The core theme is the healing of the soul through the Orthodox Christian "Mysteria" (often translated as sacraments), emphasizing that these are not mere rituals but personal encounters with Christ's uncreated grace, which enable spiritual growth and transformation.
Mind Map
クリックして展開
クリックしてインタラクティブなマインドマップを確認
this evening I would like to address the
topic healing the soul through the
sacraments and right away after I give
the topic I would like to say that
sacraments would probably not be the
most accurate term to use the term that
we use in the Orthodox Church actually
is Mysteria that would be the proper
term so healing the soul through the
Mysteria through the mysteries but when
you translate Mysteria into English as
mysteries there are certain problems
associated with that translation so I
use the word sacraments just to make it
absolutely clear what I'm talking about
even though an Orthodox theology the
word mysteries would actually be more
appropriate and more accurate each of
the Mysteria each of the mysteries allow
us to experience Christ's activity in a
particular mode that sounds like a very
modern way of describing them but I'm
almost citing word for word Saint
Nicholas kvass elos who sounds very very
contemporary when you read him each of
the mysteries allows us to experience
the activity of Christ in a particular
mode we're experiencing God's grace in
the mysteries but this grace as I've
mentioned before is personal its
uncreated it's not a thing it's the
Lord's activity that we experience in
the sacraments in the Mysteria it's the
Lord that we experience in baptism so we
are talking about about grace that is
personal and uncreated refers to the
activity of Christ like to speak first
about baptism of course and because it
isn't so much that we number the
Mysteria but that this is the first
mysterion that we experience before we
can experience any
the others so it's appropriate that we
discuss it first st. Gregory Palamas
says that baptism washes the image by
image he means the image of God that
every human person carries everybody has
the image of God but baptism washes the
image which has been made dirty by sin
and we could talk about the implications
of the washing of the image they would
include healing the Neuse remember we
spoke about the Neuse the spiritual
intellect or the mind and also the
healing of the powers of the soul that
we discussed previously as well
baptism gives birth gives new life
baptism confers the life of Christ which
is more than biological life in fact
quite different from biological life or
to use the very succinct language of st.
Nicholas kvass tell us again it confers
existence baptism gives us the grace to
fight sin the power and ability to pray
and the desire for holiness through
baptism we experience the reintegration
the healing of the inner person we've
been talking about the inner person for
the last number of weeks the restoration
of our original identity in Christ in
other words the way that we were created
to be carrying Christ's image in us that
image shows us the true identity of the
human person say Nicholas Kobashi less
in referring to the mysterion of baptism
says it it sharpens the image it's like
if you were to have an image
that still exists but has been worn down
a bit if you had an image and the artist
had the chance to go back to it and
sharpen it up freshen it up and make it
look the way it was supposed to be he
says that the image which he
acknowledges does not disappear through
sin needs to be sharpened up restored
but baptism also confers a death and
that's very important because when we
are fighting the passions we know that
the passions have to die and in order
for the passions to die the old person
or old man so to speak the man or the
person outside of Christ has to die if
there isn't going to be a death there
isn't going to be a birth there needs to
be both a death and a birth so there is
a death of the old person the old man
and there is a birth of what st. Paul
calls in his letter to the Colossians
the new man in Christ baptism is
followed immediately by chrismation
if baptism confers birth chrismation
confers life so through baptism we come
to be spiritually we come into existence
but chrismation gives us life and by
life I mean vitality dynamism movement
chrismation or more specifically the
Holy Spirit who is given in chrismation
opens new spiritual senses for us here
we see a rehabilitation reorientation of
the powers of the soul so we acquire for
example spiritual sight spiritual hearing
to put it in very simple language in
chrismation we received the holy spirit
as a gift because when the priest is
anointing the person who is newly
baptized the priest prays the seal of
the gift of the Holy Spirit these simple
words tell us that the gift of Chris
Mason is none other than the Holy Spirit
himself it is the Holy Spirit who forms
Christ in our hearts and the seal of the
gift of the Holy Spirit gives us the
mind of Christ you notice that the first
seal is placed on the forehead this
indicates to us not simply that that
part of the body is being sealed
although that is certainly true but that
the person is acquiring through
chrismation the mind of Christ to
acquire the mind of Christ means to
acquire his very thoughts his very
attitudes his way of looking at things
we also acquire through chrismation a
heart that is after God one of the seals
is placed on the heart again not simply
to sanctify that part of the body which
of course it does but also because the
spiritual heart is opened to God and
given the potential to have the vision
of God through the heart what the
fathers of the church called theoria
vision and so we receive in this
Mysterio and theoria or the vision of
God in full potential potential we
receive apotheon dispassion in full
potential II see here these are although
this is the language of the father's the
peace the rest the deeper peace arrest
of the Lord in full potential and I keep
repeating in full potential
because we baptism gives us the reality
the potential but it's up to us to use
it and a person who's baptized more
often than not a small child but not
always needs to grow whether it's a
child who's growing up or whether it's
an adult who is baptized and who also
needs to grow spiritually and physically
and intellectually and as we grow we
need to grow in Christ and that growth
requires ascetic effort and so we have
the full potential that is given in the
mysterion but we need human
participation and when we're talking
about the ascetic side it refers to to
great extent to the human will to our
participation to our reception active
reception of the grace of God we see in chrismation
