About the church hierarchy

In the treatise sschmch. Dionysius the Areopagite “On the Church Hierarchy” (7 chapters) talks about the hierarchical structure of the Christian Church. The essay is addressed to the Apostle Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus (the addressee of the Apostle Paul). Chapter 1 talks about the establishment of the hierarchy, and chapters 2-7 talk about the 6 Sacraments: Baptism, the Sacrament of Assembly (Eucharist), Consecration of the World, Ordination (Sacrament of the Priesthood), monastic tonsure and burial. At the head of the church hierarchy is Jesus Christ. The church hierarchy has many sensory images corresponding to human nature, with the help of which it rises to Divine contemplation. The goal of the hierarchy is deification, likeness to God and unity with Him. At the beginning of this path, Divine birth (the Sacrament of Baptism) is necessary. All sacred actions are interpreted as stages of the path of the baptized from division and plurality to the One God. Communion connects a person with God, which is why it is called the “sacrament of sacraments” and “gathering.” The church hierarchy has the following structure: “ordainers” (bishops, presbyters and deacons) and “ordains” (monks, laity and catechumens). Chapter 5 indicates the distinctive features of the ordination of each sacred order. All hierarchies transmit to their lower ones what they received from God, having within them “unfused” “God-originating energies”, which do not suffer damage as they are transmitted. The treatise contains the liturgy of the late 5th century. Thus, before the singing of the Creed, catechumens, repentants and the possessed were expelled from the church. The kissing of peace was followed by the reading of memorials, washing of hands and anaphora. The Eucharistic prayer contained remembrance of the Fall and the Incarnation. The Sacrament of Confirmation began with the consecration of the world, which was performed on the “altar” (i.e., the holy throne) while singing psalms, reading the Holy Scriptures and special prayer. The fragrance of the world symbolically means divine beauty. The treatise describes the rite of monastic tonsure. Monks must direct their minds towards the Divine Unit, overcome absent-mindedness, unite their mind so that the one God is reflected in it. The final chapter talks about the burial of the dead. The burial sequence is a solemn and joyful prayer of the hierarch together with the people for the transition of a Christian from earthly life to eternal life, filled with light and bliss. The author discusses how much prayer for the deceased can change his fate. Although the holy fathers never doubted the authorship of this work, however, according to modern patrolologists, it was written by an unknown author in the 5th-6th centuries. Chapter 1. How the church hierarchy was established and what is its purpose Chapter 2. About what happens in enlightenment [baptism] Chapter 3. About what happens in the assembly (that is, in the assembly of believers, in the liturgy) Chapter 4. About what is sacred in the world and what is sanctified in it Chapter 5. About the consecration of sacred persons Chapter 6. About the degree of those raised to perfection Chapter 7. About what is done to the dead Dionysius presbyter co-presbyter Timothy 1. The most sacred of sacred children! We urgently need to show that our hierarchy is the work of God emanating, and divine, and god-created knowledge, and power, and accomplishment, to show, on the basis of the most worldly, most sacred teaching, to those who, through the hierarchical sacraments and traditions, have received the fullness of the sacred occult wisdom. Be careful not to remove the most sacred shrine from the fence of the Church; act carefully also in that which concerns the hidden God, give honor with mental and invisible deepening, keeping it inaccessible and inviolable for the uninitiated, and communicating to the sanctified only the shrine worthy of the shrine - together with sacred enlightenment. For just as theology has conveyed to us, participants in the sacraments, Jesus himself, the most divine and essential wisdom, the beginning, the essence and the most divine power of all hierarchy, sanctification and deification, illuminates our blessed and best beings more brightly and spiritually and, to the extent of each one’s strength, likens them to their own light, and as for us, He strives towards Him and draws us to goodness with love. brings together the numerous differences that exist between us, and, raising us to a uniform and divine life, order and course of action, bestows the sacred power of the divine priesthood. Through it, when entering into the holy work of priestly service, we ourselves become closer to our highest essences through the feasible assimilation of their firm and unchangeable sacred standing in goodness, and, thus, looking up to the blessed and divine light of Jesus and, as far as it is possible to see, sacredly seeing and enlightened by the knowledge of the mysteries, we can become initiated into the mysterious knowledge and initiators, light-forming and sanctifying, perfect and perfecting. 2. And what is the hierarchy of the angels and archangels, of the premium principles, powers, powers, dominions, divine thrones and entities equivalent to thrones, about which theology teaches that they are closest and always present around God and with God, and which are called in Hebrew cherubim and seraphim; Having examined the sacred order and divisions of these ranks and hierarchies, you will find that in these descriptions we, of course, did not fully deservedly, but, as much as was available to us and as the theology of the Holy Scriptures told us, we sang their hierarchy. It is necessary, however, to say that both that and the entire hierarchy that we are now glorifying have the same power for all actions of the hierarchical service - namely the hierarch, since his own person, dignity, and rank are allowed to perceive the fullness of perfection in divine things and deification, and to those subordinate to each according to their dignity to communicate the sacred deification that resides in him from God; and the subordinates (presbyters, deacons and other church ranks), themselves following the higher ones, lead forward the lower ones, who also go forward and guide others as far as possible, and each with such a divinely established hierarchical connection becomes, to the best of his ability, a participant in true and real beauty, and wisdom, and kindness. But the entities and ranks that are higher than us, which we have reverently mentioned, are incorporeal, and their hierarchy is mental and premium. And we see our hierarchy filled, like ourselves, with a variety of sensual symbols, with the help of which we, to the extent characteristic of us, are elevated to a uniform deification, to God and divine virtue. Those, as disembodied minds, perceive the thought as it is implanted in them; and we are raised, as far as possible, to divine contemplations by sensory images. And it would be more correct to say that there is one thing to which all the spectators of God strive, only they become partakers of it differently, although it is one and always the same, but to whom, depending on their merit, the divine scales will allocate a lot. However, this is discussed in more detail in our essay “On the Mental and Sensual.” Now I will try, as much as I can, to talk about our hierarchy, about its beginning and essence, recognizing Jesus as the head and finisher of all hierarchy. 3. Hierarchy in general, according to our venerable tradition, is the entire volume of sacred objects, the totality of everything that concerns the hierarchy in general or the sacred ranks themselves. For us, hierarchy is called and is a service that embraces all sacred actions, to which, being dedicated, the divine hierarch himself becomes a participant in every shrine as the same name of the hierarchy. For, just as the one who mentions the hierarchy recalls at the same time the entire sacred order, so the one who speaks about the hierarch points to a man close to God and a divine man, enlightened by sacred knowledge - a man in whom all the hierarchy that depends on him is fully contained and appears. The beginning of such a hierarchy is hidden in the Source of life, in the very essence of goodness, in the only Cause of all things, in the Holy Trinity, from which, by goodness, flows life and all the blessings of life for all things. She is above all, most divinely blessed, the one truly existing Trinity-Unity, incomprehensible to us, but known to Himself, wants the reasonable salvation of ours and our higher beings. But it (salvation) can be accomplished in no other way than through the deification of those being saved. Deification is assimilation to the extent possible with God and unity with Him. The common goal of the entire hierarchy is constant love for God and divine things, with the help of God uniformly sacred in all of us, and even before this, complete and irrevocable removal from evil, knowledge of what exists, how it exists, research and knowledge of sacred truth, God-assisted participation in uniform perfection according to the strength of each, the pleasure of contemplation, which mentally nourishes and deifies everyone who strives for it. 4. So, we say that the God-initially blessed divine nature, the beginning of deification, from which those deified by the goodness of God receive deification, bestowed the hierarchy for the sake of the salvation and deification of all rational and mental beings. It bestowed immaterial and mental hierarchy on the most peaceful and blessed faces, because God raises them to divine things not in an external way, but mentally and internally, illuminating them with divine commands in a pure and immaterial light. And to us what is given to those simply and suddenly, it is communicated to us, as much as is available to us, on the basis of God-given words, in variety and many different symbols. For the essence of our hierarchy consists of God-given words. We consider the most venerable words to be those handed down to us by our divinely inspired celebrants in sacred books and theological writings; as well as those whom our leaders were taught by those sacred men in a more immaterial way of instruction, which in some way approaches the method of instruction of the heavenly hierarchy, from mind to mind through the medium of a corporeal word, although more immaterial, without scripture. And it was the divine hierarchs who betrayed the host of priests not in undisguised concepts, but in sacred symbols, because not everyone is sanctified and “not in all,” as Scripture says, “is understanding” (1 Cor. 8:7). 5. So, as it should have been, the first leaders of our hierarchy themselves, having been filled with the sacred gift from the all-essential God-head and being sent by the original goodness of God to serve as its conductors and, for their part, as having already achieved deification, unenviably thirsting for the elevation to perfection and the deification of those who followed them, handed over to us through sacred institutions, through their written and unwritten instructions in sensual images, the most heavenly, in diversity and in diversity that which is in itself one, in human things the divine, in the material the immaterial, and in that which is peculiar to us the all-essential. And this is not only for the sake of the uninitiated, for whom it is not permissible to touch even symbols, but because our hierarchy, as I said, according to ourselves is in some sense symbolic, having a need for sensory things for the divine elevation of us from them to spiritual things. The meaning of the symbols is revealed to the divine celebrants, but they are not allowed to reveal it only to those still performing, since they know that the legislators of the God-given shrine have distributed the hierarchy between permanent and unmixed orders of ranks and between the sacred degrees corresponding to the dignity of each. And therefore, remaining faithful to your sacred vows, because remembering them is a sacred duty, do not delegate the ecclesiastical service that exceeds all of them to anyone else except the godlike celebrants who are your sole rank, and persuade them to promise, according to the hierarchical establishment, to touch the pure with purity, and to make only God’s people partakers of things divine, and people who have accomplished things to be partakers of things that contribute to the perfection of the saints - partakers of the Most Holy; in addition to everything else that concerns the hierarchy, I gave you this divine gift. So, it is sacredly given to us that the goal of our hierarchy is our assimilation, as much as possible, to God and unity with Him. And this, as the word of God teaches, we can achieve only through love for the most venerable commandments and the sacred practice of them. For Christ says: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). What is the beginning of the sacred fulfillment of the most holy commandments? The tradition of our sacred and divine rebirth, preparing our spiritual dispositions for the perception of other sacred words and sacred rites, paving the way for us to ascend to a heavenly inheritance. For, as our glorious mentor said, the very first movement of the mind towards the divine is love for God, and the very initial step of sacred love towards the sacred fulfillment of the divine commandments is the most ineffable work of our deification. If deification is a divine birth, then one who has not received the beginning of deification can never know or accomplish anything that has been given to God. And we, let’s say in human terms, don’t we first need to receive being, and then do what is characteristic of us, because what does not exist at all has neither the need for action nor being, and what exists in a certain way does or feels one thing characteristic of its nature? But this, I think, is obvious in itself. Let us begin, in order, to consider the divine symbols of divine birth. But let no one uninitiated approach contemplation, because it is not safe when the sun’s radiance falls on weak eyes, and it is not harmless to take into our hands what is beyond our strength. And the subordinate true hierarchy rejected Uzziah because he touched the shrine, Korah because he touched the highest shrine, and Nadab and Abihu because they did not do their deeds reverently. 1. The hierarch, in the likeness of God, constantly desiring to be saved by all mankind and to come into the mind of truth, preaches the truly good news that God, having had mercy on the earthly beings in His own and always inherent goodness, for the sake of His love for mankind, He deigned to graciously descend to us and, through union, like a fire that heats iron and makes it fire-like, to liken to Himself those with whom He entered into unity by to the extent of their readiness for deification. For the little ones received Him, and gave them the realm to become children of God, who believe in His name: born not of blood, nor of fleshly lust, but of God (John 1:12-13). 2. He who has loved the sacred communion of these truly worldly things, having come to someone initiated into the mysteries of the faith, asks him to guide himself on the path to the hierarch; Meanwhile, he himself promises to follow with complete obedience everything that will be taught, and asks that he take care of both bringing him to faith and his entire subsequent life. This recipient, on the one hand, flaming with the sacred desire for the salvation of the person applying, and on the other hand, commensurating human weakness with the height of the matter and overcome by involuntary fear and bewilderment, finally graciously makes a promise to fulfill the request and, having accepted it, leads him to the same-name of the hierarchy (i.e., the hierarch). 3. The hierarch, having joyfully accepted one of these two men, like a sheep on his shoulders, first, with mental thanksgiving and visible bodily worship, gives honor and praise to the only beneficent Principle, on which the calling of the called and the salvation of the saved depends. 4. Then, having called the entire sacred rite into a sacred assembly to assist himself and to commemorate the salvation of man, and at the same time to give thanks to divine goodness, he first recites, together with the entire church assembly, some hymn found in the word of God, and then, having kissed the sacred meal, goes to the husband who has come and asks him what he wanted, he came. 5. When this man, following the instructions of his successor, lovingly condemns godlessness, ignorance of true good, alienation from divine life and begins to ask for an approach through the sacred medium of him (the hierarch) to God and divine things, then the hierarch inspires him that his appeal should be all-perfect, like an appeal to the all-perfect and immaculate God. Then, revealing to him the godly order of life and asking whether he will live like this, after a vow on the part of the person being asked, he places his hand on his head and, having sealed it with the sign of the cross, commands the priests to write down the name of this husband and his successor. 6. When they are written down, he performs a sacred prayer and, upon conclusion from the entire church (with an exclamation: Amen), through the clergy, he allows the person being enlightened and removes his outer garments. Then, placing him facing the west with outstretched arms facing the same side, he commands him to blow on Satan three times and then utter words of denial. After asking him (preparing for baptism) three times whether he is denying, when he utters the denial three times, the hierarch turns him to the east, and while he raises his eyes to heaven and stretches out his hands, the hierarch commands him to unite with Christ and with all the sacred rites dedicated to God. 7. Having done this, the hierarch again demands from the person being baptized a threefold confession and, when he repeats this confession three times, after praying, blesses him and lays hands on him. Then the clergy take off his clothes, and the priests bring the holy anointing oil. The hierarch, having begun the anointing with the triple sealing of the baptized person and then handing it over to the priests to anoint the whole body, himself goes to the mother of birth (i.e., the font) and, having sanctified its water with sacred invocations, having served it with three cross-shaped libations of the all-sanctified chrism and, in equal measure with the all-sacred libation of the chrism, chanting the sacred song of inspiration of the inspired prophets, commands bring the person being baptized. When one of the priests reads out the name of the person being baptized and his recipient, the person being baptized is led by the priests into the water and brought under the arm of the hierarch. And the hierarch, standing on an elevated place, when the priests again near the water proclaim aloud the name of the person being baptized, immerses him three times, proclaiming during the three immersions and erections the triple hypostasis of Divine bliss. After this, the priests, having taken the baptized person, hand him over to his recipient and leader in his conversion to faith and, together with him, placing decent clothing on him, again bring him to the hierarch, who, having sealed him with the most divine chrism, finally declares him worthy of communion of the sacred Eucharist. 8. Having accomplished this, the hierarch again from the procession to the second works of his ministry rushes to the contemplation of the first, like a person who never in any way turns from what is characteristic of himself to something alien, but is always and incessantly transferred by the God-originating Spirit from divine things to divine things. III. Contemplative side (sacraments of baptism) 1. Such is the performance of the sacred Birth of God from the side of rituals, which has nothing unbeautiful or unsacred; not only sensual images, but also the secrets of divine contemplation, formed by natural and characteristic visible actions of people. For even if we remain silent about the divine meaning of what is done at baptism, in what way could this sacred act seem imperfect, which through preaching and divine instruction sacredly arranges the one who comes to a good life and through natural cleansing through water preaches to him about something higher than bodily cleansing, cleansing from all filth through a virtuous and divine life? So, if this ritual tradition of what takes place at baptism did not contain anything more divine, I think, even in this case it would not be alien to the sacred, on the one hand offering the teaching of a well-ordered life, and on the other hand, the complete natural cleansing of the body with water, figuratively signifying the all-perfect cleansing of sinful life. 2. But let this initial guidance of souls be left imperfect, separating, as has already been established, from the crowd that which belongs to the hierarchy and in itself is always uniform, and distributing among the various ranks the elevation to the heavenly in decent proportionality. And we, on sacred degrees, looking to the beginnings of the rituals performed and sacredly initiated into their secrets, we know what features they are imprints and what secrets they are images of. For, as is clearly shown in the essay “On the Mental and Sensual,” there are shrines - reflections of mental shrines, and guidance, and the path to them; and there are mental shrines - the beginning and secret of sensual hierarchical actions. 3. So, we say that the goodness of Divine bliss, always filled with the same and always in the same quantity with the beneficial rays of its own light, unenviously spreads them to all mental eyes. If the autocratic freedom of rational beings moves away from the spiritual light, suppressing the abilities for enlightenment implanted in them by nature with love for evil, then it becomes alien to it, although the light inherent in it does not recede, but shines on its adjacent eyes and favorably flows towards it, despite the fact that it turns away. If she transgresses the limits of what is given to her to see in proportion to her strength, and boldly attempts to rise to the light that exceeds her vision, then the light does nothing unusual for light, but she, herself imperfect, striving for the perfect, will not achieve what is unusual for her, and from what is beyond her strength, recklessly despising the measure, she will withdraw through herself. However, as I said, the divine light always beneficially extends to the mental eyes and can be perceived by them, since it is with them and is always ready for the divine communication of its rays. The divine hierarch is likened to this example, unenviably extending the rays of his divinely enlightened teaching to everything and always imitating God, ready to enlighten those who come, not revealing either envy or alien to the sacred anger at previous apostasy or intemperance, but God-enlightened, sacredly superior, constantly illuminating those who come with his light-guides, splendidly, decorously and in accordance with the degree everyone's receptivity to sacred things. 4. But the Divinity is the beginning of the sacred order by which sacred minds become self-knowing, that very order by which he who ascends to the contemplation of his own nature will first see for himself what he is, and will receive this as the first sacred gift from looking at the light, and having examined well with impartial eyes what is in him, he will move away from the dark recesses of ignorance. But, being imperfect, he will not suddenly desire the most perfect unity and communion of God, but little by little he will be raised from what is good in him to the best, from the best to the most perfect, and, finally having achieved perfection, he will be raised consistently and sacredly to God’s original heights. The image of this magnificent and sacred order is the shame of the one who comes and the humble self-awareness that requires a recipient as a guide on the path to the hierarch. The one brought in this way, Divine bliss accepts into communion with itself and imparts to him, as it were, a certain sign, its own light, making him close to God and a sharer of the inheritance of divine things and the sacred rank of the Church. The sacred symbol of this is the sealing with the sign of the cross, bestowed upon the person coming from the hierarch, and the saving record of the priests, which classifies him among those being saved and includes the recipient in the sacred monuments along with him: one - as a true zealot of the life-giving path to the truth and a companion on this path to the God-sent leader, and the other - as a trustworthy leader for those who follow the God-given instructions. 5. On the other hand, it is impossible at the same time to be a participant in things that are completely opposite to each other, and one who has received some kind of communication with the One cannot have separate lives if he is firmly in communion with the One, but one must be uncontrollable and inflexible in all cases to divide the One. As a sacred sign of this, the rituals devoted to us, exposing the one coming from his previous life and resolving even its very last traces, place him, naked and barefoot, facing the west, and with outstretched hands, as if pushing something away, he expresses denial of communication with dark evil and, as it were, exhales the habit of evil that has possessed him and loudly pronounces perfect renunciations of what is contrary to God-likeness. When in this way he has become completely freed from bonds and alien to communication with evil, the ritual turns him to the east, instilling in him that firm standing in the divine light and striving for it can only be with complete removal from evil, and with confidence accepting from the baptized person, who has already become one-like, the sacred vows of complete union with the One. But those initiated into hierarchical mysteries, I think, know that rational beings acquire the immutability of a god-like state through constant efforts and strivings towards agreement with the One and through the all-perfect mortification and destruction of everything that is contrary to Him. For it is necessary not only to move away from all evil, but also to be courageously unshakable, always fearless in relation to destructive attractions to evil and never abandon sacred love for the truth, constantly and eternally strive for it as much as one can, always sacredly striving in the ascent to the highest perfections of the ruler of God. 6. You see the exact images of this in what is performed in a sacred manner, for the God-like hierarch initiates the sacred anointing, and the priests subordinate to him perform the sacred act of anointing, symbolically calling the baptized person to sacred deeds. For these feats, standing under the banner of the ascetic Christ - for, as God, He is the author of the deed, as the wise One, He laid down laws, and as the most perfect, He prepared rewards suitable for the victors and, what is even more divine, as a good one, He Himself stood in the ranks of the ascetics along with them, accepting the sacred feat for their freedom and victory against the power of death and corruption - standing under His banner, the initiate joyfully strives for deeds, as for divine deeds, remains firm in the laws of the All-Wise and, in accordance with them, strives unswervingly, having firm hope for the desired rewards, as one who strives under the banner of the Lord and the Beginning of the leader of the deed. Ascending in the divine footsteps of Him who became the first among those who labor, and having overcome through godlike exploits the actions and beings that prevented him from deification, he dies with Christ, that is, mysteriously, to sin through baptism. 7. And consider carefully how accurately the rites correspond to sacred things. In fact, since death in relation to us is not the destruction of a being, as others think, but the division of the united, leading to the invisible for us both the soul, since it becomes invisible through the deprivation of the body, and the body, since it hides in the earth and through some other kind of body-like change disappears from the sight of people - accordingly, the hiding of the whole person under water is taken as an image of death and grave invisibility. So, the symbolic teaching mysteriously suggests that by three immersions in water, the baptized person imitates, as much as people can imitate God, God’s original death during the three-day burial of Jesus the Giver of Life, in which, according to the mysterious and secret tradition of the word of God, the prince of the world found nothing. 8. Then light-like clothes are placed on the person being baptized, for with courageous and God-like dispassion in relation to the opposite and the desire for the One in combination with Him, the ugly is decorated and what had no form receives form, completely illuminated by light-like life. The complete anointing with myrrh makes the baptized person fragrant, for the sacredly accomplished Birth of God unites the baptized person with the God-originating Spirit. And the spiritually guiding and fulfilling descent of the Spirit, unspeakable in itself, I imagine to be spiritually understood by those who have been worthy of sacred and divinely effective communion of the mind with the divine Spirit. In conclusion, the hierarch calls the baptized person to the most holy Eucharist and makes him a partaker of the celebratory sacraments. Since we have already mentioned (the sacrament of assembly or communion), it would be impermissible, having passed it by, to sing before it something else about the hierarchy. For it, according to the expression of our glorious leader, is the Sacrament of the sacraments and, first of all, having set it out in sacred writing according to the blessed, in accordance with the word of God and the sacred knowledge, it is fitting for us to rise to its contemplation with the help of the God-originating Spirit. And firstly, with reverence worthy of a shrine, let us consider why what is common to other sacramental ceremonies is applied to this primarily and it is exclusively called the Sacrament of communion and assembly, while each sacramental action leads our divided lives to a uniform deification and, with the God-like rapprochement of different people, grants to all communion and unity with the One? We answer: because complete Christian perfection, which gives the right to participate in other sacred symbols, is one of the God-initiating and perfecting gifts of this sacrament. For it is unlikely that any of the hierarchical celebratory rites can be performed until the divine Eucharist, at the head of what is performed according to the rite of each other rite, sacredly brings the Christian, already enlightened, to the one and does not confirm with the completely divinely given gift the perfect mysteries of his communion with God. So, if each of the hierarchical sacred acts, as incomplete, does not finally accomplish our communion and co-bringing to the One, and for the sake of what does not lead to complete perfection, cannot be called a complete sacred act; if, on the other hand, the top and head of any of the other sacred actions is the teaching of the divine secrets to the enlightened one, then the sacred wisdom has invented for it a completely worthy name from his very actions. Likewise, the sacred act of the Birth of God, since it teaches the original light and is the beginning of all divine light-giving, we distinguish it by the name of enlightenment, which is characteristic of it, according to the action it performs. For although teaching sacred light to those who perform it is a common property of all hierarchical actions, the Sacrament of Baptism was the first to let me see the light, and from its original light I am led to insight and into other shrines. Having said this, let us review and consider in all details, according to the hierarchical rank, the image of the celebration and the contemplative side of the most holy sacrament. II. The sacrament of assembly, or, what is the same, communion Having performed a sacred prayer in front of the holy altar, the hierarch, starting the incense from the altar, walks around the entire circle occupied by the sacred assembly, and then, returning again to the divine altar, begins the sacred singing of psalms together with all the church clergy, who participate with him in the singing of the psalm's doxology. Following this, the sacred books are read through the clergy, after which the catechumens and with them those possessed by demons and the penitents are taken out of the holy church, where only those worthy of contemplation and communion of the Divine Mysteries remain. And among the church ministers, some stand at the locked doors of the sanctuary, others correct something else from the affairs of their rank. Those chosen from the priestly rank, together with the priests, offer sacred bread and a cup of blessings to the divine altar, while the entire church assembly proclaims catholic hymns. At the same time, the divine hierarch performs a sacred prayer and proclaims holy peace to everyone, and when everyone kisses each other, the mysterious proclamation of the sacred memorials takes place. Then the hierarch and priests wash their hands with water and the hierarch stands in the middle of the divine altar, and only selected servants stand around with the priests. Having given praise to the holy deeds of God, the hierarch performs the Divine Mysteries and in sacred symbols places before his eyes what he praised, then, having opened the divine gifts, he first begins to partake of them in sacred communion and then calls on others. Having partaken and taught the divine communion to others, the hierarch finally turns to sacred thanksgiving together with the people, who participate in thanksgiving, adhering to the divine symbols alone, and he himself, being constantly elevated by the divinely beginning Spirit in a sacred manner in the purity of the godlike rank, to the holy principles of the actions performed in blissful and mental contemplations III. Contemplative side 1. Now, beloved child, after the images, let us move, adhering to the indicated order and with reverence worthy of a shrine, to the god-like truth of the prototypes, noting for those who are still performing soul-guiding in accordance with their strengths and needs, that the most diverse and sacred set of images is not something unimportant for them, although it reveals only the external side of the sacrament. For, on the one hand, the most sacred singing and reading of God-inspired words teach them instruction in a virtuous life, and even before that - in all-perfect cleansing from corrupting evil, and on the other hand, the most divine teaching of the same bread and cup, common to everyone and performed in the mutual peace of all, instills in them (those who partake), as those who feed on the same food, unity of spirit and leads to sacred remembrance the most divine supper - the prototype of the actions performed in the liturgy, at which the Founder of the sacred rites (liturgy) himself righteously excommunicated the one who lit with Him at the sacred supper not reverently and not in unanimity with Him, clearly and at the same time divinely teaching that only approaching divine things with a sincere disposition of the soul grants those approaching communion with others like them. 2. So, leaving these, as I said, beautiful outlines of the vestibule of the impregnable sanctuary, sufficient for the contemplation of those still imperfect, let us move from effects to causes and, under the light guidance of Jesus, let us turn our gaze to our sacred assembly and to the splendid contemplation of spiritual things, clearly reflecting the blissful beauty of the archetypes. And you, most divine and sacred Sacrament, having opened the veils of images that clothe you in rituals, show yourself to us in the light and enlighten our mental eyes with a uniform and unveiled light! 3. So, we should, I think, enter inside the all-holy, having discovered the meaning of the first of the images, in order to peer into the God-like beauty and in the spirit of God’s faith to look at the hierarch, proceeding with fragrance from the divine altar to the extreme limits of the sanctuary and then again standing before him to perform the sacrament. Thus, the supreme God-primary Bliss, although by divine goodness it proceeds into communion with His sacred partakers, does not become outside the unchangeable state and immutability inherent in His essence, and illuminates all God-like in proportion to the powers of each, remaining completely within itself and not in the least departing from its immutable identity. In the same way, the Divine Sacrament of the Assembly, having a single, simple and concentrated beginning, although it is humanely decomposed into various sacred rites and contains all kinds of divine images, but from them it is again uniformly reduced to its single beginning and leads to the unity of those who sacredly approach it. According to this god-like model, the divine hierarch, although he benevolently brings down to those subordinate to him his, one in itself, sacred superior knowledge, using the variety of sacred symbols, but immediately, as elusive and irresistible for lower things, without any change in himself he returns to his superior service and, having made a mental entrance to the one in himself, in pure light contemplates the one-like the meaning of the actions performed, ending the philanthropic exodus to secondary works of service with the most magnificent return to the primary ones. 4. And the sacredness of the psalms, almost essentially connected with all the sacraments of the highest authority, could not be removed from the sacrament, the most highest of all. For every holy and sacred book depicts either the beginning and order of all things, which was from God, or the subordinate hierarchy and social structure, or the distribution and occupation by the people of God of inheritances in the Promised Land, or the wisdom of sacred judges, wise kings and divine priests, or the unshakable wisdom of ancient men in patience under various and numerous temptations, or wise rules of activity represent the hymns and divinely inspired images of divine love, now prophetic predictions about future events, now the godly masculine actions of Jesus, now the God-devoted and godlike exploits of life and the sacred teaching of His disciples, now the hidden and mysterious vision of the most beloved of the disciples and the divinely inspired seer, now the supermundane theology of Jesus depicts and presents this as capable of deification and acts in conjunction with the sacred and God-like erections of the sacraments. The sacred writing of divine hymns, with the goal of praising all God's words and deeds and glorifying the sacred sayings and sacred deeds of divine men, constitutes a comprehensive song and story about divine things and deeds, arousing in those who gloriously glorify it a disposition of spirit suitable for receiving or teaching one or another sacred sacrament. 5. When, in this way, the hymnology, which embraces all sacred things, adjusts our spiritual dispositions in accordance with what will be performed sacredly after this, and the unity of divine chants, as if a single and unanimous sacred dance, establishes unanimity both in relation to God, and in relation to ourselves and each other, then that which was briefly and more secretly represented in spiritual sacredness of the psalms, is revealed through the most numerous and clearest images and sayings in the most sacred readings of sacred works. In them the beholder will see a single and uniform inspiration, since it came from the one God-originating Spirit. Therefore, it is fair that, according to the order of the service, the New Testament is preached after the most ancient tradition; This divine and ecclesiastical order, I think, clearly suggests that the Old Testament spoke about the acts of God that were to take place, and this one fulfilled the prophecies of that one, and that the other one prescribed the truth in images, and this one revealed it as it is, for the fulfillment of the predictions of that one confirmed the truth and the act of God is the focus of theology. 6. Those who are not at all announced by the trumpet sound of these sacred rites do not even see the images themselves, since they shamelessly turned away from the saving illumination of the Birth of God and responded to the sacred words to their own destruction: We do not want to lead you (Job 21:14). And although the rule of the sacred hierarchy allows catechumens, those possessed by demons and those who repent, to listen to the sacred words of the psalms and the divine reading of the Holy Scriptures, it does not allow them to the subsequent sacred rites and contemplations, but only the perfect eyes of the perfect. For the God-like hierarchy is filled with holy truth and, according to the dignity of each, it salutarily distributes, in accordance with the state of each, the measure of communion of divine things, sacredly bestowing it in proportion and in accordance with time. So, the catechumens are assigned the last rank, because they have not entered into the sacrament, and are not at all illuminated by the priestly administration, and have not received a god-creating existence through divine rebirth, but are only still nourished by paternal suggestions and life-giving education, preparing for the beginning of life, and the light-beginning, and blissful bringing through the birth of God to God. Just as carnal babies, if they fall out before the time of their birth, imperfect and not yet formed, like miscarriages and not full-term, will receive an unhappy end on earth, without being born, without living, without seeing the light, and none of the sane people, looking at this phenomenon, would say that these babies came into the light only because they were freed from the darkness of the womb, for the knowledgeable caretaker of bodies is medical science would say that light acts only on those capable of perceiving light; similarly, the wisest science of sacred things first feeds them (the ones announced) with the preparatory food of educational and life-giving words, and when it brings them to the perfection necessary for the birth of God, it grants them, for salvation, in a certain order, communion in things that are luminous and sacred; in their current state, as it were, they separate the perfect from the imperfect in prudent care for the benefit of the shrine and for the revival and life of the sacred actions announced according to the God-like order. 7. The crowd of those possessed by demons is also alien to the shrine, but it constitutes the second rank in relation to the last rank of catechumens. For it is not the same, in my opinion, that he is completely uninitiated and not at all involved in the divine sacraments, that he has taken some communion in the most sacred rites, although he is possessed by the enemy’s seductions and confusion. However, for them too the view and participation of all-sacred things is prohibited, and quite rightly so. If it is true that a man who is entirely God, a worthy participant in divine things, elevated in his characteristic rank to the height of God-likeness by the all-perfect and perfect actions of deification, will not perform carnal works, except perhaps what is necessary by nature, but only when it happens, as if in passing, but will remain in a state of the extreme degree of deification for him, a church and at the same time a follower of the God-originating Spirit, affirming like like, then such a one can hardly ever be possessed enemy dreams and insurances, but he will laugh at them and, when they approach, he will overcome them and drive them away and will rather gain power over them than suffer from them, and will not only remain impassive and unchanged in his condition, but will also be a doctor for others of similar actions of Satan. And in addition, I think and, even more, I know well that the most precise division of hierarchical ranks knows those possessed by a more vile force than those possessed by demons - these are people who have retreated from the godlike life, who have become like-minded and like the destroyers - demons, who, out of extreme and self-destructive madness, turn away from what truly exists, from immortal acquisition, from eternal pleasure - people who thirsty and striving with effort for material and multi-passionate changes, for destructive and pernicious pleasures and for the fragile, which by no means exists in what is alien to us, but only apparent pleasure. Thus, these are excommunicated earlier and even more justly than those by the voice of the minister, dividing the ranks of believers, because they cannot be allowed to partake of any holy thing, except for the teaching of God’s word, which inspires conversion to the better. For if the supreme sacred rite of the divine sacraments is hidden both from the penitents and from those who have previously attended it, not admitting those who are imperfectly sanctified, but, being itself most pure, it proclaims: I am invisible and inaccessible even to those who for some reason are imperfect and exhausted in the pursuit of the last degree of goodness for them, because the purest voice in all respects drives away those who cannot be in union with the worthy partakers of the most divine things, then all the more so should the crowd possessed by passions be considered alien to the sacred and alienated from any view of sacred things and their participation. When those who are not initiated into the sacraments and those who are not involved in the sacraments and together with them have fallen away from the sacred life, and after them those who, due to weakness of spirit, are subject to enemy fears and dreams, as those who have not achieved, through an intense and unremitting desire for things divine, the firmness and strength of a godlike state, then, along with these, those who, although they have retreated from the opposite life, have not yet been cleansed of ghosts by its power, skill and divine and pure love, and after them those who have not completely become uniform and, to say in the words of the law, not completely immaculate and immaculate - when all of these are outside the church and the sacred rite that exceeds them, then all the sanctified sacred celebrants and lovers of all-sacred actions, sacredly approaching the most holy sacrament, chant with a universal hymn the beneficent and beneficent Principle by which the saving ones are open to us. sacraments that sacredly perform the sacred deification of those approaching the sacraments. Some call this song a song of praise, others - the Symbol of Faith, while others, as I think, is more fitting for God - the sacred thanksgiving (Eucharist), since it embraces the sacred gifts descending to us from God, for it seems to me that in all the works of God, sung in the hymns, there was providence for us - a providence that gracefully established our being and life and in the likeness of beginnings of beauty, giving us a form of God-likeness, confirming us in the communion of the most divine order and height, and on the other hand, penetrating into the deprivation of divine gifts that happened to us from inattention, so that with the prepared benefits we would be called back to the previous state and, through the all-perfect perception of what belonged to us, to arrange the most perfect communication of our gifts and through this to grant us communion with God and participation in divine things. 8. When, in this way, God's original love for mankind is sacredly sung, the covered divine bread and the cup of blessing are offered, the divine kiss and the mysterious and super-peaceful proclamation of sacred written memorials are performed. For it is impossible for people divided among themselves to be brought together into a peaceful unity with the One. If we, being illuminated by the contemplation and knowledge of the One, were gathered together in a single and divine assembly, then we would not allow ourselves to fall into special lusts, from which earthly and passionate needs are formed, consistent only with the fallen nature. It seems to me that such a unified and undivided life is established by the sacred action of the world, affirming the connection of like with like and distancing divine and unified contemplations from those that are divided among themselves. 9. And the proclamation after the world of sacred memorials preaches about those who lived righteously and achieved the unchangeable perfection of a virtuous life, on the one hand, exciting us and guiding us to achieve through likening them to the most blissful state and a godlike death, and on the other hand, proclaiming them as living, or, as theology says, not dead, but reposed through death to the most divine life. Note at the same time that they are included in sacred memorials not because God’s memory is humanly revealed in the representation of what they are reminded of, but, as someone would say magnificently, in the image of what is glorified by God and immutably known to God are those who have achieved perfection in God-likeness. For “I know,” says the word of God, “his own beings” (2 Tim. 2:19), and: “The death of His saints is honorable before the Lord” (Ps. 115:6), “the death of the saints” is said instead of “perfection in righteousness.” Pay sacred attention to the fact that immediately after the offering on the divine altar of the venerable symbols through which Christ is depicted and received, a list of saints appears, recalling their inseparable union with Him in a supreme and sacred union with Him. 10. When all this has been sacredly accomplished according to the stated rites, the hierarch, standing in front of the most holy symbols, washes the hands of the priests with water with an honest face. “The one who has been washed,” as the word of God says, “does not require” (John 13:10) any other washing than the washing of the edges or extremities, and with this final cleansing, plausibly descending to the secondary works of service in the all-pure state of God-likeness, he will remain uncontrollable and free, as completely of one kind, and immediately turning to the one in the same form, he will make an undefiled conversion and immaculate, like a person who preserves the fullness and integrity of God’s image. This, as we said, was indicated by the sacred laver in the subordinate hierarchy, and now the same is signified by the cleansing of the hands of the hierarch and priests. For those approaching the most sacred sacred rite need to purify the very last thoughts of the soul and begin to emulate it as much as possible, since only in this case will they be illuminated by the clearest manifestations of God, because the superworldly lights transmit their fullest and clearest rays in the brilliance of mirrors similar to them. The washing of the hands by the hierarch and priests is performed before the most holy symbols, as if before Christ, who sees all our innermost thoughts, and as a sign that complete cleansing is being accomplished (that is, extending to the very last things) under the all-penetrating test of Him (Christ) and according to the most righteous and incorruptible judgment. In this way, the hierarch begins the Divine Mysteries and, having chanted the holy deeds of God in hymns, performs the most Divine Mysteries and brings what he sings before his eyes. 11. What works of God we are talking about in relation to us will be stated after this, as much as possible, because I do not have enough strength to sing everything, nor to know anything completely clearly and to secretly guide others to this. And about those who are sung and performed sacredly according to the guidance of the word of God by the divinely sanctified hierarchs, let us say, as much as is available to us, having recognized the facilitating hierarchical inspiration. Human nature, which at the beginning senselessly fell away from divine blessings, suffered a most passionate life and the end of a pernicious death, because it was natural that the destructive deviation from true Goodness and the crime of the sacred paradise law of that which is contrary to divine blessings betrayed the sinner, who, by his own inclination of the will and by the seductive temptation from the enemy, rebelled on the life-giving yoke; and from here the place of eternity was sadly replaced by eternal death; Thus, human nature, which received its beginning in corruptible birth, is righteously brought to an end corresponding to the beginning. Willfully falling away from the divine and grief-building life, it fell into the opposite extreme - a multi-passionate change. Having lost its way moreover, and having deviated from the right path to the truly existing God, and having subjugated itself to destructive and evil forces, human nature did not notice that it served not gods and not beings favorable to it, but enemies; and they, by their ruthlessness, mercilessly exhausted it, and it was sadly exposed to the danger of loss of existence and destruction. But the most infinite love for mankind of God's original Goodness did not graciously put aside self-actual providence for us, but, having become truly involved in everything we have, except sin, and united with our humiliation while maintaining its properties unfused and unchangeable, it finally granted us, as chins, communion with itself and revealed us as partakers of its blessings. And the power of the apostate force over us, as tradition testifies, was destroyed not by force, as being overwhelming, but, according to the word mysteriously given to us, “in judgment and truth” (Jer. 4:2). It beneficially changed our state to the completely opposite: it filled the darkness of our mind with abundant and divine light and adorned the ugliness with god-like beauties, as well as the dwelling of the soul - the body, which was in an all-perfect state, when our being had not yet fallen, God's love for mankind freed us from disgusting passions and destructive defilements, showing us the premium path to the heavenly and the order of life in the sacred measure. the possibility of us becoming like him. 12. How else could we have this imitation of God if the memory of the most holy deeds of God were not always renewed in us through the sacred words and sacred rites? So, we do this, as the word of God says, in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19). Therefore, the divine hierarch, standing before the divine altar, glorifies the mentioned divine acts of Jesus’ divine providence for us, which He accomplished for the salvation of our race, as the word of God teaches, by the good pleasure of the Most Holy Father in the Holy Spirit. Having chanted and having attached his mental eyes to the venerable and mental contemplation of them, he begins their symbolic sacred rite - and this is according to the God-given rite - therefore, after a song of praise about the holy deeds of God, he first reverently justifies his boldness in approaching the sacred rite that exceeds it, calling out to Christ: “Thou hast declared: do this.” in My remembrance." Then, having asked himself to be shown worthy of this God-imitating sacred rite and to perform the Divine Mysteries in the likeness of Christ himself and to give the gifts quite sacredly and to give holy communion to those who wish to partake of the sacred, he sacredly performs the Divine Mysteries, bringing before his eyes under sacred symbols what he chanted. Having opened the covered and undivided bread and crushed it into many parts and divided a single cup for everyone, he mysteriously spreads and establishes unity and thus performs the most holy sacred act. The one, simple and hidden nature of Jesus, the most divine Word, in His incarnation for our sake, through goodness and love for mankind, invariably condescended to our constitution and vision and beneficially completed our one-created communion with Him, uniting the low in us with His divine to the last limits, so that we, through the identity of the undefiled and divine life, would agree with Him, like members with the body, and so that, mortified by destructive passions, not made unjointed, and unattached, and not living with His divine and healthy members. For if we strive for communion with Him, we need to look at His divine life in the flesh and, in likening it with holy alienation from sins, ascend to a God-like and undefiled life, because under this only condition He grants us, in accordance with our condition, communion with the like. 13. All this is inspired by the hierarch through sacred actions, on the one hand, wearing out the covered gifts, on the other, dividing their unified composition into many parts and through the most sincere union of the shared gifts with those who perceive them, making those who partake of them their fellows. For in these actions, accessible to our feelings, he portrays, as it were, in images our spiritual life, placing before the eyes of Jesus Christ, hidden in Divinity, in the all-perfect and unfused incarnation for our sake, who lovingly accepted our image and to our separate existence from unity by nature immutably came and through this beneficial love for mankind calling the human race to partake of His and His blessings, if only we enter into unity with His divine life through assimilation to it that is feasible on our part, and through this we will become true partakers of God and divine things. 14. Having received communion and taught initial communion with God, the hierarch ends the rite with sacred thanksgiving together with the entire sacred church assembly. The communion of himself precedes the giving of gifts to others, and the reception of the sacraments by himself is accomplished before the mystical division of the people, because such is the ecumenical rite and order, so that first the hierarch will partake and be filled with gifts, which through him must be divinely taught to others, and then taught to others. That is why those who boldly use the teaching established by God, first of behavior and way of life in accordance with the teaching, are alien to the sacred and are completely removed from the sacred law. For, just as in the rays of the sun the thinnest and most transparent things are first filled with flowing radiance, and then they already pour out all the light pouring out on them in a sun-like manner onto others standing behind them, so in divine things, let no one dare to lead others who has not become most godlike in his entire state and has not been made a leader by divine inspiration and election. 15. Then the entire rank of priests, having originally gathered together and partook of the Divine Mysteries, ends the sacred rite with sacred thanksgiving, having recognized and chanted the gifts of God’s actions in accordance with their position. And those who are not involved and alien to the knowledge of the divine gifts are not allowed to give thanks, although these divine gifts in their essence are worthy of giving thanks for them. But, as I said, those who, due to their inclination for the worse, did not even want to ever look at the divine gifts, let them remain ungrateful to the limitless gifts of God’s works. “Taste,” says Scripture, “and you see” (Ps. 33:9); he who is illuminated by sacred instruction in the Divine Mysteries will understand their many-fruitful gifts and, in communion, looking all sacredly at their divine height and greatness, will gratefully sing the heavenly blessings of the Godhead. So varied and so beautiful are the mental contemplations of the most holy sacrament of the assembly, sacredly, as we have said more than once, sacredly fulfilling our communion and co-bringing to the One. But there is another sacred rite, similar to this: our leaders call it the sacrament of the sanctification of the world. So, let us consider in order the parts from which it is composed, from the side of sacred images, let us rise in sacred contemplation from its fragmented parts to its single beginning. II. The Sacrament of the Consecration of the World In exactly the same way as in the assembly, the ranks of the imperfect are excommunicated after a preliminary hierarchical treatment with fragrance throughout the entire church and the sacred psalms and reading of the divine word. Then the hierarch, having taken the ointment, places it on the divine altar under the shadow of twelve wings, while everyone with the most sacred voice sings the sacred song of inspiration of the inspired prophets, and, having performed a prayer of consecration over it (the world), then uses it in the most holy sacred rites over the things and persons being consecrated for almost every kind of sacred-authoritative sacred performance. 1. The introductory-consecrated action of this consummate sacred rite, it seems to me, expresses in the sacred rites performed by the world that the holiness and fragrance of the spirit are hidden among venerable men, and at the same time inspires sanctified men not to discover in themselves, for the sake of vain glory, the beautiful and fragrant likenesses of the hidden God from the side of their virtue. For the hidden and fragrant beauties of God, surpassing the mind, are inviolable and are mentally revealed only to those who participate in spiritual life, so that they may have incorruptible images similar to themselves in virtue in their souls. As a miraculous, benevolent image of God-like virtue, he who looks at this mental and fragrant beauty forms himself in its likeness and disposes himself to the most perfect imitation. And just as in sensual images the painter, if he unswervingly looks at the original face, without being distracted by anything else that is before his eyes, or without being distracted by anything, will make, so to speak, a double of the one whom he depicts, as he is, and will present reality in a likeness, the prototype in the image and one object in another, except for the difference in essence, so to the lovers of the Philokalia, who paint in the spirit, look at the fragrant and bestows upon the hidden beauty the true and most divine likeness of this beauty. Therefore, the divine painters, working without the slightest deviation on the formation of their spirit in accordance with the essential fragrant and mental splendor, naturally do not perform any of their God-imitating virtues, so that they will be visible, according to the expression of the word of God, from people (Matthew 6:18?). As if in an image, they sacredly contemplate in the divine world the innermost sacred shrines of the Church, and then they themselves, sacredly hiding the shrine and God-likeness of virtue inside the God-imitating and God-inscribed mind, look at only the beginning-like mind and are not only invisible (from the side of their inner success) to those unlike them, but they themselves have no inclination to look at them. As a result, in accordance with their mood, they love not what only seems beautiful and fair, but what is truly so; They do not turn their gaze to glory, senselessly pleased by the crowd, but, imitating God, distinguishing between good and evil in themselves, they become divine images of the most divine fragrance, which, in itself being truly fragrant, does not turn to what only falsely appears to be a fragrance to many, but impresses in its true images the true fragrance. 2. Now, having already surveyed the external splendor of all this beautiful sacred rite, let us look at its most divine beauty, contemplating it in itself without the cover of veils, clearly reflecting the blessed light and filling us with a fragrance that is unhidden for spiritual people. For the visible sacred fulfillment of the world is not incommunicable and invisible to those who surround the hierarch, but, on the contrary, extending to them and becoming for them an object of contemplation that exceeds the crowd, it is sacredly protected by them and sacredly separated from the crowd. The ray of the all-sacred mysteries, which purely and directly illuminates the divine men, as akin to the spiritual and undisguisedly fragrant to their spiritual feelings, does not proceed in the same way to those who stand behind them, but they, as hidden contemplatives of spiritual mysteries, mysteriously hide this ray under the symbols of wings in order to make it inviolable for those unlike them; It is through these symbols that the splendid ranks of the governed flock are elevated to their inherent sacred level. 3. So, I said, the sacred rite we are now raising has the purpose and power of the sacred performance of hierarchical actions. That is why the divine principles and our leaders arranged it as a single and united activity with the holy sacred rites of the Assembly, for the most part from the same symbolic actions and mysterious institutions and sacred words. And here you will see in exactly the same way that the hierarch carries a wonderful fragrance from the most divine place to further sacred parts of the church and, by returning to the previous place, inspires that the communion of divine things, although it is performed in every shrine in accordance with its dignity, is always inexorable and immutable and remains unchanged with its properties in accordance with the divine institution. In the same way, again, chants and the reading of divine words lead the imperfect to life-giving adoption, hold a sacred meeting of those possessed by filth, and in the weak, possessed by demons, they destroy enemy fear and enchantment, revealing, in accordance with their strength, the height of the godlike state and strength, by which they themselves will begin to frighten hostile forces and will be assigned to heal others, since they not only have, but can also communicate God-like firmness in one’s virtues and courage against enemy fears. And for those who have turned from the worst to sacred reason, songs and readings impart a holy disposition not to succumb again to passions for evil; those who do not yet have complete purity are completely cleansed; sacred faces bring one closer to divine images, and to looking at them and communicating; the participants in the shrine are nourished in all its fullness, saturating, in blissful and mental contemplations, these like-minded men with the One and bringing them into unity. 4. What then? Doesn’t the rites of those who are not completely pure, which we have already mentioned, completely excommunicate, just as this is done in the sacrament of assembly, the real sacred occult action, visible in images only to the sanctified, and contemplated in the hierarchical orders and sacredly performed only by the unalloyed, all-sanctified? It seems to me that this, which we have often already said, is unnecessary to repeat in the same words and because of this not to move on to what follows in the order of the sacred rite, that is, to the divine contemplation of the hierarch holding the divine myrrh, under the shade of twelve wings and performing the most holy sacred rite over it. So, we say that the composition of the world is a certain mixture of various fragrant substances, full of good will, the participants of which become fragrant as they participate in the fragrance. And we are convinced that the most divine Jesus, supremely fragrant, fills our spirit with divine sweetness in spiritual dispensations. For even when we perceive sensual fragrances, we experience a pleasant sensation, and our faculty of distinguishing odors is nourished with great pleasure, unless it is damaged and is in a state to perceive the fragrance. In accordance with this, someone could say that our spiritual powers, not damaged by a disposition for the worse, according to our natural ability to discern things, perceive the original fragrance of God and are filled with sacred sweetness and divine food in accordance with the godlike measure and a decent turn of the mind to the divine. So, the symbolic composition of the world, as if in the image of the indescribable, prescribes to us Jesus himself, a rich imprecise treasury of divine fragrances, giving to the most divine minds in the original proportionality of God divine fragrances, with which, pleasantly enjoying and being filled with sacred perceptions, they feed on mental food when fragrant gifts enter into them as they receive divine communion. 5. But it is clear, I think, that to beings higher than us, as the most divine, the gift of imprecise fragrance is in some way closer, more abundantly revealed to them and communicated, unenviably overflowing and penetrating in a variety of ways into their bright and welcoming power of mind; To lower mental beings and not so capable of perception, it, keeping the highest contemplation and communion inviolable for them, is taught in the fragrances characteristic of the participants in the original proportionality with God. Thus, the order of the seraphim, which is so superior to our highest holy beings, is depicted through twenty wings standing and established around Jesus, clinging as much as they can to His most blessed vision, and sacredly filled through the all-holy perceptions of mental dispensation, and, speaking sensually, with silent lips calling out the many-song theology. For the sacred mind of the premium spirits is untiring, imbued with unceasing divine love and stands above all evil and oblivion. That is why, as I think, their unceasing cry signifies their eternal and unchangeable thought and knowledge of divine things in all agreement and thanksgiving. 6. However, I think we have well examined the incorporeal properties of the seraphim, which are inscribed in the word of God through sensory images depicting the mental, and presented them to your mental eyes in the ranks of the heavenly hierarchy. But since in the present case, sacredly surrounding the hierarch, they reflect in abbreviation the same highest structure, now let us look with the most insubstantial eyes at their most God-like radiance. 7. So, the diversity of their faces and multi-leggedness means, in my opinion, their multiplicity of vision in relation to the divine light and their ever-moving and penetrating understanding of divine blessings. The sixfold arrangement of the wings, as the word of God says, means, I think, not a mysterious number, as some believe, but the fact that the highest essence and rank, standing around God, has everything erective and completely free and premium - both the first, and the middle, and the lower, its mental and god-like powers. That is why the most sacred wisdom of the word of God, in sacredly writing the outline of the wings, places wings on the top, middle and legs of the seraphim, thereby expressing their perfect mobility and all-round ability to ascend to the truly existing. 8. If they cover their faces and legs and fly with only middle wings, then you sacredly understand by this that the rank, so exalted above the highest essences, reveres that which is higher and deeper than its understanding, and is prudently elevated to the vision of God on the middle wings in the subordination of its life to the divine scales, which sacredly dispose it to the knowledge of itself. 9. And the fact, as it is said in the word of God that they called out to each other, this, I think, means that they unselfishly communicated their divine understanding to one another. We consider it worthy to reverently mention that the Hebrew text of the Word of God calls the most holy essences of the seraphim with this significant name, borrowing it from the ardor and ardor in the divine and moving life. 10. So, if, as the interpreters of Jewish words say, theology calls the divine seraphim kindlers and warmers - a name that expresses their essential property, then according to the symbolic depiction they have stimulating powers in relation to the divine world, causing it to emit and spread fragrances. Thus, above the mind, the fragrant Essence (God) loves to be moved by fiery purest minds to discover Himself and bestows His divine inspirations in the most abundant distributions on those who thus most peacefully move Her. Neither did he not know the divine rank of the heavenly beings of the most divine Jesus, who descended to receive sanctification; but he sacredly understands that Jesus humbled Himself to our state by divine and ineffable goodness and, seeing Him sanctified in human form by the Father, and by Himself, and by the Spirit, understands His own superiority, which remained unchanged in essence in all that Jesus did in the beginning. And therefore, the tradition of sacred symbols places seraphim in the world being sanctified, meaning and depicting Christ as immutable in the true and perfect incarnation in our likeness. And what is even more divine, it uses the divine ointment in every sacred accomplishment, clearly pointing, in accordance with the word of God, to the One who sanctifies, Himself having accepted sanctification as always equal to Himself in relation to every divine benefit. That is why the perfect gift and grace of the sacred birth of God is sacredly performed by the most divine sacred accomplishments of the world. Therefore, I think, the hierarch, pouring myrrh into the cleansing font with cruciform investments, presents to the eyes capable of contemplation the fact that Jesus, immersed even to death on the cross for the sake of our birth of God, by His very divine and uncontrollable descent from death, splendidly snatched those baptized according to the mysterious word into His death from the ancient absorption of corruptive death and renewed for the divine and eternal existence. 11. And to the one on whom the most sacred sacred act of the birth of God is performed, the perfect anointing with myrrh grants the infusion of the God-originating Spirit, while the symbolic sacred outline of the cross means, I think, that from Him Himself (from Christ), who in a human form received sanctification for our sake from the God-originating Spirit, with the immutability of the properties of the divine nature, is given the Divine Spirit. 12. As a priest, reflect also on the fact that, according to the statute of the most holy sacred rites, the consecration of the divine altar occurs through the all-sacred libations of the most holy myrrh. This is the most heavenly and all-essential contemplation, the beginning, essence and perfecting power of all divine sanctification of us. If Jesus Himself, the God-primary sanctification of the divine minds, is our most divine altar, on which, according to the expression of the word of God, being sanctified and mysteriously burnt, “we have the offering” (Eph. 2:18), then let us look with premium eyes at the most divine Altar (on which everything that is sanctified is completed and sanctified), sanctified the most divine world. For the Most Holy Jesus sanctifies Himself for us (John 17:19) and fills us with all holiness, when what is accomplished in Him descends economically and beneficially upon us as God-born. That is why, I believe, the divine leaders of our hierarchy, in the hierarchical sense, call this most honest sacred act, according to divine tradition, in accordance with what is being performed, the Sacrament of the world, and, perhaps, let someone call it the Sacrament of God, in a double sense, giving praise to its divine sacred accomplishment. For His (Christ’s) Sacrament is both the fact that He, according to humanity, received sanctification for our sake, and that which divinely accomplishes and sanctifies everything that is sanctified. The sacred song of inspiration of the divine prophets (Alleluia) means, say those who know the Hebrew language, praise God, or praise the Lord. So, when the sacred theophany and divine action are sacredly prescribed in a diverse composition of hierarchical symbols, then it is not indecent to recall the divinely inspired prophetic hymnology, because it clearly and at the same time sacredly inspires that divine blessings are worthy of sacred praise. 1. Such is the most divine sacred fulfillment of the world. Now, after the described divine sacred rites, it is necessary to explain the sacred ranks and departments, their powers, actions, initiations and the triplicity of the highest hierarchical degrees. Thus, it will be shown that the beautiful structure of our hierarchy completely excludes and alienates from itself all indecency, indecency and confusion, and, on the contrary, in its distribution of sacred ranks it reveals splendor, harmony and strict order. It seems that we have already sufficiently explained the tripartite composition of any hierarchy, when we sang the praises of other hierarchies, saying, according to our sacred traditions, that the entire circle of the hierarchy is composed of the most divine sacraments of God-illumined speculators and their mysteries, and (persons) sacredly performed by them (i.e., these mysteries). 2. Thus, for the most holy hierarchy of heavenly beings, the Sacrament constitutes the most feasible immaterial understanding of God and divine things and the complete and, to the extent possible, God-imitating state of God-likeness. And the first of the beings standing around God serve as light guides and leaders for such sacred perfection: they generously convey to the lower sacred ranks, to the extent characteristic of them, the god-created knowledge, ever granted to them from the self-perfect and wise divine minds of God. And the lower ranks of the first essences, as sacredly led by those to the god-created light of the Godhead, are and are rightly called accomplished ranks (raised to perfection). After this heavenly and supermundane hierarchy, beneficially wearing out its most sacred gifts in the circle of actions that concern us, the Divine Authority also bestowed, according to the saying of the word of God, on infants the subordinate hierarchy, pouring out light, harmless to weak eyes, commensurate with their strengths, in obscure images of truth, in reflections that are far removed from prototypes, in divinations that are not easily permeable, in symbols representing contains an intractable hidden meaning. In this subordinate hierarchy, the secret action was elevation to spiritual service. The leaders of this were those who were sacredly initiated into the secrets of that holy tabernacle from Moses, the first secret man and leader of the subordinate hierarchs, who, sacredly delineating the order of the subordinate hierarchy, which raised the thought to that sacred tabernacle, called all the subordinate sacred rites the likeness of the image shown to him on Mount Sinai (Ex. 25, 40). Those who were performed were those who, in their own way, were elevated from legal rites to the most perfect understanding of the mysteries. Theology calls our hierarchy the most perfect secret teaching, calling it the fulfillment and sacred completion of that legal hierarchy. This is a hierarchy both heavenly and legal, occupying the middle between extremes: between one (heavenly), being involved in spiritual contemplations, and the other (sub-legal), because it is not alien to the variety of symbols through which it is raised to things divine. It also has a tripartite composition, containing the most holy sacred rites of the sacraments, the godlike servants of the shrine and the people whom they lead to the shrine to a decent extent. Each of the three components of our hierarchy, like the subordinate hierarchy and that which is more divine than ours, is divided according to its strength into three degrees: first, middle and last, which maintains sacred proportionality and a well-ordered, mutual, specific for each rank and strong connection between all. 3. Thus, the most sacred rite of the sacraments has the first divine power - to sacredly purify the imperfect; the middle one is to initiate the purified into the mysteries through light transmission; the last and most important power in relation to the first is to elevate those initiated into the mysteries to perfection in the understanding of the mysteries into which they were initiated. The order of priests in its first degree purifies the imperfect through secret actions, in the middle it guides the purified with light, in the last and highest of the priestly degrees it raises those who have partaken of the divine light to perfection by the power of sacred accomplishment, guiding them to the direct knowledge of insights previously perceived only by contemplation. Among those who perform, the first degree consists of those who are purified, the middle - after purification, those who are enlightened and allowed to contemplate some shrines, the last and most divine of others - illuminated by the perfect knowledge of the sacred and luminous mysteries, to the contemplation of which they were allowed. We have already revealed the triple power of the holy rite of the sacraments: the power of the sacred birth of God (i.e., baptism), in which the word of God showed us purification and luminous enlightenment, as well as the power of the meeting (i.e., liturgy) and the Sacrament of the world - the power of perfect knowledge and knowledge of the affairs of God, through which the sacred elevation to the Godhead and the most blissful communion with Him is accomplished. Now, in order, we should reveal the composition of the clergy rite, which is divided into degrees: purifying, enlightening and fulfilling. 4. This is the most holy law of the Godhead, so that the second are raised to His most divine light through the first. However, don’t we see that sensory essences and elements first communicate with things more akin to them and through them already spread their effect to others? It is all the more natural that God, the beginning and foundation of all visible and invisible prosperity, deigns to send down his god-creating rays first on the most godlike beings and through them, as through the purest minds and most capable of communion and communicating light to others, he illuminates and reveals Himself to the lower ones. So, the duty of these first observers of God is to reveal to those who follow them, indifferently and in proportion to their strength, the divine contemplations sacredly revealed to themselves, and to initiate into the secrets of the hierarchy is the work of those who, together with perfect knowledge, have received good instruction in all divine things related to their hierarchy, and have accepted the sacred power to instruct others; To teach sacred things according to their dignity is the work of those who have accepted the sacred service in the fullness of knowledge and in all its composition. 5. Thus, the divine degree of hierarchs is the first in a series of other God-viewing degrees, and together it is the highest and last, because it contains the perfection and completeness of the entire composition of the hierarchy, for, just as we see all the hierarchy in general concentrated in Jesus, so every hierarchy, in particular, is concentrated in its God-enlightened hierarch. The power of the hierarchical degree embraces all individual shrines and, through all other degrees of the priesthood, performs the sacraments acquired by its hierarchy. However, to her, exclusively before other degrees, the divine law granted the indivisible right to the most divine sacred rites - these are sacred rites that constitute the secret image of God's original power and through which all the most divine symbols and all sacred rites are performed. For although priests perform some of the sacred symbols, a priest will never perform a sacred birth of God (i.e. the sacraments of baptism) without the most divine world, nor the mysteries of divine communion, without laying liturgical symbols on the most divine altar, and, finally, he himself will not be a priest unless he is introduced into this through hierarchical mysteries. Thus, the divine statute placed consecration in hierarchical degrees, the consecration of the divine world and the sacramental completion of the altar, exclusively to the sacramental authority of the divinely enlightened hierarchs. 6. So, the hierarchical degree is a degree filled with perfective power, the only one exclusively performing hierarchical initiations, enlighteningly instructing in the knowledge of the shrine and leading to sacred properties and actions in accordance with it. The light-guiding degree of priests guides those baptized to divine views on the sacraments, in subordination to the degree of God-enlightened hierarchs and together with it sacredly performs the sacred rites assimilated to itself, which, in fact, is the circle of its actions as a degree that reveals the works of God in the most holy symbols and makes those present contemplators and partakers of the holy mysteries, and presupposes those who seek knowledge of visible sacred rites to the hierarch. And the degree of clergy is a purifying degree: distinguishing those unworthy of prior admission to the sacred rites of the priests, it purifies those approaching, removing them from mixing with anything contrary to the sacrament and thus making them worthy of presence at the celebration of the sacraments and communion. Thus, during the sacred birth of God (baptism), the ministers (deacons) remove the previous clothes from those present, and then allow them to stand, face the west for negation and then turn again to the east (for all these actions belong to the degree and power of the cleansing), through this inspiring in those who come to completely put aside the clothes of their previous life, showing the darkness of the previous way of life and teaching them to renounce the darkness Submit yourself to what is light-giving. So, the ministerial rank is a purifying rank, elevating purified priests to the bright sacred rites, purifying the imperfect and feeding them with purifying enlightenment and the teaching of the word of God, and also completely separating the unsanctified from the sacred. That is why the church law places it at the door as a sign that the entrance of those approaching the shrine must be made in complete purity, and entrusts the purifying degree of the priesthood with bringing those approaching to view the mysteries and communion and through it accepts them if they are recognized as blameless. 7. So, it is shown that the degree of hierarchs is perfect and perfect, the degree of priests is enlightening and light-leading, and the degree of ministers is purifying and, on the other hand, discriminating, i.e. the hierarchical degree has the power not only to perform, but also to enlighten and purify, and the priestly degree has, together with the power of enlightenment and the power of purification. For the lower degrees cannot step over to what belongs to the higher ones, they are not allowed to boldly encroach on it, and the most divine degrees know the sacred secrets of both their service and the services of the lower ones and their perfection. However, as images of divine actions, the sacred ranks, each revealing in itself certain radiances of the well-ordered and unmixed order of God’s affairs, are distributed according to their hierarchical characteristics into the first, middle and last sacred powers and degrees, representing in themselves all together, as I said, the good order and unmixed nature of God’s affairs. Since the Godhead first purifies the minds in which he deigns to dwell, then enlightens and elevates those already enlightened to God-like sacred fulfillment, then the hierarchy of divine images divides itself into various degrees and powers, clearly representing the Godhead actions, carried out well and seamlessly in the most holy and unified order. However, having said as much as possible about the degrees and divisions of the clergy, as well as about their powers and actions, let us now consider, as much as we can, the most sacred orders on them. II. The Sacrament of Ordination The hierarch, brought to hierarchal consecration, having bowed both knees before the altar, has on his head the God-given word of God and the hierarchal hand and is thus dedicated through all-sacred invocations from the hierarch dedicating him. And the priest, bowing both knees before the divine altar, has the right hand of the hierarch on his head and in this position is sanctified by the sacred invocations of the hierarch dedicating him. The deacon, finally, having bowed one of his knees before the divine altar, has on his head the right hand of the bishop dedicating him and is consecrated by him through the invocations performed for the rank of ministers. A cross-shaped sign is placed on each of them from the ordaining hierarch, a sacred proclamation of the name and a final kiss are performed over each of them, which each of the sacred persons present and the ordaining hierarch give to the initiate to any of the mentioned sacred degrees. 1. So, what is common to hierarchs, and priests, and ministers (deacons) in their sacred service initiations is the bringing to the divine altar, the fall, the laying on of the hierarchal hand, the sign of the seal of the cross, the proclamation and the final kiss. The peculiarity and exclusive affiliation of the hierarchs is the placing on the head of the word of God, which the lower degrees do not have; Priests - bowing of both knees, which is not present in the consecration of ministers (deacons); ministers, at their dedication, bow, as it is said, only one of the knees. 2. So, the bringing to the divine altar and the fall inspires all those ordained to the sacred degrees to completely surrender their lives to the perfecter God and present their souls to Him completely pure and sanctified, like and, as much as possible, worthy of the first and most holy sanctuary and altar of the One who sacredly sanctifies godlike minds. 3. The laying on of the hierarchal hand, on the one hand, signifies the hierarchical cover under which consecrated persons, like children, are paternally protected by a hand that bestows on them the rank and degree of priesthood and repels opposing forces from them, and on the other hand, it inspires that the consecrated should perform all matters of priestly service as if under the right hand of God, having Him as their leader in each of their affairs. 4. The sign of the cross means the putting aside of all carnal desires and a life imitating God, unswervingly turned towards the God-manly, most divine life of Jesus, who descended with God’s original sinlessness even to the cross and death and signifying those who live like that as like unto Him, with the sign of the cross of their own sinlessness. 5. The hierarch proclaims the sacred name of the degree to which he is ordaining, and the name of the initiates themselves, expressing with this mysterious action that, as a God-loving celebrant, he is only a herald of God’s will, not by his own grace elevating the initiates to the degrees of priesthood, but being striving for all the ecclesiastical consecrations from God. Thus, Moses, the subordinate celebrant, had not elevated Aaron to the degree of priesthood until then, although Aaron was his brother and seemed to him to be God-loving and worthy of the holy rank, until he was moved to do so from above, by the will of only the celebrant God, having sacredly performed the initiation into the holy rank. Even our God-born and first High Priest (for for our sake Jesus, who loved mankind, became one too) “not glorified himself, as the word of God says, (to be a high priest), but he who spoke to him... Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 5:5-6). Therefore, Himself, elevating the disciples to the service of the priesthood, although as God was the beginning and perfecter, the sacred authority attribute, however, the secretly fulfilling power of consecration together to both His all-holy Father and the God-primary Spirit, commanding the disciples, as it is said in the word of God, “not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me, as... you... mate to be baptized in the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4–5). So in the same way, the first supreme among the disciples of Christ, having begun, together with his fellow disciples and ten other disciples, to the sacred installation of the twelfth in the host of disciples, reverently granted the election to the Supreme Commander of God, saying: “Show him whom you have chosen” (Acts 1:24), - and the one who was divinely designated by the divine lot was accepted into the circle of the saintly leaders. twelve... However, about this divine lot, which by the will of God fell on Matthias, others say differently and, it seems to me, not edifyingly enough, so I will express my opinion. It seems to me that the word of God called a lot some divine gift that revealed to that hierarchical host the one designated by the election of God. Likewise, every hierarch of God does not need to arbitrarily make appointments to the degrees of the priesthood, but according to the inspiration of God, hierarchically and heavenly ordain to these degrees. 6. The kiss at the end of initiation into a sacred degree also has a sacred meaning. Everyone who is only from the clerical rank is present at the dedication, even the dedicating bishop himself, kisses the initiate. For when the sacred mind reaches the sacramental fulfillment in the sacramental order and rank by divine election and by the power of sanctification, it becomes amiable to its own and most sacred ranks, rising to the most godlike splendor, flaming with love for similar minds and from them mutually benefiting from sacred love. That is why the mutual kissing of the clergy takes place, signifying the sacred communication of similar minds and their mutual loving joy, which supports the most god-like beauty in the entire composition of the sacred rank. 7. All this, as I said, is a common feature of every priestly initiation. But it exclusively belongs to the hierarch that the most sacred book of the word of God is sacredly entrusted to his head. For since the divinely sanctified hierarchs are taught from God’s original and perfecting Goodness the mystical power of the entire priesthood, then, accordingly, the God-given words of God are entrusted to the heads of the hierarchs, embracing and revealing the secrets of all theology, divine action, theophany, sacred words, sacred rites - in a word, all divine and sacred deeds and words bestowed by the beneficent God-manager hierarchy established within us. Thus, the godlike hierarch, being fully involved in all the power of the hierarchy, must not only himself shine with the true and God-devoted knowledge of hierarchical sacred words and sacred rites, but also transmit to others in the sacred authority proportionality and sacredly perform all the most accomplished mysteries of the entire hierarchy in the most divine knowledge, elevating himself and others to the highest contemplations. And among priests, the bowing of two knees is a distinctive feature compared to the degree of ministers, since this rank bends only one knee and in this position of the body is dedicated by the hierarch. 8. Kneeling means the humble approach of one who comes and presents himself to serve God. But since, as we have already said many times, there are three degrees of sacred celebrants, who of three kinds, with the most holy sacred rites and powers, act on the three degrees of those performed, sacredly accomplishing the saving bringing them under the yoke of God, then therefore the degree of ministers, as soon as the purifying one, sacredly expresses (by the very act of bending one knee) only the bringing to purification, when it casts itself before God’s altar, by which, as it were, the minds purified by it are most peacefully sanctified. And the priests bow both knees, as if as a sign that those who are sacredly guided by them are not only purified, but are also sacredly elevated by their most luminous sacred rites after the purification of life to the state and power of contemplation. The hierarch, bending both knees, has at his head the God-devoted word of God, because he hierarchically elevates those who are purified by the power of the clergy and enlightened by the priests to the level of knowledge commensurate with their strength in the sacred rites they have seen, and through this he makes those brought in perfect for the full initiation available to them. 1. These are the ranks and degrees of the priesthood, their powers, actions and dedications. Now, in order, it should be said about the triplicity of degrees raised to perfection. So, we say that the degree of those being purified is the multitude of people whom we have already mentioned, who are not allowed to participate in sacred rites and secret rites. Some of them are not admitted to the sacraments because they are just being formed and are being prepared for life-giving rebirth by the preliminary teachings of ministers; others - because they are still only appealing to the holy life, from which they have retreated, with the exhorting instructions of the beneficial word of God; others - because they are still obsessed with a cowardly fear of insuring the enemy and are healed by the strengthening word of God; some - again for the reason that they are just being elevated from bad deeds to good ones; others - because, although they have already been erected, they have not yet acquired completely unshakable firmness in the most divine rules and unchangeable habits of life. All these are the ranks and degrees of servants purified by the arcane teaching and purifying power. The ministers secretly perform them with their sacred powers in order to completely purify them and lead them to enlightened vision and the participation of luminous sacred rites. 2. The middle degree consists of those who are allowed to see, and also, to the extent of acceptance, to partake of certain holy objects in all purity and are entrusted to the priests in order to receive enlightenment from them. And, it seems to me, it is very clear that those who are cleansed from all impurity, alien to holiness, and in all-perfect purity have acquired unshakable firmness of spirit, are already sacredly elevated to the state and right to look at the most divine symbols and are worthily made partakers of them, through this vision and communion they are filled with all spiritual joy and their uplifting power is inspired to the extent of their acceptance in the divine desire to receive control of them. So, by this degree I mean the entire faithful people, since they are received through all kinds of purifications and, as much as is allowed to them, are awarded sacred vision and the participation of luminous mysteries. 3. The highest degree among all those raised to perfection is the sacred order of monks, on the one hand, having received complete purification with all the strength of the soul and in complete renunciation of the works of one’s own will, and on the other, admitted to seeing all the sacred rites that are only accessible to him in mental contemplation and communion. They (the monks) entrust themselves to the perfecting powers of the hierarchs themselves and, with the help of their godly educational instructions and hierarchical traditions, study the sacred performances of sacred mysteries that they have seen over themselves and from their sacred knowledge they are raised, to the best of their ability, to the highest perfection. That is why our God-bearing mentors honored them with sacred names, calling them some therapevts, others monks, because of their pure service and work of the Lord, and because of their indivisible and united life, which unites them in pious rejection of divisive cares and the affairs of this life and elevates them to godlike unity and God-loving perfection. That is why the sacred law granted them perfect grace and honored them with a certain kind of dedicatory prayer, not exclusively hierarchical, which is inevitably performed only over the clergy ranks, but clergy, performed by the venerable priests in the sacramental rites of secondary dignity. II. The mystery of monastic initiation The priest stands before God's altar, saying the monastic prayer. And the one being initiated stands behind the priest, not bowing both knees together, nor any of them, and not having the God-devoted word of God on his head, but simply standing before the priest, who recites a mysterious prayer over him. After completing this prayer, the priest, approaching the initiate, first asks him whether he renounces any divisive not only way of life, but also thoughts; then he describes to him a most perfect life, instilling in him that he should become above the average state in a virtuous life. When the initiate freely confesses all this, the priest, having sealed him with the sign of the cross, tonsures him, proclaiming the Trinity of the all-blessed Divinity, and after removing all his previous clothes, clothes him in another garment and, together with the other men who are present, giving him a kiss, makes him a communicant of the divine mysteries. 1. That the monk, during initiation, does not bend a single knee and does not have the God-devoted word of God on his head, but simply stands before the priest, saying the prayer, this means that the monastic order is not an order guided by others, but in itself remains in a solitary and sacred state, follows the priestly ranks and through them, as the closest to them, is elevated in good obedience to the divine knowledge of the shrines accessible to him. 2. Renunciation of all divisive deeds, not only of life, but also of thoughts, expresses the perfection of monastic wisdom, which is revealed in the knowledge of the one-creative commandments. For this wisdom, as I said, belongs not to the average degree of those raised to perfection, but to the highest. Therefore, many things that the average rank can do without being condemned are resolutely forbidden to solitary monks, since they must have one desire for the one, be raised to sacred unity and, as far as possible, resemble the life of the priestly ranks, with which they have in many ways an affinity and are in greater proximity than other ranks raised to perfection. 3. Sealment with the sign of the cross means, as we have already said, the putting aside of all carnal desires without exception. And cutting one’s hair signifies a life that is pure and alien to any secrecy, which does not hypocritically cover up spiritual ugliness with any external decorations, but internally rises to godlike beauty with beauties that are not human, but uniform and characteristic of solitary life. 4. Putting aside the previous clothes and accepting another expresses the transition from an ordinary virtuous life to the most perfect, just as during the sacred birth of God (baptism), a change of clothes meant the elevation of a purified life to a state of reason and enlightenment. And in the fact that the priest and all the sacred persons present give a kiss to the initiate, understand the sacred communion of godlike men, rejoicing with each other in divine joy and love. 5. At the end of everything, the priest calls the initiate to the communion of the most sacred symbols, sacredly expressing by this that the initiate, if he succeeds in truly monastic and single-creative elevation, will not be a contemplator of only the shrines accessible to him and will not proceed to the communion of the most sacred symbols in the same way as those occupying the middle degree, but in the divine mind of the shrines perceived by him will begin to commune the most sacred symbols communion in a manner other than that of pious people. That is why the priestly ranks, during their sacred initiations, at the end of their most sacred initiations, are taught from the hierarch who ordained them the communion of the Holy Eucharist, because the reception of the divine mysteries is the crown of all participation in the clergy, but also so that all the sacred ranks perceive the most divine gift of communion, each according to himself, to their own elevation and perfection. So, we have shown that in the holy mysteries there is purification, enlightenment and fulfillment; that the ministers constitute the purifying degree, the priests the enlightening degree, and the performing ones the godlike hierarchs; and finally, that the degree of those who are purified is made up of those who do not participate in sacred contemplation and communion, as those still being purified only, the degree of those admitted to vision is made up by the pious people, and the degree of those close to perfection is the rank of solitary monks. Thus, our hierarchy, sacredly arranged from God-established degrees, is similar to the heavenly hierarchy, preserving in itself, as far as possible between people, their God-imitating and God-like properties. 6. But you will say that among the heavenly orders, of course, there is no degree of purification, for it would be impermissible and unfair to say that there is some unclean heavenly order. For my part, I will also resolutely affirm, until I fall away from the most sacred reason, that the heavenly ranks are completely immaculate and worldly pure. For if any of them was carried away by malice, then he fell away from the heavenly community of divine minds, alien to any vice, and was drawn into the darkness of the fall of the apostate hordes. But we will not sin against the holiness of the heavenly hierarchy if we say about it that the purification for the lower beings in it is enlightenment from God in relation to what they did not know - illumination, elevating them to the most perfect understanding of God's original knowledge and cleansing them from ignorance of what they did not yet understand, and thus, through the mediation of the first and most divine beings, elevating them to the sublime and brightest light vision of God. In the same way, in the heavenly hierarchy there are degrees of those who are enlightened and accomplished, as well as ranks of those who purify, enlighten and accomplish, since the highest and most divine beings in it purify the lower holy and heavenly ranks from all ignorance in the order and proportionality of the heavenly ranks, fill them with the most divine insights and raise them to perfection in the most holy knowledge of the divine mind. This is exactly what we have already said, and in the word of God it is divinely explained that the heavenly ranks are not all equal in the sacred knowledge of God-visual illumination, but that the first of them are illuminated, as they are acceptable, with the most brilliant rays of God’s initial light directly from God, and the lower ones - through them, although also from God. 1. After explaining what has been said so far, it seems to me necessary to say about what is sacredly performed by us on the departed, since this is not the same for those who are sanctified and those who are alien to sanctification; but, just as the way of life of both is different, so they pass differently to death. Those who have been honored to live in a state of sanctification, turning the gaze of their souls to the immutable promises of God, the truth of which they saw in the Resurrection of the Lord, go to the mortal limit with firm and undoubted hope, with divine joy, as at the end of sacred deeds: they know that after the future complete resurrection of their entire being will inherit an all-perfect and endless life and salvation. For sanctified souls, which during their life here may fall into changes for the worse, in their rebirth will have the God-like property of unchangeability in goodness. And pure bodies, associated with sanctified souls and accompanying them, written with them in the book of life and working with them in their labors, will receive their inherent resurrection at the time when the souls are established in a state of immutability in the Divine life; having united with sanctified souls, with whom in this life they were one, being, as it were, members of Christ, they inherit a godlike, and incorruptible, and immortal, and blessed lot. Such is the dormition of sanctified people, approaching the end of their divine deeds in joy and with undoubted hopes. 2. And among those who are alien to sanctification, some foolishly think that they will pass into oblivion, others - that the connection of bodies with their souls is broken once and for all, as if something unworthy of souls in a God-like life and in a blessed lot, they think so, not understanding, as they should, the divine truth, that the most God-like life has already been conceived in us in Christ and it is not at all humiliated or insulted by the fact that we wear the body. Others destined for souls to be paired with other bodies, showing, as it seems to me, injustice to those we wear, who have labored as God-loving souls, but, having reached the end of the most divine deeds, are subject to unjust deprivation of sacred rewards. And others, I don’t know how, having deviated to earthly thoughts, argued that the holiest and most blessed lot promised to the righteous is similar to this life and souls equal to the angels in life, they completely dared to attribute something in which they themselves find low pleasure. But none of the most sacred men will ever fall into such and similar errors. Knowing that, as a whole, they will receive a lot similar to the lot of Christ, when they approach the end of this life, they see more clearly on their path to incorruption, which is becoming close to them, and they sing of the gifts of the Godhead and are filled with divine joy, no longer fearing seduction for the worse and fully knowing that they will have the well-deserved benefits faithfully and forever. On the contrary, people who are filled with abominations and sinful impurities, although they have received some instruction in the sacred teaching, but to their destruction have thrown it out of their mind and are carried away by corruptive lusts, when they come to the end of this life, they no longer consider the divine law of the word of God, as before, to be despised, looking with other eyes at the destructive pleasures of their passions and the holy life, from which they themselves madly fell away, calling it blessed, they renounce this life in torment and with a feeling of only bitter necessity, without having in mind any holy hope because of their unclean life. 3. Since nothing of the sort happens at the dormition of those involved in the consecration, then the one approaching the end of his labors is filled with holy joy and with perfect joy enters the path of sacred renewal, and the associates of the deceased, by divine kinship and by the same way of life, please him, whoever he is, as a victorious person who has reached the desired end, send up songs of thanks to the Author of the victory and at the same time ask Him, so that He would grant them the opportunity to achieve a similar lot. Having taken the deceased, his relatives bring him to the priest, as if to reward him with sacred crowns. He accepts it with joy and does what, according to the rules of sacred services, should be done to the righteously departed. II. Mystery performed on the piously departed The divine chief, having gathered the sacred face and placing the deceased, if he was of sacred rank, before the divine altar, begins prayer to God and thanksgiving; if the deceased belonged to the order of reverent monks or pious laymen, then he places him near the honest sanctuary opposite the priestly entrance. Then he makes a prayer of thanks to God. All the while, the clergy, having read the false promises proclaimed in the holy word of God about our holy resurrection, reverently sing decent hymns, similar in their inner meaning to the psalms in the word of God. Next, the first of the clergy removes the catechumens, proclaims the names of the previously deceased saints, along with whom he honors the newly departed with the same commemoration and invites everyone to ask for his blessed fulfillment in Christ. Then the divine leader, approaching the deceased, performs the most sacred prayer over him. After this prayer, the priest himself gives a kiss to the deceased, followed by all those present. When everyone has already kissed the deceased, the priest pours oil on him and, having said a holy prayer for everyone, places the body in an honest place among other sacred bodies of people of the same rank as the deceased. 1. If alien sanctifications saw or heard about what we are doing to the departed, they might laugh and begin to express regret about our error. But one should not be surprised at this, because if they do not believe, as the word of God says, they will understand less (Ps. 7:9). We, despising the significance of what is being done, with the light of Jesus, we will say that the priest does not unreasonably bring in the deceased and lay him among the person of his sole authority. Through this, he sacredly expresses that in rebirth everyone will inherit one or another lot in accordance with which they spent their lives here. Namely, the one who led a life like God and the most sacred here, as much as possible for a man leading a life imitating God, will in the next century be in a divine and blessed lot; and the one who led a life lower than a completely godlike life, but not alien to holiness, will also receive sacred rewards in accordance with it. Sending thanks for this divine truth, the priest says a sacred prayer and glorifies the worshiped God, who freed us from the evil and painful power of hell that weighed on everyone, and transferred us to his most righteous courts. 2. The singing and reading of the divine promises depict the most blessed lots into which those who have reached a righteous death will be forever elevated: in relation to the deceased, they seem to testify to his acceptance into eternal blood, and in the living they still arouse the desire for the same death. 3. Pay attention to the fact that now not all types who are in a state of purification are excommunicated, as usual, but only catechumens are removed from the sacred faces - this is because this type of those being purified has not yet been initiated into any completely sacred sacramental action and is not allowed to see any, neither small nor great, sacred action, since it has not yet received the power of seeing the shrine through the initial birth of God (baptism). Meanwhile, other types of purified people were already initiated into sacred tradition. Only by recklessly again deviating to the worse and bearing the obligation to carry out their elevation to the former, are they blessedly removed from divine contemplation and communion, for example, in sacred symbols (in the sacrament of the Eucharist), since, by partaking of them unworthily, they would receive harm and would come to greater neglect of both the shrine and themselves. But it is not without reason that they are allowed to do what is now happening. They clearly study and see here how the time of our death is unknown, what honors are proclaimed in the true word of God to the saints, and what endless torments threaten sinners like them in the next century. It will be equally useful for them to be witnesses of the sacred commemoration of the righteously deceased in the exclamations of the clergy as a true communion of all the saints who have passed away from time immemorial. Perhaps they too will feel a desire for the same thing and will learn from the instructive actions of the clergy that death in Christ is a truly blessed death. 4. Then, approaching the deceased, the divine leader performs a sacred prayer over him, and after the prayer, first the priest himself and all those present give him a kiss. In this prayer, God's original Goodness is asked to forgive the deceased for the sins he committed through human weakness and to reconcile it in the light and in the land of the living, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in a place from which sickness, sadness and sighing have escaped. 5. These, it seems to me, are the most blessed rewards of the saints that everyone understands. In fact, is it possible to compare anything with a completely carefree and luminous immortality, although the promises of future benefits, depicted in expressions completely adapted to us, exceeding any mind, have names that are far removed from their true and actual appearance? For we must consider the saying true, that eye cannot see, and ear does not hear, and the heart of man does not breathe, what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). And the depths, as I think, are the most divine and most blessed lots of the blessed patriarchs and all other saints, receiving all the godlike into ageless and most blessed perfection in themselves. 6. However, perhaps you will say that we said this correctly, but it seems bewildering, why does the clergyman ask the Divine Goodness for the deceased to forgive his sins and a blessed inheritance equal to that of godlike souls? If everyone receives reward from divine Justice for what they have done in this life, good or bad, and the deceased has already completed his own activity in this life, then by what priestly prayer could he be relegated to another lot than the one he deserves and which corresponds to his life here? I also know well, following the word of God, that everyone will receive their well-deserved portion. Himself, it is said, the Lord will reward and accept everyone who has done either good or evil with the body (2 Cor. 5:10). On the other hand, the true traditions of the word of God teach us that the prayers of the righteous in this life, not only after death, have an effect on those only who are worthy of sacred prayers. How did Saul benefit from Samuel? What fruit did the prophet’s prayer bring to the Jewish people? Just as someone who, when the sun gives its light to healthy eyes, would want to be a partaker of the sunlight, while his vision has become darkened, the one who asks the prayers of the saints would have unrealistic and vain hopes, and meanwhile has driven away their natural sacred action from himself by neglecting the divine gifts and moving away from the brightest and most beneficial commandments. But, following the word of God, I affirm that the prayers of the saints in this life are, without a doubt, useful in such a case when someone, striving to obtain sacred gifts and having a sacred ability to receive them, comes, as if in consciousness of his unworthiness, to one of the righteous men and asks him to be his assistant and prayer partner: such a person will undoubtedly receive the greatest benefit from this. He will receive those most divine gifts that he asks for, being accepted under the shelter of God’s original Goodness for the sake of his humble mood of soul, for the sake of the veneration that he has for the righteous, for the sake of a laudable desire for the sacred benefits requested and a decent and God-loving order of prayer. For even this is legitimized by God’s original Will, so that divine gifts are perceived worthy in a divine order, being given through people worthy to teach them. Therefore, if someone did not honor this sacred institution and, having reached the point of pathetic conceit, considered himself worthy of a direct conversation with God and neglected the help of the righteous, or began to offer prayers unworthy of God and not holy, or did not have an aspiration corresponding to divine benefits and befitting himself as one asking for benefits, he would not achieve through himself what he unreasonably asks for. As for the aforementioned prayer, which the priest performs over the deceased, we need to tell the tradition that has come to us from our God-enlightened leaders. 7. The divine high priest is, as the word of God says, the herald of divine judgments (justifications): for he is an angel of the Lord God Almighty (Mal. 2:7). And he knows from the word given to God that those who have lived righteously are rewarded according to their merit, determined by the most righteous scales, with the most luminous and divine life, and the impurity that has come to them through human weakness is despised by God’s original love for mankind, because no one, as the word of God says, is clean from filth. The priest knows all this as proclaimed in the true word of God, and asks that this be so and that those who have lived righteously be granted sacred rewards; on the one hand, he asks, himself being well disposed to imitate God and asking for gifts from others, as if favoring himself, and on the other hand, in his own living conviction that false promises will undoubtedly come true, and evangelically instilling in those present that what he asks for the dedicated institution will certainly come true for those who have succeeded in the divine life. Would a priest, an interpreter of God's original Truth, ever really begin to ask for something that would not be completely pleasing to God and the granting of which would not be divinely promised by Him?! That is why He does not ask for this sanctification of the departed, the innocent, not only because in such a case he would deviate from his duty as an interpreter of the will of God and would dare to perform the priestly action of his own will, and not according to a movement from the Mystery-performer, but also because he would not receive the fulfillment of this unclean prayer, having heard in justice from the righteous word of God: You ask, and you do not receive, for ask evil (James 4:3). So, the divine leader asks only for that which is promised by God, and is favorable to Him, and will undoubtedly be given, thus revealing both his own well-ordered disposition of soul before the benevolent God, and heralding those present, undoubtedly revealing future gifts for the righteous. In the same way, the clergy, as the heralds of God’s judgments, have the power to excommunicate, not in such a way that the wise God-leader, expressing himself with reverence, obediently follows the impulses of their unreasonable anger, but in such a way that they, as the heralds of God’s will, excommunicate, at the inspiration of the mystical Spirit, those who have already been condemned by God according to their deserts. Receive, it is said, the Holy Spirit: whose sins you forgive, their sins will be forgiven: and whose sins you hold, they hold fast (John 20:22). And to the one who was enlightened by the divine revelations of the All-Holy Father (Matthew 16:14), it is said in the word of God: If he were bound on earth, he will be bound in heaven, and if he were loosed on earth, he will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16, 19), so that he and every other priest like him equally accepted the God-loving and rejected the godless, following to the former manifestations of the Father's justifications, as their herald and mediator. For he (St. Peter) spoke that sacred theology, according to the expression of the word of God, not from himself, not from the revelation of flesh and blood, but from God, who initiated him into the divine mysteries (Matthew 16:17). Likewise, God-enlightened hierarchs must use both excommunication and all hierarchical authority as if they were moved towards it by the secretly fulfilling God. And all others should listen to the priestly leaders when they act in a priestly manner, as if moved by God, for you are swept away, it is said, Me is swept away (Luke 10:16). 8. But let us move on to what follows the mentioned prayer. Having finished it, the priest himself first kisses the deceased, followed by all those present, because he who has accomplished the feat of a godly life is beloved and worthy of all godlike men. After the kiss, the priest pours oil on the deceased. Remember that during the sacred birth of God (baptism), before the most divine immersion, the baptized person is given the first share of the sacred sacrament - the anointing oil - after the complete removal of his former clothes. So now, at the end of everything, oil is poured on the deceased. Then the anointing with oil called the baptized person to sacred deeds, and now the libation of oil indicates that the deceased labored in these sacred deeds and achieved perfection. 9. At the end of this, the priest places the body of the deceased in an honest place, among the bodies of other saints, equal to the deceased. This is because if the deceased led a God-loving life in soul and body, then along with the righteous soul the body that labored in sacred labors should also be honored. Therefore, God’s justice grants her well-deserved rewards along with her own body, as her companion and accomplice in a righteous or unrighteous life; therefore, the divine charter of sacred rites bestows divine communion with both of them together, namely the soul in pure contemplation and knowledge of what is being done, and the body, as it were, under images in the most divine world and in the most sacred symbols of the divine communion, sanctifying the whole person, sacredly accomplishing his complete salvation and by the sanctification of his entire being, foreshadowing his most perfect resurrection. 10. As for the final invocations, it is not permissible to interpret them in writing and to deduce their mysterious meaning, as well as the actions God performs through them, from mystery to common knowledge. According to the order of our sacred tradition, having learned them from secret instructions and with the help of God’s love and the sacred assistance of the hierarch, having reached the most divine order of life and height, you will be elevated to the highest knowledge of secret instructions. 11. Finally, the fact that children, who are not yet able to understand divine things, are partakers of the sacred birth of God and the most sacred secrets of the initial communion with God, alien to sanctification, find, as you say, worthy of just laughter, when hierarchs teach divine things to those who cannot yet hear, and in vain teach sacred traditions to those who still do not understand anything and, what is even funnier, when others pronounce denials and sacred vows. Your hierarchical understanding should not be indignant at those who are lost, but prudently and with love, for the sake of their admonition, give an answer to the objections they bring, pointing out in defense of the sacred institution the fact that our knowledge does not embrace everything divine, that much that is incomprehensible to us has its own godly reasons, perhaps unknown to us, but known to degrees higher than us, and much is hidden even from the highest beings and it is fully known only to the wise and wisdom-giving God. However, we will now say about this subject what our godlike priests passed on to us, having learned from ancient tradition. They said that it was fair that infants, being elevated to the sacraments according to the sacred law, would be introduced into the sacred order of life, becoming free from all ungodliness and moving away from a life alien to holiness. Taking this into account, our divine mentors decided to accept babies according to the sacred order so that the natural parents of the child brought would hand him over to one of those initiated into the mysteries of the divine teachings, to a good leader, who would subsequently guide the child as a God-given father and a guide of sacred salvation. When this one makes a vow to guide the child in a holy life, the priest commands that renunciations and sacred vows be pronounced, not at all as if he were initiating one into the Divine Mysteries instead of another, as those detractors say. The recipient does not say: “In place of the child, I make renunciations, or sacred vows,” but says that the child is negated and combined, i.e., as it were: “I promise to instill in this baby, when he enters into reason and is able to understand the sacred, so that he will renounce completely everything that is enemy and confess and fulfill in practice the divine vows.” It seems to me that there is nothing terrible in the fact that a child is guided in divine upbringing, having a leader and a sacred recipient who inculcates the habit of the divine and keeps it uninvolved in everything enemy. The priest also teaches the child the communion of the sacred mysteries, so that he is imbued with them and does not know any other life except that which is always directed towards the divine, and the communicant of the mysteries grows in holiness, confirms him in sacred skills and sacredly elevates him to perfection under the influence of the god-like recipient. Such, child, are the unique secrets of our hierarchy, accessible to me, that are so beautiful. Perhaps for other, more perspicacious minds, not only this is visible, but also something much more luminous and God-like. And for you, as I think, beauties will shine forth, incomparably brighter and more divine, when, using the indicated steps, you ascend to the highest illumination. Then, my beloved, teach me the most perfect illumination and show to my eyes those most magnificent and unique beauties that, without a doubt, you will be worthy to see, for I boldly hope that by what I have said, I will kindle the sparks of divine fire stored in you. You might be interested in: