Receiving the Body of Christ... ( St. John Maximovitch )

For a man’s complete sanctification, the body of the servant of the Lord must be united with the Body of Christ, and this is accomplished in the Mystery of Holy Communion. The true Body and the true Blood of Christ which we receive become part of the great Body of Christ.

Of course, for union with Christ, the mere conjoining of our body with the Body of Christ does not suffice. The consumption of the Body of Christ becomes beneficial when in spirit we strive towards Him and unite ourselves with Him. Receiving the Body of Christ, while turning away from Him in spirit, is like the contact with Christ which they had who struck Him and mocked and crucified Him. Their contact with Him served not for their salvation and healing, but for their condemnation.

But those who partake with piety, love and readiness to serve Him, closely unite themselves with Him and become instruments of His Divine will.

St. John Maximovitch

Divine Worship is an innermost function of the mystical body of Christ, the Church.

Divine Worship is a well-known yet still quite unknown, wonderful, secret world. In the secret corners of this spiritual Paradise planted by the hands our Holy Fathers, one finds whatever is most beautiful, most noble and most godly and begotten of man’s soul growing. Here one finds the heavenly harmony played upon the chords of noble human hearts, secret lyres of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of the Lord.

In the Divine Worship one finds the sprouts of human words, treasures accumulated during his secret dialogue with his Saviour, the “fruit of the lips” offered as “a sweet savour” before the throne of the Lord.

The Church believes that the richness of its worship has within it the dew of the Holy Spirit. Thus a cycle is generated: worshiping the Lord with the liturgical forms handed down to him, man learns how to offer the genuine worship from them; then the fervent yearning is sown in his heart for this genuine worship so that he worships again “in the Holy Spirit”.



Deep down, the worship of the Lord is not a work of man. It is a mystery, which cannot be measured or defined by human standards. Divine Worship is an innermost function of the mystical body of Christ, the Church. It is the overflow of the soul towards the Father which is accomplished through his beloved Son in the Holy Spirit. No one can call God his Father unless the Holy Spirit teaches him how. It is this Spirit who con celebrates and glorifies together with the Church ‘for all days’.

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/05/divine-worship.html