Our Church is the life of Christ extended through history. It is not simply a place of worship, but the “Godman organism” within which the human person is sanctified, healed, illumined, and led to deification. For this reason, every act of the Church, every sacred service, every prayer and blessing, is not a mere formality or custom, but a touch of Grace upon the human person and upon his environment. One of the most beloved and established sacred services is the Agiasmos—the

Introduction At the heart of Orthodox life lies a mystery that is not merely a “religious ceremony,” nor a “symbolism,” nor an abstract “remembrance.” Holy Communion—the partaking of the Body and Blood of the Lord—is the highest event of ecclesial existence: Christ offers Himself entirely, as the food of immortality, that man might become “of one body and one blood” with God. The Fathers of the Church speak of the Holy Eucharist with awe, because it is there that the purpose

What is discernment – How one acquires it – Where it is applied – What its results are Introduction Among all the paths of the spiritual life, none is as delicate, as refined, and as difficult as the path of discernment. All the Fathers without exception teach that discernment is: the barometer of spiritual health, the instrument by which a Christian distinguishes God’s will from deception, the mother of the virtues, the crown of spiritual maturity, the eye of the soul, the g