great Mystery, the Mystery toward which all the other holy mysteries of the Church are aimed:
Baptism/Chrismation, Ordination, Monastic Ton- sure, Blessing of Water, Crowning of Marriage,
Confession, Blessing of Homes, even Burial.

The realization of the Mysteries among us and for us is accomplished by that uncreated grace, the
grace by means of which we become divine, for, the mysteries are the manifestation of that grace by
which we partake of the divine Nature, according to Apostle Peter.

The discussion above is intended only to lead into the following work of V. Rev. Fr Taras
Kurgansky, providing brief explanations to help the reader follow his work more easily. A member of
the patristic revival movement in pre-revolutionary Russia, Fr Taras discusses the conflict between the
Orthodox Christian concept of Holy Mysteries, and the Latin false teaching of "seven sacraments,"
providing an excellent survey of the subject.

THE FALSE TEACHING

ABOUT THE
"SEVEN SACRAMENTS"
by Hieromonk Taras Kurgansky

The efforts of Western theologians to establish rationalized definitions for all the sacred things and
acts of Christianity compelled them to examine all these matters illogically, in an attempt to categorize
them and separate some from others on the basis of relative importance. Such an approach is
unavoidable in an atmosphere where religious life is based on the principle of juridical legalism, where
the inner quickening of the spirit is replaced with a reign of strict discipline, and there is no place for
the triumph of the regenerated soul. In harmony with this principle, the tendency of scholastic theology
to attempt to define everything by an exact number, led to the Roman Catholic teaching that there are
exactly seven church sacraments, which are the exclusive sources of divine grace.

Such a teaching excessively exalts the hierarchy above the people of God, since it is the exclusive
prerogative of the representatives of the hierarchy to serve these sacraments. The entire inner, spiritual
life of the Church is thus conveniently reduced to the performing of these sacraments, and this placed
the whole matter of salvation in the hands of the hierarchy, relegating the people to a passive,
subjugated role in the general structure of Church life, denying them any living, active participation. In
addition to this practical significance in the life of Western Christianity, the teaching of seven
sacraments naturally follows the [erroneous] teaching about the "three offices" of the Lord, the
"satisfaction of divine justice" and "juridical truth" which is supposedly manifested in the life of the
Lord. The Roman Catholics state the matter thus in one of their catechisms: "`Sacraments' is the name
given to physical sacred forms established by Jesus Christ for the bestowal of grace. The Old
Testament had a multitude of rituals, but not a single sacrament which communicated grace. These
sacraments belong only to the New Testament. Jesus Christ Himself established them so that His blood
and infinite grace, which are abundant and sufficient to encompass all people, might be assimilated by
all his followers." [Ironically, in the "seven sacrament" formula, Confession and repentance are
omitted and replaced with a "sacrament of holy punishment." In every one of the scholastic formularies
of the "seven sacraments" that I have read in the Orthodox Church, Confession and repentance
(metanoia) are not mentioned, but are replaced by something called "penance." Here, penance means to
make satisfaction through an act of mortification imposed by a priest.]

In the process of importing the Latin system of theology and the scholastic manner of reasoning,
into the Ukrainian ecclesiastical school in the 17th century, Kievan theologians first introduced the
teaching of seven sacraments to Orthodox Christianity. This teaching, a Roman one, both in origin
(Peter of Lombardy) and in juridical content, did not encounter resistance on the part of the naive
Russian people, who did not realize how completely contrary it is to sacred tradition. It is completely
clear, from a survey of the Russian church writers Joseph and Zinovy, that in the 16th century, the
Orthodox Church in Russia had never heard of any sevenfold number relating to the Holy Mysteries.
The very definition of the mysteries as sacraments is taken from the Latin catechism: "A sacrament is a
visible sign of God's invisible grace, given for our sanctification," says Lavrenty Zizany. "A sacrament
is a sacred action which, under the guise of form, communicates God's invisible grace to the soul of a
believer," teaches Peter Mohyla.
It is not difficult to grasp the arbitrariness and artificiality of these definitions and concepts. All
theologically educated people know that in the language of Holy Scripture and of Orthodox Christian
patristic works, the expression `Mystery' does not have a sacramental sense, which is attributed to it by
the scholastics. Not only in the poetical and rhetorical works, but also in the deeply theological
expressions of the holy fathers, the term "Mysteries" designates all the manifestations of divine grace,
independent of any formalistic conditions of their accomplishment. Incidents in the life of our Lord are
also referred to as "Mysteries," and the very Christian teaching itself is called a "Mystery." St Gregory
the Theologian calls the feast of the Nativity and Theophany "Mysteries." Other phenomena of the
sacred life, and also monastic tonsure are called Holy Mysteries in sacred hymns of the Church. The
Russian theologians of the 16th century faithfully adhered to the broad, Orthodox Christian sense of
this concept, and only in the 17th century did Russian theology begin to assimilate this novel
[sacramental] concept of the term "Holy Mysteries" or "Mystery."

Following the Latins, Lavrenty Zizany and Peter Mohyla consider a specific, demonstrable proof of
divine establishment to be the distinguishing sign of the "sacraments". If one wished to define this sign
exactly and clearly, then one would have to search for a long time and most carefully in the Holy
Bible. If we take them at their word, then we must come to the conclusion that so far as the
"sacraments" are concerned, the scholastics gave greater significance to ranking them than to
demonstrating a direct and exact proof of establishment by divine will. In most cases, they considered
as sufficient proof of "divine establishment," a vague hint in the Gospel or a casual presence of Jesus
Christ at the occurrence of some common event of life, although this hint or presence might be remote
from its spiritual significance. In other cases, there is not even an example in the life of the Lord which
can be mentioned. Moreover, the principle of the provable divine establishment of seven sacraments,
degrades other divine services which are no less important and which are certainly divinely
established. There is, in fact, a firm testimony of St Basil the Great which establishes the clearly divine
origins of rites, acts and manifestations of Church life which are not included in these "seven
sacraments":

"Of the teachings and practices preserved in the Church, some we have from written instruction;
others we have received `in silence' by the Apostolic tradition. Both of these have the same authority in
relation to true religion. And no one will contradict these — no one, that is, who is even moderately
knowledgeable in the institutions of the Church. For if we were to attempt to reject such traditions as
have no written authority, on the grounds that they are of little importance, we would inadvertently
injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or rather, we would make our public preaching a mere phrase and
nothing more" (On The Holy Spirit, 27:66).
 Advocates will not tolerate signs of these "seven sacraments" other than the "external form of inner
grace" categorization. Nevertheless, in the life of the Church there are other divine services which fully
satisfy these conditions, but which, for some reason, the scholastics do not consider worthy of the
name "Holy Mysteries," [or "sacraments"]. There is even a divine service which has the greatest
importance for the whole life of the one receiving it, and has always been regarded, along with
baptism, the Eucharist and ordination to be a great manifestation of divine grace, but which is regarded
by the scholastics as lower than simple confession or anointing. This divine service is the rite of
monastic tonsure, which is called a Holy Mystery in the works of St Dionysios the Areopagite and St
Theodore the Studite. Thus we cannot be reconciled with the "internal/external signs" by which we are
supposedly obligated to distinguish a "Holy Mystery" from other divine services.

In examining this concept of "sacrament," one is struck by the dichotomy of character and
significance which has created a strange division into "sacraments absolutely necessary for salvation
and ones only relatively necessary for salvation. Such a division is possible only when salvation is
viewed as a formalism. We read in the [heretical] Great Catechism: "Those which are absolutely
necessary for salvation are three: baptism, communion and penance. Those necessary for salvation are
two: confirmation and last rite unction. Marriage is necessary for those who use it to help preserve
them from fornication, and absolutely necessary in bearing children for the sake of fulfilling the
Church. The priesthood is similar. It is necessary for those ordained to direct the Church and perform
the holy sacraments of God" (para. 30).

By their very name, all the Holy Mysteries must have equal significance, yet the incomprehensibility
and confusion engendered by such a legalistic division of the Holy Mysteries is evident even to the
author of the Great Catechism himself. Later, he adds still more Latin scholasticism, writing: "It is
beneficial for you to know of yet another division. All seven sacraments are necessary, but not for
every person, nor are they equal. Marriage and priesthood are absolutely necessary for the Church,
nevertheless, one who is not married and not ordained can be saved. The other five sacraments are
necessary for salvation, but not equally so. Baptism, Communion and penance are absolutely necessary
for everyone for salvation, and will save. Without them, not a single person can be saved. Holy unction
and last rites are necessary for salvation in this degree: they give us more assurance of our salvation,
for holy oil prepares us to suffer with more assurance, while last rites release one from all remains of
sins. For this reason, one who is neglectful of them has no certainty of his salvation, unless he desired
them but was unable to obtain them" (ibid).

Though he did not attribute varied significance to the Holy Mysteries, Lavrenty Zizany nevertheless
asserts the sevenfold number and sacramental nature of them.
Regardless of the convincing tone of these writers, every unbiased reader who is acquainted with the
spirit of patristic writings remains convinced that the very idea of a Holy Mystery being understood as
a sacramental act special and different in comparison with other divine services and acts, belongs
exclusively to Latin [Roman Catholic] theology. He will also understand that the number of such
sacred actions is set by the scholastics arbitrarily and artificially, that deliberation about a greater or
lesser necessity for salvation of one or another of the Holy Mysteries is foolish. For, salvation is
accomplished not by separate sacred actions, but by union with the life of the Church, in which there is
nothing which has little significance. Such divine services as the great blessing of water, monastic
tonsure and the funeral service are no less significant and important than others. We find it onerous to
make comparisons of the relative importance of divine services or sacred actions. Upon what does the
importance of a divine service or sacred act depend? Could it really be the quantity or degree of grace?
But if one is to deliberate on such grounds and not consider the higher spiritual sense of the divine
services and sacred acts, then the serving of various services is incomprehensible. [This is one of the
great tragedies of "sacramentalism." Not only does it make the people of God peripheral in the life of
the Church, but it denigrates and renders meaningless the "synaxis of the people of God," in whom the
Holy Spirit indwells both individually and corporately, and through whom all the mysteries of the
grace of God are accomplished.]
There is neither need nor basis to apply a vain concept of human understandings to Christian divine
services, which must be understood purely spiritually. In addition to what we have already said, it is
obvious from other sources that the Kievan theologians were attached to the Latin sacramental
formula, and the influence of Latin juridicalism is also present in this.
As we saw in our review of the patristic approach, the holy fathers, when discussing divine services
and sacred acts, say nothing of a formula of sacred actions, and no such references occur in the
dogmatic teaching of the Church. The difficulty in sacramental formulae and definitions of formulae
and the attempt to pinpoint a legal "moment of accomplishment," became evident in the teaching about
the Eucharist. In exploring this teaching, we see a contradiction in the system of Lavrenty Zizany and
Peter Mohyla. Zizany, together with the Roman Catholics, considers the pronouncement of the Lord's
words ["Take eat, all of you....All of you drink of it...] to be the "moment of visible accomplishment"
of the Mystery, while Peter Mohyla, coming closer to the sense and meaning of the liturgy, considers
the blessing of the bread and wine to be the formula.
One must protest that the lofty, spiritual sense of the Divine Liturgy, composed by the apostles and
transmitted by two of the greatest pillars of the Christian Church, is not open to such coarse, sensual
philosophizing. A notable example of such sensual philosophy is Lavrenty Zizany's deliberations on
the moment when, after the consecration of the Gifts, the deacon says " Break, master, the Holy
Bread."

The Great Catechism is especially penetrated with a worldly spirit reminiscent of the medieval
scholastic doctrines from which the whole document is borrowed. Also striking is the author's coarse
literalism. First of all, one is shocked at the teaching of the Eucharist as a sacrifice satisfying God. We
have already spoken of the complete insolvency of the very idea of "satisfaction" or "satisfaction of
justice," but even for those who would accept this idea, it seems strange why God, who was once
[according to their doctrine] infinitely satisfied, continues to receive satisfaction with each new
offering of the blood and body of His Son. As if this was not enough, the author of the Great
Catechism has the bloody suffering of Christ in the Eucharist exceed the limits of Golgotha. The
scholastics did not want to omit even the insignificant easing of His sufferings wherein the Roman
soldiers did not break His bones. They assert:
"On the Cross, it is said that `His bones will not be broken,' but in order that the thing which was not
suffered on the Cross be suffered somehow, it is suffered in the prosphora. That is to say, in the
breaking of the prosphora, we behold this broken thing that this [the breaking of the bones] may be
fulfilled" (Great Catechism, para.33).
These words demonstrate clearly what a coarse, sensual character distinguished the view of the
Eucharist held by the Kievan theologians.

We have already had occasion to mention the concept of "satisfaction" which was introduced into
the realm of the theology of repentance from the general view of Latin theologians. For now, we will
limit ourselves to observing that their teaching of "penance" is distinguished by the idea that
confession is a juridical cleansing of sins. No doubt the custom of confessing one's sins to a spiritual
father is ancient in the Church, but the holy instructors of the faith, in expounding the concept of
repentance, turned their attention to the soul of the repentant ones and not to the external circumstances
of the repentance. Truly, confession is an important act, and it is undoubtedly a "mystery" in the
broadest sense. Nevertheless, if, when setting forth the teaching about repentance, one limits oneself to
a discussion of the conditions of confession, and introduces juridical elements into it, this is a departure
from the teaching of the holy and God-bearing fathers and an absorption of Latin scholasticism. In the
East, the nature of repentance was understood more clearly, and was not limited by the idea of
confession. The monk Job even identifies anointing with repentance, and one must agree that the inner
spiritual content of both holy mysteries leads to such a conclusion.
The Great Catechism and the [Latinized] Orthodox Confession introduce marriage as a "sacrament,"
even though marriage is something which exists outside the realm of religion, even in societies which
are not religious. Christ did not omit to mention such an important phenomenon of human life and, as
the Evangelist relates, showed a preference for virginity (Mt.19:12). The apostle expounds the same
thing in more detail (1Cor.7). In the dogmatic writings of St Gregory, St John and Blessed Zinovy,
nothing at all is said of marriage as a Holy Mystery, only as something which is possible in the
Church.
Lavrenty Zizany waivers concerning his "absolute necessity" and "relative necessity" of marriage,
and is inclined to consider marriage "absolutely necessary" for the Church. Let us merely note that the
idea that marriage is indispensable for the Church actually contradicts the Apostle, who desired to see
all Christians virgin (1Cor.7:7). It is true that the Apostle referred to marriage as a "mystery"
(Eph.5:32), but he is not specifying Christian marriage, rather all marriages. In this instance, one must
understand by the term "mystery," a mystical, transcendent law of life. Indeed, the very content of the
words of the Apostle makes it clear that he has in mind not a sacred ritual or divine service (about
which nothing is mentioned), but rather a psychological and a physiological act of marital love. What
is to be considered as a mystery of marriage — the rite of crowning, or the marital cohabitation? We
will not make any further comment since the explanations and interpretations given in the Great
Catechism is so obviously strained. [Let us note that, in the early Church, as in Israel, marriage was
"common law." There was no special divine service for it.]

Concerning the teaching about "seven sacraments," a teaching which has its source in the works of
heretics cannot be authentic or of any vital use. The practice of the Orthodox Christian Church never
followed the narrow tendencies of scholastic theology, and it always acknowledges great efficacy and
spiritual power in all prayers, sacred acts and rites of the faith.

2
THE NATURE OF REDEMPTION

Co-suffering love is the mystery of redemption. The heresy of juridicalism must be weeded out at all
costs.

The Orthodox concept of redemption may be briefly epitomized as follows: while "atonement" is not
an Orthodox Christian term or expression, we may look at its actual meaning. "Atonement" is really
"to remove (or overcome) the cause of separation." In other words, man is separated from God by sin
(that is, by his constant "missing of the mark;" habitually misusing his energies), and so he is in
bondage to death. Since man sins continually because of the power of death, sin separates man from
God and death perpetuates the separation (and vice versa). By death, we fall short (again, by "missing
the mark" — sin) of our original destiny, which is to live through unity with the Creator.

The following summary of the Orthodox teaching about redemption is drawn from various works by
Fr John Romanides:
 Christ saves men, who have fallen through their own fault into the power of the devil, by breaking
that power. He became Man for this purpose; He lived and died and rose again that He might break the
chains by which men were bound. It is not His death alone, but the entire Incarnation, of which His
death was a necessary part, that freed men from their captivity to Satan. By becoming Man, living a
sinless life, and rising from the dead (which He could not have done unless He had first died), He
introduced a new power into human nature. This power is bestowed on all men who are willing to
receive it, through the Holy Spirit. Those who receive it are united with Christ in His Mystical Body,
the Church; the corrupted human nature (the bad habits and evil desires, which St Paul calls "the old
man": Rm.6:6; Eph.4: 22; Col.3:9) is driven out by degrees, until at last it is expelled altogether, and
the redeemed person becomes entirely obedient to the will of God, as our Lord Himself was when on
earth. The prisoner is set free from the inside; his mind and body are both changed; he comes to know
what freedom is, to desire it and, by the Holy Spirit working within him, to break his chains, turn the
key and leave the dungeon. Thus, he is freed from the power of sin. God forgives him, as an act of pure
love; but the condition of his forgiveness is that he must sin no more. "While we were yet sinners
Christ died for us" (Rm.5:8-9) but, if we continue to be sinners, Christ's death for us will have been in
vain; and we are made capable of ceasing to be sinners by the power of Christ's Resurrection, which
has given us the power to struggle against sinfulness, toward moral perfection.

The advantage of this Orthodox teaching is that it is firmly based on the New Testament. "God was
in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2Cor.5:19); the act of reconciliation is effected by God in
the Person of His Son, for it is man that needs to be reconciled to God, not God that needs to be
reconciled to man....Throughout the New Testament we find the proclamation that Christ has broken
the power of the devil, to which mankind was subject (see Lk.10: 17-18); 11:22; 1Cor.15:25; Gal.1:4;
Col.2:15; 2Tm.1:10; Hb.2:14; Jn.10:11; 12:31; 16:11; 1Jn.3:8; and frequently in Rev.). Moreover, this
teaching of the atonement requires no "legal fiction," and attributes no immoral or unrighteous action
to God. Man is not made suddenly good or treated as good when he is not good [the classical
Protestant delusion]; he is forgiven not because he deserves to be forgiven, but because God loves him,
and he is made fit for union with God by God's own power, his own will co-operating....He is saved
from the power of sin by the risen life of Christ within him, and from the guilt of sin by God's
forgiveness, of which his own repentance is a condition.

Thus, salvation consists in the union of the faithful with the life of God in the Body of Christ (the
Holy Church) where the Evil-One is being progressively and really destroyed in the life of co-suffering
love. This union is effected by Baptism (the Grace of regeneration) and fulfilled in the Holy
Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, and in the mutual, cooperative struggle of Orthodox
Christians against the power and influence of the Evil-One. This is precisely why the last words of the
"Lord's Prayer" are, "deliver us from the Evil-One," and not "deliver us from evil."

Symbolism, Ritual and Revelation

I
When Donald Hebb released his seminal paper on neuroplasticity in 1947-1948, he radically changed
the way learning was perceived. Perhaps we should rather say that he set in motion a whole series of
developments that produced new and deeper understandings about the whole function of the brain,
shed light on the mind and provided a profound insight into revelation and the meaning of ritual and
symbolism. Orthodox Christians may find it interesting to note that the fathers and mothers of early
monasticism had already perceived the principles of neuro-plasticity without having any of the
physiological or scientific information about the brain. What they understood was the profound link
between the spiritual, emotional and physical aspects of mankind.
God and His works are not to be understood by fallen human concepts and rationalism. God spoke
to Israel offering iconic types and imagery that led the holy nation to a spiritual understanding of the
awesome mysteries and did not permit them to identify their expectation with earthly and limited
expressions. In the same way, our holy fathers offered an apophatic theology carefully setting signs,
types and symbols to establish a boundary for us on the true path, but never delimiting the mystery in a
frame of words that would diminish the Will of God and His revelation to the likeness of a legal
document. No theology is according to the Orthodox Faith if it is not based on those valid types and
symbols which we have received in our Sacred Tradition. In the Holy Seventh Ecumenical Council,
the holy fathers clearly dogmatised that valid icons are the equivalent of true theology. Valid icons
consist in types and symbols, not in interpretations of reality by the fallen human mind. All elements of
a canonical icon are symbolic and contain a profound revelation; there are no naturalistic elements in
this Liturgical art.

No theology can be valid and sound unless it is based first of all on the icon that God offers in the first
pages of the book of Genesis: God created man according to His likeness, one nature revealed in many
persons, as the one divine nature is revealed in three distinct hypostases. He created man to live in the
likeness of His own life. That life is revealed to us in types and symbols, for God, and from Him the
Holy Church, clearly have understood that mankind's mind and its brain, his knowledge and his
language are all symbolic, that language develops on the matrix of vision, and that even what we see
enters the brain and is processed in symbolic images. It is interpreted by the mind in the brain
symbolically and the concepts attached to this symbolic unfolding constitute the meaning that one
gives to all things.

The Orthodox Christian liturgical services and the symbolism that they contain are also expressions of
such a deep understanding. While rationalists have not been able to grasp the significance of this, it is
an example of the profound depth of the revelation contained in Orthodox worship. This being the
case, it is especially disturbing to see so many of our teachers and priests advocating an abandonment
of the types and symbols that have been given to us through the holy fathers, and especially by the
liturgists, of the Orthodox Church. In particular, there are writers in our era who complain about the
symbolism given to actions in the Divine Services and to various elements of the furnishings in the
altar. They decry the symbolism attached to the chalice covers, the aer, the rapidé and other items used
in the liturgy. Some wish to abolish the iconostas altogether, or at least the Royal Gates. In attempting
to abolish the symbolic elements of worship, they would lead us on the path to Anglican/Episcopalian
meaninglessness. Let us recall that it was just such "liturgical reform" that left the Anglican Church
even more empty of significance and meaning than it had been at the beginning of the 20th century.
Let us recall also that the Anglican Church of Canada now permanently closes on average of one
parish church a week.

We will give some concrete examples of the heretical notions and falsehoods that develop within the
Church when the wisdom and understanding of the great liturgists, including St. Symeon of
Thessaloniki, are disregarded, or even unknown to priest, hierarchs and teachers in the Church.

II
The Human Need For Symbolism and Ritual

Recently, near our monastery, a seventeen years old girl was killed in an auto accident. She had been
speeding and lost control of her car. By evening, there were dozens of candles burning beneath the tree
into which she had crashed. Mounds of flowers, cards and notes appeared, and someone placed a
wooden cross against the tree with her name on it. A month later, candles are still being lit at the site.

Last week, Father Moses and I travelled to a small city in the northeastern part of our province to serve
a funeral for a young Orthodox man who had drowned on a fishing trip. Of the approximately 250
people who attended the funeral, many of them classmates from the young man's school, not more than
a dozen were Orthodox. The people were either Protestant or of no religion, but most of them
especially the youth, brought candles to light. The majority of them took time to come and tell us how
meaningful the Orthodox funeral service had been. Not a few of them commented on the penetrating
symbolism in the words and ritual of the service. One young man commented, "I became aware that
you were not serving for John, but were serving with him. It made me realise that he has a soul that is
still alive."At an earlier funeral which we served in another town, the warden of the United Church was
present. Afterward he remarked, "I was so struck to realise that you were serving the funeral with the
deceased, rather than for her." The symbolic actions in the service had clearly penetrated the man's
understanding, even though his denomination has almost totally renounced any form of symbolism in
worship.

We have seen this deep human need for symbolism so many times before and in history as well. When
symbolism in worship and in life are missing, people create their own and respond to it. When the
symbolism they adopt is not divinely inspired and rooted in the Sacred Tradition of Christianity, it
often incorporates pagan ideas and folds into the "New Age Movement." Such symbolism and
symbolic actions so profoundly convey and establish spiritual, emotional and cultural concepts,
knowledge and values that no society or culture is without them. Symbolic actions and symbolism in
worship arising from the Sacred Tradition and experience of the Holy Church help maintain the
doctrine and inner life of the Christian faith.

The Orthodox Church has always understood this. Without symbolic actions and symbolism in divine
services, both teachings and worship become the sterile reserve of dry intellectualism. Indeed, some of
our own intelligentsia advocate that we abandon the idea of symbolism and symbolic understandings in
the Divine Liturgy, Vespers and Matins, and render them as concrete and sterile theological
intellectualisms, accessible only to scholastic, rationalistic minds. In this way, they would become
external and lack the power to penetrate the soul the way symbolic understandings do.Human language
is symbolic. It conveys information, concepts, ideas and values in a symbolic manner. Language
developed on the matrix of vision. This is clear both physiologically and theoretically. Vision transfers
patterns and reflections of light into symbolic images in the brain. Words are symbols whose meanings
are established by cultural, religious or legal norms. Defined symbolism can be grasped and
understood even by simple, uneducated people for whom concrete intellectualised and philosophically
elegant refinements are completely inaccessible. So too are the sophisticated abstractions so often
expressed by theologians. The Liturgy, we know, is eschatological, it carries us into the eternal
wedding banquet of the Heavenly Bridegroom.

Fine, but what has this to say about the daily struggle of the ordinary Orthodox Christian worshipper?
What visible symbolism can the overworked, stressed and harassed daily commuter, concerned about
his or her mortgage, the needs and education of their children, coping with taxes, maintaining a home
and automobile, and now trying to pay for gasoline, find in the Liturgical cycle, that is easily
accessible to them and elevating to their souls in a straightforward way that they can comprehend? Is
the Orthodox faith and worship ultimately only truly accessible to the intellectual and his remote,
abstract understandings and interpretations?
This is why there are clearly symbolic actions in the divine services, and symbolism in both
iconography and the structure of the Orthodox temple and in particular, in the altar. Our philosophical
rationalists may claim that such symbolism is not needed and that interpretations of the Liturgy
expressing the symbolic aspects of it are "accretions," but this only proves the point that meaning is
conveyed symbolically. They may be able to offer a highly refined and elegant philosophical concept
of the Liturgy, but their hearts might never be penetrated with its actual meaning which underpins the
daily spiritual struggle of the sincerely pious faithful.

III
Symbolism and Neuroplasticity:
the work of the mind in the brain.

This essay is not being written for every level of reader. It is intended to respond to a stream of
rationalism which is drawing a kind of Episcopalization or Anglican style "liturgical reform"
movement within the Orthodox Church. There are a many of such rationalists who would lead us on
the same path that the Anglican-Episcopalian Churches have gone upon. Reductionism and
minimalism in the divine services and the liturgical cycle have had a deeply negative effect everywhere
they have been instituted. It is the connection between the Orthodox liturgical cycle and our liturgical
art (iconography) and the structuring of the brain that we wish to examine. First, let us explain, as
simply as possible, what is meant by neuroplasticity.

The Mind Can Reshape the Brain

This may be a startling statement to some people, and it does have to be qualified that there are clear
limitations on the principle.. For those who think that the mind is only a function of brain chemistry, it
will appear antithetical. Nevertheless, the ability of the mind to rewire and restructure the brain is
precisely what we are going to discuss. We are particularly interested in examining this process in
connection with the liturgical cycle and the symbolic aspects of liturgy and iconography.

There are many, sometimes extreme examples, of the ability of the mind to retrain and restructure the
brain. It takes a lot of work and dedicated focus. One of the primary sources of our knowledge of this
process is stroke victims or persons with other brain injuries. If one part of the brain is injured, another
section can be trained to take over its functions. The Arrowsmith School in Toronto specializes in
teaching people to "rewire" their brains in order to overcome learning disabilities.

Repeated Actions and Words

It is through repetition of actions, phrases and words, particularly in fixed symbolic contexts, that this
restructuring takes place. It is known that neurons and synapses in the brain can be strengthened by
repetition, by repeated engagement of the neurons and neuro-communication. Neuro-connections can
also atrophy from lack of engagement or use. Repeated acts and phrases can also have an epigenetic
effect and can effect DNA. Repetitious prayer can, for example, activate genes to produce the proteins
that change the structure of neurons and increase neuro-connections among brain cells. The brain
functions in codes which are or construct symbolic constructs. Language itself is a form of verbal
symbolism that creates images in the brain in an unconsciously understood interpretation.

Prayer and Liturgy

All that we have said in this brief paper is greatly simplified. Nevertheless, it should present some idea
of why we use such repetitious prayers as "the Jesus Prayer," augmented by the repetitious use of the
prayer rope. It should also lead us to a greater appreciation for the symbolic actions and repeated
phrases in liturgical worship. Perhaps if we have some notion of the effects of these things, we can
focus on them and through concentration, focus an intent of the mind we can experience the desired
restructuring among the neurons, synapses and communicators in our brain. In order to accomplish
this, faith, focus and commitment in worship and prayer are necessary. Attempting to reinvent the
Divine Liturgy or expunge the symbolic understanding of it will undermine this process and rob the
Liturgy of much of its power to impact so profoundly on the mind, brain and spiritual heart of man.
This would be a tragic loss ultimately resulting in a disunity and disintegration in the Orthodox
Church.

To understand this better, let us remember that these changes in the brain are significant and powerful.
Overcoming stroke damage may take years of focus and work on oneself, but the restoration of
function dramatically restores the quality of life. Overcoming serious learning disabilities by utilising
neuroplasticity also requires a lengthy system of retraining and restructuring in the brain, but the
results can be quite dramatic. Not everyone has the patience or the strength of will and commitment to
accomplish these things.

Regarding the liturgical services and symbolic features in the Orthodox Church, it is clear that an
awareness of such capacities of mind and brain existed. Such an awareness would have had to come
from the Holy Spirit because it was not until the end of the 1940s that an actual understanding of these
features began to develop. Now that we do have more understanding of this, it is possible for us to
focus on the symbolic and repetitious aspects of liturgy, prayer, and the Orthodox Christian lifestyle in
a more concentrated and beneficial way. Generations of Orthodox Christians have received such
spiritual benefits by osmosis in worship, prayer and spiritual struggle. Others whose hearts were closed
to it, did not. We can also better understand why contrived liturgies and liturgical reform, such as the
"Western Rite" and renovationism have no intrinsic spiritual power. Rather they are shaped by human
passions and often degenerate into a form of entertainment or emotionalistic expressions of self-
centredness. They require no real focus, spiritual struggle or patient commitment.

We realize that some will be upset that such spiritual growth and ascent has so clearly a physical
dimension. This is a Gnostic attitude. The brain is the instrument of the mind and the mind is a
function of the brain. Soul and body work together as a unified entity. They are neither at enmity with
one another nor is either one complete in itself. Indeed, the brain must even be equipped with some
inner construct that functions for an awareness of God and for spiritual insight. To imagine that our
spiritual life is a metaphysical abstraction that is external to the physical body and its functions is sheer
Gnosticism.

The Errors of Those Who Ignore the Liturgists

When we mention "liturgists," many people think of those whom we used to call "typikon
commandos." There was a humorous reference to them, "What is the difference between a terrorist and
a typikon expert? You can negotiate with a terrorist." This is not what we mean by "liturgist." We are
referring both to Saint James the Apostle who gave us the Christian Liturgy, and to Saints Basil the
Great and John Chrysostom who standardised the Liturgy throughout the Byzantine Empire, and also
to the recognised authorities on the liturgical services, such as St. Symeon of Thessaloniki (the
foremost expert and commentator of the divine services) and Nicholas Kavasilas. There are also
completely authoritative comments on liturgical services in the Didascalion.
Let us examine just one very severe and critical error. There are a number of bizarre and grotesque
tales about the meaning of the memorial services which we serve on the third, ninth and fortieth days
following the repose of an Orthodox Christian. Of course, the services are not served for everyone.
Soldiers who die in battle, people with no close relatives, those who perish at sea and those who repose
far away from any Orthodox Church often have neither an Orthodox Funeral service or any of the
memorials. If we were to accept some of the bizarre stories, some told even by saints of the Church,
then we must conclude that all those people were taken to hell by demons only because the services
were not said for them. This is the "magic formula" theory of the divine services.
The doctrinal statement of the Orthodox Church about these memorial services is quite clear, and
expressed both by Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki and in the Didascalion. We serve a memorial on the
third day because of the resurrection of Christ on the third day, opening the way for the resurrection of
all mankind. We serve on the ninth day because the soul, unable to receive its reward of recompense
until it is reunited with the body is kept by the nine orders of angels. We have a memorial service on
the fortieth day because Christ ascended into heaven on that day, both Body and Soul, thus revealing
that all will likewise ascend body and soul together. Despite such authoritative declarations of the
Orthodox Church, we hear many gruesome tales about what takes place during the days after the
repose of a person, and why they must be "prayed into heaven," or else the demons will snatch them.
We hear tales of wandering souls needing to be prayed to rest and a number of other ghost stories. The
adepts of such tales can rummage about in the early Church writings and find some disconnected
"proof texts" for such stories and never stop to consider the irreconcilable internal contradictions that
this creates in the established doctrine of the Orthodox Church. They never refer to the Memorial of
Funeral services themselves, because they contain not a hint of any such fantasies. Nor do they ever
refer to the commentaries of the recognised Liturgists of the Orthodox Church, because they give
explanations that are diametrically opposed to such outlandish ideas as the Aerial Toll Houses,
wandering souls or the necessity of never omitting a single word of these service, because to do so
would endanger the soul (the "magic formula" theory). It is well, therefore to pay attention to the
recognised Liturgists such as Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki and others rather than following the
bizarre stories. The symbolism of the memorials and funerals is quite profound and direct, and it is in
this symbolism that we become spiritually educated and edified about the mystery of death and
resurrection