"Five Mystagogic Catechetical lectures" by Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 313 – 386)

This is the full text of the five Mystagogic Catechetical lectures offered by St. Cyril of Jerusalem about the mystical sacraments of the Church for the benefit of newly baptized (neophytes). It talks about the sacraments of Baptism, Unction (chrismation) and Eucharist. 

 

Five Catechetical Lectures on the Mysteries to the Newly Baptized by Cyril of Jerusalem

On the Mysteries I: Introduction

‘Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.’ (1 Peter 5:8-9)

I have long been wishing, O true-born and dearly beloved children of the Church, to discourse to you concerning these spiritual and heavenly Mysteries; but since I well knew that seeing is far more persuasive than hearing, I waited for the present season; that finding you more open to the influence of my words from your present experience, I might lead you by the hand into the brighter and more fragrant meadow of the Paradise before us; especially as ye have been made fit to receive the more sacred Mysteries, after having been found worthy of divine and life-giving Baptism. Since therefore it remains to set before you a table of the more perfect instructions, let us now teach you these things exactly, that ye may know the effect wrought upon you on that evening of your baptism.

First ye entered into the vestibule of the Baptistery, and there facing towards the West ye listened to the command to stretch forth your hand, and as in the presence of Satan ye renounced him.  Now ye must know that this figure is found in ancient history. For when Pharaoh, that most bitter and cruel tyrant, was oppressing the free and high-born people of the Hebrews, God sent Moses to bring them out of the evil bondage of the Egyptians. Then the door posts were anointed with the blood of a lamb that the destroyer might flee from the houses which had the sign of the blood; and the Hebrew people was marvelously delivered.  The enemy, however, after their rescue, pursued after them, and saw the sea wondrously parted for them; nevertheless he went on, following close in their footsteps, and was all at once overwhelmed and engulfed in the Red Sea.

Now turn from the old to the new, from the figure to the reality. There we have Moses sent from God to Egypt; here, Christ, sent forth from His Father into the world: there, that Moses might lead forth an afflicted people out of Egypt; here, that Christ might rescue those who are oppressed in the world under sin: there, the blood of a lamb was the spell against the destroyer; here, the blood of the Lamb without blemish Jesus Christ is made the charm to scare evil spirits:  there, the tyrant was pursuing that ancient people even to the sea; and here the daring and shameless spirit, the author of evil, was following you even to the very streams of salvation. The tyrant of old was drowned in the sea; and this present one disappears in the water of salvation.

But nevertheless you are bidden to say, with arm outstretched towards him as though he were present, “I renounce you, Satan.” I wish also to say wherefore ye stand facing to the West; for it is necessary. Since the West is the region of sensible darkness, and he being darkness has his dominion also in darkness, therefore, looking with a symbolical meaning towards the West, ye renounce that dark and gloomy potentate. What then did each of you stand up and say?  “I renounce you, Satan,”—you wicked and most cruel tyrant! meaning, “I fear your might no longer; for that Christ has overthrown, having partaken with me of flesh and blood, that through these ‘He might by death destroy death’ (Hebrews 2:14-15), that I might not be made subject to bondage forever.”  “I renounce you,”—you crafty and most subtle serpent. “I renounce you,”—plotter as you are, who under the guise of friendship did contrive all disobedience, and work apostasy in our first parents. “I renounce you, Satan,”—the artificer and abettor of all wickedness.

Then in a second sentence you are taught to say, “and all your works.” Now the works of Satan are all sin, which also you must renounce;—just as one who has escaped a tyrant has surely escaped his weapons also. All sin therefore, of every kind, is included in the works of the devil.  Only know this; that all that you say, especially at that most thrilling hour, is written in God’s books; when therefore you do anything contrary to these promises, you shall be judged as a transgressor. You renounce therefore the works of Satan; I mean, all deeds and thoughts which are contrary to reason.

Then you say, “And all his pomp.” Now the pomp of the devil is the madness of theatres, and horse-races, and hunting, and all such vanity:  from which that holy man praying to be delivered says unto God, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity’ (Psalm 119:37). Be not interested in the madness of the theatre, where you will behold the wanton gestures of the players, carried on with mockeries and all unseemliness, and the frantic dancing of effeminate men;—nor in the madness of them who in hunts expose themselves to wild beasts, that they may pamper their miserable appetite; who, to serve their belly with meats, become themselves in reality meat for the belly of untamed beasts; and to speak justly, for the sake of their own god, their belly, they cast away their life headlong in single combats.  Shun also horse-races, that frantic and soul-subverting spectacle.  For all these are the pomp of the devil.

Moreover, the things which are hung up at idol festivals, either meat or bread, or other such things polluted by the invocation of the unclean spirits, are reckoned in the pomp of the devil.  For as the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist before the invocation of the Holy and Adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, while after the invocation the Bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the Wine the Blood of Christ, so in like manner such meats belonging to the pomp of Satan, though in their own nature simple, become profane by the invocation of the evil spirit.

After this you say, “and all thy service.” Now the service of the devil is prayer in idol temples; things done in honor of lifeless idols; the lighting of lamps, or burning of incense by fountains or rivers, as some persons cheated by dreams or by evil spirits do, thinking to find a cure even for their bodily ailments. Go not after such things. The watching of birds, divination, omens, or amulets, or charms written on leaves, sorceries, or other evil arts, and all such things, are services of the devil; therefore shun them. For if after renouncing Satan and associating yourself with Christ, you fall under their influence, you shall find the tyrant more bitter; perchance, because he treated you of old as his own, and relieved you from his hard bondage, but has now been greatly exasperated by you; so you will be bereaved of Christ, and have experience of the other.  Have you not heard the old history which tells us of Lot and his daughters? Was not he himself saved with his daughters, when he had gained the mountain, while his wife became a pillar of salt, set up as a monument forever, in remembrance of her depraved will and her turning back. Take heed therefore to yourself, and turn not again to what is behind, having put your hand to the plough, and then turning back to the salt savour of this life’s doings; but escape to the mountain, to Jesus Christ, ‘that stone hewn without hands, which has filled the world’ (Daniel 2:35,45).

When therefore you renounce Satan, utterly breaking all your covenant with him, ‘that ancient league with hell’ (Isaiah 28:15), there is opened to you the paradise of God, which He planted towards the East, whence for his transgression our first father was banished; and a symbol of this was your turning from West to East, the place of light.  Then you are told to say, “I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one Baptism of repentance.”  Of which things we spoke to you at length in the former Lectures, as God’s grace allowed us.

Guarded therefore by these discourses, be sober. For our adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour’ (1 Peter 5:9). But though in former times death was mighty and devoured, at the holy laver of regeneration ‘God has wiped away every tear from off all faces’ (Isaiah 25:8). For you shall no more mourn, now that you have put off the old man; but you shall keep holy, ‘clothed in the garment of salvation’ (Isaiah 61:10).

And these things were done in the outer chamber. But if God will, when in the succeeding lectures on the Mysteries we have entered into the Holy of Holies, we shall there know the symbolical meaning of the things which are there performed. Now to God the Father, with the Son and the Holy Ghost, be glory, and power, and majesty, forever and ever.  Amen.

On the Mysteries II: Of Baptism.

‘Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his for we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.’ (Romans 6:3-14)

These daily introductions into the Mysteries, and new instructions, which are the announcements of new truths, are profitable to us; and most of all to you, who have been renewed from an old state to a new. Therefore, I shall necessarily lay before you the sequel of yesterday’s Lecture, that ye may learn of what those things, which were done by you in the inner chamber, were symbolical.

As soon, then, as ye entered, ye put off your tunic; and this was an image of ‘putting off the old man with his deeds’ (Colossians 3:9). Having stripped yourselves, ye were naked; in this also imitating Christ, who was stripped naked on the Cross, and by His nakedness ‘put off from Himself the principalities and powers, and openly triumphed over them on the tree’ (Colossians 2:15).  For since the adverse powers made their lair in your members, ye may no longer wear that old garment; I do not at all mean this visible one, but the ‘old man, which waxes corrupt in the lusts of deceit’ (Ephesians 4:22). May the soul which has once put him off, never again put him on, but say with the spouse of Christ in the Song of Songs, ‘I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on?’ (Songs of Solomon 5:3)  O wondrous thing! ye were naked in the sight of all, and were not ashamed; for truly ye bore the likeness of the first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed.

Then, when ye were stripped, ye were anointed with exorcised oil, from the very hairs of your head to your feet, and were made partakers of the good olive-tree, Jesus Christ. For ye were cut off from the wild olive-tree, and grafted into the good one, and were made to share the fatness of the true olive-tree. The exorcised oil therefore was a symbol of the participation of the fatness of Christ, being a charm to drive away every trace of hostile influence. For as the breathing of the saints, and the invocation of the Name of God, like fiercest flame, scorch and drive out evil spirits, so also this exorcised oil receives such virtue by the invocation of God and by prayer, as not only to burn and cleanse away the traces of sins, but also to chase away all the invisible powers of the evil one.

After these things, ye were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and ye made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ. For as our Savior passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is in the day, remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, ye saw nothing, but in ascending again ye were as in the day. And at the self-same moment ye were both dying and being born; and that water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother.  And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, ‘There is a time to be born and a time to die’ (Ecclesiastes 3:2); but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and the same time effected both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with your death.

O strange and inconceivable thing! We did not really die, we were not really buried, we were not really crucified and raised again; but our imitation was in a figure, and our salvation in reality.  Christ was actually crucified, and actually buried, and truly rose again; and all these things He has freely bestowed upon us, that we, sharing His sufferings by imitation, might gain salvation in reality. O surpassing loving-kindness! Christ received nails in His undefiled hands and feet, and suffered anguish; while on me without pain or toil by the fellowship of His suffering He freely bestows salvation.

Let no one then suppose that Baptism is merely the grace of remission of sins, or further, that of adoption; as John’s was a baptism conferring only remission of sins: whereas we know full well, that as it purges our sins, and ministers to us the gift of the Holy Ghost, so also it is the counterpart of the sufferings of Christ. For this cause Paul just now cried aloud and said, ‘Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into His death’ (Romans 6:3). These words he spoke to some who were disposed to think that Baptism ministers to us the remission of sins, and adoption, but has not further the fellowship also, by representation, of Christ’s true sufferings.

In order therefore that we might learn, that whatsoever things Christ endured, for us and for our salvation, He suffered them in reality and not in appearance, and that we also are made partakers of His sufferings, Paul cried with all exactness of truth, ‘For if we have been planted together with the likeness of His death, we shall be also with the likeness of His resurrection’ (Romans 6:5).  Well has he said, planted together for since the true Vine was planted in this place, we also by partaking in the Baptism of death have been planted together with Him. And fix your mind with much attention on the words of the Apostle. He said not, “For if we have been planted together with His death,” but, with the likeness of His death.  For in Christ’s case there was death in reality, for His soul was really separated from His body, and real burial, for His holy body was wrapped in pure linen; and everything happened really to Him; but in your case there was only a likeness of death and sufferings, whereas of salvation there was not a likeness but a reality.

Having been sufficiently instructed in these things, keep them, I beseech you, in your remembrance; that I also, unworthy though I be, may say of you, ‘Now I praise you because ye always remember me, and hold fast the traditions, which I delivered unto you’ (1 Corinthians 11:2). And God, ‘who has presented you as it was alive from the dead’ (Romans 6:13) is able to grant unto you to ‘walk in newness of life’ (Romans 6:4): because His is the glory and the power, now and forever.  Amen.

On the Mysteries III: On Chrism

‘But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.’ (1 John 2:20-28)

Having been ‘baptized into Christ, and put on Christ’ (Galatians 3:27) ye have been made conformable to the Son of God; for God having ‘foreordained us unto adoption as sons’ (Ephesians 1:5), made us ‘to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory’ (Philippians 3:21).  Having therefore ‘become partakers of Christ’ (Hebrews 3:14), ye are properly called Christs, and of you God said, ‘Touch not My Christs, or anointed’ (Psalm 105:15). Now ye have been made Christs, by receiving the Holy Ghost; and all things have been wrought in you by imitation because ye are images of Christ. He washed in the river Jordan, and having imparted of the fragrance of His Godhead to the waters, He came up from them; and the Holy Ghost in the fullness of His being lighted on Him, like resting upon like. And to you in like manner, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, there was given an Unction, the type of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Ghost; of whom also the blessed Esaias, in his prophecy respecting Him, said in the person of the Lord, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me:  He has sent Me to preach glad tidings to the poor’ (Isaiah 61:1).

For Christ was not anointed by men with oil or material ointment, but the Father having before appointed Him to be the Savior of the whole world, anointed Him with the Holy Ghost, as Peter says, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 10:38). David also the prophet cried, saying, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom; Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God even Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows’ (Psalm 45:6-7). And as Christ was in reality crucified, and buried, and raised, and you are in Baptism accounted worthy of being crucified, buried, and raised together with Him in a likeness, so is it with the unction also. As He was anointed with an ideal oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Ghost, called oil of gladness, because He is the author of spiritual gladness, so ye were anointed with ointment, having been made partakers and fellows of Christ.

But beware of supposing this to be plain ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread no longer, but the Body of Christ, so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor common, after invocation, but it is Christ’s gift of grace, and, by the advent of the Holy Ghost, is made fit to impart His Divine Nature. Which ointment is symbolically applied to your forehead and thy other senses; and while your body is anointed with the visible ointment, your soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.

And ye were first anointed on the forehead, that ye might be delivered from the shame, which the first man who transgressed bore about with him everywhere; and that ‘with unveiled face ye might reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Then on your ears; that ye might receive the ears which are quick to hear the Divine Mysteries, of which Esaias said, ‘The Lord gave me also an ear to hear’ (Isaiah 50:4); and the Lord Jesus in the Gospel, ‘He that hath ears to hear let him hear’ (Matthew 11:15). Then on the nostrils; that receiving the sacred ointment ye may say, ‘We are to God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved’ (2 Corinthians 2:15). Afterwards on your breast; that having put on the breast-plate of righteousness, ye may stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Ephesians 6:14, 11). For as Christ after His Baptism, and the visitation of the Holy Ghost, went forth and vanquished the adversary, so likewise ye, after Holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism, having put on the whole armor of the Holy Ghost, are to stand against the power of the adversary, and vanquish it, saying, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13).

Having been counted worthy of this Holy Chrism, ye are called Christians, verifying the name also by your new birth. For before you were deemed worthy of this grace, ye had properly no right to this title, but were advancing on your way towards being Christians.

Moreover, you should know that in the old Scripture there lies the symbol of this Chrism. For what time Moses imparted to his brother the command of God, and made him High-priest, after bathing in water, he anointed him; and Aaron was called Christ or Anointed, evidently from the typical Chrism. So also the High-priest, in advancing Solomon to the kingdom, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon (1 Kings 1:39). To them however these things happened in a figure, but to you not in a figure, but in truth; because ye were truly anointed by the Holy Ghost. Christ is the beginning of your salvation; for He is truly the first-fruit, and ye the mass; but if the first-fruit be holy, it is manifest that its holiness will pass to the mass also.

Keep this unspotted: for it shall teach you all things, if it abide in you, as you have just heard declared by the blessed John, discoursing much concerning this Unction. For this holy thing is a spiritual safeguard of the body, and salvation of the soul. Of this the blessed Esaias prophesying of old time said, ‘And on this mountain shall the Lord make unto all nations a feast; they shall drink wine, they shall drink gladness, they shall anoint themselves with ointment’ (Isaiah 25:6, LXX). And that he may make you sure, hear what he says of this ointment as being mystical; ‘Deliver all these things to the nations, for the counsel of the Lord is unto all nations’ (Isaiah 25:7 LXX).  Having been anointed, therefore, with this holy ointment, keep it unspotted and unblemished in you, pressing forward by good works, and being made well-pleasing to the Captain of your salvation, Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

On the Mysteries IV: On the Body and Blood of Christ.

‘For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.  But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.’ (1 Corinthians 11:23-32)

Even of itself the teaching of the Blessed Paul is sufficient to give you a full assurance concerning those Divine Mysteries, of which having been deemed worthy, ye are become of the same body and blood with Christ. For you have just heard him say distinctly, ‘That our Lord Jesus Christ in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks He brake it, and gave to His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is My Body:  and having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, Take, drink, this is My Blood’. Since then He Himself declared and said of the Bread, This is My Body, who shall dare to doubt any longer?  And since He has Himself affirmed and said, This is My Blood, who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood?

He once in Cana of Galilee, turned the water into wine, akin to blood, and is it incredible that He should have turned wine into blood?  When called to a bodily marriage, He miraculously wrought that wonderful work; and ‘on the children of the bride-chamber’ (Matthew 9:15), shall He not much rather be acknowledged to have bestowed the fruition of His Body and Blood?

Wherefore with full assurance let us partake as of the Body and Blood of Christ: for in the figure of Bread is given to you His Body, and in the figure of Wine His Blood; that you by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, may be made of the same body and the same blood with Him. For thus we come to bear Christ in us, because His Body and Blood are distributed through our members; thus it is that, according to the blessed Peter, ‘we become partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4).

Christ on a certain occasion discoursing with the Jews said, ‘Except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood, ye have no life in you’ (John 6:53). They not having heard His saying in a spiritual sense were offended, and went back, supposing that He was inviting them to eat flesh.

In the Old Testament also there was show-bread; but this, as it belonged to the Old Testament, has come to an end; but in the New Testament there is Bread of heaven, and a Cup of salvation, sanctifying soul and body; for as the Bread corresponds to our body, so is the Word appropriate to our soul.

Consider therefore the Bread and the Wine not as bare elements, for they are, according to the Lord’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ; for even though sense suggests this to you, yet let faith establish you. Judge not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that the Body and Blood of Christ have been vouchsafed to you.

Also the blessed David shall advise you the meaning of this, saying, ‘You have prepared a table before me in the presence of them that afflict me’ (Psalm 23:5). What he says, is to this effect:  Before Your coming, the evil spirits prepared a table for men, polluted and defiled and full of devilish influence; but since Your coming. O Lord, You have prepared a table before me. When the man says to God, You have prepared before me a table, what other does he indicate but that mystical and spiritual Table, which God has prepared for us over against, that is, contrary and in opposition to the evil spirits? And very truly for that had communion with devil, but this, with God.  ‘You have anointed my head with oil’ (Psalm 23:5). With oil He anointed your head upon your forehead, for the seal which you have of God; that you may be made ‘the engraving of the signet, Holiness unto God’ (Exodus 28:36). And ‘my cup runs over’ (Psalm 23:5). You see that cup here spoken of, which Jesus took in His hands, and gave thanks, and said, ‘This is My blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’.

Therefore Solomon also, hinting at this grace, says in Ecclesiastes, ‘Come hither, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart and let oil be poured out upon thy head and let thy garments be always white, for the Lord is well pleased with thy works’ (Ecclesiastes 9:7-8); for before you came to Baptism, your works were ‘vanity of vanities’. But now, having put off your old garments, and put on those which are spiritually white, you must be continually robed in white:  of course we mean not this, that you are always to wear white raiment; but you must be clad in the garments that are truly white and shining and spiritual, that you may say with the blessed Esaias, ‘My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and put a robe of gladness around me’ (Isaiah 61:10).

Having learnt these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread, though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine, though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ; and that of this David sung of old, saying, ‘And bread strengthens man’s heart, to make his face to shine with oil’ (Psalm 104:15), strengthen your heart, by partaking thereof as spiritual, and make the face of your soul to shine. And so having it unveiled with a pure conscience, may you ‘reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 3:18), and proceed from glory to glory, in Christ Jesus our Lord—to whom be honor, and might, and glory, forever and ever.  Amen.

On the Mysteries V: On the Sacred Liturgy and Communion

‘Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.’ (1 Peter 2:1-3)

By the loving-kindness of God ye have heard sufficiently at our former meetings concerning Baptism, and Chrism, and partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ; and now it is necessary to pass on to what is next in order, meaning to-day to set the crown on the spiritual building of your edification.

Ye have seen then the Deacon who gives to the Priest water to wash and to the Presbyters who stand round God’s altar. He gave it not at all because of bodily defilement; it is not that; for we did not enter the Church at first with defiled bodies. But the washing of hands is a symbol that ye ought to be pure from all sinful and unlawful deeds; for since the hands are a symbol of action, by washing them, it is evident, we represent the purity and blamelessness of our conduct.  Did you not hear the blessed David opening this very mystery, and saying, I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will compass Your Altar, O Lord? (Psalm 26:6)  The washing therefore of hands is a symbol of immunity from sin.

Then the Deacon cries aloud, ‘Receive ye one another; and let us kiss one another”. Think not that this kiss is of the same character with those given in public by common friends. It is not such: but this kiss blends souls one with another, and courts entire forgiveness for them. The kiss therefore is the sign that our souls are mingled together, and banish all remembrance of wrongs.  For this cause Christ said, ‘If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has aught against time, leave there your gift upon the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift’ (Matthew 5:23). The kiss therefore is reconciliation, and for this reason holy: as the blessed Paul somewhere cried, saying, ‘Greet ye one another with a holy kiss’ (1 Corinthians 16:20); and Peter, ‘with a kiss of charity’ (1 Peter 3:15).

After this the Priest cries aloud, ‘Lift up your hearts’ For truly ought we in that most awful hour to have our heart on high with God, and not below, thinking of earth and earthly things. In effect therefore the Priest bids all in that hour to dismiss all cares of this life, or household anxieties, and to have their heart in heaven with the merciful God. Then ye answer, “We lift them up unto the Lord:” assenting to it, by your avowal. But let no one come here, who could say with his mouth, “We lift up our hearts unto the Lord,” but in his thoughts have his mind concerned with the cares of this life. At all times, rather, God should be in our memory but if this is impossible by reason of human infirmity, in that hour above all this should be our earnest endeavor.

Then the Priest says, ‘Let us give thanks unto the Lord.’  For verily we are bound to give thanks, that He called us, unworthy as we were, to so great grace; that He reconciled us when we were His foes; that He vouchsafed to us the Spirit of adoption. Then ye say, “It is meet and right:” for in giving thanks we do a meet thing and a right; but He did not right, but more than right, in doing us good, and counting us meet for such great benefits.

After this, we make mention of heaven, and earth, and sea; of sun and moon; of stars and all the creation, rational and irrational, visible and invisible; of Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Thrones; of the Cherubim with many faces:  in effect repeating that call of David’s "Magnify the Lord with me" (Psalm 34:3). We make mention also of the Seraphim, whom Esaias in the Holy Spirit saw standing around the throne of God, and with two of their wings veiling their face, and with twain their feet, while with twain they did fly, crying "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Sabaoth" (Isaiah 6:2-3). For the reason of our reciting this confession of God, delivered down to us from the Seraphim, is this, that so we may be partakers with the hosts of the world above in their hymn of praise.

Then having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual hymns, we beseech the merciful God to send forth His Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before Him; that He may make the Bread the Body of Christ, and the Wine the Blood of Christ; for whatsoever the Holy Ghost has touched, is surely sanctified and changed.

Then, after the spiritual sacrifice, the bloodless service, is completed, over that sacrifice of propitiation, we entreat God for the common peace of the Churches, for the welfare of the world; for kings; for soldiers and allies; for the sick; for the afflicted; and, in a word, for all who stand in need of succor we all pray and offer this sacrifice.

Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs that at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition. Then on behalf also of the Holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great benefit to the souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful sacrifice is set forth.

And I wish to persuade you by an illustration. For I know that many say, what is a soul profited, which departs from this world either with sins, or without sins, if it be commemorated in the prayer? For if a king were to banish certain who had given him offence, and then those who belong to them, should weave a crown and offer it to him on behalf of those under punishment, would he not grant a remission of their penalties? In the same way we, when we offer to Him our supplications for those who have fallen asleep, though they be sinners, weave no crown, but offer up Christ sacrificed for our sins, propitiating our merciful God for them as well as for ourselves.

Then, after these things, we say that Prayer which the Savior delivered to His own disciples, with a pure conscience entitling God our Father, and saying, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven’. O most surpassing loving-kindness of God!  On them who revolted from Him and were in the very extreme of misery has He bestowed such a complete forgiveness of evil deeds, and so great participation of grace, as that they should even call Him Father. Our Father, which art in heaven; and they also are a heaven who bear the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:49), in whom is God, dwelling and walking in them (2 Corinthians 6:16).

Hallowed be Your Name. The Name of God is in its nature holy, whether we say so or not; but since it is sometimes profaned among sinners, according to the words, Through you My Name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles (Isaiah 52:5; Romans 2:24), we pray that in us God’s Name may be hallowed; not that it comes to be holy from not being holy, but because it becomes holy in us, when we are made holy, and do things worthy of holiness.

Your kingdom come:  A pure soul can say with boldness, Your kingdom come; for he who has heard Paul saying, ‘Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body’ (Romans 6:12), and has cleansed himself in deed, and thought, and word, will say to God, Your kingdom come.

Your will be done as in heaven so on earth: God’s divine and blessed Angels do the will of God, as David said in the Psalm: "Bless the Lord, all ye Angels of His, mighty in strength, that do His pleasure" (Psalm 103:20). So then in effect you mean this by thy prayer, “as in the Angels Your will is done, so likewise be it done on earth in me, O Lord.”

Give us this day our substantial bread: This common bread is not substantial bread, but this Holy Bread is substantial, that is, appointed for the substance of the soul. For this Bread goes not into the belly and is cast out into the draught (Matthew 15:17), but is distributed into your whole system for the benefit of body and soul. But by this day, he means, “each day,” as also Paul said, “While it is called to-day” (Hebrews 3:15).

And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors: For we have many sins. For we offend both in word and in thought, and very many things we do worthy of condemnation; and if we say that we have no sin, we lie, as John says (1 John 1:8). We deceive ourselves. And we make a covenant with God, entreating Him to forgive us our sins, as we also forgive our neighbors their debts. Considering then what we receive and in return for what, let us not put off nor delay to forgive one another. The offences committed against us are slight and trivial, and easily settled; but those which we have committed against God are great, and need such mercy as His only is.  Take heed therefore, lest for the slight and trivial sins against you, you shut out for yourself forgiveness from God for your very grievous sins.

And lead us not into temptation: Is this then what the Lord teaches us to pray, that we may not be tempted at all?  How then is it said elsewhere, “a man untempted, is a man unproved  and again, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (James 1:2)? But does perchance the entering into temptation mean the being overwhelmed by the temptation? For temptation is, as it were, like a winter torrent difficult to cross. Those therefore who are not overwhelmed in temptations, pass through, showing themselves excellent swimmers, and not being swept away by them at all; while those who are not such, enter into them and are overwhelmed.  As for example, Judas having entered into the temptation of the love of money, swam not through it, but was overwhelmed and was strangled (Matthew 27:5) both in body and spirit. Peter entered into the temptation of the denial; but having entered, he was not overwhelmed by it, but manfully swam through it, and was delivered from the temptation.  Listen again, in another place, to a company of unscathed saints, giving thanks for deliverance from temptation, You, O God have proved us; You have tried us by fire like as silver is tried.  You brought us into the net; You laid afflictions upon our loins. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and water; and you brought us out into a place of rest (Psalm 66:10–12). You see them speaking boldly in regard to their having passed through and not been pierced. But You brought us out into a place of rest; now their coming into a place of rest is their being delivered from temptation.

But deliver us from the evil: If ‘lead us not into temptation’ implied the not being tempted at all, He would not have said, ‘But deliver us from the evil’. Now evil is our adversary the devil, from whom we pray to be delivered. Then after completing the prayer you say, Amen; by this Amen, which means “So be it,” setting thy seal to the petitions of the divinely-taught prayer.

After this the Priest says, ‘Holy things to holy men’. Holy are the gifts presented, having received the visitation of the Holy Ghost; holy are ye also, having been deemed worthy of the Holy Ghost; the holy things therefore correspond to the holy persons. Then ye say, ‘One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ.’ For One is truly holy, by nature holy; we too are holy, but not by nature, only by participation, and discipline, and prayer.

After this ye hear the chanter inviting you with a sacred melody to the communion of the Holy Mysteries, and saying, ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:9). Trust not the judgment to your bodily palate, no, but to faith unfaltering; for they who taste are bidden to taste, not bread and wine, but the typical Body and Blood of Christ.

In approaching therefore, come not with your wrists extended, or your fingers spread; but make your left hand a throne for the right, as for that which is to receive a King. And having hollowed your palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen. So then after having carefully hallowed your eyes by the touch of the Holy Body, partake of it; giving heed lest you lose any portion thereof; for whatever you lose, is evidently a loss to you as it were from one of your own members. For tell me, if any one gave you grains of gold, would you not hold them with all carefulness, being on your guard against losing any of them, and suffering loss? Will you not then much more carefully keep watch, that not a crumb fall from thee of what is more precious than gold and precious stones?

Then after you have partaken of the Body of Christ, draw near also to the Cup of His Blood; not stretching forth your hands, but bending, and saying with an air of worship and reverence, ‘Amen’, hallow yourself by partaking also of the Blood of Christ. And while the moisture is still upon thy lips, touch it with your hands, and hallow your eyes and brow and the other organs of sense. Then wait for the prayer, and give thanks unto God, who hath accounted you worthy of so great mysteries.

Hold fast these traditions undefiled and keep yourselves free from offence. Sever not yourselves from the Communion; deprive not yourselves, through the pollution of sins, of these Holy and Spiritual Mysteries. And the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23) To whom be glory and honor and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and world without end.  Amen.

Courtesy: Christian Classics Ethereal Library