The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

June 26, 2016 – Second Open Ecumenical Seminar

Speaker: Metropolitan Nektarios (Tsilis) of Hong Kong and South East Asia

The subject of the second ecumenical seminar is the Holy Eucharist.  The thoughts that follow do not aspire nor claim to cover the subject in full.  We will try, however, to present briefly and clearly the teaching of the Orthodox Church on the Holy Eucharist.

The Holy Eucharist is the centre of the worship and life of the Church.  Early tradition saw in the Eucharist the summation of the whole mystery of Christ, and not simply one part or aspect of it.

The Holy Eucharist expresses, reveals and accomplishes within history the Church itself, not simply as it is, but principally how it will be, when the Kingdom of God prevails.  In Orthodox Tradition the Holy Eucharist is an icon of the Kingdom of God: an icon of the future and not of the past.  In the Holy Eucharist the Church moves from the present world and history, and lives and moves in the eschata, in the Last Times.  The Church’s true home is the Kingdom of God and not this world.  And precisely because the Holy Eucharist is an icon of the Kingdom of God, it must be celebrated with splendour.  That is why the Typikon [or liturgical guide] specifies that the Holy Eucharist is to be celebrated on Sundays and Saints Days, for these days are joyful.  It is specifically forbidden for a complete Liturgy to be celebrated during fasting periods.

It is not by accident that in the ecclesiastical literature, we find no definition of the Church until the time of scholasticism.  The Church was a lived reality that was so obvious and well-known to all, that any theoretical description of it was superfluous.

This tangible and specific reality was from the beginning identified in the consciousness of the Church with the Synaxis [or gathering] of the Holy Eucharist.  There are many examples in the literature that support this view.   I will quote only one.  In Chapters 11 to 14 of St Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians the term ‘Church’ is used to mean the local church, and specifically the Synaxis or gathering of the local church to celebrate the Holy Eucharist.

01. The institution of the Holy Eucharist

Christ himself gave to us the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on the evening of the Mystical Supper, a few hours before his voluntary Passion.  The Lord blessed the bread and wine, offered it to his disciples, and asked them to do the same.  “Do this in remembrance of me.”

The Holy Eucharist is first of all the remembrance of Christ.   But it is not a simple act of remembrance.  Christ himself is present.  He calls us to live with Him his life, the life of the God-man, to live his sacrifice and Resurrection.  He offers to us, and calls us to commune of, His Body and Blood.  “This is My Body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins.  This is My Blood, which is shed for you and for the many, for the remission of sins.”

During the Eucharist we have before us no longer bread and wine, but the Body of Christ, which is broken into many for us, and the Blood of Christ which is shed for us, for the remission of our sins.  When we take communion we become “of one body and blood with Christ”, “Christ-bearers”, “God-bearers”.  And since we become one with Christ “mystically”, we become one with all Christians, we all become one body, because we have all taken of the same Body, Christ.  Union with Christ makes our existence—from being animal—divine.   It leads us into the beauty and glory of the Kingdom of God.  The Holy Eucharist brings Paradise into our life.

02. Types of Liturgy

By the 5^th Century AD three rites had been established.

The earliest of these is the Liturgy of St James the Brother of the Lord, the first Bishop of Jerusalem.  Nowadays it is celebrated two times a year, on 23 October, the Feast Day of St James, and on the first Sunday after Christmas.

Due to the length of this Liturgy, St Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, wrote a new Liturgy, which now bears his name.  It is celebrated ten times a year, on the five Sundays of Holy and Great Lent, on Holy Thursday, Holy Saturday, Christmas Eve, Theophany and on the First of January, the Feast Day of St Basil.

St John Chrysostom shortened the Liturgy of St Basil.  The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom is the most commonly celebrated and well-known Liturgy.

During Holy and Great Lent, on weekdays the Pre-sanctified Liturgy, as it is known, is celebrated.  If called a Liturgy, it is not in actual fact a Liturgy because it does not contain the consecration of the bread and wine.  The service is celebrated so that the believers commune of bread that has been consecrated at the Liturgy on the previous Sunday.  Due to the mournful character of Holy and Great Lent the Typikon does not permit the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on weekdays.

03. The visible elements of the Sacrament

The visible elements that are used in the Holy Eucharist are bread and wine, and a small quantity of water.  These elements are sanctified through the invocation of the Holy Spirit, which immediately follows the words of institution and Christ’s words ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’  Despite the fact that the Holy Eucharist is a Sacrament that is offered by the whole Church, the celebrant in the Sacrament, as the instrument and icon of Christ the Great Priest who unifies and offers, is the Bishop or the Priest served by a Deacon.  The participants in the Holy Sacrament are all those who have been baptised, regardless of their age, who are obliged to examine their conscience and in this way to participate in the Holy Sacrament with sincere repentance.

From the very outset the wine was mixed with water, which was in accordance with Palestinian tradition, whereby wine was not drunk without being mingled with water.  This is the act in the Liturgy which is referred to in the Apostolic Orders, according to which the Lord mixed wine and water in the Cup and, sanctifying them, gave them to the Apostles saying, “Drink from this.”  This reminds us also of the piercing of the Lord’s side when He was on the Cross, and when from his side “at once flowed blood and water”.

St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, saw this mixing of wine with water as the symbolic union of Christ with His Church.  He observed that, when the water is poured into the Chalice, the people are united to Christ. He explained that, when someone uses only wine in the Eucharist, then the Blood of Christ excludes the believers, while, if there is only water in the Cup, that would exclude Christ.

04. The celebrants of the Sacrament of the Eucharist

The Bishop or Priest is the only celebrant of the Holy Sacrament.  The Lord entrusted this Sacrament to his holy Disciples and Apostles and gave them the Command “Do this in remembrance of me.”  The exhortations, “take, eat” and “drink of this” were addressed to the holy Apostles.  This is borne out by the practices and tradition of the Orthodox Church.

Of course we must stress that the Bishop or Priest who stands before the holy Altar performs the actions, but that God acts through him.

In the Didache or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles we find the command: appoint for yourselves Bishops and Deacons worthy of the Lord, men who are humble and not avaricious, men who are true and approved because they too will fulfil for you the ministry of the Prophets and Teachers.

St Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, clearly proclaimed that only the Eucharist that is celebrated under the authority of the Bishop (or whomsoever the Bishop may ordain) should be considered valid. Wherever the Bishop appears, there let the people be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church.  Neither Baptism nor agape feasts may be celebrated without the Bishop.  Whatever he approves of is pleasing to God, so that everything the ecclesiastical body does may be true and valid.

Lay people are not permitted to celebrate the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, although they are allowed to carry the holy Gifts in exceptional circumstances.

05. The nature of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist

The Holy Eucharist is a sacrament, or mystery, and sacrifice.  It is a sacrament according to which, through the prayer of the priest, the grace of the Holy Spirit descends and changes the natural elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.  This is a great mystery, which is inexplicable and incomprehensible.  It is the essence of the natural elements that is changed and altered.  That is the elements lose their own essence, and the immaculate body and precious blood of Christ take the place of their essence.  Of course they keep their accidents, everything surrounding the essence, that is their natural qualities of weight, colour, smell, taste and, in the case of the wine, acidity.  The person who takes communion accepts the very body and blood of Christ, that same body of He who was born, increased, suffered on the Cross, rose from the dead and, deified, ascended into heaven.  He communes of the whole human nature of the Lord and of his divinity, which is indivisibly united to his human nature.

The Holy Eucharist is at the same time also a sacrifice.  It is the sacrifice of the Cross itself, an anticipation of which the Saviour performed at the Mystical Supper of Holy Thursday.  It is the same sacrifice with that of the Cross; however it is offered as a bloodless sacrifice, while the sacrifice of the Cross was not.  Likewise, while the sacrifice on the Cross happened once for all time for the abolition of sin and death, the sacrifice of the Eucharist happens repeatedly, with the aim of applying the salvatory benefits of this great sacrifice to the body of the believers.  At the sacrifice of the Eucharist both he who offers the sacrifice and the sacrificial victim are Christ himself, who is offered through the hands of the Priest.

06. The use of the term μετουσίωση or Transubstantiation (Transsubstantiatio)

This term is used principally by the Roman Catholic Church.  It is not wrong.  Its meaning corresponds to the Greek terms used by the Orthodox Church: μεταβολή (trans-formation or simply change), μεταποίηση (trans-making) and μεταστοιχείωση (trans-mutation). When Orthodox theologians use the term transubstantiation they ascribe to it the meaning of change.  Usually, however, the use of the term is avoided in the Orthodox Church, since it brings to mind scholastic cavilling about the distinction between essence and accidents, based on Aristotelian philosophy.  The terms ‘trans-making’ and ‘change’ are preferable.  Orthodox believers do not dwell overly on how precisely the bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ.  It is enough for them to believe in the omnipotence of God and in this dread and incomprehensible divine mystery.

07. The permanence of the change 

The sanctified elements, the bread and wine, remain sanctified after the end of the Divine Liturgy.  That is why at the end of every Divine Liturgy the Priests and Deacons who have served consume the sanctified elements.

In the early Church, the Bread and Wine that had been sanctified and changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, were brought to those who had been absent from the Divine Liturgy, especially to those in prison, during the times of persecution.  It was common practice for believers to keep the Holy Gifts in their homes, so that they could take communion every day.

During Holy and Great Lent the complete Liturgy was permitted only on Saturdays and Sundays.  According to the early tradition of the Presanctified Gifts, the Body and Blood of Christ, which had already been sanctified during the Liturgy on the previous Sunday, were offered on Wednesdays and Fridays.

St Cyril of Alexandria was opposed to the idea that the elements of the Eucharist lost their sanctified grace by the next day.  He called this view folly, because the Body of Christ is incorruptible.  The power of the blessing and the life-giving grace are constant.

08. The use of leavened bread in the Holy Eucharist

Leavened bread and wine mixed with water are used in the Divine Eucharist.  As we have already said, the wine is mixed with water in remembrance of the flow of blood and water from the side of Christ when on the Cross he was pierced with a lance (John 19:34).  The Orthodox Church uses leavened bread, while the Roman Catholic Church and others use unleavened bread.  The Orthodox Church uses leavened bread, because when Christ, a few hours before his death on the Cross, ate his last Passover Meal with his Disciples, on the evening of the Thursday, when he instituted the sacrament of the Divine Eucharist (on the 14^th day of Nisan) he used leavened bread, because unleavened bread was not yet to be used.  Unleavened bread was consumed on the next day, the first day of the Jewish Passover (15^th day of Nisan), and for seven days in total.

09. Are baptised infants permitted to take Communion?

Of course they are permitted, since they have been baptised, and they no longer have original sin and have been re-born spiritually, and they have received the Holy Chrism, which sealed the gifts of their baptism.  There is no reason why their pure and gentle nature should be deprived of the benefits granted by Holy Communion.

10. Are lay people permitted to commune of both elements in the Orthodox Church?

The Orthodox Church does not accept the theory of concomitantia and it does not deprive laypeople from the Holy Chalice.

The Apostolic Tradition requires that both the Clergy and laypeople commune of both the sanctified elements, of both bread and wine.

When Christ instituted the Divine Eucharist, he made particular reference to his blood, saying, “Drink of this all of you.”  All of you clearly includes laypeople.

11. When are the Holy Gifts sanctified?

After the words “Thine own of thine own”, when the priest reads the prayer of sanctification, calling on the Holy Spirit to descend and, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to change the natural elements of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  This is, of course, the most holy moment in the Divine Liturgy.  When the Liturgy takes place on a Sunday, the believers are not allowed to kneel down, because Sunday, being the day of the remembrance of Christ’s Resurrection, is a day of rejoicing (Canon 90, Council in Trullo).  On weekday Liturgies, on Saint’s Days, kneeling is permitted.

The prayer of sanctification is found in all the ancient typika or liturgical books of the Divine Liturgy.

12. When someone receives only a small portion of the sanctified divine gifts, does he commune of the whole Christ?

Yes.  He communes of the whole body and blood of the Lord, the whole of his humanity, and the divinity of the Lord.  This does not depend on the quantity of the bread and wine he receives.  Christ is present even in the smallest quantity of the Divine Eucharist.  Both the Priest who consumes the whole of the remaining elements after the believers have taken communion, as well as the believer who receives only a small quantity, commune of the same Christ.

As in a great mirror the whole sun is reflected, so if we break the mirror into pieces, in each of these pieces the same sun will be reflected.  In the same way Christ is present in the whole quantity as well as in a small amount of the sanctified gifts.  Similarly, he is present in all the Holy Chalices where the sacrament of the Divine Eucharist is celebrated.  This is the greatest miracle of God!

13. Epilogue

The Divine Liturgy is the communion of God with man.  God, who came down to earth, left us as his inheritance his body and blood so that we could eat and drink of them and commune through them with Him in the most perfect way possible.  The Divine Liturgy shows us Christ, it leads us to Him, and unites us with Him.  From the very first the Divine Liturgy was considered to be “in Christ” and it never lost this orientation.  If it loses it, it will no longer be the Divine Liturgy of the Church.

Thank you very much!

Read in Chinese, here

The Ecumenical Seminar was held at the Methodist Church at Wanchai, Hong Kong on March 13, 2016.

Homily

by His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios

of Hong Kong and South East Asia

The Mystery of Baptism in the Orthodox Church

Before I begin my talk I would like to thank the organizers of this series of seminars.

This is a very good opportunity for all those of us who belong to different Christian traditions to meet, to get to know each other and to exchange opinions.

Today the basic theme of our meeting is Baptism.  I will try to present briefly the Orthodox Church’s teaching on baptism.

Church and Mysteries (Sacraments)

The Church is not a “human” organisation, but a God-man organisation. It is not a human association, but the Body of Christ the God-man.

Whatever happens within the Church is filled with the grace of God and the whole of life within the Church is blessed.

In the Orthodox Church there are commonly understood to be seven Mysteries (Sacraments).

We call them Mysteries (Sacraments) because they are God-established rites, in which through outward visible signs the invisible cleansing and holy-making Grace of God is imparted.

These seven Mysteries are: Baptism, Chrismation, Holy Communion, Confession, Ordination, Marriage and Holy Unction.  The first four are incumbent upon every believer, while the other three are a matter of choice.

However there are three basic Mysteries of the Church: Baptism, which is called the introductory Sacrament, through which we are initiated into church life; Chrismation, which is the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit; and Holy Communion, through which we commune of the Body and Blood of Christ.

St Nicholas Cabasilas says that Baptism is the spiritual birth of man, Chrismation is movement (the movements that activate grace), and Holy Communion is life (the New Life that Christ inaugurated with his Passion and Resurrection).

The Mysteries are the channel through which we receive the water of the Grace of God the Holy Trinity; and of course we participate in the gifts of God depending on our spiritual state.

Our participation in the Mysteries requires certain preconditions, which are belief in the divinity of Christ and our salvation, spiritual preparation, and the sense that we are members of the Church of Christ.

The Mystery of Baptism

Baptism is the introductory Mystery of the Church.  It incorporates the person – of whatever age – into the Body of Christ, the Church, meaning that they can call themselves a Christian.

The word ‘baptism’ itself means plunging into water.  In the Christian tradition going down into the water depicts symbolically going down into the tomb with Christ, that is participation in his death, while emerging from the water expresses the overcoming of death, that is resurrection together with the Lord, which is the birth of a new man. “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

The Mystery of Baptism was established by our Lord Jesus Christ himself with his command to the Disciples to baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).  Christ himself was baptised and his Baptism became the type and model of our own Baptism.

The aim of Baptism according to St Basil the Great is two-fold: firstly to abolish sin, which leads to death. This manifests the essential deliverance of man from corruption and death that was inherited through sin (the failure) of Adam and Eve.  Therefore Orthodox Tradition rejects moralistic stances on the deliverance of man from the guilt of Original sin.

Through Baptism man is offered the foundations to build his life in a new community of life, with Christ as its head, and with all Christians as the members, signalling a journey of ascetic effort and progress into the gift of the Holy Spirit of freedom and love.

The fundamental condition and the wider framework of the mystery of Baptism is the universal divine Economy of salvation, covering the creation of the world and man, the sinfulness and fall of man, and in particular, the salvific work of Christ, which is the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection, as well as Pentecost – the descent of the Holy Spirit.

More specifically, for someone to understand the Orthodox stance on Baptism, he or she must keep in mind the creation of man according to the image and likeness of God, that is an open Christian anthropology, based on which man is a dynamic being in the image of God, open towards life, immortality, theosis or deification, and communion with the Triune God.

Through sin, this dynamism of the movement towards God was interrupted and man fell into an abnormal state, which is corruption and death.  His fall, however, is not final.  From this event the possibility of salvation emerges, and of his return to his original destination.  And this takes place through the salvific work of Christ: his Incarnation, Baptism, Crucifixion and Death, his glorious Resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the founding of the Church as a new reality, as a new way of being and life.

As we have mentioned, Baptism is called the ‘introductory Mystery’, because through it we are introduced into the life of the Church and we become members of the Body of Christ and at the same time members of the Church.

Baptism is also called a ‘re-birth’, because through this we are re-born spiritually.  Man is born twice, once biologically from his mother and secondly spiritually from his spiritual mother, the Church.  In both cases there is a womb: in the first case it is the mother’s womb, and in the second it is the spiritual womb which is the baptismal font.

Through Baptism we are born into a new life, we acquire the possibility of spiritual growth, our image according to God is cleansed and we are able to attain to the divine likeness.  Through the grace of Baptism we are able to pray and call God Father and other people our brothers and sisters.  We are able to face the workings of the devil, we are able to receive Holy Communion and of course, depending on our spiritual state, we can fulfil the aim of our creation.

The Ancient Roots of Baptism

According to St John Damascene, the Church is the whole of creation.

The Mysteries have existed throughout history since Old Testament times, since the beginning of Creation, in order to grant life and healing.  Besides, throughout the whole of the Old Testament, the Son of God is present as the unincarnate Word.  Through the incarnation of God the Word we enter into a new phase, that of complete healing and grace, yet the energy of the Mysteries is always necessary for the Church-creation, in order for God’s creatures to exist, to be sustained, and to be made perfect.

This is the reason why St John Damascene tells us that there are many kinds of baptism, beginning from Old Testament times and culminating in the New Testament with the incarnation.  The first baptism is Noah’s Flood, which brought an end to sin. The second baptism is when Moses struck the waters with his staff, the waters moved aside, and the Israelites were saved.  And the third baptism is the legal baptism that every impure Israelite underwent.

The fourth baptism is the baptism of St John the Baptist, which precedes the baptism of the Lord.  The fifth baptism is the baptism received by Christ himself, not of course because he needed to be cleansed but in order to sanctify the baptiser, to reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity and for it to become the type and model for us also. This baptism overshadows all the others, because it sanctifies the baptiser completely, as well as the whole of humanity, and it reveals the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

We see that baptism has very ancient roots, from the beginning of creation, and it did not appear for the first time with Christ’s baptism in the river Jordan. Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan is the culmination of the sanctification granted by baptism.

The Rite of Baptism 

as celebrated in the Orthodox Church nowadays

In the early Church people were baptised when adults.  Their catechism lasted for three years and they would be baptised all together at Easter.

Infant baptism became the norm in the sixth century and the task of catechism fell upon the Sponsor and the parents together with the priest of their community.

The rite of Holy Baptism, as it is celebrated nowadays, is divided into three parts:

a) The prayers before Baptism

b) The main service of Baptism

c) The prayers after Baptism

During the first centuries of the early Church these services were conducted separately, in the order given above.  Later, around the time when infant baptism became the norm, they were joined together, and that is why we celebrate them as one rite today.

At the beginning of the Service of Catechism, the priest, together with the person to be baptised, the applicant, and his or her sponsor stand in the narthex or in the western part of the church, in the place that symbolically represents the fact that now begins the entrance of the applicant into the Church. They turn to the west (which symbolises the kingdom of darkness), where the renunciation of Satan takes place. There, the priest, vested only in his stole (epitrachelion), reads some prayers through which he prays that the future new Christian may live always under the protection of God and according to His Will.

After this the priest orders the devil, in the name of God, to depart far from the person who is about to become a Christian.  Let us not forget that there is no neutral state, which might suit us.  We are either close to God or to the devil.  Of course every person, baptised or unbaptised, is a creation and image of God.  But when we are far away from God the devil considers that he has more rights over us, and that we belong more to him.  It is neither therefore insignificant nor purely a matter of formality that the priest, at the end of these prayers, blows three times onto the face of the person, uttering the prayer that every evil spirit depart from within him or her.  Likewise, the priest asks the person himself, or, in the case of infant baptism, the sponsor, to spit three times, having first stated that he or she renounces the devil.  It is important that we realise how important it is in our lives to have really renounced the devil, to really despise him and all his works.  Otherwise, how can we say that we are Christians?  After having renounced the devil, they all turn to the East (symbolising the Kingdom of Christ) and the applicant confesses that he will journey with Christ from now on.  The priest asks, ‘Do you unite yourself to Christ?’ and the applicant answers ‘I unite myself.’  And as a sign of what exactly he believes in, he recites the Creed, the Symbol of Faith.

After these pre-baptismal prayers, that as we saw are a preparation for someone to receive the grace of Holy Baptism, the Baptism service itself begins.  Now the priest stands in the centre of the church, near to the font, together with the applicant and the sponsor, wearing his stole and phelonion and he says: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, both now and for ever and unto ages of ages, Amen.”  This phrase, which is a doxology to the Triune God, reminds the applicant that through Baptism he is about to enter the Kingdom of God.

Straight afterwards we hear the priest intoning the petitions, and he prays for the whole of the Church, and above all for the one who is to be baptised.  After yet another beautiful prayer for the spiritual growth of the applicant, we have the prayer of the blessing of the water of the font.  This prayer is followed by the blessing of the oil. This oil, symbol of the struggle for healing, the remission of sins, of reconciliation, is spread all over the body of the applicant.

We now reach the most fundamental moment of the whole service, which is the going down into the sanctified water three times.  Each time the person goes down into the water the name of one of the persons of the Holy Trinity is heard. Going down three times into the water signifies the three-day burial and resurrection of Christ, and they are not simply symbolic movements. From this very moment the baptised person has become a member of the body of Christ. As Christ died and was resurrected, so also through the power of the Holy Spirit, who acts within the Church, the one who is baptised dies as one far away from God and is born as one united to God.

The prayer of Holy Myron or Chrism follows. The priest thanks the God Almighty, who in his desire for all to be saved fills us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Of these gifts a visible sign and seal on us is the anointing with the Holy Chrism.  Once the newly baptised has been anointed with the Holy Chrism in the sign of the cross, on different parts of the body, he is now a new Christian, a whole, shining icon of God, and we pray that he may keep this wholeness throughout his life. And as a tangible and material sign of his light-filled and holy life, he is dressed in white clothes, and the prayer is recited that he may live “clothed” in righteousness and the light of Christ. The priest places the cross around the neck of the newly baptised person, for this cross is the symbol of Christian identity and presents him or her with the lighted candle, which reveals the expectation that the new life of the baptised will be filled with the light of Christ.

The priest, baptised member and sponsor then process round the font. This procession is a spiritual “dance”, an expression of joy and rejoicing in the fact that one more person has received salvation. These are the first steps of the baptised person as a Christian within the spiritual family of the Church.

The service of baptism is completed with the readings of the apostle and the Gospels, and some Eucharistic prayers.

The Church will emphasise to its new member that baptism allows everyone to be granted remission of sins, but the grace of the Holy Spirit is granted according to the extent of one’s faith and the spiritual struggle for purification. Through Baptism we are given only the beginning of life in the Holy Spirit and another life full of light. The Christian must strive to keep himself pure from sinful works so that he does not once more become a slave of sin. Just as works without faith are dead, so also faith without works is dead.

I will complete my talk with an extract from a poem by St Ephrem the Syrian, which is dedicated to newly-baptised Christians.

20. Great is the victory, but today you have won:—if so be ye neglect not, you shall not perish, my brethren.

21. Glory to them that are robed, glory to Adam’s house!—in the birth that is from the water, let them rejoice and be blessed!

22. Praise to Him Who has robed, His Churches in glory!—glory to Him Who has magnified, the race of Adam’s house.

(Hymn XIII. Hymn of the Baptised. Saint Ephrem the Syrian)