The Ladder

'I have just seen the angels, and they showed me a page with all my many sins. I said to them: "The Lord said: 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' I have never judged anyone and I hope in the mercy of God, that He will not judge me." And the angels tore up the sheet of paper.' Hearing this, the monks wondered at it and learned from it.



"But Adam did not wish to say, "I sinned," but said rather the contrary of this and placed the blame for the transgression upon God Who created everything "very good," saying to Him, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate." And after him she also placed the blame upon the serpent, and they did not wish at all to repent and, falling down before the Lord God, beg forgiveness of Him. For this, God banished them from Paradise, as from a royal palace, to live in this world as exiles. At that time also He decreed that a flaming sword should be turned and should guard the entrance into Paradise. And God did not curse Paradise, since it was the image of the future unending life of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven. If it were not for this reason, it would have been fitting to curse it most of all, since within it was performed the transgression of Adam. But God did not do this, but cursed only the whole rest of the earth, which also was corrupt and brought forth everything by itself; and this was in order that Adam might not have any longer a life free from exhausting labors and sweat..."

-Saint John Klimacos

Saint Maximos: The Holy Cross

Τὰ φαινόμενα πάντα δεῖται σταυροῦ· τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργουμένων ἐπεχούσης τὴν σχέσιν, ἕξεως· τὰ δὲ νοούμενα πάντα, χρῄζει ταφῆς· τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατὰ νοῦν ἐνεργουμένων ὁλικῆς ἀκινησίας. Τῇ γὰρ σχέσει συναναιρουμένης τῆς περὶ πάντα φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας τε καὶ κινήσεως, ὁ λόγος μόνος ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτὸν ὑπάρχων, ὥσπερ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγηγερμένος ἀναφαίνεται, πάντα κατὰ περιγραφὴν ἔχων τὰ ἐξ αὐτοῦ, μηδενὸς φυσικῇ σχέσει τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν οἰκειότητα τὸ σύνολον ἔχοντος. Κατὰ χάριν γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶν ἡ τῶν σωζομένων σωτηρία.



Κοσμάς ο Αιτωλός: Μανασσής, ο βασιλεύς των Εβραίων

Τον παλαιόν καιρόν ήτο ένας βασιλεύς των Εβραίων λεγόμενος Μανασσής, ο οποίος τούς εβασάνιζε με πολλά παιδευτήρια. Τον εσυμβούλευαν οι προφήται και διδάσκαλοι να κυβερνά τον λαόν με πραότητα, αλλ’ αυτός δεν ήκουε τον λόγον του Θεού, δεν μετενόησε. Βλέπων ο Θεός την κακήν του γνώμην τι κάμνει; Σηκώνει ένα βασιλέα από την ανατολήν και τον πολεμεί και τον παίρνει σκλάβον, και τον κλειδώνει μέσα εις ένα καζάνι δια να τον κάψη. Τι κάμνει εκεί ο Μανασσής, μέσα εις το χάλκωμα; Ενεθυμήθη τας αμαρτίας του, έκλαυσε, παρεκάλεσε τον Θεόν να τον ελευθερώση και πλέον δεν αμαρτάνει. Βλέπων ο Θεός την καλήν του γνώμην ήκουσε την μετάνοιάν του, εδέχθη τα δάκρυά του και έστειλεν ένα άγγελον και τον ελευθερώνει από εκείνον τον κίνδυνον.Ύστερον επώλησε τα πράγματά του και τα έδωσεν ελεημοσύνην και υπήγε και ασκήτευεν εις όλην του την ζωήν με νηστείας, αγρυπνίας, προσευχάς, και επήγεν εις τον παράδεισον να χαίρεται πάντοτε. Ανίσως, αδελφοι μου, και είνε κανείς από σας και είνε σκληροκάρδιος ωσάν τον Μανασσή και ενθυμηθή τας αμαρτίας του και μετανοήση και κλαύση, ας είνε βέβαιος ότι δέχεται την μετάνοιάν του καθώς του Μανασσή.



The Holy Cross



LEARN, MY BRETHREN WHAT is the meaning of the sign of the Cross. When we put our hand on [our] head, it reveals God who is in the sky. When we put it over [our] navel, it reveals that he descended to earth and became incarnate. When we put [our] hand on the right breast, it reveals that he is just and eternal and that he will place the just on his right hand. And when we put it on [our] left side, it reveals that he will judge all the nations and they will stand on his left side and he will put them into hell.

The holy Cross, my brethren, is the wellspring of the whole earth. The holy Cross blesses the entire world, all that is divine and holy in the churches. The Cross blesses the Divine Liturgy and every service. The Cross blesses the saints. The Cross blesses and strengthens baptism. The Cross blesses couples. The Cross chases away demons who flee like lightning. The Cross is a bright weapon, and whoever makes the sign of the Cross is illuminated and is blessed. It is like a double-edged sword to which the demons don't draw near to urge people to commit sin.

Wherever a person sets out to travel, he should first make the sign of the Cross and say the prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ." Whether you go to the fair or to the field, or to the vineyard, or when you eat bread or fruit, or drink wine or water, when you go to sleep, worship God. Make the sign of the Cross over your body and then lie down to sleep. You will then sleep and will rise in the morning strong and happy. So, my brethren, you have understood and now know.

-Saint Kosmas Aitolos



Wisdom let us Attend

"Do not enjoy yourself. Enjoy dances and theaters and joy-rides and champagne and oysters; enjoy jazz and cocktails and night-clubs if you can enjoy nothing better; enjoy bigamy and burglary and any crime in the calendar, in preference to the other alternative; but never learn to enjoy yourself."

-G.K. Chesterton

"That was when I found out that the best way in the world to make yourself feel better when you have hit bottom is to try to get somebody else to feel better. There are certain things in life that are truly worth knowing, and that is one of the big ones."

-Gene Worlfe

Anaphora found in Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions

(For complete text go to http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.ix.ix.ii.html)

For Thou art truly holy, and most holy, the highest and most highly exalted for ever. Holy also is Thy only begotten Son our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, who in all things ministered to His God and Father, both in Thy various creation and Thy suitable providence, and has not overlooked lost mankind. But after the law of nature, after the exhortations in the positive law, after the prophetical reproofs and the government of the angels, when men had perverted both the positive law and that of nature, and had cast out of their mind the memory of the flood, the burning of Sodom, the plagues of the Egyptians, and the slaughters of the inhabitant of Palestine, and being just ready to perish universally after an unparalleled manner, He was pleased by Thy good will to become man, who was man’s Creator; to be under the laws, who was the Legislator; to be a sacrifice, who was an High Priest; to be a sheep, who was the Shepherd. And He appeased Thee, His God and Father, and reconciled Thee to the world, and freed all men from the wrath to come, and was made of a virgin, and was in flesh, being God the Word, the beloved Son, the first-born of the whole creation, and was, according to the prophecies which were foretold concerning Him by Himself, of the seed of David and Abraham, of the tribe of Judah. And He was made in the womb of a virgin, who formed all mankind that are born into the world; He took flesh, who was without flesh; He who was begotten before time, was born in time; He lived holily, and taught according to the law; He drove away every sickness and every disease from men, and wrought signs and wonders among the people; and He was partaker of meat, and drink, and sleep, who nourishes all that stand in need of food, and “fills every living creature with His goodness; "He manifested His name to those that knew it not;” He drave away ignorance; He revived piety, and fulfilled Thy will; He finished the work which Thou gavest Him to do; and when He had set all these things right, He was seized by the hands of the ungodly, of the high priests and priests, falsely so called, and of the disobedient people, by the betraying of him who was possessed of wickedness as with a confirmed disease; He suffered many things from them, and endured all sorts of ignominy by Thy permission; He was delivered to Pilate the governor, and He that was the Judge was judged, and He that was the Saviour was condemned; He that was impassible was nailed to the cross, and He who was by nature immortal died, and He that is the giver of life was buried, that He might loose those for whose sake He came from suffering and death, and might break the bonds of the devil, and deliver mankind from his deceit. He arose from the dead the third day; and when He had continued with His disciples forty days, He was taken up into the heavens, and is sat down on the right hand of Thee, who art His God and Father.

Being mindful, therefore, of those things that He endured for our sakes, we give Thee thanks, O God Almighty, not in such a manner as we ought, but as we are able, and fulfil His constitution: “For in the same night that He was betrayed, He took bread in His holy and undefiled hands, and, looking up to Thee His God and Father, “He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, This is the mystery of the new covenant...

Anaphora of Saint Iakovos the Brother of the Lord

Holy art Thou, King of eternity, and Lord and giver of all holiness; holy also Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom Thou hast made all things; holy also Thy Holy Spirit, which searches all things, even Thy deep things, O God: holy art Thou, almighty, all-powerful, good, dread, merciful, most compassionate to Thy creatures; who didst make man from earth after Thine own image and likeness; who didst give him the joy of paradise; and when he transgressed Thy commandment, and fell away, didst not disregard nor desert him, O Good One, but didst chasten him as at merciful father, call him by the law, instruct him by the prophets; and afterwards didst send forth Thine only-begotten Son Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, into the world, that He by His coming might renew and restore Thy image;

Who, having descended from heaven, and become flesh of the Holy Spirit and Virgin Theotokos Mary, and having sojourned among men, fulfilled the dispensation for the salvation of our race; and being about to endure His voluntary and life-giving death by the cross, He the sinless for us the sinners, in the night in which He was betrayed, nay, rather delivered Himself up for the life and salvation of the world.  Having taken the bread in His holy and pure and blameless and immortal hands, lifting up His eyes to heaven, and showing it to Thee, His God and Father, He gave thanks, and hallowed, and brake, and gave it to us...

Anaphora of Saint Basil

Together with these blessed powers, loving Master we sinners also cry out and say: Truly You are holy and most holy, and there are no bounds to the majesty of Your holiness. You are holy in all Your works, for with righteousness and true judgment You have ordered all things for us. For having made man by taking dust from the earth, and having honored him with Your own image, O God, You placed him in a garden of delight, promising him eternal life and the enjoyment of everlasting blessings in the observance of Your commandments. But when he disobeyed You, the true God who had created him, and was led astray by the deception of the serpent becoming subject to death through his own transgressions, You, O God, in Your righteous judgment, expelled him from paradise into this world, returning him to the earth from which he was taken, yet providing for him the salvation of regeneration in Your Christ. For You did not forever reject Your creature whom You made, O Good One, nor did You forget the work of Your hands, but because of Your tender compassion, You visited him in various ways: You sent forth prophets; You performed mighty works by Your saints who in every generation have pleased You. You spoke to us by the mouth of Your servants the prophets, announcing to us the salvation which was to come; You gave us the law to help us; You appointed angels as guardians. And when the fullness of time had come, You spoke to us through Your Son Himself, through whom You created the ages. He, being the splendor of Your glory and the image of Your being, upholding all things by the word of His power, thought it not robbery to be equal with You, God and Father. But, being God before all ages, He appeared on earth and lived with humankind. Becoming incarnate from a holy Virgin, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, conforming to the body of our lowliness, that He might change us in the likeness of the image of His glory. For, since through man sin came into the world and through sin death, it pleased Your only begotten Son, who is in Your bosom, God and Father, born of a woman, the holy Theotokos and ever virgin Mary; born under the law, to condemn sin in His flesh, so that those who died in Adam may be brought to life in Him, Your Christ. He lived in this world, and gave us precepts of salvation. Releasing us from the delusions of idolatry, He guided us to the sure knowledge of You, the true God and Father. He acquired us for Himself, as His chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Having cleansed us by water and sanctified us with the Holy Spirit, He gave Himself as ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the cross, that He might fill all things with Himself, He loosed the bonds of death. He rose on the third day, having opened a path for all flesh to the resurrection from  the dead, since it was not possible that the Author of life would be dominated by corruption. So He became the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the first born of the dead, that He might be Himself the first in all things. Ascending into heaven, He sat at the right hand of Your majesty on high and He will come to render to each according to His works. As memorials of His saving passion, He has left us these gifts which we have set forth before You according to His commands. For when He was about to go forth to His voluntary, ever memorable, and life-giving death, on the night on which He was delivered up for the life of the world, He took bread in His holy and pure hands, and presenting it to You, God and Father, and offering thanks, blessing, sanctifying, and breaking it...

Λειτουργία Ιακώβου

Λειτουργία Αποστολικών Διαταγών

Do we "look forward to the Resurrection from the dead"?

Where is your Hope?

Here-

Or here-



Over the last twelve years I have become increasingly troubled by what I have heard concerning people's thoughts on life after death.  The first thought that troubles me is that many people hold the view that personal identity is reducible to an immortal soul, a soul which continues after death in a slightly less corporal fashion and that the Resurrection is simply an afterthought.  This is contrary to the sacred scriptures and our Liturgical tradition which again and again repeats that Christ is the ONLY Immortal one, that eternal life is in Him, and that, as the creed states, we are to “look forward to the Resurrection of the Dead.”  The hope of the Scriptures, of the Liturgy, of the Martyrs of every age, and of the Fathers of the Church is grounded upon the Resurrection of Christ and His promise that He will raise us up when He comes again.  When we put our hope in our own soul’s supposed natural immortality we are not far from believing in salvation as simply being based on our own merit or on a confession of faith.  I can imagine that what I have written may seem a bit extreme but I ask you to take the time to read the Funeral Service for yourself (http://www.goarch.org/chapel/liturgical_texts/funeral2) as well as the Hymns of Vespers and Orthros for Sundays found in the Paraklitiki (http://www.anastasis.org.uk/oktoich.htm).

An interesting article which discusses this theme from the perspective of the Scriptures is an article by Oscar Cullmann titled Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? You can find a PDF of this article at http://jbburnett.com/resources/cullmann_immort-res.pdf.  A Dogmatic perspective on this issue is dealt with by Metropolitan John Zizioulas in His book Communion and Otherness, particularly chapter 7 (http://www.amazon.com/Communion-Otherness-Further-Studies-Personhood/dp/0567031489).

Another trend that I have noticed is the polemic over what can be called the middle state of souls i.e. after death but before the Resurrection.  Some have dogmatized certain theologoumena, at times making these theological opinions their own individual cornerstone of Orthodoxy.  Others have condemned these theologoumena and have ended up dogmatizing their own view.  At any rate this emphasis on the state and happenings of the soul after death seems to me to detract from the great Paschal Mystery of the Church, the Resurrection from the dead.  A article written by the now Monk Maximos of Simonopetras when he was in the world and called Nicholas Constas does a great job at illustrating the divergence of thought and opinion in Patristic thought concerning the “middle state. (http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/DOP55/DP55ch06.pdf).

Because we know and believe that God is our Father, we view the church, especially when we celebrate the Liturgy, as our true home. We come in and go out freely, we are happy to be here, we make the sign of the cross, we light our candles, we speak with out friends, and it is easy to see that the Orthodox feel that the church is their home. And the church is our home. Our family is the gathering (synaxis) of the church. Our family is not simply our children and relatives, however many we have. It is rather all of us, all humanity, including all those who have turned aside to the left or to the right, or who have perhaps not yet even thought about God, or dared to admit that their heart is filled with cries and groans, and that, with these, they hope to open heaven, or that God will answer them, but they are hesitate and are ashamed. The Liturgy is our family, our gathering, our house. And what a spacious house it is! Together with us are those who are absent, along with sinners, and the wicked, and the dead, indeed, even those who are in hell, but who may yet remember something about God. And who knows how many of these will find relief, be drawn out of Hades, and even dragged up from the depths of hell, thanks to the prayers of the Church, her memorial services, and divine liturgies. -Elder Aimilianos

The Holy Spirit comes when we are receptive. He does not compel. He approaches so meekly that we may not even notice. If we would know the Holy Spirit we need to examine ourselves in the light of the Gospel teaching, to detect any other presence which may prevent the Holy Spirit from entering into our souls. We must now wait for God to force Himself on us without our consent. God respects and does not constrain man. It is amazing how God humbles Himself before us. He loves us with a tender love, not haughtily, not with condescension. And when we open our hearts to Him we are overwhelmed by the conviction that He is indeed our Father. The soul then worships in love. -Elder Sophrony

The Victory of Orthodoxy: Salvation and the Icon

He is the Icon of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. -Colossians 1:15-17

The Person of Christ, as experienced in the Orthodox East, played a very specific historical role. Instead of creating primarily a theory of the cosmos, a philosophical or ethical system, it was lived and experienced par excellence as the Church, as the Eucharistic congregation. As a gathering of believers in a particular place and at a specific time to celebrate the Eucharist, to constitute in unison the people of God, the Body of Christ that draws its identity from the eschatological expectation of the Resurrected Christ and his kingdom. The Person of Christ influenced art in this way; as a living presence of Christ within the Eucharist and as a painted narration of this event on the walls of the liturgical space within which the Eucharist took place. -Fr. Stamatios

“Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now, however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. I will not cease from honoring that matter which works my salvation. I venerate it, though not as God. How could God be born out of lifeless things? And if God's body is God by union, it is immutable.” –St. John Damaskinos

Within the Church Christ is known not as some initiate or religious leader but as the Theanthropos through whom we approach the Father, the source of light. And theology is not a science - not even sacred science- but the «mystery» that initiates the whole man into what is above nature and sense. And the icon is not a simple work of art or a religious picture but an incommutable and sacred liturgical vessel that sanctifies man and brings him into immediate relationship with the grace and state of being of the saint it shows forth. «With respect to the archetype the icon abides in it, makes it visible and is venerated with it» (St Theodore Studite, P.G. 99, 433A).

What is important is that we should understand how the Church, living in Christ Jesus, sees the theology of the saints, their holy relics, the icons and all its sacred vessels. They are all organically interconnected and from all of them there rises a universal hymn to the life-creating Trinity. This happens because everything depends on a life-creating centre — the Theanthropos «through whom we know the Father and through whom the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in the world». And He reveals to us through His incarnation the life hidden in the Holy Trinity («I have made known to you all I have heard from the Father»). He reveals to us the relationships between the three Persons. He gives life to all of us. He sanctifies and deifies our nature, soul and body. He unites us to each other. He reveals to us that we are one body and one spirit and He gives us the strength to bring this into effect. Because He Himself discloses to us, as the precise icon of the Father and as the stamp of His Person, the single and unique relationship He has with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit. And he who has seen the Lord has seen the Father through the Holy Spirit. «Thus the road to divine knowledge passes from the one Spirit through the one Son to the one Father. And conversely natural goodness and sanctification according to nature and the royal dignity come from the Father, through the only-begotten Son to the Spirit» (St Basil the Great, P.G. 32, 153B-C).
The Orthodox liturgical icon is the irradiation of the life and faith of the Church that is itself the body of Christ and the communion of the Holy Spirit. It is the manifestation of the new mode of life and grace. And through the icons the believer receives the divine favour and through them his mind is raised up to the heavens.
- Archimandrite Vasileios

Byzantine art  is for me the art of arts. I believe in it as I do religion. I do not deny this, but it even gives me great pleasure when, most of the time, someone uses it as an accusation. Only this art nurtures my soul with its deep and mysterious powers, it quenches the thirst which I feel in the dry desert which surrounds us. -Photios Kontoglou

St. Silouan: Adam's Lament

Adam, father of all mankind, in paradise knew the sweetness of the love of God; and so when for his sin he was driven forth from the garden of Eden, and was widowed of the love of God, he suffered grievously and lamented with a great moan.  And the whole desert rang with his lamentations, for his soul was racked as he thought, ‘I have distressed my beloved God’.  He sorrowed less after paradise and the beauty thereof: for he sorrowed that he was bereft of the love of God, which insatiably, at every instant, draws the soul to Him.

In the same way the soul which has known God through the Holy Spirit but has afterwards lost grace experiences the torment that Adam suffered.  There is an aching and a deep regret in the soul that has grieved the beloved Lord.

" Listen to what the Lord says: "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29). He shows here the root and cause of all ills and their cure, the cause of all good, namely, that self-exaltation has brought us down and that pardon cannot be obtained except through its opposite, humility."  

-Abba Dorotheos

They lived wrapped in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts and mountains, and in the caves and dens of the earth. It was a great wonder to behold how rough people that lived in the gorges and ravines—there, where the wild beasts, the serpents, the scorpions, and every wild creature feed—not only did not grow fierce, but instead were the gentlest, holiest, and most innocent of all people. They did not concern themselves with food, shelter or clothing, or with the sufferings of the flesh, or with mother or father or siblings or friends, or with honors or with contempt. Many settled in tombs. They wore goat hair cassocks. Instead of a pillow, they would lay their head on a stone. The mountains encompassed them like fortresses. Wherever they happened to be when overtaken by the dark, there they would spend the night.

The hand of God shielded these valiant souls, and nothing could touch them. Wicked people would scoff at them and regarded their resolve as madness and their condition as pitiable. But they were at peace. For though they may have been scorned in the eyes of men, yet their hope was full of immortality. And as many torments as they underwent, these were nothing compared to all that they gained. For God proved them, and found them worthy for Himself. When that day comes, they shall shine; and like the fire that flares up among the stubble, so shall they spring up. These humble ones shall judge the world, and the Lord will be glorified with them unto the ages. For only as many as have faith in Him shall understand the truth, and they await His arrival with love.

-Fotis Kontoglou

The Body of Christ at Prayer

(The following is taken from the class lectures of Metropolitan John Zizioulas.  It contains an extremely important insight into the unique ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church.  This is nothing more than the scriptural understanding of the Body of Christ.  The Body of Christ language used by the early Christians was applicable equally to the historical body of the Christ (born of the Theotokos), the Eschatological body of Christ (Sits at the right hand of the Father), the ecclesial body of Christ (the Church), and the Eucharistic body of Christ ("This is my body...").  This is true because they are one and the same!  This is not metaphor, this is the reality of the presence of the uncreated Logos in Creation.  This reality of the body of Christ is fully and always Trinitarian.  Beginning with the good will of the Father the pre-eternal Cause of Son and Spirit, the holy Spirit opens creation to receive the Father's Word.  Remember at the Annunciation the Father sends the Holy Spirit to "overshadow" the Virgin Mary in which she conceives Christ.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit descends upon the early followers of Christ making them the body of Christ, the Church.  At ever Liturgy the Episkopos/Priest, an Icon of Christ, prays to the Father to send down the Holy Spirit making the Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of Christ.  This Trinitarian "movement" does not end with the presence of the Son.  The Son reveals the Father.  If we have seen Christ we have seen the Father.  Where can we see Christ?  We must remember Emmaous,  Christ is recognized in the Breaking of the Bread, the Synaxis!  Now as members of the Body of Christ we are "without confusion and without division" united to the Only-Begotten Son and only in this are we sons and daughters of God the Father.) -Micah

The Church is not a community, which we can perceive in juxtaposition to Christ. Christ doesn’t stand opposite the Church, or “face-to-face”; He is the very “I” of the Church. This is precisely the reason that the Church is Holy: because: “One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ…” Despite the sinfulness of the members of the Church, the Church Herself is Holy, because Her personal identity is none other than the personal identity of Christ. To perceive this in our own experience, in our existence, we need only to give some serious thought about what transpires during the Divine Eucharist, because it is during the Divine Eucharist that the body of Christ (as a Church) is realized, and the Church is likewise realized as the body of Christ. If one were to pose the question: “There, during the Eucharist, who is actually praying? Is it the Church?” The answer is No. It is Christ Who is in fact praying. Christ cannot of course be parted form the Church. He prays as a Church, therefore the Church prays as Christ.  It is He therefore Who delivers us to the Father, and it is He Who addresses the Father and prays during the Eucharist Liturgy: the Son. Naturally, Christ Himself is invisible. His presence is not tangible during the Liturgy. This is why the one who does the offering during the Divine Eucharist (the Bishop in the ancient Church, and in his name, eventually, the presbyter also) is an image of Christ within that liturgical assembly, that liturgical context; It is he, who recapitulates, who embodies, who renders the entire Church into one body, and refers it to the Father. And in this way, another mystery, another paradox arises, i.e., even though the Divine Eucharist is being offered by the bishop or the presbyter, he, during the prayer of the Cherubim, states: “Thou art the offerer, Christ”. In other words, whereas in the eyes of the laity the offerer is the bishop, the bishop himself is aware that the One actually doing the offering is Christ. Thus, in this way, there is a relating of the officiator and Christ, however, this relating always permits distinction between the two, as the officiator is a human and consequently, while related liturgically to the person of Christ, he does not cease to be fully aware that he is not Christ, hence his addressing Christ as the One Who actually offers - as though he himself is not the offerer, when in fact he is physically enacting the offering.

“We do not receive this as ordinary flesh, God forbid, or as the flesh of a man sanctified and conjoined to the Word in a unity of dignity, or as the flesh of someone who enjoys divine indwelling.  No, we receive it as truly the life-giving and very-flesh of the Word Himself… for how could the flesh of a man be life-giving of its own nature?” - St. Cyril

The Messiah, this King, this new David, Himself, the expected Royalty, came and founded His kingdom, the Church, inaugurating it on the day of Pentecost through the descent of the Holy Spirit… At that moment the Church was born, the new Israel of God, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”, a people dedicated to God.  The event of Pentecost is not limited in time, however, but is an eschatological experience of the believer, daily living the life of Christ in the Church.  So when we speak of the Church, we refer to an eschatological event, a permanent Pentecost. 

-Archimandrite Aimilianos

(The Following is a beautiful quote from St. Nicholas Kavasilas.  Over the next several weeks I will include more quotes from this Holy Father which demonstrate his great insights into the Life of Christ.  I will also include a brief quote that demonstrates that St. Nicholas not only believed the earth to be round but had a understanding of gravity surpassing that of Newton and comparable to Einsteins position!  A true God-bearing Theologian and a remarkable scientist.)

Indeed, it was for the sake of the new man

that human nature was formed at the

beginning, and for him both mind and desire

were fashioned. We received reason, in order

that we might know Christ, and desire, in order

that we might hasten to Him; we have

memory, in order that we might bear Him

within us, since He Himself was the archetype

for us when we were being created. For it is

not the old Adam that was the

paradigm for the new; rather, the New

Adam was the paradigm for the old.