Philoptochos Spiritual Enrichment Series

What are the Sacraments?
Prayer
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.		 Vitamin Verse
 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)
Inspiration 
Man needs power -- spiritual power to get off the ground. 
It is an exhilarating experience to stand at the brink of Niagara Falls watching that tremendous waterpower thundering over the cliff, knowing that millions of kilowatt-hours of electric power are right in front of us. Exhilarating yet sad if none of it lights our way in darkness; or heats our homes in the cold; or supplies energy for our work. But when the power of the Falls is channeled to our homes and supplies energy for our work, what a difference it makes! In Christ, God does just this. He channels His grace and power to each one of us through the sacraments, which are like seven power lines from God's Niagara to each Christian.

And they are personal. The sacraments (called the Holy Mysteries, in Greek) are Jesus' way of continuing His presence with us on earth. Did you ever notice that the person's name is always used when a sacrament is being administered, "The servant of God…(name) receives the holy and precious Body and Blood of our Lord for the forgiveness of sins and unto life everlasting." In administering Holy Unction the priest again addresses the believer by name. Through the sacraments we come into personal and intimate contact with Jesus.

And they are material. Sacraments use material things as vehicles of the Holy Spirit: water, oil, bread, wine. Matter is created by God and is good. God willed to give us His grace under the symbol of some material sign. By seeing water, we would know that something is being washed away. By seeing bread, we would know that we were being nourished. 

The Orthodox Church never limited the sacraments to seven because if a sacrament occurs whenever God's grace is mediated to man through matter, then there is no limit! Fr. Thomas Hopko states, "Traditionally the Orthodox understand everything in the church to be sacramental. All of life becomes a sacrament in Christ who fills life itself with the Spirit of God." So while we recognize seven higher sacraments instituted by Christ and the Church, we would also consider other acts as sacramental such as the consecration of a church or the veneration of relics or the visiting of the sick. We could say that a sacrament is whenever the hidden grace of God is conveyed to us through visible signs.

And they are real. We cannot be truly Christian if we treat them merely as mechanical rituals. There is a need for faith and obedience on our part. Our "lid must be open" to receive the outpouring of grace and power of Christ through the sacraments. Think of the woman in the Gospel story who touched Christ's garment in the jostling crowd. Jesus recognized that His healing power flowed from him because she touched Him with faith. So too, let us reach out and touch our Lord who is ever present with us through the sacraments and be filled with the grace, love and communion of the Holy Trinity.
Compiled from Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life, Rev. Anthony M. Coniaris, Light and Life Publishing, 1982
Reflection
Can you list the seven "official" sacraments? 
Can you list other "lesser" sacraments?
The Spiritual Enrichment Series is compiled by Presbytera Christine Salzman.   This page is printer friendly.
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