The word "Sacrament" (Greek, cibhpruѵ) has several meanings. First, the Holy Scriptures assimilate to him a deep, hidden thought or action (1 Cor. 13:2). Secondly, it denotes the special action of God's Providence on believers, by virtue of which the invisible grace of God is communicated to them through a visible medium (1 Cor.

4, 1). This can be said of all the Sacraments of the Church.

In the Sacraments, God serves the salvation of man, and man in return is imbued with a determination to serve God and people. This service of God brings to man the holy, heavenly content of life, so that he may become a partaker of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and understand God's will for himself.

The sacrament, in the words of Priest Pavel Florensky, "is here and there, and the valley and the mountain,"9 that is, it is both earthly in its external, visible side, and heavenly in its spiritual and grace-filled content. The Sacrament is those sections of a person's life path where he frees life from the vanity of life in order to receive into his heart the new, holy content of life that comes from the abodes of the Heavenly Father.

Heavenly life among the things and events surrounding man declares itself by the light of the Gospel truths, for "God is Light" (1 John 1:5). With this Light He reveals Himself in the Sacraments of the Church, from which the earthly is enlightened and receives a new, holy fulfillment from the Heavenly Light.

In the Sacraments, the Kingdom of Heaven draws so close to man that by its grace-filled power the highest measure of sanctification is communicated to the very sources of our nature through visible sacraments. In each Sacrament, a special gift of Divine grace is poured out on a person.

Thus, in the Sacrament of Baptism, grace is communicated, cleansing from sin and sanctifying a person. To do this, he must be taught the truths of the faith, condemn his sins and errors in repentance, and then stand before Christ the Savior, in order to be born "of water and of the Spirit" (John 3:5) and become a member of the Church of Christ and an heir of the Kingdom of God. Through the love and mercy of Christ, the one who receives the Sacrament, immersing himself three times in the holy waters of the font of Baptism "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," is mysteriously and effectively cleansed of sins and "justified and sanctified" is led into a new life, as a holy member of the Body of Christ – the Church. In this Sacrament, all the powers of man are sanctified: mind, feelings, and will, so that each of them and all together serve unity with Christ, accept and reproduce the essence of the new life, and become participants in it.

In the Sacrament of Chrismation, grace is communicated, which sets a person on the path of spiritual life. In this Sacrament, the Christian is given the "seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit" through the anointing of parts of his body with Holy Chrism. In its mysterious composition, the Holy Myrrh is a special phenomenon in the life of the Church, for the fragrance of fragrant substances is most closely associated with the action of the Holy Spirit, the Source of "holiness, and unfading light, and Divine life." The Sacrament of Chrismation therefore offers its participant "the garment of incorruption, the seal of the sacrament, imprinting on him the Holy Name of the Most Holy Trinity" (prayer for the consecration of the Myrrh). Those who are sealed with holy myrrh are clothed in the garment of the fragrance of the Holy Spirit. "By the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" the Church accomplishes the initiation of man to be the temple of God, in which the Spirit of God dwells and lives (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). "The temple of God is holy, and this temple is you," says the Apostle Paul (1 Cor.

3, 17). Through Chrismation, a person is introduced into the liturgical life of the Church: hearing and assimilating the word of God, communing of the Body and Blood of Christ the Savior in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and performing sacred rites.

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the gift of deification through union with Christ is communicated to man. In it, access is opened to man to the Divine Supper, that is, to that special life where Christ Himself, manifesting His sacrificial Love, under the guise of bread and wine, "comes to sacrifice Himself and is given food to the faithful" ("Let all human flesh be silent..." – a hymn sung instead of the Cherubic Hymn on Holy Saturday). The divine "brush" of the Eucharist, entering into the composition of man; it mysteriously transforms it: it cleanses the soul, sanctifies thoughts, enlightens the activity of human feelings, "nails the whole man to the fear of God," fertilizes and adorns him with the "dwelling place of the Spirit" (3rd Prayer of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion).

In the Sacrament of Repentance, a person is given grace that frees him from sins and gives the soul the ability to understand God's will for itself. In this Sacrament, the Christian is confronted with the reality of the Heavenly Kingdom, close to his soul, but lost through sins committed after Baptism. Christ's exhortation: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17) – in this Sacrament sounds encouraging to man, who, like Adam, looks out of the outer world at the life he lost in the Fall. Therefore, the sinner sincerely asks the Lord to give him the strength to see his sins in the light of the Gospel truth, so that repentance for sins may awaken in the soul, so that he may experience a repentant feeling of guilt before God for the life he has lived in sin, and by a sincere confession of sins strengthen in himself the desire for correction.

Christ, seeing that a person asks Him for mercy, grants him through the priest not only remission of sins, but justification and sanctification. Sin is completely blotted out, disappears. The grace of God at the end of repentance opens the way to salvation and teaches a person to have a new attitude to life on earth in general and to himself, to his Christian duties in particular, to the best of his ability.

In the Sacrament of Unction, a person, through the prayers of the Church, is granted grace that heals spiritual and physical ailments for his fruitful participation in the life of the Church. This Sacrament reveals the Church's care for its weak and sick members. When a person commits sins and unsincerely repents of them, then certain types of sins can "grow old" in his soul, their harmful power can multiply, and their pernicious influence on the person and especially on his stay in the Church can increase. The presence of such sins, together with involuntary and forgotten sins, creates a morbid state in the human Soul. The illness of the soul develops, parasitizing on the life-giving ties of the soul with the Body of Christ – the Church. As sin increases, the access to the soul of the grace-filled influences of the life of the Kingdom of God decreases. In order to stop the destructive process of the Christian's estrangement from the Church, and then to renew the influx of the vital forces of the Gospel grace-filled life into the soul and life of man, the Holy Church offers its children the Sacrament of Unction. For this purpose, She summons "the elders of the Church" to pray over the sick and anoint "him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and the Lord shall restore him" (James 5:14-15). To help themselves, the presbyters ask for the prayers of the celestials – the Most-Pure Mother of God and the holy saints of God. Thus, the illness of Christians is cured in the Sacrament by the prayers of the earthly and heavenly Church during the anointing of the sick person's body with holy oil. Through anointing, the Christian is grafted again, like a branch to a tree, to the grace-filled vine – the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the juices of this Vine may again flow into man's life and make him capable of living according to the commandments of God (John 15:4-5).

In the Sacrament of Marriage, future spouses are given grace that sanctifies their family union and procreation. In the Sacrament, the joint life of two people, through the blessing and prayers of the Holy Church, is united into a single conjugal union, so that the two may become "one flesh" (Gen. 2:24) and have "one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32) with the Church. In this Sacrament, the mystery of Christ's presence among them is revealed to the newlyweds as realistically as He was present at the marriage in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11). It is He Himself who "crowns them with glory and honor" (the mysterious words of the Sacrament). "This mystery is great" (Eph. 5:32), for it sanctifies, spiritualizes the marital union of two persons, so that their life may be an image of the "house church" (Col. 4:15) according to the principle and content of life.