The first epistles of Patriarch Tikhon. Read online "Epistle of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith"

His Holiness the New Rome of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah, His Beatitude Patriarch Athanasios of the City of God of Antioch, His Beatitude Chrysanthos the Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the Most Reverend Bishops who are acquiring with Us, that is, the Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops, and the entire Christian Eastern Orthodox clergy, To the archbishops and bishops who are in Great Britain, glorious and beloved in Christ, and to all their most revered clergy, we wish every blessing and salvation from God.

We have received your Scripture, in the form of a small book, with which you, for your part, respond to our answers previously sent to you. Having learned from him about your good health, about your zeal and respect for our eastern Holy Church of Christ, we rejoiced greatly, accepting, as it should, your pious and good intention, your care and zeal for the unification of the Churches: such unity is the affirmation of the faithful; they are pleased by our Lord and God Jesus Christ, Who set for His sacred Disciples and Apostles mutual love, harmony and like-mindedness as a sign of communion with Himself.

So, at your request, we now briefly answer you that, having carefully read your last epistle, we understood the meaning of what was written and have nothing more to say on it, except for what we have already said before, expounding our opinion and the teaching of our Eastern Church ; and now we say the same thing to all the proposals you sent to us, that is, that our dogmas and the teaching of our Eastern Church have been investigated even more anciently, correctly and piously defined and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils; it is not permissible to add to or subtract from them anything. Therefore, those who wish to agree with us in the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox Faith must, with simplicity, obedience, without any investigation and curiosity, follow and submit to everything that is determined and decreed by the ancient tradition of the Fathers and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils from the time of the apostles and their successors, the God-bearing Fathers of our Church. .

Although there are enough answers to what you write about; however, for a more complete and indisputable confirmation, behold, we send you in the most extensive form an exposition of the Orthodox Faith of our Eastern Church, adopted after careful study at a Council that was long ago (1672 A.D.), called Jerusalem; which statement was subsequently printed in Greek and Latin in Paris in 1675, and perhaps at the same time it reached you and is in your possession. From it you can learn and undoubtedly comprehend the pious and Orthodox way of thinking of the Eastern Church; and if you agree with us, being satisfied with the doctrine that we have now set forth, then you will be one with us in everything, and there will be no division between us. As for the other customs and rites of the Church, before the celebration of the sacred rites of the Liturgy, then this, with the union accomplished with God's help, can be easily and conveniently corrected. For it is known from ecclesiastical historical books that certain customs and ranks in various places and churches have been and are changeable; but the unity of the Faith and unanimity in dogmas remain unchanged.

May the Lord and Provider of all God grant, Who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth(1 Timothy 2:4), so that the judgment and investigation about this would take place in accordance with His Divine will, to a soul-beneficial and saving affirmation in the Faith.

This is what we believe and how we, Eastern Orthodox Christians, think.

We believe in the One true God, the Almighty and Infinite - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: the unborn Father, the Son, born of the Father before the ages, the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, consubstantial to the Father and the Son. We call these three Persons (Hypostases) in one being the All-Holy Trinity, always blessed, glorified and worshiped by all creation.

We believe that the Divine and Holy Bible inspired by God; therefore, we must believe it unquestioningly, and, moreover, not in our own way, but precisely as the Catholic Church has explained and betrayed it. For even the superstition of heretics accepts Divine Scripture, only misrepresents it, using allegorical and similarly meaningful expressions and tricks of human wisdom, merging what cannot be merged, and playing childishly with such objects that are not subject to jokes. Otherwise, if everyone daily began to explain the Scriptures in his own way, then the Catholic Church would not have remained, by the grace of Christ, until now such a Church, which, being of one mind in faith, always believes equally and unshakably, but would be divided into innumerable parts, would be subjected to heresies, and at the same time it would cease to be the Holy Church, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, but would become the Church of the deceitful, that is, as it must be supposed without a doubt, the Church of heretics who are not ashamed to learn from the Church, and then lawlessly reject it. Therefore, we believe that the testimony of the Catholic Church is no less valid than the Divine Scripture. Since the Culprit of both is the same Holy Spirit, it makes no difference whether one learns from the Scriptures or from the Universal Church. A person who speaks for himself can sin, deceive and be deceived; but the Universal Church, since she has never spoken and does not speak from herself, but from the Spirit of God (Which she has unceasingly and will have as her Teacher until eternity), cannot in any way sin, nor deceive, nor be deceived; but, like Divine Scripture, it is infallible and has everlasting importance.

We believe that the all-good God predestined to glory those whom He chose from eternity; and those whom He rejected, those He put under condemnation, not, however, because He wanted to justify some in this way, and leave others and condemn without reason; for this is not characteristic of God, the common and impartial Father, who wants all people to be saved and to reach the knowledge of the truth(1 Tim. 2:4), but because He foresaw that some would make good use of their free will, and others badly; therefore some he predestinated to glory, and others he condemned. On the use of freedom, we reason as follows: since the goodness of God has bestowed Divine and enlightening grace, which we also call prevenient grace, which, like light that enlightens those who walk in darkness, guides all; then those who wish to freely submit to her (for she assists those who seek her, and not those who oppose her), and to fulfill her commands, which are necessary for salvation, receive, therefore, a special grace, which, assisting, strengthening and constantly perfecting them in the love of God, that is, in those good deeds which God requires of us (and which prevenient grace also required), justifies them and makes them preordained; those, on the contrary, who do not want to obey and follow grace, and therefore do not keep the commandments of God, but, following the suggestions of Satan, abuse their freedom given to them from God so that they voluntarily do good - they are subjected to eternal condemnation.

But what the blasphemous heretics say, that God predestinates or condemns, no matter what the deeds of those predestined or condemned, we consider foolishness and wickedness; for in such a case Scripture would contradict itself. It teaches that every believer is saved by faith and by his works, and at the same time presents God as the only author of our salvation, since, that is, He first gives enlightening grace, which gives a person the knowledge of Divine truth and teaches him to conform to it (if he does not resist) and to do good that is pleasing to God in order to obtain salvation, not destroying the free will of man, but leaving it to obey or disobey its action. Is it not insane after this, without any reason to assert that the Divine will is the fault of the misfortune of the condemned? Doesn't this mean uttering a terrible slander against God? Doesn't this mean uttering terrible injustice and blasphemy against heaven? God is not involved in any evil, equally desires salvation for everyone, He has no place for partiality; why do we confess that He justly condemns those who remain in wickedness because of their corrupt will and unrepentant heart. But we have never, never called and will not call the culprit of eternal punishment and torment, as if misanthropic, God, Who Himself said that there is joy in heaven over the only repentant sinner. We never dare to believe or think in this way as long as we have consciousness; and those who speak and think so, we anathematize eternally and recognize as the worst of all unbelievers.

We believe that the Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Creator of everything visible and invisible. By the name of the invisible, we mean the Angelic Forces, rational souls and demons (although God did not create the demons in the same way as they later became of their own free will); but visible we call heaven and everything under heaven. Since the Creator is essentially good, therefore, everything that only He created, He created beautiful, and never wants to be the Creator of evil. If there is in a person or in a demon (for we simply do not know evil in nature) some kind of evil, that is, a sin that is contrary to the will of God, then this evil comes either from a person or from the devil. For it is perfectly true, and beyond all doubt, that God cannot be the author of evil, and that, therefore, perfect justice demands that it should not be attributed to God.

We believe that everything that exists, visible and invisible, is controlled by Divine Providence; however, evil, like evil, God only foresees and allows, but does not provide for it, since He did not create it. And the evil that has already happened is directed towards something useful by the supreme goodness, which itself does not create evil, but only directs it to the best, as far as possible. We should not test, but revere before the Divine Providence and His secret and untested destinies. However, what is revealed to us about this in Holy Scripture, as referring to eternal life, we should investigate with prudence and, on a par with the first concepts of God, accept it as undoubted.

We believe that the first man created by God fell in paradise at the time when he disobeyed the commandment of God, following the treacherous advice of the serpent, and that from here the ancestral sin spread successively to all offspring so that there is not one of those born according to the flesh who is free. was from that burden and did not feel the consequences of the fall in this life. And the burden and consequence of the fall, we do not call sin itself, such as: impiety, blasphemy, murder, hatred, and everything else that comes from an evil human heart, contrary to the will of God, and not from nature; (for many Forefathers, Prophets and countless others, both in the Old and in the New Testament, men, also the divine Forerunner and mainly the Mother of God the Word and Ever-Virgin Mary, were not involved in both this and other similar sins), but the inclination to sin and those disasters with which Divine justice punished a person for his disobedience, such as: exhausting labors, sorrows, bodily infirmities, illnesses of birth, hard life for some time on the land of wandering, and finally bodily death.

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is our only Advocate, Who gave Himself for the redemption of all, became by His own blood the reconciliation of man with God, and remains the guardian Defender of His followers and the propitiation for our sins. We also confess that the Saints intercede for us in prayers and petitions to Him, and most of all the Immaculate Mother of the Divine Word, also our Holy Guardian Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, the Righteous and all whom He glorified as His faithful servants, to whom we rank Bishops, Priests, as coming to the holy altar, and righteous men, known for their virtue. For we know from Holy Scripture that we must pray for one another, that the prayer of the righteous can accomplish much, and that God listens more to the Saints than to those who remain in sin. We also confess that the saints are mediators and intercessors for us before God, not only here, during their stay with us, but even more so after death, when, after the destruction of the mirror (which the Apostle mentions), they contemplate in all clarity the Holy Trinity and the infinite her light. For just as we do not doubt that the Prophets, while still in a mortal body, saw heavenly things, and therefore foretold the future, so we not only do not doubt, but we unshakably believe and confess that the Angels, and the Saints, who became as it were Angels, in the infinite light of God, see our needs.

We believe that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, exhausted Himself, that is, He took upon Himself in His own hypostasis human flesh, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary from the Holy Spirit, and became human; that He was born without sorrow and illness of His Mother according to the flesh and without violating Her virginity - suffered, was buried, rose in glory on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father, and again, as we expect, will come to judge the living and the dead.

We believe that no one can be saved without faith. By faith we call our right conception of God and Divine things. Promoted by love, or, which is all the same, by the fulfillment of the Divine commandments, it justifies us through Christ, and without it it is impossible to please God.

Since, among other impious opinions, the heretics also asserted that a simple Priest and a Bishop are equal to each other, that it is possible to exist without a Bishop, that several Priests can govern the Church, that not one Bishop can ordain a Priest, but also a Priest, and several Priests can consecrate the Bishop as well - and divulge that the Eastern Church shares this delusion with them; then we, in accordance with the opinion that has prevailed in the Eastern Church since ancient times, confirm that the title of Bishop is so necessary in the Church that without it neither the Church nor the Church, nor the Christian, can not only be, but even be called a Christian. - For the Bishop, as an apostolic successor, by the laying on of hands and invocation of the Holy Spirit, having received successively the power given to him from God to decide and knit, is the living image of God on earth and, by the hierarchical power of the Holy Spirit, the abundant source of all the Mysteries of the Universal Church, by which salvation is acquired. We believe that the Bishop is as necessary to the Church as breathing is to man and the sun is to the world. Therefore, in praise of the bishopric, some say well: “That God is in the Church of the first-born in heaven and the sun in the world - then every Bishop in his private Church; so that the flock is illuminated by it, warmed and made the temple of God. - that the great sacrament and the title of Bishopric have passed to us successively, this is obvious. For the Lord, who promised to be with us until eternity, although he is with us under other forms of grace and divine blessings, communicates with us in a special way through the episcopal rite, remains and unites with us through the sacred Mysteries, which the first performer and celebrant, according to the power The Spirit is the Bishop, and does not allow us to fall into heresy.

Therefore, St. John of Damascus, in his fourth letter to the Africans, says that the Church Ecumenical was generally entrusted to the Bishops; that the successors of Peter are recognized: in Rome - Clement the first Bishop, in Antioch - Evodius, in Alexandria - Mark; that St. Andrew placed Stachy on the throne of Constantinople; but in the great holy city of Jerusalem, the Lord appointed James Bishop, after whom there was another Bishop, and after him another, and so on even before us. That is why Tertullian, in a letter to Papian, calls all the Bishops the successors of the Apostles. Eusebius Pamphilus and many of the Fathers also testify to their succession, Apostolic dignity and authority; It is also obvious that the episcopal rank differs from the rank of a simple Priest. For a Priest is ordained by a Bishop, and a Bishop is ordained not by Priests, but, according to the Apostolic Rule, by two or three Bishops. Moreover, the Priest is elected by the Bishop, and the Bishop is not elected by Priests or Presbyters or secular authorities, but by the Council of the highest Church of the region where the city for which the ordained one is appointed is located, or at least the Council of that region. where the Bishop should be.

Sometimes, however, he elects a whole city; but not simply, but presents his election to the Council; and if it turns out to be in accordance with the rules, then the chosen one is produced by episcopal ordination through the invocation of the Holy Spirit.

Besides this, the Priest accepts the power and grace of the Priesthood only for himself, while the bishop passes it on to others. The first, having received the Priesthood from the Bishop, performs only holy baptism with prayers, performs a bloodless sacrifice, distributes to the people the holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, anoints those who are baptized with holy chrism, crowns those piously and legally entering into marriage, prays for the sick, for salvation and bringing in the knowledge of the truth of all people, but mainly about the forgiveness and forgiveness of sins of the Orthodox, the living and the dead, and, finally, since he is distinguished by knowledge and virtue, then, according to the authority given to him by the bishop, he teaches those of the Orthodox who come to him, showing them the way to receive the Kingdom of Heaven and is delivered as a preacher of the Holy Gospel. But the Bishop, in addition to doing all this (for, as it is said, he is the source of the Divine sacraments and gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit), alone exclusively performs the holy myrrh, he alone has received initiation to all degrees and positions of the Church; he especially and predominantly has the power to bind and loose and execute, according to the commandment of the Lord, a judgment pleasing to God; he preaches the Holy Gospel and affirms the Orthodox in the Faith, and excommunicates the disobedient, like pagans and publicans, from the Church, betrays heretics to eruption and anathema, and lays down his soul for the sheep. This reveals the indisputable difference between a Bishop and a simple Priest, and together with the fact that, apart from him, all the Priests in the world cannot shepherd the Church of God and completely govern it. But one of the Fathers rightly remarked that it is not easy to find a judicious person among heretics; for when they leave the Church, they are left by the Holy Spirit, and neither knowledge nor light remains in them, but darkness and blindness. For if this had not happened to them, they would not have rejected the most obvious, such as, for example, the truly great sacrament of the Bishopric, which Scripture speaks of, Church history and the writings of the Saints mention, and which has always been recognized and confessed by the entire Universal Church.

We believe that the members of the Catholic Church are all the faithful, that is, undoubtedly all who profess the pure Faith of the Savior Christ (which we received from Christ Himself, from the Apostles and Holy Ecumenical Councils), even if some of them were subject to various sins. For if the faithful but sinners were not members of the Church, they would not be subject to her judgment. But she judges them, calls them to repentance, and leads them to the path of saving commandments; wherefore, in spite of the fact that they are subjected to sins, they remain and are recognized as members of the Catholic Church, so long as they do not become apostates and hold on to the Catholic and Orthodox Faith.

We believe that the Holy Spirit teaches the Catholic Church, for He is the true Comforter whom Christ sends from the Father in order to teach the truth and drive away darkness from the minds of the faithful. The Holy Spirit teaches the Church through the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Catholic Church. For, like all Scripture, it is admittedly the Word of the Holy Spirit, not because He directly spoke it, but spoke in it through the Apostles and Prophets; so the Church learns from the Life-Giving Spirit, but not otherwise than through the mediation of the Holy Fathers and teachers (whose rules are recognized by the Holy Ecumenical Councils, which we will not stop repeating); why we are not only convinced, but also undoubtedly confess, as a firm truth, that the Catholic Church cannot err or err and speak a lie instead of the truth; for the Holy Spirit, always working through faithfully serving Fathers and teachers of the Church, protects her from all error.

We believe that a person is justified not simply by faith alone, but by faith urged on by love, that is, through faith and works. Let us recognize as completely unholy the idea that faith, replacing works, acquires justification in Christ; for faith in this sense could be appropriate for everyone, and there would be no unsaved, which is obviously false. On the contrary, we believe that it is not the specter of faith alone, but the faith that is in us through works justifies us in Christ. We honor deeds not only as evidence confirming our calling, but also as fruits that make our faith active and can, according to the Divine promise, deliver to everyone a well-deserved reward, good or bad, depending on what he did with his body.

We believe that a person who has fallen through a crime has become like dumb cattle, that is, he has darkened and lost his perfection and dispassion, but he has not lost the nature and strength that he received from the All-Good God. For otherwise he became, being foolish, and consequently not a man; but he would have that nature with which he was created, and a natural force, free, living, active, so that by nature he could choose and do good, flee and turn away from evil. And that a person by nature can do good, the Lord also points to this when he says that the Gentiles love those who love them, and the Apostle Paul teaches quite clearly (Rom. 1:19), and in other places where he says that pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful. From this it is evident that the good done by man cannot be sin; for good cannot be evil. Being natural, it makes a person only spiritual, and not spiritual, and without faith alone does not contribute to salvation, but it also does not serve to condemnation; for good, like good, cannot be the cause of evil. In those regenerated by grace, being strengthened by grace, it becomes perfect and makes a person worthy of salvation. Although a person before regeneration may by nature be inclined towards good, choose and do moral good, but in order that, having been reborn, he could do spiritual good (for the works of faith, being the cause of salvation and accomplished by supernatural grace, are usually called spiritual), - for this it is necessary so that grace would precede and lead, as it is said about the predestined; so that he cannot of himself do perfect works worthy of life in Christ, but he can always be willing or unwilling to act in accordance with grace.

We believe that the Church has the Gospel Mysteries, seven in number. We have neither less nor more than this number of Sacraments in the Church. The number of Sacraments beyond seven is invented by foolish heretics. The septenary number of the Sacraments is affirmed in Holy Scripture, as well as other dogmas of the Orthodox Faith. And firstly: Holy Baptism was given to us by the Lord in these words: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ( Matt. 28:19); Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned(Mark 16:16). The Sacrament of the Holy Chrism, or Holy Chrismation, is also based on the words of the Savior: But remain in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.(Luke 24:49), with which power the Apostles were clothed after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. This power is communicated through the sacrament of Chrismation, which is also discussed by the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 1:21-22), and more clearly by Dionysius the Areopagite. Priesthood is based on following words: Do this in remembrance of me(1 Corinthians 11:24); also: What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven(Matthew 16:19). Bloodless Sacrifice - on the following: Take, eat, this is My Body .... drink from it all, this is My Blood of the New Testament(1 Cor. 11:24-25); If you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you.(John 6:53). The sacrament of marriage has its basis in the words of God himself, spoken about him in Old Testament(Gen. 2:4); which words also Jesus Christ confirmed, saying: What God put together, let no man separate(Mark 10:9). The Apostle Paul calls marriage a great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Repentance, with which the mystical confession is united, is affirmed in these words of Scripture: To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; on whom you leave, on that they will remain(John 20:23); also: If you don't repent, you'll all die the same(Luke 13:3). The Evangelist Mark mentions the sacrament of the Holy Oil, or the Oil of Prayer, and the Brother of God testifies more clearly (5:14-15).

The sacraments are composed of the natural (visible) and the supernatural (invisible), and are not only signs of the promises of God. We recognize them as instruments that necessarily act by grace on those who approach them. But we reject, as alien to the Christian teaching, the opinion that the celebration of the sacrament takes place only during the actual use (for example, eating, etc.) of an earthly thing (that is, sanctified in the sacrament; as if the thing sanctified in the sacrament is out of use and after consecration remains a simple thing). This is contrary to the sacrament of Communion, which, having been established by the Pre-Essential Word and sanctified by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is performed by the presence of the signified, that is, the body and blood of Christ. And the celebration of this sacrament necessarily precedes its use through communion. For if it had not been done before its communion, then he who partakes unworthily would not have eaten or drunk for his own judgment (1 Corinthians 11:29); because he would partake of plain bread and wine. And now, partaking unworthily, he eats and drinks judgment for himself. Consequently, the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated not at the time of the communion itself, but before this. In the same way, we regard as extremely false and impure the doctrine that the integrity and perfection of the sacrament is violated by the imperfection of faith. For the heretics who are received by the Church, when they renounce their heresy and join the Universal Church, have received a perfect Baptism, although they had an imperfect faith. And when they finally acquire perfect faith, they are not rebaptized.

We believe that Holy Baptism, commanded by the Lord and performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, is necessary. For without it no one can be saved, as the Lord says: Unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God(John 3:5). Therefore, infants also need it, for they, too, are subject to original sin, and without baptism they cannot receive remission of this sin. And the Lord, showing this, said without any exception, simply: “Whoever is not born…” that is, after the coming of the Savior Christ, all those who have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must be reborn. If infants need to be saved, then they also need to be baptized. But those who have not been reborn, and therefore have not received remission of their ancestral sin, are necessarily subject to eternal punishment for this sin, and therefore are not saved. So babies need need baptism. Moreover, babies are saved, as the Evangelist Matthew says, and those who are not baptized are deprived of grace. Therefore, infants need to be baptized. And in Acts it says that all households were baptized (16:33), consequently, babies too. The ancient Fathers of the Church clearly testify to this, namely: Dionysius in the book on the Church Hierarchy and Justin in the 57th question says: “Infants are rewarded with blessings bestowed through baptism according to the faith of those who bring them to baptism.” Augustine also testifies: "There is an Apostolic tradition that infants are saved by baptism." And elsewhere: "The Church gives to infants the legs of others to walk, hearts to believe, tongues to confess." - And one more thing: “Mother Church gives them maternal heart". - As for the substance of the sacrament of baptism, it cannot be any other liquid than pure water. It is performed by the Priest; out of need, it can be done by a simple person, but only by an Orthodox person and, moreover, understanding the importance of Divine baptism. - The operations of baptism, in brief, are as follows: first, through it, remission is granted in the sin of the ancestor and in all other sins committed by the person being baptized. Secondly, the baptized person is freed from the eternal punishment to which everyone is subject both for inborn sin and for their own mortal sins. - Thirdly, baptism bestows blessed immortality, for by freeing people from former sins, it makes them temples of God. It cannot be said that baptism does not remove all former sins, but that although they remain, they no longer have power. To teach in this way is extreme wickedness, it is a refutation of the faith, and not a confession of it. On the contrary, every sin that exists or existed before baptism is blotted out and considered as if it did not exist or never existed. For all the images under which baptism is presented show its purifying power, and the sayings of Holy Scripture concerning baptism make it clear that perfect purification is given through it; - can be seen from the very names of baptism. If it is the baptism of the Spirit and fire, then it is clear that it delivers complete cleansing; for the Spirit purifies perfectly. If it is light, then all darkness is driven away by it. If it is rebirth, then everything that is old passes by; and this old thing is nothing but sins. If the one being baptized puts off the old man, then sin is also put off. If he puts on Christ, he is actually made sinless by baptism; for God is far removed from sinners, and the Apostle Paul clearly speaks of this: As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man many were made righteous(Rom. 5:19). If they are righteous, then they are also free from sin; for life and death cannot abide in the same man. If Christ truly died, then the remission of sins through the Holy Spirit is also true.

This shows that all infants who die after baptism will undoubtedly receive salvation through the power of the death of Jesus Christ. For if they are pure from sin, both from common sin, because they are cleansed by Divine baptism, so also from their own, for, like children, they do not yet have their own will and therefore do not sin; then, without any doubt, they are saved. For it is impossible for a person who has been baptized once to be baptized correctly, even if after this he commits a thousand sins or even renounces the faith itself. Whoever wants to turn to the Lord perceives the lost sonship through the sacrament of repentance.

We believe that the all-holy sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which we have placed above as the fourth among the sacraments, is mysteriously commanded by the Lord on that night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world. For taking bread and blessing, He gave it to His disciples and Apostles, saying: Take, eat, this is my body. And, taking the cup, he praised, and said: Drink everything from her: this is my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins.

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is present in this sacred service, not symbolically, not figuratively, not with an excess of grace, as in other sacraments, not by one influx, as some Fathers said about baptism, and not through the penetration of bread, so that the Divinity of the Word enters into the bread offered for the Eucharist, essentially, as the followers of Luther rather clumsily and unworthily explain; but truly and truly, so that after the consecration of bread and wine, the bread is changed, transubstantiated, transformed, transformed into the very true body of the Lord, which was born in Bethlehem from the Ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, ascended, sits at the right hand of God the Father, has to appear on the clouds of heaven; and the wine is transformed and transubstantiated into the very true blood of the Lord, which, during His suffering on the Cross, was shed for the life of the world.

We also believe that after the consecration of bread and wine, it is no longer the bread and wine itself that remains, but the very body and blood of the Lord under the form and image of bread and wine.

We also believe that this most pure body and blood of the Lord is distributed and enters the mouth and womb of those who partake, both the pious and the wicked. Only those who are pious and worthy receive remission of sins and eternal life, while those who are ungodly and unworthy receive condemnation and eternal torment.

We also believe that the body and blood of the Lord, although they are divided and broken up, but this happens in the sacrament of communion only with types of bread and wine, in which they can be both visible and tangible, but in themselves they are completely whole and inseparable. This is why the Ecumenical Church says: “The one who is shattered is divided and divided, but not divided, always eaten and never dependent, but who partakes (of course, worthily) sanctifies.”

We also believe that this body and blood of the Lord in the sacrament of the Eucharist should be given special honor and divine worship; for what we owe to the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the same body and blood of the Lord.

We also believe that this sacrifice, both before use, immediately after consecration, and after use, stored in consecrated vessels for parting words to the dying, is the true body of the Lord, in no way different from His body, so that before use after consecration, and in itself use, and after it always remains the true body of the Lord.

We also believe that the word “transubstantiation” does not explain the way in which bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord; for this cannot be comprehended by anyone but God himself, and the efforts of those who wish to comprehend this can only be the result of madness and wickedness; but it is only shown that, after consecration, bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord, not figuratively, not symbolically, not by an excess of grace, not by communication or influx of the one Divinity of the Only Begotten, and not by any accidental belonging of bread and wine is changed into an accidental belonging of the body and the blood of Christ by some change or mixture, but, as said above, truly, really and essentially, bread is the very true body of the Lord, and wine is the very blood of the Lord.

Holy New Rome of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah,

Blessed Patriarch of the City of God Antioch Athanasius,

His Beatitude Patriarch Chrysanth of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and

The Grace Bishops, who are becoming with Us, i.e. Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops, and the entire Christian Eastern Orthodox Clergy,

To those who exist in Great Britain, venerable and beloved in Christ to the Archbishops and Bishops and to all their venerable clergy, we wish you every good and salvation from God.

Your Scripture, in the form of a small book, with which you, on your part, answer our answers that were previously sent to you, we have received. Having learned from him about your good health, about your zeal and respect for our eastern Holy Church of Christ, we rejoiced greatly, accepting, as it should, your pious and good intention, your care and zeal for the unification of the Churches: such unity is the affirmation of the faithful; The Lord and God our Jesus Christ pleases them, Who, as a sign of communion with Himself, set for His sacred Disciples and Apostles mutual love, harmony and unanimity.

So, at your request, we now briefly answer you that, having carefully read your last writing, we understood the meaning of what was written, and we have nothing more to say on it, except for what we have already said before, expounding our opinion and the teaching of our Eastern Church ; and now, in response to all the proposals you sent to us, we say the same thing, i.e., that our dogmas and the teachings of our Eastern Church have been studied from ancient times, correctly and piously determined and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils; adding to them, or taking anything away from them is not permissible. Therefore, those who wish to agree with us in the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox Faith must, with simplicity, obedience, without any scrutiny or curiosity, follow and submit to everything that is determined and decreed by the ancient tradition of the Fathers, and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils, from the time of the Apostles and their successors, God-bearing Fathers of our Church.

Although there are enough answers to what you write about; however, for a more complete and indisputable certification, here we are sending you, in the most extensive form, an exposition of the Orthodox Faith of our Eastern Church, adopted, after careful study, at a Council that was long ago (1672 AD), called Jerusalem; which statement was subsequently printed in Greek and Latin in Paris in 1675, and perhaps at the same time it reached you and is with you. From it you can know and undoubtedly comprehend the pious and Orthodox way of thinking of the Eastern Church; and if you agree with us, being satisfied with the doctrine that we have now set forth; then you will be one with us in everything, and there will be no division between us. As for other customs and clerical orders, before the celebration of the sacred rites of the Liturgy; this and that, with the unity accomplished with God's help, can be easily and conveniently corrected. For it is known from church history books that certain customs and ranks, in various places and churches, have been and are being changed; but the unity of Faith and unanimity in dogma remain unchanged.

May the Lord and Provider of all God grant, Who wants to be saved by all people and come into the mind of the truth(1 Tim. 2, 4), so that judgment and research about this would take place in accordance with His Divine will, to a soul-profiting and saving affirmation in the Faith.

This is what we believe and how we think - Eastern Orthodox Christians.

We believe in the One true God, the Almighty and the Infinite - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: the unbegotten Father, the Son begotten of the Father before the ages, the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, consubstantial to the Father and the Son. We call these three Persons (posts) in one being the All-Holy Trinity, always blessed, glorified and worshiped by all creation.

We believe that Divine and Holy Scripture is inspired by God; therefore, we must believe it without question, and, moreover, not in our own way, but precisely as the Catholic Church has explained and betrayed it. For even the superstitious wisdom of heretics accepts the Divine Scripture, only misrepresenting it, using allegorical and like-meaning expressions and tricks of human wisdom, merging what cannot be merged, and childishly playing with such objects that are not subject to jokes. Otherwise, if everyone daily began to interpret the Scriptures in his own way, then the Catholic Church would not have remained, by the grace of Christ, until now such a Church, which, being of one mind in the Faith, always believes equally and unshakably, but would be divided into innumerable parts, would be subjected to heresies. and at the same time it would cease to be the Holy Church, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, but would become the Church of the deceitful, that is, as it must be supposed without a doubt, the Church of heretics who are not ashamed to learn from the Church, and then lawlessly reject it. Therefore we believe that the testimony of the Catholic Church is no less valid than the Divine Scripture. Inasmuch as the Culprit of both is the same Holy Spirit, it makes no difference whether one learns from the Scriptures or from the Universal Church. A person who speaks from himself can be deceived, deceived and deceived: but the Universal Church, since she never spoke and does not speak from herself, but from the Spirit of God (Which she constantly has and will have as her Teacher until the age), in no way cannot err, nor deceive, nor be deceived; but, like Divine Scripture, it is infallible and has everlasting importance.

We believe that the all-good God predestined to glory those whom He chose from eternity; and those whom he rejected, he delivered over to condemnation, not because, however, that He wanted to justify some in this way, and leave others and condemn without reason; for this is not characteristic of God, the common and impartial Father, who wants all man to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth(1 Tim. 2, 4), but inasmuch as He foresaw that some would use their free will well, and others badly; therefore he predestined some to glory, and condemned others. We discuss the use of freedom in the following way: since the goodness of God has given Divine and enlightening grace, which we also call prevenient grace, which, like light that enlightens those who walk in darkness, guides everyone: then those who wish to freely be punished by it (for it helps those who seek it, but not opposing her), and to fulfill her commandments, which are necessary for salvation, - therefore, they receive special grace, which, assisting, strengthening and constantly perfecting them in the love of God, that is, in those good deeds that God requires of us (and which prevenient grace also demanded), justifies them, and makes them predestined; those, on the contrary, who do not want to obey and follow grace, and therefore do not keep the commandments of God, but, following the promptings of Satan, abuse their freedom, given to them from God with the intent that they arbitrarily do good, - they are subjected to eternal condemnation.

But what blasphemous heretics say, that God predestinates or condemns, no matter what the deeds of those predestined or condemned, we consider this foolishness and impiety; for in such a case Scripture would contradict itself. It teaches that every believer is saved by faith and his works, and at the same time presents God as the only author of our salvation, inasmuch as, that is, He first gives enlightening grace, which brings to man the knowledge of Divine truth and teaches him to conform to it (if he does not resists) and to do good that is pleasing to God in order to obtain salvation, not destroying the free will of man, but leaving it to obey or disobey its action. Is it not insane, after this, without any reason to assert that the Divine desire is the fault of the misfortune of the condemned? Doesn't this mean to utter a terrible slander against God? Doesn't this mean uttering terrible injustice and blasphemy against heaven? God is not involved in any evil, equally desires salvation for everyone, He has no place for partiality; why do we confess that He justly condemns those who remain in wickedness because of their corrupt will and unrepentant heart. But we have never, never called and will not call the culprit of eternal punishment and torment, and, as it were, human-hating God, Who Himself said that there is joy in heaven over the only penitent sinner. We will never dare to believe or think in this way, as long as we have consciousness; - and those who speak and think so, we betray an eternal anathema and recognize as the worst of all unbelievers.

We believe that the Threefold God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is the Creator of everything visible and invisible. By the name of the invisible we mean the Angelic Powers, rational souls and demons (although God did not create the demons in the same way as they became in the aftermath of their own free will); but visible we call heaven and everything under heaven. Because the Creator is essentially good: therefore, everything that He only created, He created beautiful, and never wants to be the Creator of evil. If, however, there is in a man or in a demon (for simply in nature we do not know evil) some kind of evil, i.e., sin, contrary to the will of God; then this evil comes either from man or from the devil. For it is perfectly true, and beyond all doubt, that God cannot be the author of evil, and that therefore perfect justice demands that it should not be attributed to God.

We believe that everything that exists, visible and invisible, is controlled by Divine Providence; However, evil, like evil, God only foresees and allows, but does not provide for it, since He did not create it. And the evil that has already happened is directed towards something useful by the supreme goodness, which itself does not create evil, but only directs it to the best, as much as possible. We must not test, but revere before the Divine Providence and His secret and untested destinies. However, what is revealed to us about this in the Holy Scriptures, as relating to eternal life, we should investigate with prudence, and, along with the first concepts of God, take it for certain.

We believe that the first man created by God fell in paradise at the time when he disobeyed the commandment of God, following the treacherous advice of the serpent, and that from here the ancestral sin spread successively to all posterity so that there is not one of those born according to the flesh who I was free from that burden and did not feel the consequences of the fall in this life. And it is not sin itself that we call the burden and consequence of the fall, but somehow: impiety, blasphemy, murder, hatred, and everything else that comes from an evil human heart, contrary to the will of God, and not from nature; (for many Forefathers, Prophets and other countless, both in the Old and in the New Testament, men, also the Divine Forerunner, and mainly the Mother of God the Word and Ever-Deva Mary, were not involved in both this and other similar sins), but the complacency to sin, and those calamities with which Divine justice punished a person for his disobedience, somehow: exhausting labors, sorrows, bodily infirmities, birth pains, hard life for a while on the earth of wandering, and finally bodily death.

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is our only Advocate, Who gave Himself for the redemption of all, with His own blood became the reconciliation of man with God, and remains the guardian Defender of His followers and the propitiation for our sins. We also confess that the Saints intercede for us in prayers and petitions to Him, and most of all the Immaculate Mother of the Divine Word, also our Holy Guardian Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Righteous, and all whom He glorified as His faithful servants, to to whom we reckon the Bishops, the Priests, as those who stand before the holy altar, and the righteous men, known for their virtue. For we know from Holy Scripture that we must pray for one another, that the prayer of the righteous can accomplish much, and that God is more attentive to the Saints than to those who remain in sin. We also confess that the Saints are mediators and intercessors for us before God, not only here, during their stay with us, but even more after death, when, after the destruction of the mirror (which the Apostle mentions), they contemplate the Holy Trinity in all clarity and Her boundless light. For just as we do not doubt that the Prophets, while still in their mortal body, saw heavenly things, and therefore foretold the future: so we not only do not doubt, but we unshakably believe and confess that the Angels, and the Saints, who were made, as it were, Angels, in the infinite light of God, see our needs.

We believe that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, exhausted Himself, that is, He took upon Himself in His own post the human flesh, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary from the Holy Spirit, and became human; that He was born without sorrow and illness of His Mother according to the flesh, and without violating Her virginity, suffered, was buried, rose again in glory on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father, and again will come, as we expect, to judge the living and the dead.

We believe that no one can be saved without faith. By faith we call our right conception of God and Divine things. Promoted by love, or, what is the same, by the fulfillment of the Divine commandments, it justifies us through Christ, and without it it is impossible to please God.

We believe, as we have been taught to believe, in the so-called, and in the thing itself such, that is, the Holy, Ecumenical, Apostolic Church, which embraces everyone and everywhere, whoever they may be, those who believe in Christ, who now, being in earthly wandering have not yet settled in the heavenly homeland. But we by no means confuse the Church that is wandering with the Church that has reached the fatherland, only because, as some of the heretics think, that both exist; that they both constitute, as it were, two flocks of one Archpastor of God, and are sanctified by one Holy Spirit. Such a mixture of them is inappropriate and impossible; inasmuch as one is fighting and is on the way, and the other is already triumphant in victory, has reached the fatherland and received a reward, which will follow with the whole Ecumenical Church. Since a person is subject to death, and cannot be the permanent head of the Church; then our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as the Head, holding the helm of the government of the Church, governs it through the Holy Fathers. For this, the Holy Spirit appointed Bishops to private Churches, legally founded and legally composed of members, as Governors, Pastors, Heads and Heads, who are such by no means by abuse, but legally, indicating in these Shepherds the image of the Head and Finisher of our Salvation, so that the communities of believers under this government may ascend into His strength. Since, among other impious opinions, heretics also asserted that a simple Priest and a Bishop are equal to each other, that it is possible to exist without a Bishop, that several Priests can govern the Church, that not only one Bishop, but also a Priest, and several Priests can also be ordained a Bishop, and they divulge that the Eastern Church shares this error with them; then we, in accordance with the opinion that has dominated the Eastern Church since ancient times, confirm that the title of Bishop is so necessary in the Church that without it neither the Church nor the Church, nor the Christian Christian, can not only be, but even be called. - For the Bishop, as the successor of the apostles, by the laying on of hands and the calling of the Holy Spirit, having received successively the power given to him from God to decide and knit, is the living image of God on earth and, according to the hierarchical Power of the Holy Spirit, an abundant source of all the Sacraments of the Universal Church, by which salvation is acquired . We believe that the Bishop is as necessary to the Church as the breath is to man and the sun to the world. Therefore, in praise of the bishopric, some say well: “that God is in the Church of the firstborn in heaven and the sun in the world, then each Bishop is in his private Church; so that the flock is illuminated by it, warmed up and made the temple of God. - That the great sacrament and the title of Bishopric has passed to us successively, this is obvious. For the Lord, who promised to be with us until forever, although he is with us under other forms of grace and divine blessings; but through the priesthood, the Episcopal communicates with us in a special way, abides and unites with us through the sacred Mysteries, of which the Bishop is the first performer and priest, by the power of the Spirit, and does not allow us to fall into heresy. Therefore, Saint John of Damascus in his fourth letter to the Africans says that the Church Ecumenical was generally entrusted to the Bishops; that the successors of Peter are recognized: in Rome - Clement the first Bishop, in Antioch - Evodiy, in Alexandria - Mark; that St. Andrew placed Stachius on the throne of Constantinople; In the great Holy City of Jerusalem, the Lord appointed James Bishop, after whom there was another Bishop, and after him another, and so even before us. That is why Tertullian, in a letter to Papian, calls all Bishops the successors of the Apostles. Eusebius Pamphilus and many of the Fathers, whom it would be superfluous to list, also testify to their succession, Apostolic dignity and authority, as well as the general and ancient custom of the Universal Church. It is also obvious that the episcopal rank differs from the rank of a simple Priest. For a Priest is ordained by a Bishop, and a Bishop is ordained not by Priests, but, according to the Apostolic Rule, by two or three Bishops. Moreover, the Priest is elected by the Bishop, and the Bishop is not elected by the Priests or Presbyters, and not by the secular authorities, but by the Council of the highest Church of the region where the city is located, for which the ordained, or at least, the Council of the region where the Bishop should be is appointed. Sometimes, however, the whole city elects; but not simply, but presents his election to the Council; and if it turns out to be in conformity with the rules, then the chosen one is made by means of episcopal ordination, through the invocation of the Holy Spirit. In addition to this, the Priest accepts the power and grace of the Priesthood only for himself, while the Bishop passes it on to others. The first, having received the Priesthood from the Bishop, performs only holy baptism with prayers, officiates a bloodless sacrifice, distributes to the people the holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, anoints those who are baptized with holy myrrh, crowns those piously and legally entering into marriage, prays for the sick, for salvation and bringing in the knowledge of the truth of all people, but mainly about the forgiveness and forgiveness of sins by the Orthodox, living and dead, and finally, since he is distinguished by knowledge and virtue, then, according to the authority given to him by the Bishop, he teaches those of the Orthodox who come to him, pointing them the way to receiving the Kingdom of Heaven, and is supplied by the preacher of the Holy Gospel. But the Bishop, in addition to doing all this (for he, as it is said, is the source of Divine mysteries and gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit), alone exclusively accomplishes the holy world; to him alone was consecrated in all degrees and positions of the Church; he especially and predominantly has the power to bind and loosen and create, according to the commandment of the Lord, a judgment pleasing to God; he preaches the Holy Gospel and affirms the Orthodox in the Faith, but he excommunicates the disobedient, like pagans and publicans, from the Church, betrays heretics to denunciation and anathema, and lays down his soul for sheep. This reveals the undeniable difference between a Bishop and a mere Priest, and together with the fact that apart from him all the Priests in the world cannot shepherd the Church of God and completely govern it. But one of the Fathers rightly remarked that it is not easy to find among heretics a man of judgment; because, leaving the Church, they are left by the Holy Spirit, and neither knowledge nor light remains in them, but darkness and blindness. For if this had not happened to them, they would not have rejected the most obvious, such as the truly great sacrament of the Bishopric, about which the Scriptures speak, Church history and the writings of the Saints mention, and which has always been recognized and confessed by the entire Universal Church.

We believe that the members of the Catholic Church are everything, and, moreover, only the faithful, that is, those who undoubtedly confess the pure Faith of the Savior Christ (which we received from Christ Himself, from the Apostles and the Holy Ecumenical Councils), even though some of them were subject to various sins . For if the faithful but sinners were not members of the Church, they would not be subject to her judgment. But she judges them, calls them to repentance, and leads them to the path of saving commandments; wherefore, in spite of the fact that they are subjected to sins, they remain and are recognized as members of the Catholic Church, so long as they do not become apostates, and adhere to the Catholic and Orthodox Faith.

We believe that the Holy Spirit teaches the Catholic Church, for He is that true Comforter whom Christ sends from the Father in order to teach the truth and drive away darkness from the minds of the faithful. The Holy Spirit teaches the Church through the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Catholic Church. For, as all Scripture, by common admission, is the word of the Holy Spirit, not because He directly spoke it, but spoke in it through the Apostles and Prophets; so the Church learns from the Life-Giving Spirit, but not otherwise than through the mediation of the Holy Fathers and teachers (whose rules are recognized by the Holy Ecumenical Councils, which we will not stop repeating): why we are not only convinced, but also undoubtedly confess, as a firm truth, that The Catholic Church cannot err or err and speak lies instead of the truth; for the Holy Spirit, always acting through the faithful servants of the Fathers and teachers of the Church, protects her from all error.

We believe that a person is justified not simply by faith alone, but by faith aided by love, that is, through faith and deeds.

Let us recognize as completely unholy the idea that faith, replacing deeds, acquires justification in Christ: for faith in this sense could be appropriate for everyone, and there would not be a single unsaved, which is obviously false. On the contrary, we believe that it is not the phantom of faith alone, but the faith that is in us, which justifies us in Christ through works. We honor works not only as evidence confirming our calling, but also as fruits that make our faith active, and can, according to the Divine promise, deliver to everyone a well-deserved reward, good or bad, according to what he has done with his body.

We believe that a person who has fallen through a crime has become like dumb cattle, that is, he has darkened and lost his perfection and passionlessness, but he has not lost the nature and strength that he received from the Most Good God. For otherwise he would have become unreasonable, and consequently not a man; but he has that nature with which he was created, and a natural force, free, living, active, so that by nature he can choose and do good, flee and turn away evil. And that a man by nature can do good, the Lord also points to this when he says that the Gentiles love those who love them, and the Apostle Paul teaches quite clearly (Rom. 1:19), and in other places, where he says that "Pagans, who do not have the law, create by lawful nature." From this it is evident that the good done by man cannot be sin; for good cannot be evil. Being natural, it makes a person only spiritual, and not spiritual, and without faith alone does not contribute to salvation: however, it does not serve to condemnation either; for good, as good, cannot be the cause of evil. In those regenerated by grace, it, being strengthened by grace, becomes perfect and makes a person worthy of salvation. Although a person, before regeneration, may by nature be inclined towards good, choose and do moral good; but in order that, having been reborn, he could do spiritual good (for the works of faith, being the cause of salvation and accomplished by supernatural grace, are usually called spiritual), - for this it is necessary that grace precede and lead, as it is said about the predestined; so that he cannot by himself do works worthy of life in Christ, but he can only be willing or unwilling to act according to grace.

We believe that the Church has the Gospel sacraments, seven in number. We have neither less nor more than this number of Sacraments in the Church. The number of Mysteries in excess of seven is invented by foolish heretics. The sevenfold number of the Sacraments is affirmed in Holy Scripture, as well as other dogmas of the Orthodox Faith. And firstly: Holy Baptism was given to us by the Lord in these words: go and teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit(Mt. 28, 19); whoever has faith and is baptized, he will be saved; and whoever does not have faith, he will be condemned(Mark 16:16). The Mystery of the Holy Myrrh, or Holy Anointing, is also based on the words of the Savior: but you sit in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high(Luke 24:49), with which power the Apostles were clothed after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. This power is communicated through the sacrament of Anointing, about which the Apostle Paul also discusses (2 Cor. 1, 21-22), and more clearly Dionysius the Areopagite. The priesthood is based on the following words: do this in my remembrance(1 Cor. 11:24); also if you bind on earth, it will be bound in heaven: and if you loose on earth, it will be loosed in heaven(Mt. 16, 19). Bloodless Sacrifice - on the following: take, eat, this is my body: drink all of it from it, this is my blood of the New Testament(1 Cor. 11:24-25); unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you do not drink His blood, you do not have life in you(John 6:53). The sacrament of marriage has its basis in the words of God herself, spoken about him in the Old Testament (Gen. 2, 4); which words Jesus Christ also confirmed, saying: hedgehog God combines, let man not separate(Mt. 19, 16). The Apostle Paul calls marriage a great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Repentance, with which the mystical confession is united, is affirmed in these words of Scripture: forgive them their sins, they will be forgiven them: and hold on to them, hold on(John 20:23); also: unless you repent, you will all perish(Luke 13:3). The Evangelist Mark mentions the sacrament of Holy Oil, or prayerful Oil, and the brother of God clearly testifies (5, 14-15).

The sacraments are composed of the natural and the supernatural, and are not only signs of the promises of God. We recognize them as instruments that necessarily work by grace on those who approach them. But we reject, as alien to Christian teaching, the opinion that the perfection of the sacrament takes place only during the actual use (for example, consumption, etc.) of an earthly thing (that is, sanctified in the sacrament; as if, out of use, the thing sanctified in the sacrament , and after consecration, remains a simple thing). This is contrary to the sacrament of Communion, which, having been instituted by the All-Essential Word and sanctified by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is performed by the presence of the signified, that is, the body and blood of Christ. And the accomplishment of this sacrament, of necessity, precedes its use by means of communion. For if it had not been done before its communion, then he who partakes unworthily would not have drunk and would not have drunk in his own judgment (1 Cor. 11:29); because he would partake of simple bread and wine. And now, communing unworthily, he judges himself and eats. Consequently, the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated not at the time of the communion itself, but before this. In the same way, we regard as extremely false and impure the doctrine that the integrity and perfection of the sacrament is violated by the imperfection of faith. For the heretics whom the Church accepts when they renounce their heresy and join the Universal Church have received a perfect baptism, although they had an imperfect faith. And when they finally acquire perfect faith, they are not rebaptized.

We believe that Holy Baptism, commanded by the Lord and performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, is necessary. For without it no one can be saved, as the Lord says: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Therefore, infants also need it, for they too are subject to original sin, and without baptism they cannot receive remission of this sin. And the Lord, showing this, said without any exception, simply: “Who is not born”; that is, after the coming of the Savior Christ, all who have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must be reborn. But if infants have need of salvation, then they have need of baptism. But those who have not been regenerated, and therefore have not received remission of their ancestral sin, are necessarily subject to eternal punishment for this sin, and therefore are not saved. So babies need to be baptized. Moreover, babies are saved, as the Evangelist Matthew says, but the one who is not baptized is not saved. Therefore, infants must necessarily be baptized. And in Acts it is said that all household members were baptized (16:33), consequently, infants as well. The ancient Fathers of the Church also clearly testify to this, namely: Dionysius in the book on the Church Hierarchy, and Justin in the 57th question says: “Infants are rewarded with the blessings bestowed through baptism according to the faith of those who bring them to baptism.” Augustine also testifies: "There is an Apostolic tradition that infants are saved by baptism." And elsewhere: "The Church gives to babes the legs of others to walk, hearts to believe, tongues to confess." - And one more thing: "The Mother Church gives them a motherly heart." - As for the substance of the sacrament of baptism: it cannot be any other liquid than pure water. It is performed by the Priest; out of necessity, it can be done by a simple person, but only by an Orthodox person and, moreover, understanding the importance of Divine baptism. - The effects of baptism, in brief, are as follows: first, through it, remission is granted in the sin of the ancestor, and in all other sins committed by those who are baptized. Secondly, the one who is baptized is freed from the eternal punishment to which everyone is subject, both for inborn sin and for his own mortal sins. - Thirdly, baptism grants blessed immortality; for, freeing people from former sins, he makes them temples of God. It cannot be said that baptism does not resolve all former sins, but that although they remain, they no longer have power. To teach in this way is the utmost impiety, it is a refutation of the faith, and not a confession of it. On the contrary, every sin that exists or existed before baptism is destroyed and considered as if it did not exist, or never existed. For all the images under which baptism is presented show its cleansing power, and the sayings of Holy Scripture concerning baptism make it clear that through it a perfect cleansing is obtained; - can be seen from the very names of baptism. If it is baptism in spirit and fire, then it is clear that it delivers complete cleansing; for the spirit purifies completely. If it is light, then all darkness is driven away by it. If it is a rebirth, then all the old things pass by; and this old thing is nothing but sins. If the one being baptized puts off the old man, then sin is also put off. If he puts on Christ, he actually becomes sinless by baptism; for God is far removed from sinners, and the Apostle Paul clearly speaks of this: As if the disobedience of a single person, the sins of the former were many, and the obedience and obedience of the One righteousness will be many(Rom. 5:19). If they are righteous; then they are free from sin; for life and death cannot abide in the same man. If Christ truly died, then the remission of sins through the Holy Spirit is also true.

This shows that all infants who die after baptism will undoubtedly receive salvation, according to the power of the death of Jesus Christ. For if they are pure from sin as from the general; because they are cleansed by Divine baptism, so also from their own, for, like children, they do not yet have their own will, and therefore do not sin: then without any doubt they are saved. Baptism places an indelible seal. For it is impossible for a person who has been baptized once to be baptized correctly, even if after this he has committed a thousand sins, or even rejected the faith itself. Whoever wants to turn to the Lord perceives the lost sonship through the sacrament of repentance.

We believe that the all-holy sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which we have placed above as the fourth among the sacraments, is the sacrament commanded by the Lord on that night in which he gave himself up for the life of the world. For, taking bread and blessing, He gave it to His disciples and Apostles, saying: Take, eat, this is my body. And taking the cup, giving praise, he said: Drink all of you from her: this is My blood, which is shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is present in this priesthood not symbolically, not figuratively (tipikos, Eikonikos), not by an excess of grace, as in other sacraments, not by one inspiration, as some Fathers spoke of baptism, and not through the penetration of bread (kat "Enartismon - per impanationen), so that the Divinity of the Word enters into the bread offered for the Eucharist, essentially (ipostatikos), as the followers of Luther rather clumsily and unworthily explain: but truly and truly, so that after the consecration of the bread and wine, the bread is offered, is transubstantiated, transformed, transformed into the very true body of the Lord, which was born in Bethlehem from the Everlasting, baptized in Jordan, suffered, buried, resurrected, ascended, sits at the right hand of God the Father, has to appear on the clouds of heaven; and wine is transformed and transubstantiated into the truest blood Lord, who, during His suffering on the Cross, was poured out for the life of the world. and the wine remains no longer the very bread and wine, but the very body and blood of the Lord under the form and image of bread and wine.

We also believe that this most pure body and the blood of the Lord are distributed and enter into the mouths and wombs of those who partake, both the pious and the wicked. Only the pious and worthy accepters are granted remission of sins and eternal life, but the wicked and unworthy accepters are prepared for condemnation and eternal torment.

We also believe that the body and blood of the Lord, although they are divided and fragmented, but this happens in the sacrament of communion only with types of bread and wine, in which they can be both visible and tangible, but in themselves they are completely whole and inseparable. This is why the Universal Church says: “The one who is divided is divided and divided, but not divided, always eaten and dependent in no way, but who partakes (it is understood with dignity) sanctifies.”

We also believe that in every part, down to the smallest particle of the laid bread and wine, there is not some separate part of the body and blood of the Lord, but the body of Christ is always whole and in all parts one, and the Lord Christ is present in His essence, that is, with the soul and Deity, or perfect God and perfect man. Therefore, although at the same time there are many priesthoods throughout the universe, there are not many bodies of Christ, but one and the same Christ is truly and truly present, His one body and one blood in all the separate Churches of the faithful. And this is not because the body of the Lord, which is in heaven, descends on the altars, but because the bread of presentation, prepared separately in all the Churches, and after sanctification, is transformed and transubstantiated, is done the same with the body that is in heaven. For the Lord always has one body, and not many in many places. Therefore, according to the general opinion, this mystery is the most wonderful, comprehended by faith alone, and not by the speculations of human wisdom, which vanity and insane sophistication, regarding divine things, is rejected by this holy and divinely appointed sacrifice for us. We also believe that this body and blood of the Lord, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, should be given special honor and divine worship; for how much we owe our worship to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to the same body and blood of the Lord. We also believe that this is a true propitiatory sacrifice, offered for all those who are piously living and dead, and, as it is said in the prayers of this sacrament, committed to the Church by the Apostles, at the command of the Lord "for the salvation of all." We also believe that this sacrifice, both before use, immediately after consecration, and after use, kept in consecrated vessels for the guidance of the dying, is the true body of the Lord, in no way different from His body, so that before use after consecration, and in in use, and after it, always remains the true body of the Lord. We also believe that the word "transubstantiation" does not explain the way in which bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord; for this cannot be comprehended by anyone but God Himself, and the efforts of those who wish to comprehend this can only be the result of madness and wickedness: but it is only shown that bread and wine, after consecration, are changed into the body and blood of the Lord not figuratively, not symbolically, not in excess grace, not by the communication or influx of the one Divinity of the Only Begotten, and not by any accidental belonging of bread and wine is transformed into an accidental belonging of the body and blood of Christ, by some kind of change, or confusion, but, as it was said above, truly, really and essentially, bread is the most true the body of the Lord, and the wine the very blood of the Lord.

We also believe that this sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is celebrated not by everyone, but only by a pious Priest who has received the Priesthood from a pious and lawful Bishop, as the Eastern Church teaches. Here is the abbreviated teaching of the Universal Church on the sacrament of the Eucharist; here is the true confession and the most ancient tradition, which those who wish to be saved, and who reject the new and foul false wisdom of heretics, should not change in any way; on the contrary, they are obliged to observe this lawful tradition intact and intact. For those who distort it, the Catholic Church of Christ rejects and curses.

We believe that the souls of the dead are blissful or tormented, depending on their deeds. Separated from the bodies, they immediately pass either to joy, or to sadness and sorrow; however, they feel neither perfect bliss nor perfect torment; for perfect bliss, or perfect torment, everyone will receive after the general resurrection, when the soul is united with the body in which it lived virtuously or viciously.

The souls of people who fell into mortal sins, and did not despair at death, but once again, before being separated from the real life, they repented, only they did not have time to bear any fruits of repentance (which are: prayers, tears, contrition, consolation of the poor and expression in deeds of love for God and neighbors, which the Catholic Church from the very beginning recognizes as God-pleasing and beneficial), the souls of such people descend into hell, and suffer punishment for the sins they have committed, without losing relief from them.

They receive relief, through infinite goodness, through the prayers of the Priests and the good deeds performed for the dead: and especially by the power of the bloodless Sacrifice, which, in particular, the Priest brings for every Christian for his relatives, in general, for everyone, every day, the Catholic and Apostolic Church brings.

SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO THESE

QUESTION 1. - Should all Christians read Holy Scripture?

ANSWER. - We know that all Scripture is inspired by God and useful, and so necessary that without it it is impossible to be pious at all; however, not everyone is able to read it, but only those who know how to test the Scriptures, study and understand them correctly. Thus, every pious person is allowed to listen to Scripture in order to believe the truth with his heart, and confess with his mouth for salvation, but not everyone is allowed to read certain parts of Scripture, especially the Old Testament, without guidance. Indiscriminately allowing the inexperienced to read the Holy Scriptures also means that infants are offered the use of strong food.

QUESTION 2. - Do all Christian readers understand Scripture?

ANSWER. - If all reading Christians understood the Holy Scripture, then the Lord would not command those who wish to receive salvation to experience it. Saint Paul would have said in vain that the gift of teaching is given to the Church by God; Peter would not have said that there was something inconveniently understood in the epistles of Pavlov. So, since it is clear that Scripture contains the depth and height of thoughts, then experienced and God-illumined people are required to test it, for true understanding, for the knowledge of what is correct, in accordance with all Scripture and its Creator, the Holy Spirit. And although the reborn are aware of the teaching of faith about the Creator, about the incarnation of the Son of God, about His sufferings, resurrection and ascension to heaven, about rebirth and judgment, for which teaching many willingly endured death: but there is no need, or better, it is impossible for everyone to comprehend that, that the Holy Spirit reveals only to those who are perfect in wisdom and holiness.

QUESTION 3. - How should one think about holy icons and the veneration of the Saints?

ANSWER. - Inasmuch as there are Saints, and the Catholic Church recognizes them as representatives: that is why we honor them as friends of God, praying for us before God of all. But our veneration of the Saints is of two kinds: one refers to the Mother of God the Word, whom we honor more than the servant of God; because the Mother of God, although she is truly the servant of the One God, she is also the Mother, who gave birth carnally to the One from the Trinity. Therefore, we magnify Her as the highest, without comparing all the Angels and Saints, and we render worship more than what is proper for the servant of God. Another kind of worship, proper to the servants of God, refers to the Holy Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, and in general to all Saints. Moreover, we honor with veneration the tree of the honest and life-giving Cross, on which our Savior suffered for the salvation of the world, the image of the life-giving Cross, the Bethlehem manger, through which we are delivered from speechlessness, the place of Golgotha, the life-giving Tomb and other holy places, also the Holy Gospel in which the bloodless Sacrifice is performed, we honor and glorify the Saints with annual remembrances of them, national festivals, the building of holy Temples and offerings. We also bow to the icons of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints; we honor these icons and kiss, as well as the images of the Holy Angels, as they appeared to some Patriarchs and Prophets; we also depict the Holy Spirit as He appeared in the form of a dove.

If, however, some, for the worship of holy icons, reproach us for idolatry; then we consider such a reproach empty and absurd; for we serve no one else, but only the one God in the Trinity. We honor saints in two ways. First, in relation to God, for for His sake we bless the Saints; secondly, in relation to the Saints themselves; because they are living images of God. Moreover, honoring the Saints, as servants of God, we honor the holy icons relatively, - the honoring of icons refers to the prototypes: for whoever worships the icon, through the icon worships the prototype; so that in no way can one separate the honoring of an icon from the honoring of what is depicted on it; but both remain in unity, just as the honor given to the royal messenger is inseparable from the honor given to the King himself.

The passages that the opponents take from Scripture, to confirm their absurdity, do not favor them as much as they think; on the contrary, they are in complete agreement with our opinion. For as we read the Divine Scriptures, we test time, face, examples, and causes. Therefore, if we find that the same God in one place says: do not make yourself an idol or likeness, but do not bow down, serve them below, and in another he commands to make Cherubim; and if, moreover, we see images of oxen and lions made in the temple: we do not take all this superstitiously (for superstition is not faith); but, as they said, considering time and other circumstances, we arrive at a correct understanding. The words "do not make for yourself an idol or likeness", according to our understanding, also mean the same as the words: do not worship alien gods, do not worship idolatry. - In this way, and supported by the Church, from the time of the apostles, the custom of worshiping holy icons, and the service proper to God alone, will remain inviolable, and God will not contradict His words. And that our opponents refer to the Holy Fathers, who seem to say that it is indecent to worship icons; then these holy men protect us more; inasmuch as, in their competitions, they rise up against those who render divine veneration to holy icons, or bring into churches images of the relatives of their dead; they strike such worshipers with an anathema, but they do not condemn the correct worship of Saints and holy icons, the honest Cross and all the above. And that since the Apostolic times, holy icons have been used in churches, and believers worshiped them, very many people tell about this, together with which the Holy Ecumenical Seventh Council shames all heretical blasphemy.

Inasmuch as this Council makes it clear in the clearest way how one should worship holy icons, when it condemns and excommunicates those who render divine veneration to icons, or call the Orthodox who worship icons idolaters, then together with them we anathemize those who either or the Angel, or the icon, or the Cross, or the relics of the saints, or the sacred vessels, or the Gospel, or anything else, a fir-tree in heaven, a mountain, and a fir-tree on earth and in the sea, they give such an honor as befits the one God in the Trinity. We equally anathemize those who call the worship of icons idolatry, and therefore do not worship them, do not honor the Cross and the Saints, as the Church commanded.

We worship the saints and holy icons as we have said, and draw them to decorate churches, so that they serve for the unlearned instead of books, and encourage them to imitate the virtues of the Saints, and remembrance of them, would contribute to the multiplication of love, to wakefulness and the everlasting invocation of the Lord as Lord and Father, and the Saints as His servants, our helpers and mediators.

But heretics condemn the very prayer of the pious to God, and we do not understand why they primarily condemn the prayer of the monks. On the contrary, we are sure that prayer is a conversation with God, a request for decent blessings from God, from Whom we hope to receive them; it is an ascent to God, a pious disposition directed towards God; mental search for something higher; the healing of the holy soul, pleasing service to God, a sign of repentance and firm hope. It happens either in one mind, or in the mind and on the lips. During prayer, we contemplate the goodness and mercy of God, we feel our unworthiness, we are filled with a feeling of gratitude, we make a vow to continue to repent to God. Prayer strengthens faith and hope, teaches patience, observance of the commandments, and especially asking for heavenly blessings; it brings forth many fruits, the number of which would be superfluous; performed at any time, either in a straight position of the body, or with kneeling. So great is the benefit of prayer that it is the food and life of the soul. Everything said is based on Holy Scripture, and he who demands proof of this is like a fool or a blind man, on a clear noon, doubting the light of the sun.

However, the heretics, desiring to refute everything that Christ commanded, also touched upon prayer. However, being ashamed to reveal their wickedness so clearly, they do not reject prayers at all; but for this they rise up against the prayers of monastics, and do this with the aim of inciting hatred towards the monks in the simple-hearted, in order to present them as insufferable people, even worthless and innovators, so that no one would want to learn from them the dogmas of the pious and Orthodox Faith. For the adversary is cunning in evil, and skilled in the affairs of vanity; therefore, his followers (what are these heretics really) have no desire to engage in pious deeds as zealously as they zealously strive for the abyss of evils and fall into such places, which the Lord does not look upon.

After this, the heretics must be asked what they will say about the prayers of the monks? If heretics prove that monks are something inconsistent with Orthodox Christian piety, then we will agree with them, and not only will we not call monks monks, but even Christians. If the monks, with complete forgetfulness of themselves, proclaim the glory and miracles of God, unceasingly and at any time, as much as possible, glorify the greatness of God in songs and hymns, singing the words of Scripture, or composing their own, agreeing with Scripture: then monks, but in our opinion, they fulfill the work of the Apostles, the Prophetic, or better, the work of God.

To the archbishops and bishops who are in Great Britain, glorious and beloved in Christ, and to all their most revered clergy, we wish every blessing and salvation from God.

So, at your request, we now briefly answer you that, having carefully read your last epistle, we understood the meaning of what was written and have nothing more to say on it, except for what we have already said before, expounding our opinion and the teaching of our Eastern Church ; and now we say the same thing to all the proposals you sent to us, i.e. that ours and the teachings of our Eastern Church have been researched from ancient times, correctly and piously determined and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils; it is not permissible to add to or subtract from them anything. Therefore, those who wish to agree with us in the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox Faith must, with simplicity, obedience, without any investigation and curiosity, follow and submit to everything that is determined and decreed by the ancient tradition of the Fathers and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils from the time of the apostles and their successors, the God-bearing Fathers of our Church. .

May the Lord and Provider of all God grant, “Who wants to be saved by all men and come to the knowledge of the truth”(), so that judgment and research about this would take place in accordance with His Divine will, to a soul-beneficial and saving affirmation in the Faith.

This is what we believe and how we, Eastern Orthodox Christians, think.

We believe in the One true, Almighty and Infinite God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: the unbegotten Father, the Son, born of the Father before the ages, the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, consubstantial to the Father and the Son. We call these three Persons (Hypostases) in one being the All-Holy Trinity, always blessed, glorified and worshiped by all creation.

We believe that the members of the Catholic Church are all, and only the faithful, i.e. undoubtedly professing the pure Faith of the Savior Christ (which we received from Christ Himself, from the Apostles and Holy Ecumenical Councils), even though some of them were subject to various sins. For if the faithful but sinners were not members of the Church, they would not be subject to her judgment. But she judges them, calls them to repentance, and leads them to the path of saving commandments; wherefore, in spite of the fact that they are subjected to sins, they remain and are recognized as members of the Catholic Church, so long as they do not become apostates and hold on to the Catholic and Orthodox Faith.

We believe that the Holy Spirit teaches the catholic, for He is the true Comforter whom Christ sends from the Father in order to teach the truth and drive away darkness from the minds of the faithful. The Holy Spirit teaches the Church through the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Catholic Church. For, like all Scripture, it is admittedly the Word of the Holy Spirit, not because He directly spoke it, but spoke in it through the Apostles and Prophets; so the Church learns from the Life-Giving Spirit, but not otherwise than through the mediation of the Holy Fathers and teachers (whose rules are recognized by the Holy Ecumenical Councils, which we will not stop repeating); why we are not only convinced, but also undoubtedly confess, as a firm truth, that the Catholic Church cannot err or err and speak a lie instead of the truth; for the Holy Spirit, always acting through the faithful servants of the Fathers and teachers of the Church, protects her from all error.

We believe that a person is justified not simply by faith alone, but by faith urged on by love, that is, by faith. through faith and works. Let us recognize as completely unholy the idea that faith, replacing works, acquires justification in Christ; for faith in this sense could be appropriate for everyone, and there would be no unsaved, which is obviously false. On the contrary, we believe that it is not the specter of faith alone, but the faith that is in us through works justifies us in Christ. We honor deeds not only as evidence confirming our calling, but also as fruits that make our faith active and can, according to the Divine promise, deliver to everyone a well-deserved reward, good or bad, depending on what he did with his body.

We believe that a person who has fallen through a crime has become like dumb cattle, that is, he has darkened and lost his perfection and dispassion, but he has not lost the nature and strength that he received from the All-Good God. For otherwise he would have become unreasonable, and consequently not a man; but he would have that nature with which he was created, and a natural force, free, living, active, so that by nature he could choose and do good, flee and turn away from evil. And that a person by nature can do good, the Lord also points to this when he says that the Gentiles love those who love them (Compare,), and the Apostle Paul teaches very clearly (), and in other places where he says that “Pagans, who do not have the law, create by nature lawful”(). From this it is evident that the good done by man cannot be sin; for good cannot be evil. Being natural, it makes a person only spiritual, and not spiritual, and without faith alone does not contribute to salvation, but it also does not serve to condemnation; for good, like good, cannot be the cause of evil. In those regenerated by grace, being strengthened by grace, it becomes perfect and makes a person worthy of salvation. Although a person before regeneration may by nature be inclined towards good, choose and do moral good, but in order that, having been reborn, he could do spiritual good (for the works of faith, being the cause of salvation and accomplished by supernatural grace, are usually called spiritual), for this it is necessary so that grace would precede and lead, as it is said about the predestined; so that he cannot by himself do works worthy of life in Christ, but can only be willing or unwilling to act in accordance with grace.

We believe that the Church has the Gospel Mysteries, seven in number. We have neither less nor more than this number of Sacraments in the Church. The number of Sacraments beyond seven is invented by foolish heretics. The sevenfold number of the Sacraments is affirmed in Holy Scripture, as well as other dogmas of the Orthodox Faith. And firstly: Holy Baptism was given to us by the Lord in these words: "Go and teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (); “Whoever has faith and is baptized, he will be saved; and whoever does not have faith, he will be condemned"(). The Sacrament of the Holy Chrism, or Holy Chrismation, is also based on the words of the Savior: “But you sit in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”(), with which power the Apostles were clothed after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. This power is communicated through the sacrament of Chrismation, which the Apostle Paul (), and more clearly Dionysius the Areopagite, also discusses. The priesthood is based on the following words: "Do this in remembrance of me"(); Also: "Even If you bind on earth, you will be bound in heaven; and if you allow it on earth, it will be allowed in heaven"(). Bloodless Sacrifice - on the following: “Take, eat: this is my body” (), “drink from her all, this ... is my blood of the New Testament” (); "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you do not drink His blood, you do not have life in you"(). The sacrament of marriage has its basis in the words of God himself, spoken about him in the Old Testament (); which words confirmed and saying: “Hedgehog ... combination, let a person not separate”(; ). The Apostle Paul calls marriage "a great mystery" (). Repentance, with which the mystical confession is united, is affirmed in these words of Scripture: “Forgive them their sins, they will be forgiven; and hold on to them, hold on"(); also: "Unless you repent, you will all perish"(). The sacrament of the Holy Oil, or the prayerful Oil, is mentioned by the Evangelist Mark, the brother of God testifies more clearly ().

The sacraments are composed of the natural and the supernatural, and are not only signs of the promises of God. We recognize them as instruments that necessarily work grace on those who approach them. But we reject, as alien to the Christian teaching, the opinion that the celebration of the sacrament takes place only during the actual use (for example, eating, etc.) of an earthly thing (that is, sanctified in the sacrament; as if the thing sanctified in the sacrament is out of use and after consecration remains a simple thing). This is contrary to the sacrament of Communion, which, having been established by the Pre-Essential Word and sanctified by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is performed by the presence of the signified, that is, the body and blood of Christ. And the celebration of this sacrament necessarily precedes its use through communion. For if it had not been done before its communion, then he who partakes unworthily would not have eaten and drunk to his own judgment; because he would partake of plain bread and wine. And now, partaking of "unworthy oh, he judgment itself eats and drinks"(). Consequently, the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated not at the time of the communion itself, but before this. In the same way, we regard as extremely false and impure the doctrine that the integrity and perfection of the sacrament is violated by the imperfection of faith. For the heretics who are received when they renounce their heresy and join the Universal Church have received a perfect baptism, although they had an imperfect faith. And when they finally acquire perfect faith, they are not rebaptized.

We believe that Holy Baptism, commanded by the Lord and performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, is necessary. For without it no one can be saved, as the Lord says: "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God"(). Therefore, infants also need it, for they, too, are subject to original sin, and without baptism they cannot receive remission of this sin. And the Lord, showing this, said without any exception, simply: "Who is not born..." that is, after the coming of the Savior Christ, all those who have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must be reborn. If infants need to be saved, then they also need to be baptized. But those who have not been reborn, and therefore have not received remission of their ancestral sin, are necessarily subject to eternal punishment for this sin, and therefore are not saved. So babies need need baptism. Moreover, babies are saved, as the Evangelist Matthew says, but the one who is not baptized is not saved. Therefore, infants need to be baptized. And in Acts it says that all households were baptized (), consequently, babies too. The ancient Fathers of the Church clearly testify to this, namely: Dionysius and Justin in the 57th question say: “Children are rewarded with the blessings bestowed through baptism according to the faith of those who bring them to baptism.” Augustine also testifies: "There is an Apostolic tradition that infants are saved by baptism." And elsewhere: "The Church gives to infants the legs of others to walk, hearts to believe, tongues to confess." - And one more thing: "Mother Church gives them a mother's heart." – As for the substance of the sacrament of baptism, it cannot be any other liquid than pure water. It is performed by the Priest; out of need, it can be done by a simple person, but only by an Orthodox person and, moreover, understanding the importance of Divine baptism. - The actions of baptism are briefly as follows: first, through it remission is granted in the sin of the ancestor and in all other sins committed by the person being baptized. Secondly, the baptized person is freed from the eternal punishment to which everyone is subject both for inborn sin and for their own mortal sins. —Thirdly, baptism bestows blessed immortality, for by freeing people from former sins, it makes them temples of God. It cannot be said that baptism does not remove all former sins, but that although they remain, they no longer have power. To teach in this way is extreme wickedness, it is a refutation of the faith, and not a confession of it. On the contrary, every sin that exists or existed before baptism is blotted out and considered as if it did not exist or never existed. For all the images under which baptism is presented show its purifying power, and the sayings of Holy Scripture concerning baptism make it clear that through it a complete purification is obtained; - can be seen from the very names of baptism. If it is baptism in spirit and fire, then it is clear that it delivers perfect purification; for the spirit purifies perfectly. If it is light, then all darkness is driven away by it. If it is rebirth, then everything that is old passes by; and this old thing is nothing but sins. If the one being baptized puts off the old man, then sin is also put off. If he puts on Christ, he is actually made sinless by baptism; for God is far removed from sinners, and the Apostle Paul clearly speaks of this: “Like the disobedience of one man, the sins of the former were many, and the obedience of the One righteous will be many”(). If they are righteous, then they are also free from sin; for life and death cannot abide in the same man. If Christ truly died, then the remission of sins through the Holy Spirit is also true.

We believe that the all-holy sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which we have placed above as the fourth among the sacraments, is mysteriously commanded by the Lord on that night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world. For, taking bread and blessing, He gave it to His disciples and Apostles, saying: "Take, eat, this is My body." And, taking the cup, giving praise, he said: "Drink all of it: this is my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins."

We believe that our Lord is present in this sacred service not symbolically, not figuratively (τυπικός, εἰκονικός), not by an excess of grace, as in other sacraments, not by one influx, as some Fathers spoke of baptism, and not through the penetration of bread ( κατ´ Ἐναρτισμόν – per impanationem), so that the Divinity of the Word enters into the bread offered for the Eucharist, it is essential (ὑποστατικός ), as the followers of Luther rather clumsily and unworthily explain; but truly and truly, so that after the consecration of bread and wine, the bread is changed, transubstantiated, transformed, transformed into the very true body of the Lord, which was born in Bethlehem from the Ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, ascended, sits at the right hand of God the Father, has to appear on the clouds of heaven; and the wine is transformed and transubstantiated into the very true blood of the Lord, which, during His suffering on the Cross, was shed for the life of the world. We also believe that after the consecration of bread and wine, it is no longer the bread and wine itself that remains, but the very body and blood of the Lord under the form and image of bread and wine.

We also believe that the body and blood of the Lord, although they are divided and broken up, but this happens in the sacrament of communion only with types of bread and wine, in which they can be both visible and tangible, but in themselves they are completely whole and inseparable. Why does the Ecumenical say: “The one who is fragmented, but not divided, is always divided and divided, always poisoned and dependent in no way, but those who partake (of course, worthily) sanctify.”

We also believe that in every part, down to the smallest particle of the laid bread and wine, there is not some separate part of the body and blood of the Lord, but the body of Christ, always whole and in all parts one, and the Lord is present in His essence, that is, with soul and Deity, or perfect God and perfect man. Therefore, although at one and the same time there are many sacred rites in the universe, there are not many bodies of Christ, but one and the same Christ is truly and truly present, His one body and one blood in all the individual Churches of the faithful. And this is not because the body of the Lord, which is in heaven, descends on the altars, but because the showbread, prepared separately in all the churches and, after consecration, is transformed and transubstantiated, is done the same thing with the body that is in heaven. For the Lord always has one body, and not many in many places. Therefore, according to the general opinion, this sacrament is the most wonderful, comprehended by faith alone, and not by the speculations of human wisdom, which vanity and insane sophistication regarding Divine things is rejected by this holy and above-destined sacrifice for us. We also believe that this body and blood of the Lord in the sacrament of the Eucharist should be given special honor and divine worship; for what we owe to the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the same body and blood of the Lord. We also believe that this sacrifice, both before use, immediately after consecration, and after use, stored in consecrated vessels for parting words to the dying, is the true body of the Lord, in no way different from His body, so that before use after consecration, and in itself use, and after it always remains the true body of the Lord. We also believe that the word “transubstantiation” does not explain the way in which bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord; for this cannot be comprehended by anyone but God himself, and the efforts of those who wish to comprehend this can only be the result of madness and wickedness; but it is only shown that, after consecration, bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord, not figuratively, not symbolically, not by an excess of grace, not by communication or influx of the one Divinity of the Only Begotten, and not by any accidental belonging of bread and wine is changed into an accidental belonging of the body and the blood of Christ by some change or mixture, but, as said above, truly, really and essentially, bread is the very true body of the Lord, and wine is the very blood of the Lord.

We also believe that this sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is celebrated not by everyone, but only by one pious Priest who has received the Priesthood from a pious and lawful Bishop, as the Eastern Church teaches. Here is the abbreviated teaching of the Universal Church on the sacrament of the Eucharist; here is the true confession and ancient tradition, which those who wish to be saved and reject the new and filthy false wisdom of heretics should not change in any way; on the contrary, they are obliged to observe this lawful tradition intact and undamaged. For those who distort it, the Catholic Church of Christ rejects and curses.

We believe that the souls of the dead are blissful or tormented, looking at their deeds. Separated from the bodies, they immediately pass either to joy, or to sorrow and sorrow; however, they do not feel either perfect bliss or perfect torment; for perfect bliss, like perfect torment, everyone will receive after the general resurrection, when the soul is united with the body in which it lived virtuously or viciously.

The souls of people who fell into mortal sins and did not despair at death, but once again, before being separated from the real life, they repented, only they did not have time to bear any fruits of repentance (which are: prayers, tears, contritions, consolation of the poor and expression in deeds of love for God and neighbor , which the entire Catholic Church recognizes from the very beginning as God-pleasing and beneficial), the souls of such people descend into hell and suffer punishment for the sins they have committed, without losing, however, relief from them.

They receive relief through infinite goodness through the prayers of the Priests and good deeds done for the dead; and especially by the power of the bloodless Sacrifice, which, in particular, the clergyman brings for every Christian about his relatives, in general, the Catholic and Apostolic Church daily brings for everyone.

Some questions and answers

Question 1. - Should all Christians read Holy Scripture?

Answer. – We know that all Scripture is inspired by God and useful, and so necessary that without it it is completely impossible to be pious; however, not everyone is able to read it, but only those who know how to test the Scriptures, study and correctly understand them. Thus, every pious person is allowed to listen to Scripture in order to believe in the truth with his heart and confess with his mouth for salvation, but not everyone is allowed to read certain parts of Scripture, especially the Old Testament, without guidance. To allow the inexperienced to read the Holy Scriptures indiscriminately is the same as to offer infants the use of strong food.

Question 2. - Do all reading Christians understand the Scriptures?

Answer. – If all reading Christians understood the Holy Scripture, then the Lord would not have commanded those who wish to receive salvation to experience it. St. Paul would have been wrong to say that the gift of teaching was given to the Church by God; Nor would Peter have said that there is something incomprehensible in the Pauline epistles. So, since it is clear that the Scripture contains the height and depth of thoughts, then experienced and God-enlightened people are required to test it, for true understanding, for knowing the correct one, in accordance with all Scripture and its Creator, the Holy Spirit. And although the regenerate know the teaching of faith about the Creator, about the incarnation of the Son of God, about His sufferings, resurrection and ascension to heaven, about rebirth and judgment, for which teaching many willingly endured death; but it is not necessary, or rather impossible, for all to comprehend that which the Holy Spirit reveals only to those who are perfect in wisdom and holiness.

Question 3. - How should one think about holy icons and about the worship of the Saints?

Answer. - Since there are Saints, and the Catholic Church recognizes them as representatives, then therefore we honor them as friends of God, praying for us before the God of all. But our veneration of the Saints is of two kinds: one refers to the Mother of God the Word, whom we honor more than the servant of God, since the Mother of God, although she is truly a servant of the One God, is also the Mother, who gave birth carnally to the One from the Trinity. Therefore, we magnify Her as the highest, without comparing all the Angels and Saints, and we render worship greater than what is fitting for the servant of God. Another kind of worship, befitting the servants of God, refers to the Holy Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, and in general to all Saints. In addition, we honor with worship the tree of the honest and life-giving Cross, on which our Savior suffered for the salvation of the world, the image of the life-giving Cross, the Bethlehem manger, through which we are delivered from dumbness, the Golgotha place, the life-giving Tomb and other holy places, also the Holy Gospel, sacred vessels , in which the bloodless Sacrifice is performed, we honor and glorify the Saints with annual remembrances of them, national festivals, the construction of holy Temples and offerings. We also worship the icons of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints; we honor these icons and kiss, as well as the images of the Holy Angels, as they appeared to some Patriarchs and Prophets; we also depict the Holy Spirit as He appeared in the form of a dove.

If, however, some reproach us with idolatry for worshiping holy icons, then we consider such a reproach empty and absurd; for we serve no one else, but only the one God in the Trinity. We honor saints in two ways. First, in relation to God, for for His sake we bless the Saints; secondly, in relation to the Saints themselves, since they are living images of God. Moreover, honoring the Saints, as servants of God, we honor the holy icons relatively, - the honoring of icons refers to the prototypes; for whoever worships an icon worships the archetype through the icon; so that in no way can one separate the honoring of the icon from the honoring of what is depicted on it; but both remain in unity, just as the honor given to the royal messenger is inseparable from the honor given to the King himself.

Those passages taken by the opponents from Scripture, to confirm their absurdity, do not favor them as much as they think; on the contrary, they are in complete agreement with our opinion. For as we read Divine Scripture, we experience time, face, examples, and causes. Therefore, if we find that the same God in one place says: “Do not make for yourself an idol, nor likeness, but do not bow down, serve them lower,” and in another command to make Cherubim; and if, moreover, we see images of oxen and lions made in the temple, we do not accept all this superstitiously (for superstition is not faith); but, as they said, considering the time and other circumstances, we arrive at a correct understanding. The words “Do not make for yourself an idol or likeness”, according to our understanding, mean the same thing as the words: do not worship alien gods, do not worship idols. – Thus, both the custom of worshiping holy icons, which has been contained from the time of the apostles, and the service due to the one God, will remain inviolable, and God will not contradict His words. And if our adversaries refer to the Holy Fathers, who allegedly say that it is indecent to worship icons, then these holy men defend us more; Inasmuch as in their competitions they rise up against those who render divine veneration to holy icons, or bring images of the relatives of their dead into churches; they anathematize such admirers, but they do not condemn the correct worship of Saints and holy icons, the honest Cross and all of the above. And that since the Apostolic times holy icons have been used in churches, and believers worshiped them, very many people tell about this, together with whom the Holy Ecumenical Seventh Council shames all heretical blasphemy.

Inasmuch as this Council makes it clear in the clearest way to understand how holy icons should be worshiped, when it condemns and excommunicates those who render divine veneration to icons or call Orthodox worshipers of icons idolaters, then together with it we also anathematize those who either the Holy One or An angel, or an icon, or a Cross, or relics of saints, or sacred vessels, or the Gospel, or anything else, a fir tree in heaven, a mountain and a fir tree on earth and in the sea, are given such an honor as befits the one God in the Trinity. We equally anathematize those who call the worship of icons idolatry, and therefore do not worship them, do not honor the Cross and the Saints, as commanded.

We venerate the holy and holy icons as we have said, and draw them to decorate temples, so that they serve for the unlearned instead of books and encourage them to imitate the virtues of the Saints and remember them, to increase love, to wakefulness and always invoking the Lord as Lord and father, and the Saints, as His servants, our helpers and mediators.

But heretics condemn the very prayer of the pious to God, and we do not understand why they primarily condemn the prayer of the monks. On the contrary, we are sure that prayer is an interview with God, a request for decent blessings from God, from Whom we hope to receive them; it is an ascent to God, a pious disposition directed towards God; mental search for the heavenly; healing of the soul of a saint, pleasing service to God, a sign of repentance and firm hope. It happens either in one mind, or both in the mind and on the lips. During prayer, we contemplate the goodness and mercy of God, we feel our unworthiness, we are filled with a feeling of thanksgiving, we make a vow to continue to submit to God. Prayer strengthens faith and hope, teaches patience, keeping the commandments, and especially asking for heavenly blessings; it brings forth many fruits, the enumeration of which would be superfluous; performed at any time, either in a straight position of the body, or with kneeling. So great is the use of prayer that it is the food and life of the soul. Everything said is based on the Holy Scriptures, and the one who requires proof of this is like a fool or a blind man who, during a clear noon, doubts the light of the sun.

However, the heretics, wishing to refute everything that Christ commanded, also touched on prayer. However, being ashamed to show their wickedness so clearly, they do not reject prayer at all; but on the other hand, they rebel against the prayers of the monastics, and do this with the aim of arousing hatred for the monks in the simple-minded, presenting them as unbearable people, even objectionable and innovators, so that no one wants to learn from them the dogmas of the pious and Orthodox Faith. For the adversary is cunning in evil and skillful in deeds of vanity; therefore, his followers (what these heretics really are) have no desire to engage in pious deeds as zealously as they zealously strive for the abyss of evils and fall into such places that the Lord does not look upon.

After this, the heretics should be asked what they will say about the prayers of the monks? If heretics prove that monks are something inconsistent with Orthodox Christian piety, then we will agree with them, and not only will we not call monks monks, but even Christians. If the monks, with complete forgetfulness of themselves, proclaim the glory and miracles of God, unceasingly and at any time, as much as possible, glorify the greatness of God in songs and doxologies, singing the words of Scripture or composing their own, in agreement with Scripture, then the monks, in our opinion, perform the work of the Apostles, the Prophetic, or, better, the work of God.

Why do we also, when we sing consolatory songs from the Triodion and the Menaion, do not do anything that would be indecent for Christians; because all these books contain sound and true theology and consist of songs, either chosen from the Holy Scriptures, or composed by the inspiration of the Spirit, so that in our hymns only the words are different from those in Scripture, but actually we sing the same as in Scripture , just in other words. To make sure that our hymns are composed of the words of Scripture, we place a verse of Scripture in each so-called troparion. If, however, we still later read the prayers composed by the ancient Fathers, then let the heretics tell us that they have noticed blasphemous and impious things in these Fathers? Then, together with the heretics, we will rise up against them. But if the heretics also point to constant and unceasing prayer, then what harm comes from such prayer for them and for us? Let them oppose (as indeed they oppose) Christ, Who spoke the parable of the unjust judgment precisely in order to assure us of the need for unceasing prayer; Who taught to watch and pray in order to avoid adversity and stand before the Son of man; let them oppose the words of the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to Thessalunians (ch. 5) and many other passages of Scripture. We do not consider it necessary to turn to the testimonies of other Divine teachers of the Catholic Church, which have only been from the time of Christ to us; for, to the disgrace of heretics, it is enough to point to the intense prayer of the Patriarchs, Apostles and Prophets.

So, if the monks imitate the Apostles, Prophets, Holy Fathers and Forefathers of Christ Himself, then it is obvious that monastic prayers are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. As for the heretics who invent blasphemy against God and reinterpret everything Divine, distort and insult the Holy Scriptures, then their inventions are the tricks and inventions of the devil. The objection that it is impossible to order the Church to abstain from food without coercion and violence is null and void. For the Church has acted very well in establishing, with all diligence, for the mortification of the flesh and passions, prayer and fasting, of which all the Saints have shown themselves to be overseers and models, and by means of which our adversary, the devil, with the help of higher grace, is deposed with all his armies and forces, and the path set before the pious conveniently done. Thus, the Universal Church, delving into all this, does not force, does not force, but calls, exhorts, teaches what is in Scripture, and convinces by the power of the Spirit.

In Constantinople, 1723 from the Nativity of Christ, the month of September.

Jeremiah, by the grace of God, the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and the Ecumenical Patriarch, signed with my own hand, and I testify and confess that this is the Orthodox Faith of our Christ, Apostolic, Catholic and Eastern Church.

Athanasius, by the grace of God, the Patriarch of the great city of God of Antioch, with my own hand signed, and I testify, and affirm and confess, that this is the Orthodox Faith of our Christ, Apostolic, Catholic and Eastern Church.

Chrysanth, by the grace of God, the Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, signed with my own hand, and I testify and confess that this is the Orthodox Faith of our Christ, Apostolic, Catholic and Eastern Church.

Callinicus Heraclius, signed with his own hand, agreeing with the heart and mouth with the above-mentioned Holy Patriarchs, which I will confess until my last breath.

Anthony Cyzikyus, I confess that this is the Catholic Faith of the Eastern Church.

Paisios Nicomedia, signed with my own hand and confess that this is the Faith of the Catholic Eastern Church.

Gerasim Nicene, signed with my own hand, and I confess that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Pachomius Chalcedonian, signed with my own hand and I confess and testify that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Ignatius Thessalonian, signed with his own hand, confessing and testifying that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Anfim Philippopolis, signed with his own hand, confessing and testifying that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Callinicus Varna, I signed with my own hand and I confess and testify that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

His Holiness of the New Rome of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah,

His Beatitude Patriarch of the City of God of Antioch Athanasius,

His Beatitude Patriarch Chrysanthos of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and

The Most Reverend Bishops, who are acquired with Us, i.e. Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops, and the entire Christian Eastern Orthodox clergy,

To the archbishops and bishops who are in Great Britain, glorious and beloved in Christ, and to all their most revered clergy, we wish every blessing and salvation from God.

Your Scripture, in the form of a small book, with which you, for your part, answer our answers that were previously sent to you, we have received. Having learned from him about your good health, about your zeal and respect for our eastern Holy Church of Christ, we rejoiced greatly, accepting, as it should, your pious and good intention, your care and zeal for the unification of the Churches: such unity is the affirmation of the faithful; our Lord and God Jesus Christ is pleasing to them, Who, even as a sign of communion with Himself, set for His sacred Disciples and Apostles mutual love, harmony and unanimity. And so, at your request, we now briefly answer you that, having carefully read your last message, we understood the meaning of what was written and have nothing more to say on it, except for what we have already said before, expounding our opinion and the teachings of our Eastern Churches; and now we say the same thing to all the proposals you sent to us, i.e. that our dogmas and the teachings of our Eastern Church have been investigated since ancient times, correctly and piously defined and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils; it is not permissible to add to or subtract from them anything. Therefore, those who wish to agree with us in the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox Faith must, with simplicity, obedience, without any investigation and curiosity, follow and submit to everything that is determined and decreed by the ancient tradition of the Fathers and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils from the time of the apostles and their successors, the God-bearing Fathers of our Church. . Although there are enough answers to what you write about; however, for a more complete and indisputable confirmation, behold, we send you in the most extensive form an exposition of the Orthodox Faith of our Eastern Church, adopted after careful study at a Council that was long ago (1672 A.D.), called Jerusalem; which statement was subsequently printed in Greek and Latin in Paris in 1675, and perhaps at the same time it reached you and is in your possession. From it you can learn and undoubtedly comprehend the pious and Orthodox way of thinking of the Eastern Church; and if you agree with us, being satisfied with the doctrine that we have now set forth, then you will be one with us in everything, and there will be no division between us. As for the other customs and rites of the Church, before the celebration of the sacred rites of the Liturgy, then this, with the union accomplished with God's help, can be easily and conveniently corrected. For it is known from ecclesiastical historical books that certain customs and ranks in various places and churches have been and are changeable; but the unity of the Faith and unanimity in dogmas remain unchanged. May the Lord and Provider of all God grant, Who wants to be saved by all men and come to the understanding of the truth(1 Tim. 2:4), so that the judgment and study of this would take place in accordance with His Divine will, to a soul-beneficial and saving affirmation in the Faith.

This is what we believe and think as Eastern Orthodox Christians:

Member 1

We believe in the One true God, Almighty and Infinite - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: the unbegotten Father, the Son, born of the Father before the ages, the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, consubstantial to the Father and the Son. We call these three Persons (Hypostases) in one being the All-Holy Trinity, always blessed, glorified and worshiped by all creation.

member 2

We believe that Divine and Holy Scripture is inspired by God; therefore, we must believe it unquestioningly, and, moreover, not in our own way, but precisely as the Catholic Church has explained and betrayed it. For even the superstition of heretics accepts Divine Scripture, only misrepresents it, using allegorical and similarly meaningful expressions and tricks of human wisdom, merging what cannot be merged, and playing childishly with such objects that are not subject to jokes. Otherwise, if everyone daily began to explain the Scriptures in his own way, then the Catholic Church would not have remained, by the grace of Christ, until now such a Church, which, being of one mind in faith, always believes equally and unshakably, but would be divided into innumerable parts, would be subjected to heresies, and at the same time it would cease to be the Holy Church, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, but would become the Church of the wicked, that is, as it must be supposed without a doubt, the Church of heretics who are not ashamed to learn from the Church, and then lawlessly reject it. Therefore, we believe that the testimony of the Catholic Church is no less valid than the Divine Scripture. Since the Creator of both is the same Holy Spirit, it makes no difference whether one learns from the Scriptures or from the Universal Church. A person who speaks for himself can sin, deceive and be deceived; but the Universal Church, since she has never spoken and does not speak from herself, but from the Spirit of God (Which she has unceasingly and will have as her Teacher until eternity), cannot in any way sin, nor deceive, nor be deceived; but, like Divine Scripture, it is infallible and has everlasting importance.

Member 3

We believe that the all-good God predestined to glory those whom He chose from eternity; and those whom He rejected, those He delivered over to condemnation, not, however, because He wanted to justify some in this way, and leave others and condemn without reason; for this is not characteristic of God, the common and impartial Father, who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth(1 Tim. 2:4), but because He foresaw that some would make good use of their free will, and others badly; therefore some he predestinated to glory, and others he condemned. On the use of freedom, we reason as follows: since the goodness of God has bestowed Divine and enlightening grace, which we also call prevenient grace, which, like light that enlightens those who walk in darkness, guides all; then those who wish to freely submit to her (for she assists those who seek her, and not those who oppose her), and fulfill her commands, which are necessary for salvation, therefore receive special grace, which, assisting, strengthening and constantly perfecting them in the love of God, i.e. . in those good works that God requires of us (and which the prevenient grace also required), justifies them and makes them predestined; those, on the contrary, who do not want to obey and follow grace, and therefore do not keep the commandments of God, but, following the suggestions of Satan, abuse their freedom given to them from God so that they voluntarily do good - they are subjected to eternal condemnation.

But what the blasphemous heretics say, that God predestinates or condemns, no matter what the deeds of those predestined or condemned, we consider foolishness and wickedness; for in such a case Scripture would contradict itself. It teaches that every believer is saved by faith and his works, and at the same time presents God as the only author of our salvation, since, that is, He first gives enlightening grace, which gives a person the knowledge of Divine truth and teaches him to conform to it (if he does not resist) and to do good that is pleasing to God in order to obtain salvation, not destroying the free will of man, but leaving it to obey or disobey its action. Is it not insane after this, without any reason to assert that the Divine will is the fault of the misfortune of the condemned? Doesn't this mean uttering a terrible slander against God? Doesn't this mean uttering terrible injustice and blasphemy against heaven? God is not involved in any evil, equally desires salvation for everyone, He has no place for partiality; why do we confess that He justly condemns those who remain in wickedness because of their corrupt will and unrepentant heart. But we have never, never called and will not call the culprit of eternal punishment and torment, as if misanthropic, God, Who Himself said that there is joy in heaven over the only repentant sinner. We never dare to believe or think in this way as long as we have consciousness; and those who speak and think so, we anathematize eternally and recognize as the worst of all unbelievers.

member 4

We believe that the Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Creator of everything visible and invisible. By the name of the invisible, we mean the Angelic Forces, rational souls and demons (although God did not create the demons in the same way as they later became of their own free will); but visible we call heaven and everything under heaven. Because the Creator is essentially good: therefore, everything that He only created, He created beautiful, and never wants to be the Creator of evil. If there is in a man or in a demon (for we simply do not know evil in nature) some kind of evil, i.e. a sin contrary to the will of God, then this evil comes either from a person or from the devil. For it is perfectly true, and beyond all doubt, that God cannot be the author of evil, and that, therefore, perfect justice demands that it should not be attributed to God.

Member 5

We believe that everything that exists, visible and invisible, is controlled by Divine Providence; however, evil, like evil, God only foresees and allows, but does not provide for it, since He did not create it. And the evil that has already happened is directed towards something useful by the supreme goodness, which itself does not create evil, but only directs it to the best, as far as possible. We should not test, but revere before the Divine Providence and His secret and untested destinies. However, what is revealed to us about this in the Holy Scriptures, as relating to eternal life, we should investigate with prudence and, along with the first concepts of God, accept as undoubted.

Member 6

We believe that the first man created by God fell in paradise at the time when he disobeyed the commandment of God, following the treacherous advice of the serpent, and that from here the ancestral sin spread successively to all offspring so that there is not one of those born according to the flesh who is free. was from that burden and did not feel the consequences of the fall in this life. And the burden and consequence of the fall, we do not call sin itself, such as: impiety, blasphemy, murder, hatred, and everything else that comes from an evil human heart, contrary to the will of God, and not from nature; (for many Forefathers, Prophets and countless others, both in the Old and in the New Testament, men, also the divine Forerunner and mainly the Mother of God the Word and Ever-Virgin Mary, were not involved in both this and other similar sins), but the inclination to sin and those calamities with which Divine justice punished a person for his disobedience, such as: exhausting labors, sorrows, bodily infirmities, illnesses of birth, hard life on earth for some time, wanderings, and finally bodily death.

Member 7

We believe that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, exhausted Himself, that is, He took upon Himself in His own hypostasis human flesh, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary from the Holy Spirit, and became human; that He was born without sorrow and illness of His Mother according to the flesh and without violating Her virginity, suffered, was buried, rose again in glory on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father, and again will come, as we expect, to judge the living and the dead.

Member 8

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is our only Advocate, Who gave Himself for the redemption of all, became by His own blood the reconciliation of man with God, and remains the guardian Defender of His followers and the propitiation for our sins. We also confess that the Saints intercede for us in prayers and petitions to Him, and most of all the Immaculate Mother of the Divine Word, also our Holy Guardian Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, the Righteous and all whom He glorified as His faithful servants, to whom we rank Bishops, Priests, as coming to the holy altar, and righteous men, known for their virtue. For we know from Holy Scripture that we must pray for one another, that the prayer of the righteous can accomplish much, and that God listens more to the Saints than to those who remain in sin. We also confess that the Saints are mediators and intercessors for us before God, not only here, during their stay with us, but still more after death, when, after the destruction of the mirror (which the Apostle mentions), they contemplate the Holy Trinity and the infinite light in all clarity. Her. For just as we have no doubt that the Prophets, while still in a mortal body, saw heavenly things, and therefore predicted the future, so we not only do not doubt, but we unshakably believe and confess that the Angels, and the Saints, who became as it were Angels, in the infinite light of God, see our needs.

Member 9

We believe that no one can be saved without faith. By faith we call our right conception of God and Divine things. Promoted by love, or, which is the same, by the fulfillment of the Divine commandments, it justifies us through Christ, and without it it is impossible to please God.

Member 10

We believe, as we have been taught to believe, in such a name and in the thing itself, that is, the Holy, Ecumenical, Apostolic Church, which embraces everyone and everywhere, whoever they may be, who believe in Christ, who now, being in earthly wandering, not yet settled in the heavenly home. But we do not at all confuse the Church that is wandering with the Church that has reached the fatherland, only because, as some of the heretics think, that both exist; that both of them constitute, as it were, two flocks of one Archpastor of God and are sanctified by one Holy Spirit. Such a mixture of them is inappropriate and impossible, since one is fighting and is on the way, while the other is already triumphant in victory, has reached the fatherland and received a reward, which will follow with the entire Universal Church. Since a person is subject to death and cannot be the permanent head of the Church, then our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as the Head, holding the helm of the Church's government, governs it through the Holy Fathers. For this purpose, the Holy Spirit appointed Bishops to private Churches, legally founded and legally composed of members, as Rulers, Pastors, Heads and Leaders, who are such by no means out of abuse, but legally, indicating in these Pastors the image of the Head and Finisher of our Salvation, so that the communities of believers under this government ascended into His power. Since, among other impious opinions, heretics also asserted that a simple Priest and Bishop are equal to each other, that it is possible to exist without a Bishop, that several Priests can govern the Church, that not one Bishop can ordain a Priest, but also a Priest, and several Priests can consecrate a Bishop as well, and divulge that the Eastern Church shares this delusion with them; then we, in accordance with the opinion that has prevailed in the Eastern Church since ancient times, confirm that the title of Bishop is so necessary in the Church that without it neither the Church nor the Church, nor the Christian, can not only be, but even be called a Christian. —For the Bishop, as an apostolic successor, by the laying on of hands and invocation of the Holy Spirit, having received successively the power given to him from God to decide and knit, is the living image of God on earth and, by the hierarchical power of the Holy Spirit, the abundant source of all the Mysteries of the Universal Church, by which salvation is acquired. We believe that the Bishop is as necessary to the Church as breathing is to man and the sun is to the world. Therefore, in praise of the bishopric, some say well: “As God is in the Church of the firstborn in heaven and the sun in the world, then each Bishop is in his private Church; so that the flock is illuminated by it, warmed and made a temple of God”, - that the great sacrament and the title of Bishopric passed to us successively, this is obvious. For the Lord, who promised to be with us until eternity, although he is with us under other forms of grace and divine blessings, communicates with us in a special way through the episcopal rite, remains and unites with us through the sacred Mysteries, which the first performer and celebrant, according to the power The Spirit is the Bishop, and does not allow us to fall into heresy. Therefore, St. John of Damascus, in his fourth letter to the Africans, says that the Church Ecumenical was generally entrusted to the Bishops; that the successors of Peter are recognized: in Rome - Clement the first Bishop, in Antioch - Evodius, in Alexandria - Mark; that St. Andrew placed Stachy on the throne of Constantinople; but in the great holy city of Jerusalem, the Lord appointed James Bishop, after whom there was another Bishop, and after him another, and so on even before us. That is why Tertullian, in a letter to Papian, calls all the Bishops the successors of the Apostles. Eusebius Pamphilus and many of the Fathers also testify to their succession, Apostolic dignity and authority; It is also obvious that the episcopal rank differs from the rank of a simple Priest. For a Priest is ordained by a Bishop, and a Bishop is ordained not by Priests, but, according to the Apostolic Rule, by two or three Bishops. Moreover, the Priest is elected by the Bishop, and the Bishop is not elected by Priests or Presbyters or secular authorities, but by the Council of the highest Church of the region where the city for which the ordained one is appointed is located, or, at least, by the Council of the region where the Bishop should be. Sometimes, however, he elects a whole city; but not simply, but presents his election to the Council; and if it turns out to be in accordance with the rules, then the chosen one is produced by episcopal ordination through the invocation of the Holy Spirit. Besides this, the Priest accepts the power and grace of the Priesthood only for himself, while the bishop passes it on to others. The first, having received the Priesthood from the Bishop, performs only holy baptism with prayers, performs a bloodless sacrifice, distributes to the people the holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, anoints those who are baptized with holy chrism, crowns those piously and legally entering into marriage, prays for the sick, for salvation and bringing in the knowledge of the truth of all people, but mainly about the forgiveness and forgiveness of sins of the Orthodox, the living and the dead, and, finally, since he is distinguished by knowledge and virtue, then, according to the authority given to him by the bishop, he teaches those of the Orthodox who come to him, showing them the way to receive the Kingdom of Heaven and is delivered as a preacher of the Holy Gospel. But the Bishop, in addition to doing all this (for, as it is said, he is the source of the Divine sacraments and gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit), alone exclusively performs the holy myrrh, he alone has received initiation to all degrees and positions of the Church; he especially and predominantly has the power to bind and loose and execute, according to the commandment of the Lord, a judgment pleasing to God; he preaches the Holy Gospel and affirms the Orthodox in the Faith, and excommunicates the disobedient, like pagans and publicans, from the Church, betrays heretics to eruption and anathema, and lays down his soul for the sheep. This reveals the indisputable difference between a Bishop and a simple Priest, and together with the fact that, apart from him, all the Priests in the world cannot shepherd the Church of God and completely govern it. But one of the Fathers rightly remarked that it is not easy to find a judicious person among heretics; because, leaving the Church, they are left by the Holy Spirit, and neither knowledge nor light remains in them, but darkness and blindness. For if this had not happened to them, they would not have rejected the most obvious, such as, for example, the truly great sacrament of the Bishopric, which Scripture speaks of, Church history and the writings of the Saints mention, and which has always been recognized and confessed by the entire Universal Church.

Member 11

Member 12

We believe that the Holy Spirit teaches the Catholic Church, for He is the true Comforter whom Christ sends from the Father in order to teach the truth and drive away darkness from the minds of the faithful. The Holy Spirit teaches the Church through the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Catholic Church. For, like all Scripture, it is admittedly the Word of the Holy Spirit, not because He directly spoke it, but spoke in it through the Apostles and Prophets; so the Church learns from the Life-Giving Spirit, but not otherwise than through the mediation of the Holy Fathers and teachers (whose rules are recognized by the Holy Ecumenical Councils, which we will not stop repeating); why we are not only convinced, but also undoubtedly confess, as a firm truth, that the Catholic Church cannot err or err and speak a lie instead of the truth; for the Holy Spirit, always acting through the faithful servants of the Fathers and teachers of the Church, protects her from all error.

Member 13

Member 14

We believe that a person who has fallen through a crime has become like dumb cattle, that is, he has darkened and lost his perfection and dispassion, but he has not lost the nature and strength that he received from the All-Good God. For otherwise he would have become unreasonable, and consequently not a man; but he would have that nature with which he was created, and a natural force, free, living, active, so that by nature he could choose and do good, flee and turn away from evil. And that a person by nature can do good, the Lord also points to this when he says that the Gentiles love those who love them, and the Apostle Paul teaches quite clearly (Rom. 1:19), and in other places where he says that Gentiles that do not have the law, by nature they create lawful. From this it is evident that the good done by man cannot be sin; for good cannot be evil. Being natural, it makes a person only spiritual, and not spiritual, and without faith alone does not contribute to salvation, but it also does not serve to condemnation; for good, like good, cannot be the cause of evil. In those regenerated by grace, being strengthened by grace, it becomes perfect and makes a person worthy of salvation. Although a person before regeneration may by nature be inclined towards good, choose and do moral good, but in order that, having been reborn, he could do spiritual good (for the works of faith, being the cause of salvation and accomplished by supernatural grace, are usually called spiritual), for this it is necessary so that grace would precede and lead, as it is said about the predestined; so that he cannot by himself do works worthy of life in Christ, but can only be willing or unwilling to act in accordance with grace.

Member 15

We believe that the Church has the Gospel Mysteries, seven in number. We have neither less nor more than this number of Sacraments in the Church. The number of Sacraments beyond seven is invented by foolish heretics. The sevenfold number of the Sacraments is affirmed in Holy Scripture, as well as other dogmas of the Orthodox Faith. And firstly: Holy Baptism was given to us by the Lord in these words: Go and teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit(Matthew 28:19); Whoever has faith and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not have faith will be condemned(Mark 16:16). The Sacrament of the Holy Chrism, or Holy Chrismation, is also based on the words of the Savior: But you sit in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.(Luke 24:49), with which power the Apostles were clothed after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. This power is communicated through the sacrament of Chrismation, about which the Apostle Paul also speaks (2 Cor. 1:21-22), and more clearly Dionysius the Areopagite. The priesthood is based on the following words: Do this in remembrance of me(1 Cor. 11:24); also: If you bind on earth, you will be bound in heaven; and even if you allow it on earth, it will be allowed in heaven(Matthew 16:19). Bloodless Sacrifice - on the following: Take, eat: this is my body; drink from her all, this is my blood of the New Testament(1 Cor. 11:24-25); If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you do not drink His blood, you do not have a life in you(John 6:53). The sacrament of marriage has its basis in the words of God himself, spoken about him in the Old Testament (Gen. 2:4); which words also Jesus Christ confirmed, saying: If God combines, let not man separate(Matthew 19:16). The Apostle Paul calls marriage a great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Repentance, with which the mystical confession is united, is affirmed in these words of Scripture: For them, forgive their sins, they will be forgiven them; and hold on to them, hold on(John 20:23); also: Unless you repent, you will all perish(Luke 13:3). The Evangelist Mark mentions the sacrament of the Holy Oil, or the Oil of Prayer, and the brother of God testifies more clearly (James 5:14-15).

The sacraments are composed of the natural and the supernatural, and are not only signs of the promises of God. We recognize them as instruments that necessarily work grace on those who approach them. But we reject, as alien to the Christian teaching, the opinion that the celebration of the sacrament takes place only during the actual use (for example, eating, etc.) of an earthly thing (that is, sanctified in the sacrament; as if the thing sanctified in the sacrament is out of use and after consecration remains a simple thing). This is contrary to the sacrament of Communion, which, having been established by the Pre-Essential Word and sanctified by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is performed by the presence of the signified, that is, the body and blood of Christ. And the celebration of this sacrament necessarily precedes its use through communion. For if it had not been done before communion, then he who partakes unworthily would not have eaten or drunk for his own judgment (1 Cor. 11:29); because he would partake of plain bread and wine. And now, partaking unworthily, he eats and drinks judgment for himself. Consequently, the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated not at the time of the communion itself, but before this. In the same way, we regard as extremely false and impure the doctrine that the integrity and perfection of the sacrament is violated by the imperfection of faith. For the heretics who are received by the Church, when they renounce their heresy and join the Universal Church, have received a perfect Baptism, although they had an imperfect faith. And when they finally acquire perfect faith, they are not rebaptized.

Member 16

We believe that Holy Baptism, commanded by the Lord and performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, is necessary. For without it no one can be saved, as the Lord says: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.(John 3:5). Therefore, infants also need it, for they, too, are subject to original sin, and without baptism they cannot receive remission of this sin. And the Lord, showing this, said without any exception, simply: Who will not be born ... that is, after the coming of the Savior Christ, all those who have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must be reborn. If infants need to be saved, then they also need to be baptized. But those who have not been reborn, and therefore have not received remission of their ancestral sin, are necessarily subject to eternal punishment for this sin, and therefore are not saved. So babies need need baptism. Moreover, babies are saved, as the Evangelist Matthew says, but the one who is not baptized is not saved. Therefore, infants need to be baptized. And in Acts it says that all households were baptized (16:33), consequently, babies too. The ancient Fathers of the Church clearly testify to this, namely: Dionysius in the book on the Church Hierarchy and Justin in the 57th question says: “Infants are rewarded with blessings bestowed through baptism according to the faith of those who bring them to baptism.” Augustine also testifies: "There is an Apostolic tradition that infants are saved by baptism." And elsewhere: "The Church gives to infants the legs of others to walk, hearts to believe, tongues to confess." - And one more thing: "The Mother Church gives them a mother's heart." - As for the substance of the sacrament of baptism, it cannot be any other liquid than pure water. It is performed by the Priest; out of need, it can be done by a simple person, but only by an Orthodox person and, moreover, understanding the importance of Divine baptism. — The operations of baptism, in brief, are as follows: first, remission is granted through it in the sin of the ancestor and in all other sins committed by the person being baptized. Secondly, the baptized person is freed from the eternal punishment to which everyone is subject both for inborn sin and for their own mortal sins. – Thirdly, baptism bestows blessed immortality, for, by freeing people from former sins, it makes them temples of God. It cannot be said that baptism does not remove all former sins, but that although they remain, they no longer have power. To teach in this way is extreme wickedness, it is a refutation of the faith, and not a confession of it. On the contrary, every sin that exists or existed before baptism is blotted out and considered as if it did not exist or never existed. For all the images under which baptism is presented show its purifying power, and the sayings of Holy Scripture concerning baptism make it clear that through it a complete purification is obtained; - can be seen from the very names of baptism. If it is baptism in spirit and fire, then it is clear that it delivers perfect purification; for the spirit purifies perfectly. If it is light, then all darkness is driven away by it. If it is rebirth, then everything that is old passes by; and this old thing is nothing but sins. If the one being baptized puts off the old man, then sin is also put off. If he puts on Christ, he is actually made sinless by baptism; for God is far removed from sinners, and the Apostle Paul clearly speaks of this: Like the disobedience of a single person, the sinners were many, and the obedience of the One righteous will be many(Rom. 5:19). If they are righteous, then they are also free from sin; for life and death cannot abide in the same man. If Christ truly died, then the remission of sins through the Holy Spirit is also true.

Member 17

We believe that the all-holy sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which we have placed above as the fourth among the sacraments, is mysteriously commanded by the Lord on that night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world. For taking bread and blessing, He gave it to His disciples and Apostles, saying: Take, eat, this is my body. And, taking the cup, he praised, and said: Drink everything from her: this is my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins..

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is present in this sacred service not symbolically, not figuratively (tipikos, eikonikos), not by an excess of grace, as in other sacraments, not by one influx, as some Fathers spoke of baptism, and not through the penetration of bread (kat Enartismon - per impanationem), so that the Divinity of the Word enters into the bread offered for the Eucharist, is essential (ipostatikos), as the followers of Luther rather clumsily and unworthily explain; but truly and truly, so that after the consecration of bread and wine, the bread is changed, transubstantiated, transformed, transformed into the very true body of the Lord, which was born in Bethlehem from the Ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, ascended, sits at the right hand of God the Father, has to appear on the clouds of heaven; and the wine is transformed and transubstantiated into the very true blood of the Lord, which, during His suffering on the Cross, was shed for the life of the world. We also believe that after the consecration of bread and wine, it is no longer the bread and wine itself that remains, but the very body and blood of the Lord under the form and image of bread and wine.

We also believe that the body and blood of the Lord, although they are divided and broken up, but this happens in the sacrament of communion only with types of bread and wine, in which they can be both visible and tangible, but in themselves they are completely whole and inseparable. This is why the Universal Church says: “The one who is shattered is divided and divided, but not divided, always eaten and dependent in no way, but who partakes (of course, worthily) sanctifies.”

We also believe that in every part, down to the smallest particle, the laid bread and wine, there is not any separate part of the body and blood of the Lord, but the body of Christ, always whole and in all parts one, and the Lord Jesus Christ is present in His essence, then is with soul and divinity, or perfect God and perfect man. Therefore, although at one and the same time there are many sacred rites in the universe, there are not many bodies of Christ, but one and the same Christ is truly and truly present, His one body and one blood in all the individual Churches of the faithful. And this is not because the body of the Lord, which is in heaven, descends on the altars, but because the showbread, prepared separately in all churches, and after consecration, being transformed and transubstantiated, is done the same with the body that is in heaven. - For the Lord always has one body, and not many in many places. Therefore, according to the general opinion, this sacrament is the most wonderful, comprehended by faith alone, and not by the speculations of human wisdom, which vanity and insane sophistication regarding Divine things is rejected by this holy and above-destined sacrifice for us. We also believe that this body and blood of the Lord in the sacrament of the Eucharist should be given special honor and divine worship; for what we owe to the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the same body and blood of the Lord. - We still believe that this is a true, propitiatory sacrifice, offered for all those who are piously living and dead, and, as it is said in the prayers of this sacrament, devoted to the Church by the Apostles according to the behavior of the Lord - “for the salvation of all.” We also believe that this sacrifice, both before use, immediately after consecration, and after use, stored in consecrated vessels for parting words to the dying, is the true body of the Lord, in no way different from His body, so that even before use after consecration, and in use itself, and after it, it always remains the true body of the Lord. We also believe that the word “transubstantiation” does not explain the image by which bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord; for this cannot be comprehended by anyone except God himself, and the efforts of those who wish to comprehend this can only be the result of madness and wickedness: but it is only shown that bread and wine, after consecration, are changed into the body and blood of the Lord, not figuratively, not symbolically, not by an excess of grace, not by communication or influx of the one Divinity of the Only Begotten, and not any accidental belonging of bread and wine is transformed into an accidental belonging to the body and blood of Christ by some change or mixture, but, as it was said above, truly, really and essentially bread is the most true body of the Lord but the wine is the very blood of the Lord.

We also believe that this sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is celebrated not by everyone, but only by a pious Priest who has received the Priesthood from a pious and legitimate Bishop, as the Eastern Church teaches. Here is the abbreviated teaching of the Universal Church on the sacrament of the Eucharist; here is the true confession and ancient tradition, which those who wish to be saved and reject the new and filthy false wisdom of heretics should not change in any way; on the contrary, they are obliged to observe this lawful tradition intact and undamaged. For those who distort it, the Catholic Church of Christ rejects and curses.

Member 18

The souls of people who fell into mortal sins and did not despair at death, but once again, before being separated from the real life, they repented, only they did not have time to bear any fruits of repentance (which are: prayers, tears, contritions, consolation of the poor and expression in deeds of love for God and neighbor , which the Catholic Church from the very beginning recognizes as God-pleasing and beneficial), the souls of such people descend into hell and suffer punishment for their sins, without losing, however, relief from them.

Some questions and answers

Question 1. Should all Christians read Holy Scripture?

Answer. We know that all Scripture is inspired and beneficial, and so necessary that without it it is impossible to be godly at all; however, not everyone is able to read it, but only those who know how to test the Scriptures, study and correctly understand them. Thus, every pious person is allowed to listen to Scripture in order to believe in the truth with his heart and confess with his mouth for salvation, but not everyone is allowed to read certain parts of Scripture, especially the Old Testament, without guidance. To allow the inexperienced to read the Holy Scriptures indiscriminately is the same as to offer infants the use of strong food.

Question 2. Do all Christian readers understand Scripture?

Answer. If all reading Christians understood the Holy Scriptures, then the Lord would not command those who wish to experience it to receive salvation. St. Paul would have been wrong to say that the gift of teaching was given to the Church by God; Nor would Peter have said that there is something incomprehensible in the Pauline epistles. So, since it is clear that Scripture contains the height and depth of thoughts, then experienced and God-illumined people are required to test it, for true understanding, for knowing the correct one, in accordance with all Scripture and its Creator, the Holy Spirit. And although the regenerate know the teaching of faith about the Creator, about the incarnation of the Son of God, about His sufferings, resurrection and ascension to heaven, about rebirth and judgment, for which teaching many willingly endured death; but it is not necessary, or rather impossible, for all to comprehend that which the Holy Spirit reveals only to those who are perfect in wisdom and holiness.

Question 3. How should one think about holy icons and the veneration of the Saints?

Answer. Inasmuch as there are Saints, and the Catholic Church recognizes them as representatives, then therefore we honor them as friends of God, praying for us before the God of all. But our veneration of the Saints is of two kinds: one refers to the Mother of God the Word, whom we honor more than the servant of God, since the Mother of God, although she is truly a servant of the One God, is also the Mother, who gave birth carnally to the One from the Trinity. Therefore, we magnify Her as the highest, without comparing all the Angels and Saints, and we render worship greater than what is fitting for the servant of God. Another kind of worship, befitting the servants of God, refers to the Holy Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, and in general to all Saints. In addition, we honor with worship the tree of the honest and life-giving Cross, on which our Savior suffered for the salvation of the world, the image of the life-giving Cross, the Bethlehem manger, through which we are delivered from dumbness, the Calvary place, the life-giving Tomb and other holy places, also the Holy Gospel, sacred vessels , in which the bloodless Sacrifice is performed, we honor and glorify the Saints with annual remembrances of them, national festivals, the construction of holy Temples and offerings. We also worship the icons of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints; we honor these icons and kiss, as well as the images of the Holy Angels, as they appeared to some Patriarchs and Prophets; we also depict the Holy Spirit as He appeared in the form of a dove.

If, however, some reproach us with idolatry for worshiping holy icons, then we consider such a reproach empty and absurd; for we serve no one else, but only the one God in the Trinity. We honor saints in two ways. First, in relation to God, for for His sake we bless the Saints; secondly, in relation to the Saints themselves, inasmuch as they are living images of God. Moreover, honoring the Saints, as servants of God, we honor the holy icons relatively, - the honoring of icons refers to the prototypes; for whoever worships an icon worships the archetype through the icon; so that in no way can one separate the honoring of the icon from the honoring of what is depicted on it; but both remain in unity, just as the honor given to the royal messenger is inseparable from the honor given to the King himself.

Those passages taken by the opponents from Scripture, to confirm their absurdity, do not favor them as much as they think; on the contrary, they are in complete agreement with our opinion. For as we read Divine Scripture, we experience time, face, examples, and causes. Therefore, if we find that the same God in one place says: Do not create for yourself an idol or likeness, but do not bow down, serve them below, and in another commands to make Cherubim; and if, moreover, we see images of oxen and lions made in the temple, we do not accept all this superstitiously (for superstition is not faith); but, as they said, considering the time and other circumstances, we arrive at a correct understanding. The words Do not make yourself an idol or likeness, according to our understanding, the same means that the words: do not worship alien gods, do not worship idols. – Thus, both the custom of worshiping holy icons, which has been maintained by the Church since the time of the apostles, and the service due to God alone, will remain inviolable, and God will not contradict His words. And if our adversaries refer to the Holy Fathers, who allegedly say that it is indecent to worship icons, then these holy men defend us more; inasmuch as in their competitions they rise up against those who render divine veneration to holy icons, or bring images of the relatives of their dead into churches; they anathematize such admirers, but they do not condemn the correct worship of Saints and holy icons, the honest Cross and all of the above. And that since Apostolic times holy icons have been used in churches, and believers worshiped them, very many people tell about this, along with whom the holy 7th Ecumenical Council shames all heretical blasphemy.

But heretics condemn the very prayer of the pious to God, and we do not understand why they primarily condemn the prayer of the monks. On the contrary, we are sure that prayer is an interview with God, a request for decent blessings from God, from Whom we hope to receive them; it is an ascent to God, a pious disposition directed towards God; mental search for the heavenly; healing of the soul of a saint, pleasing service to God, a sign of repentance and firm hope. It happens either in one mind, or both in the mind and on the lips. During prayer, we contemplate the goodness and mercy of God, we feel our unworthiness, we are filled with a feeling of thanksgiving, we make a vow to continue to submit to God. Prayer strengthens faith and hope, teaches patience, keeping the commandments, and especially asking for heavenly blessings; it brings forth many fruits, the enumeration of which would be superfluous; performed at any time, either in a straight position of the body, or with kneeling. So great is the use of prayer that it is the food and life of the soul. Everything said is based on Holy Scripture, and the one who requires proof of this is like a madman or a blind man who, during a clear noon, doubts the light of the sun.

Why do we also, when we sing consolatory songs from the Triodion and the Menaion, do not do anything that would be indecent for Christians; because all these books contain sound and true theology and consist of songs, either chosen from the Holy Scriptures, or composed by the inspiration of the Spirit, so that in our hymns only the words are different from those in the Scriptures, but actually we sing the same as in the Scriptures. , just in other words. To make sure that our hymns are composed of the words of Scripture, we place a verse of Scripture in each so-called troparion. If, however, we still later read the prayers composed by the ancient Fathers, then let the heretics tell us that they have noticed blasphemous and impious things in these Fathers? Then, together with the heretics, we will rise up against them. But if the heretics also point to constant and unceasing prayer, then what harm comes from such prayer for them and for us? Let them oppose (as indeed they oppose) Christ, Who spoke the parable of the unjust judgment precisely in order to assure us of the need for unceasing prayer; Who taught to watch and pray in order to avoid adversity and stand before the Son of man; let them oppose the words of the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to Thessalunians (ch. 5) and many other passages of Scripture. We do not consider it necessary to turn to the testimonies of other Divine teachers of the Catholic Church, which have only been from the time of Christ to us; for, to the disgrace of heretics, it is enough to point to the intense prayer of the Patriarchs, Apostles and Prophets.

So, if the monks imitate the Apostles, Prophets, Holy Fathers and Forefathers of Christ Himself, then it is obvious that monastic prayers are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. As for the heretics, who invent blasphemy against God and reinterpret everything Divine, distort and insult the Holy Scriptures, their inventions are the tricks and inventions of the devil. The objection that it is impossible to order the Church to abstain from food without coercion and violence is null and void. For the Church has acted very well in establishing, with all diligence, for the mortification of the flesh and passions, prayer and fasting, of which all the Saints have shown themselves to be overseers and models, and by means of which our adversary, the devil, with the help of higher grace, is deposed with all his armies and forces, and the path set before the pious conveniently done. Thus, the Universal Church, delving into all this, does not force, does not force, but calls, exhorts, teaches what is in Scripture, and convinces by the power of the Spirit.

In Constantinople 1723 from the Nativity of Christ, the month of September

Jeremiah, by the grace of God Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, signed with my own hand, and I testify and confess that this is the Orthodox Faith of our Christ, Apostolic, Catholic and Eastern Church.

Athanasius, by the grace of God, the Patriarch of the great city of God of Antioch, signed with his own hand, and I testify, and affirm and confess, that this is the Orthodox Faith of our Christ, Apostolic, Catholic and Eastern Church.

Chrysanthos, by the grace of God, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, signed with my own hand, and I testify and confess that this is the Orthodox Faith of our Christ, Apostolic, Catholic and Eastern Church.

Kallinikos of Heraclius, signed with his own hand, in agreement with the above-mentioned Holy Patriarchs in heart and mouth, which I will confess until my last breath.

Anthony of Cyziky, I confess that this is the Catholic Faith of the Eastern Church.

Paisios of Nicomedia, signed with my own hand and I confess that this is the Faith of the Catholic Eastern Church.

Gerasimos of Nicaea, signed with my own hand and I confess that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Pachomius of Chalcedon, signed with my own hand and I confess and testify that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Ignatius of Thessaloniki signed with his own hand, confessing and testifying that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Anthimus of Philippopolis signed with his own hand, confessing and testifying that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Callinicus of Varna, I signed with my own hand and I confess and testify that this is the teaching of the Catholic and Eastern Church.

Published according to:

Dogmatic messages of the Orthodox hierarchs of the XVII-XIX centuries about the Orthodox faith. Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1995. SS. 142-197

on the Orthodox Faith (1723)

His Holiness of the New Rome of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah, His Beatitude Patriarch of the City of God of Antioch Athanasios, His Beatitude Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem Chrysanthos, and the Most Reverend Bishops Who Are Acquired with Us, i.e. Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops, and the entire Christian Eastern Orthodox clergy To the archbishops and bishops who are in Great Britain, glorious and beloved in Christ, and to all their most revered clergy, we wish every blessing and salvation from God.

We have received your Scripture, in the form of a small book, with which you, for your part, respond to our answers previously sent to you. Having learned from him about your good health, about your zeal and respect for our eastern Holy Church of Christ, we rejoiced greatly, accepting, as it should, your pious and good intention, your care and zeal for the unification of the Churches: such unity is the affirmation of the faithful; our Lord and God Jesus Christ is pleasing to them, Who, even as a sign of communion with Himself, set for His sacred Disciples and Apostles mutual love, harmony and unanimity.

So, at your request, we now briefly answer you that, having carefully read your last epistle, we understood the meaning of what was written and have nothing more to say on it, except for what we have already said before, expounding our opinion and the teaching of our Eastern Church ; and now we say the same thing to all the proposals you sent to us, i.e. that our dogmas and the teachings of our Eastern Church have been investigated since ancient times, correctly and piously defined and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils; it is not permissible to add to or subtract from them anything. Therefore, those who wish to agree with us in the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox Faith must, with simplicity, obedience, without any investigation and curiosity, follow and submit to everything that is determined and decreed by the ancient tradition of the Fathers and approved by the Holy and Ecumenical Councils from the time of the apostles and their successors, the God-bearing Fathers of our Church. .

May God, the Lord and Provider of all, “who wants all people to be saved and reach the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), so that the judgment and investigation of this will take place in accordance with His Divine will, to a soul-beneficial and saving affirmation in Faith.

This is what we believe and how we, Eastern Orthodox Christians, think.

We believe that Divine and Holy Scripture is inspired by God; therefore, we must believe it unquestioningly, and, moreover, not in our own way, but precisely as the Catholic Church has explained and betrayed it. For even the superstition of heretics accepts Divine Scripture, only misrepresents it, using allegorical and similarly meaningful expressions and tricks of human wisdom, merging what cannot be merged, and playing childishly with such objects that are not subject to jokes. Otherwise, if everyone daily began to explain the Scriptures in his own way, then the Catholic Church would not have remained, by the grace of Christ, until now such a Church, which, being of one mind in faith, always believes equally and unshakably, but would be divided into innumerable parts, would be subjected to heresies, and at the same time it would cease to be the Holy Church, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, but would become the Church of the deceitful, that is, as it must be supposed without a doubt, the Church of heretics who are not ashamed to learn from the Church, and then lawlessly reject it. Therefore, we believe that the testimony of the Catholic Church is no less valid than the Divine Scripture. Inasmuch as the Culprit of both is the same Holy Spirit, it makes no difference whether one learns from the Scriptures or from the Universal Church. A person who speaks for himself can sin, deceive and be deceived; but the Universal Church, since she has never spoken and does not speak from herself, but from the Spirit of God (Which she has unceasingly and will have as her Teacher until eternity), cannot in any way sin, nor deceive, nor be deceived; but, like Divine Scripture, it is infallible and has everlasting importance.

We believe that the all-good God predestined to glory those whom He chose from eternity; and those whom He rejected, those He put under condemnation, not, however, because He wanted to justify some in this way, and leave others and condemn without reason; for this is not characteristic of God, the common and impartial Father, who “desires all men to be saved and to reach the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), but since He foresaw that some would use their free will well, while others would use it badly; therefore some he predestinated to glory, and others he condemned. On the use of freedom, we reason as follows: since the goodness of God has bestowed Divine and enlightening grace, which we also call prevenient grace, which, like light that enlightens those who walk in darkness, guides all; then those who wish to freely submit to her (for she assists those who seek her, and not those who oppose her), and fulfill her commands, which are necessary for salvation, therefore receive special grace, which, assisting, strengthening and constantly perfecting them in the love of God, i.e. . in those good works that God requires of us (and which the prevenient grace also required), justifies them and makes them predestined; those, on the contrary, who do not want to obey and follow grace, and therefore do not keep the commandments of God, but, following the suggestions of Satan, abuse their freedom given to them from God so that they voluntarily do good - they are subjected to eternal condemnation.

But what the blasphemous heretics say, that God predestinates or condemns, no matter what the deeds of those predestined or condemned, we consider foolishness and wickedness; for in such a case Scripture would contradict itself. It teaches that every believer is saved by faith and his works, and at the same time presents God as the only author of our salvation, since, that is, He first gives enlightening grace, which gives a person the knowledge of Divine truth and teaches him to conform to it (if he does not resist) and to do good that is pleasing to God in order to obtain salvation, not destroying the free will of man, but leaving it to obey or disobey its action. Is it not insane after this, without any reason to assert that the Divine will is the fault of the misfortune of the condemned? Doesn't this mean uttering a terrible slander against God? Doesn't this mean uttering terrible injustice and blasphemy against heaven? God is not involved in any evil, equally desires salvation for everyone, He has no place for partiality; why do we confess that He justly condemns those who remain in wickedness because of their corrupt will and unrepentant heart. But we have never, never called and will not call the culprit of eternal punishment and torment, as if misanthropic, God, Who Himself said that there is joy in heaven over the only repentant sinner. We never dare to believe or think in this way as long as we have consciousness; and those who speak and think so, we anathematize eternally and recognize as the worst of all unbelievers.

We believe that the Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Creator of everything visible and invisible. By the name of the invisible, we mean the Angelic Forces, rational souls and demons (although God did not create the demons in the same way as they later became of their own free will); but visible we call heaven and everything under heaven. Since the Creator is essentially good, therefore, everything that He only created, He created beautiful, and never wants to be the Creator of evil. If there is in a man or in a demon (for we simply do not know evil in nature) some kind of evil, i.e. a sin contrary to the will of God, then this evil comes either from a person or from the devil. For it is perfectly true, and beyond all doubt, that God cannot be the author of evil, and that, therefore, perfect justice demands that it should not be attributed to God.

We believe that everything that exists, visible and invisible, is controlled by Divine Providence; however, evil, like evil, God only foresees and allows, but does not provide for it, since He did not create it. And the evil that has already happened is directed towards something useful by the supreme goodness, which itself does not create evil, but only directs it to the best, as far as possible. We should not test, but revere before the Divine Providence and His secret and untested destinies. However, what is revealed to us about this in the Holy Scriptures, as relating to eternal life, we should investigate with prudence and, along with the first concepts of God, accept as undoubted.

Since, among other impious opinions, heretics also asserted that a simple Priest and Bishop are equal to each other, that it is possible to exist without a Bishop, that several Priests can govern the Church, that not one Bishop can ordain a Priest, but also a Priest, and several Priests can consecrate the Bishop as well - and divulge that the Eastern Church shares this delusion with them; then we, in accordance with the opinion that has prevailed in the Eastern Church since ancient times, confirm that the title of Bishop is so necessary in the Church that without it neither the Church nor the Church, nor the Christian, can not only be, but even be called a Christian. - For the Bishop, as an apostolic successor, by the laying on of hands and invocation of the Holy Spirit, having received successively the power given to him from God to decide and knit, is the living image of God on earth and, by the hierarchical power of the Holy Spirit, the abundant source of all the Mysteries of the Universal Church, by which salvation is acquired. We believe that the Bishop is as necessary to the Church as breathing is to man and the sun is to the world. Therefore, in praise of the bishopric, some say well: "As God is in the Church of the first-born in heaven and the sun in the world, then each Bishop is in his private Church; so that the flock is illuminated, warmed and made the temple of God." - that the great sacrament and the title of Bishopric have passed to us successively, this is obvious. For the Lord, who promised to be with us until eternity, although he is with us under other forms of grace and divine blessings, communicates with us in a special way through the episcopal rite, remains and unites with us through the sacred Mysteries, which the first performer and celebrant, according to the power The Spirit is the Bishop, and does not allow us to fall into heresy.

Besides this, the Priest accepts the power and grace of the Priesthood only for himself, while the bishop passes it on to others. The first, having received the Priesthood from the Bishop, performs only holy baptism with prayers, performs a bloodless sacrifice, distributes to the people the holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, anoints those who are baptized with holy chrism, crowns those piously and legally entering into marriage, prays for the sick, for salvation and bringing in the knowledge of the truth of all people, but mainly about the forgiveness and forgiveness of sins of the Orthodox, the living and the dead, and, finally, since he is distinguished by knowledge and virtue, then, according to the authority given to him by the bishop, he teaches those of the Orthodox who come to him, showing them the way to receive the Kingdom of Heaven and is delivered as a preacher of the Holy Gospel. But the Bishop, in addition to doing all this (for, as it is said, he is the source of the Divine sacraments and gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit), alone exclusively performs the holy myrrh, he alone has received initiation to all degrees and positions of the Church; he especially and predominantly has the power to bind and loose and execute, according to the commandment of the Lord, a judgment pleasing to God; he preaches the Holy Gospel and affirms the Orthodox in the Faith, and excommunicates the disobedient, like pagans and publicans, from the Church, betrays heretics to eruption and anathema, and lays down his soul for the sheep. This reveals the indisputable difference between a Bishop and a simple Priest, and together with the fact that, apart from him, all the Priests in the world cannot shepherd the Church of God and completely govern it. But one of the Fathers rightly remarked that it is not easy to find a judicious person among heretics; because, leaving the Church, they are left by the Holy Spirit, and neither knowledge nor light remains in them, but darkness and blindness. For if this had not happened to them, they would not have rejected the most obvious, such as, for example, the truly great sacrament of the Bishopric, which Scripture speaks of, Church history and the writings of the Saints mention, and which has always been recognized and confessed by the entire Universal Church.

We believe that the members of the Catholic Church are all the faithful, i.e. undoubtedly all those who profess the pure Faith of the Savior Christ (which we received from Christ Himself, from the Apostles and Holy Ecumenical Councils), even if some of them were subject to various sins. For if the faithful but sinners were not members of the Church, they would not be subject to her judgment. But she judges them, calls them to repentance, and leads them to the path of saving commandments; wherefore, in spite of the fact that they are subjected to sins, they remain and are recognized as members of the Catholic Church, so long as they do not become apostates and hold on to the Catholic and Orthodox Faith.

We believe that a person who has fallen through a crime has become like dumb cattle, that is, he has darkened and lost his perfection and dispassion, but he has not lost the nature and strength that he received from the All-Good God. For otherwise he would have become unreasonable, and consequently not a man; but he has that nature with which he was created, and a natural force, free, living, active, so that by nature he can choose and do good, flee and turn away evil. And that a person by nature can do good, the Lord also points to this when He says that the Gentiles love those who love them, and the Apostle Paul teaches very clearly (Rom. 1:19), and in other places, where He says that "Gentiles, those who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful." From this it is evident that the good done by man cannot be sin; for good cannot be evil. Being natural, it makes a person only spiritual, and not spiritual, and without faith alone does not contribute to salvation, but it also does not serve to condemnation; for good, like good, cannot be the cause of evil. In those regenerated by grace, being strengthened by grace, it becomes perfect and makes a person worthy of salvation. Although a person before regeneration may by nature be inclined towards good, choose and do moral good, but in order that, having been reborn, he could do spiritual good (for the works of faith, being the cause of salvation and accomplished by supernatural grace, are usually called spiritual), - for this it is necessary so that grace would precede and lead, as it is said about the predestined; so that he cannot of himself do perfect works worthy of life in Christ, but he can always be willing or unwilling to act in accordance with grace.

We believe that the Church has the Gospel Mysteries, seven in number. We have neither less nor more than this number of Sacraments in the Church. The number of Sacraments beyond seven is invented by foolish heretics. The septenary number of the Sacraments is affirmed in Holy Scripture, as well as other dogmas of the Orthodox Faith. And firstly: the Lord gave Holy Baptism to us in these words: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19); "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). The Mystery of the Holy Chrism, or Holy Confirmation, is also based on the words of the Savior: “But remain in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49), with which power the Apostles were clothed after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. This power is communicated through the sacrament of Chrismation, about which the Apostle Paul also speaks (2 Cor. 1:21-22), and more clearly Dionysius the Areopagite. The priesthood is based on the following words: "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Cor. 11:24); also: "What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19). Bloodless Sacrifice - on the following: "Take, eat, this is My Body....drink ye all of it, this is My Blood of the New Testament" (1 Cor. 11:24-25); "Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53). The sacrament of marriage has its basis in the words of God himself, spoken about him in the Old Testament (Gen. 2:4); which words were also confirmed by Jesus Christ, saying: "What God has joined together, that man shall not separate" (Mark 10:9). The Apostle Paul calls marriage a great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Repentance, with which the mystical confession is united, is affirmed in these words of Scripture: "To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; on whom you leave, they will remain" (John 20:23); also: "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The Evangelist Mark mentions the sacrament of the Holy Oil, or the Oil of Prayer, and the Brother of God testifies more clearly (5:14-15).

The sacraments are composed of the natural (visible) and the supernatural (invisible), and are not only signs of the promises of God. We recognize them as instruments that necessarily act by grace on those who approach them. But we reject, as alien to the Christian teaching, the opinion that the celebration of the sacrament takes place only during the actual use (for example, eating, etc.) of an earthly thing (that is, sanctified in the sacrament; as if the thing sanctified in the sacrament is out of use and after consecration remains a simple thing). This is contrary to the sacrament of Communion, which, having been established by the Pre-Essential Word and sanctified by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is performed by the presence of the signified, that is, the body and blood of Christ. And the celebration of this sacrament necessarily precedes its use through communion. For if it had not been done before communion, then he who partakes unworthily would not have eaten or drunk for his own judgment (1 Cor. 11:29); because he would partake of plain bread and wine. And now, partaking unworthily, he eats and drinks judgment for himself. Consequently, the sacrament of the Eucharist is celebrated not at the time of the communion itself, but before this. In the same way, we regard as extremely false and impure the doctrine that the integrity and perfection of the sacrament is violated by the imperfection of faith. For the heretics who are received by the Church, when they renounce their heresy and join the Universal Church, have received a perfect Baptism, although they had an imperfect faith. And when they finally acquire perfect faith, they are not rebaptized.

We believe that Holy Baptism, commanded by the Lord and performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, is necessary. For without it no one can be saved, as the Lord says: "Unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Therefore, infants also need it, for they, too, are subject to original sin, and without baptism they cannot receive remission of this sin. And the Lord, showing this, said without any exception, simply: "Whoever is not born ..." that is, after the coming of the Savior Christ, all who have to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must be reborn. If infants need to be saved, then they also need to be baptized. But those who have not been reborn, and therefore have not received remission of their ancestral sin, are necessarily subject to eternal punishment for this sin, and therefore are not saved. So babies need need baptism. Moreover, babies are saved, as the Evangelist Matthew says, but the one who is not baptized is not saved. Therefore, infants need to be baptized. And in Acts it says that all households were baptized (16:33), consequently, babies too. The ancient Fathers of the Church also clearly testify to this, namely: Dionysius in the book on the Church Hierarchy and Justin in the 57th question says: “Infants are rewarded with the blessings bestowed through baptism according to the faith of those who bring them to baptism.” Augustine also testifies: "There is an Apostolic tradition that infants are saved by baptism." And elsewhere: "The Church gives to infants the legs of others to walk, hearts to believe, tongues to confess." - And one more thing: "The Mother Church gives them a mother's heart." - As for the substance of the sacrament of baptism, it cannot be any other liquid than pure water. It is performed by the Priest; out of need, it can be done by a simple person, but only by an Orthodox person and, moreover, understanding the importance of Divine baptism. - The operations of baptism, in brief, are as follows: first, through it, remission is granted in the sin of the ancestor and in all other sins committed by the person being baptized. Secondly, the baptized person is freed from the eternal punishment to which everyone is subject both for inborn sin and for their own mortal sins. - Thirdly, baptism bestows blessed immortality, for by freeing people from former sins, it makes them temples of God. It cannot be said that baptism does not remove all former sins, but that although they remain, they no longer have power. To teach in this way is extreme wickedness, it is a refutation of the faith, and not a confession of it. On the contrary, every sin that exists or existed before baptism is blotted out and considered as if it did not exist or never existed. For all the images under which baptism is presented show its purifying power, and the sayings of Holy Scripture concerning baptism make it clear that perfect purification is given through it; - can be seen from the very names of baptism. If it is the baptism of the Spirit and fire, then it is clear that it delivers complete cleansing; for the Spirit purifies perfectly. If it is light, then all darkness is driven away by it. If it is rebirth, then everything that is old passes by; and this old thing is nothing but sins. If the one being baptized puts off the old man, then sin is also put off. If he puts on Christ, he is actually made sinless by baptism; for God is far removed from sinners, and the Apostle Paul clearly states this: "As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man many were made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). If they are righteous, then they are also free from sin; for life and death cannot abide in the same man. If Christ truly died, then the remission of sins through the Holy Spirit is also true.

We believe that the all-holy sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which we have placed above as the fourth among the sacraments, is mysteriously commanded by the Lord on that night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world. For, taking bread and blessing, He gave it to His disciples and Apostles, saying: "Take, eat, this is My body." And taking the cup, giving praise, he said: "Drink all of it: this is my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins."

We also believe that the body and blood of the Lord, although they are divided and broken up, but this happens in the sacrament of communion only with types of bread and wine, in which they can be both visible and tangible, but in themselves they are completely whole and inseparable. This is why the Ecumenical Church says: "The one who is shattered is divided and divided, but not divided, always eaten and never dependent, but who partakes (of course, worthily) sanctifies."

We also believe that the word "transubstantiation" does not explain the manner in which bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord; for this cannot be comprehended by anyone but God himself, and the efforts of those who wish to comprehend this can only be the result of madness and wickedness; but it is only shown that, after consecration, bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of the Lord, not figuratively, not symbolically, not by an excess of grace, not by communication or influx of the one Divinity of the Only Begotten, and not by any accidental belonging of bread and wine is changed into an accidental belonging of the body and the blood of Christ by some change or mixture, but, as said above, truly, really and essentially, bread is the very true body of the Lord, and wine is the very blood of the Lord.

We also believe that this Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is celebrated not by everyone, but only by a pious, lawful Priest who has received the Priesthood from a pious and lawful Bishop, as the Eastern Church teaches. Here is the abbreviated teaching of the Universal Church on the sacrament of the Eucharist; here is the true confession and ancient tradition, which those who wish to be saved and reject the new and filthy false wisdom of heretics should not change in any way; on the contrary, they are obliged to observe this lawful tradition intact and undamaged. For those who distort it, the Catholic Church of Christ rejects and curses.

The souls of people who fell into mortal sins and did not despair at death, but once again, before being separated from the real life, they repented, only they did not have time to bear any fruits of repentance (which are: prayers, tears, contritions, consolation of the poor and expression in deeds of love for God and neighbor , which the Catholic Church from the very beginning recognizes as God-pleasing and beneficial), the souls of such people descend into hell and suffer punishment for their sins, without losing, however, relief from them.

Questions and answers

Do all Christian readers understand Scripture?

If all reading Christians understood the Holy Scriptures, then the Lord would not command those who wish to experience it to receive salvation. St. Paul would have been wrong to say that the gift of teaching was given to the Church by God; Nor would Peter have said that there is something incomprehensible in the Pauline epistles. So, since it is clear that Scripture contains the height and depth of thoughts, then experienced and God-enlightened people are required to test it, for true understanding, for knowing the correct one, in accordance with all Scripture and its Creator, the Holy Spirit. And although the regenerate know the teaching of faith about the Creator, about the incarnation of the Son of God, about His sufferings, resurrection and ascension to heaven, about rebirth and judgment, for which teaching many willingly endured death; but it is not necessary, or rather impossible, for all to comprehend that which the Holy Spirit reveals only to those who are perfect in wisdom and holiness.

How should one think about holy icons and the veneration of the Saints?

Inasmuch as there are Saints, and the Catholic Church recognizes them as representatives, then therefore we honor them as friends of God, praying for us before the God of all. But our veneration of the Saints is of two kinds: one refers to the Mother of God the Word, whom we honor more than the servant of God, since the Mother of God, although she is truly a servant of the One God, is also the Mother, who gave birth carnally to the One from the Trinity. Therefore, we magnify Her as the highest, without comparing all the Angels and Saints, and we render worship greater than what is fitting for the servant of God. Another kind of worship, befitting the servants of God, refers to the Holy Angels, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, and in general to all Saints. In addition, we honor with worship the tree of the honest and life-giving Cross, on which our Savior suffered for the salvation of the world, the image of the life-giving Cross, the Bethlehem manger, through which we are delivered from dumbness, the Golgotha place, the life-giving Tomb and other holy places, also the Holy Gospel, sacred vessels , in which the bloodless Sacrifice is performed, we honor and glorify the Saints with annual remembrances of them, national festivals, the construction of holy Temples and offerings. We also worship the icons of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints; we honor these icons and kiss, as well as the images of the Holy Angels, as they appeared to some Patriarchs and Prophets; we also depict the Holy Spirit as He appeared in the form of a dove.

If, however, some reproach us with idolatry for worshiping holy icons, then we consider such a reproach empty and absurd; for we serve no one else, but only the one God in the Trinity. We honor saints in two ways. First, in relation to God, for for His sake we bless the Saints; secondly, in relation to the Saints themselves, inasmuch as they are living images of God. Moreover, honoring the Saints, as servants of God, we honor the holy icons relatively, - the honoring of icons refers to the prototypes; for whoever worships an icon worships the archetype through the icon; so that in no way can one separate the honoring of the icon from the honoring of what is depicted on it; but both remain in unity, just as the honor given to the royal messenger is inseparable from the honor given to the King himself.

Those passages taken by the opponents from Scripture, to confirm their absurdity, do not favor them as much as they think; on the contrary, they are in complete agreement with our opinion. For as we read Divine Scripture, we experience time, face, examples, and causes. Therefore, if we find that the same God in one place says: "Do not make for yourself an idol, nor likeness, but do not bow down, serve them lower", and in another command to make Cherubim; and if, moreover, we see images of oxen and lions made in the temple, we do not accept all this superstitiously (for superstition is not faith); but, as they said, considering the time and other circumstances, we arrive at a correct understanding. The words "Do not make for yourself an idol or likeness", according to our understanding, mean the same thing as the words: do not bow down to alien gods, do not worship idols. - Thus, both the custom of worshiping holy icons, which has been maintained by the Church since the time of the apostles, and the service due to the one God, will remain inviolable, and God will not contradict His words. And if our adversaries refer to the Holy Fathers, who allegedly say that it is indecent to worship icons, then these holy men defend us more; inasmuch as in their competitions they rise up against those who render divine veneration to holy icons, or bring images of the relatives of their dead into churches; they anathematize such admirers, but they do not condemn the correct worship of Saints and holy icons, the honest Cross and all of the above. And that since the Apostolic times holy icons have been used in churches, and believers worshiped them, very many people tell about this, together with whom the Holy Ecumenical Seventh Council shames all heretical blasphemy.

But heretics condemn the very prayer of the pious to God, and we do not understand why they primarily condemn the prayer of the monks. On the contrary, we are sure that prayer is an interview with God, a request for decent blessings from God, from Whom we hope to receive them; it is an ascent to God, a pious disposition directed towards God; mental search for the heavenly; healing of the soul of a saint, pleasing service to God, a sign of repentance and firm hope. It happens either in one mind, or both in the mind and on the lips. During prayer, we contemplate the goodness and mercy of God, we feel our unworthiness, we are filled with a feeling of thanksgiving, we make a vow to continue to submit to God. Prayer strengthens faith and hope, teaches patience, keeping the commandments, and especially asking for heavenly blessings; it brings forth many fruits, the enumeration of which would be superfluous; performed at any time, either in a straight position of the body, or with kneeling. So great is the use of prayer that it is the food and life of the soul. Everything said is based on Holy Scripture, and the one who requires proof of this is like a madman or a blind man who, during a clear noon, doubts the light of the sun.

Why do we also, when we sing consolatory songs from the Triodion and the Menaion, do not do anything that would be indecent for Christians; because all these books contain sound and true theology and consist of songs, either chosen from the Holy Scriptures, or composed by the inspiration of the Spirit, so that in our hymns only the words are different from those in the Scriptures, but actually we sing the same as in the Scriptures. , just in other words. To make sure that our hymns are composed of the words of Scripture, we place a verse of Scripture in each so-called troparion. If, however, we still later read the prayers composed by the ancient Fathers, then let the heretics tell us that they have noticed blasphemous and impious things in these Fathers? Then, together with the heretics, we will rise up against them. But if the heretics also point to constant and unceasing prayer, then what harm comes from such prayer for them and for us? Let them oppose (as indeed they oppose) Christ, Who spoke the parable of the unjust judgment precisely in order to assure us of the need for unceasing prayer; Who taught to watch and pray in order to avoid adversity and stand before the Son of man; let them oppose the words of the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to Thessalunians (ch. 5) and many other passages of Scripture. We do not consider it necessary to turn to the testimonies of other Divine teachers of the Catholic Church, which have only been from the time of Christ to us; for, to the disgrace of heretics, it is enough to point to the intense prayer of the Patriarchs, Apostles and Prophets.

So, if the monks imitate the Apostles, Prophets, Holy Fathers and Forefathers of Christ Himself, then it is obvious that monastic prayers are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. As for the heretics, who invent blasphemy against God and reinterpret everything Divine, distort and insult the Holy Scriptures, their inventions are the tricks and inventions of the devil. The objection that it is impossible to order the Church to abstain from food without coercion and violence is null and void. For the Church has acted very well in establishing, with all diligence, for the mortification of the flesh and passions, prayer and fasting, of which all the Saints have shown themselves to be overseers and models, and by means of which our adversary, the devil, with the help of higher grace, is deposed with all his armies and forces, and the path set before the pious conveniently done. Thus, the Universal Church, delving into all this, does not force, does not force, but calls, exhorts, teaches what is in Scripture, and convinces by the power of the Spirit.

Jeremiah, by the grace of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch;
Athanasius, by the grace of God, Patriarch of the great city of God of Antioch;
Chrysanthos, by the grace of God, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem;
Callinicus of Heraclius;
Anthony of Cyziky;
Paisios of Nicomedia;
Gerasimus of Nicaea;
Pachomius of Chalcedon;
Ignatius of Thessaloniki;
Anfim Philippopolis;
Callinicus of Varna.