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January 17, 2023

The Practical Form of Christianity (Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi)


 By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi

We have completed the whole cycle of the Divine feasts, and today after we have now celebrated the Foundation of our Church, we have seen the true God in whom we believe, because it is the only feast that is called Theophany, where the entire Mystery and the meaning of the Triune God was revealed.

This is when people had to believe. The magnificent Forerunner, the seal of the Prophets, closed the Synagogue with one hand and opened the Church with the other.

Since our Lord delivered to us the Mysteries of the Faith and our entry into the meaning of the Faith and the Church, He immediately takes us to its practical form.

Christianity is not an abstract ideology. It is a specific experience. And for this our Lord, after the manifestation of the Trinity in the Jordan River and the first Mystery of our entry into the Faith and the Church, immediately withdrew to the desert and personally began the practical battle.

Source: Translation by John Sanidopoulos.