All that we have mentioned define the faith of Orthodoxy and protect the Mystery of man's salvation. They also establish the position of every believer vis-a-vis God, the world and his fellow man and constitute the Orthodox mind (φρόνημα) or spirit. We do not have here the result of an attempt on man's part to develop a type of self-salvation, but the result of a cooperation between God and man.

I think we can comprehend the basic differences between them, if we take Medical Science as an example. There, we have doctors who belong to the Medical Association; if a doctor is not a member of the Medical Association, he cannot exercise the medical profession. For a doctor to be legal, he must not only be a graduate of a recognized Medical School, but also a member of the Medical Association. The same prerequisites apply to lawyers. These sciences undergo continuous monitoring, because, if one were to deviate from the proper exercising of his profession, he is tried by the pertinent authority of the professional Association he belongs to, and is expelled from the Body of that profession.

Just as the faithless Jews once trampled upon the Commandments of God, one after the other, and marched accordingly to the wishes of the world and their hearts, they now have done the same with the teaching of Christ, the Master of all teachings. They have undermined and abolished one dogma after the other. They have gotten rid of all the Gospel Commandments. They have rejected the Apostolic and Patristic decrees. They have ridiculed all the sayings of the Saints, and the ascetic examples they have reduced to myths.

The Lord said: Repent and believe in the Gospel. True repentance is not only to grieve over the sins one has committed but a complete return of the soul from darkness to Light, from the worldly to heavenly, from me to God.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth", writes the Holy Apostle, John the Theologian (III John, v.4). "Instruct us in Thy path, that we may walk in Thy Truth"--is the first petition in the priestly prayers (the Prayers at Lamplighting) in the first Divine service of the daily cycle, Vespers.