The Triodion possesses an inner coherence and unity that are not at once apparent. Why, for example, should Saint Theodore the Recruit be commemorated on Saturday in the first week, the holy icons on the first Sunday, and Saint Gregory Palamas on the second? What special connection have these three observances with the ascetic fast of Lent? Let us consider briefly the pattern which links into a single whole the different commemorations during the ten weeks of the Triodion.

For a bishop, there exists the obligation of celibacy. In the first centuries of Christianity such a demand was not obligatory, but even in Apostolic times, it was allowed for bishops to avoid marriage for the sake of the ascetic struggle of continence. This tradition became strengthened and the Sixth Ecumenical Synod (Council) made it a canon. As regards priests and deacons, the Church regarded that such a burden should not be laid upon them as obligatory and that the ancient canon should be followed which forbids clergy, after receiving ordination (cheirotonia), to enter into marriage, but which allows to Mystery (Sacrament) of Priesthood persons who were already bound by marriage, even regarding this as natural and normal.

Here the laying of hands is presented, on the one hand, as a sacred act known to all, by means of which presbyters (priests) were ordained for one church or another, and on the other hand as a sacred act which had a special importance as is apparent from the fact that it was performed by the Apostle Paul and Barnabas themselves. It is clear from this that this ordination was not merely a rite or a sign, but was the communication of a special gift and this is precisely testified to later with full emphasis by the same holy Apostle Paul, when in his farewell conversation with the presbyters (priests) of the Church of Ephesus he thus expresses himself concerning them: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers (episcopoi [bishops]), to feed the Church of the Lord and God, which He hath purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). That this placing by the Holy Spirit was through the Apostolic laying on of hands or ordination is evident from the above text (Acts 14:23).

Concerning the pastoral ministry in the Church we have spoken already in the section on the Church hierarchy (chap. 7). It was shown there that the hierarchy was established in the Church by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, that it has been with the Church from its very beginning, and that in the Apostolic period it received an organization in three degrees (bishop--priest--deacon).

Saint Cyril was from Alexandria, born about the year 376 AD, the nephew of Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria, who also instructed the Saint in his youth. Having first spent much time with the monks in Nitria, he later became the successor to his uncle's throne in 412 AD. In 429 AD, when Saint Cyril heard tidings of the teachings of the new Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, he began attempting through private letters to bring Nestorius to renounce his heretical teachings about the Incarnation; and when the heretic did not repent, Saint Cyril presided with Pope Celestine of Rome, led the Orthodox opposition to his error (heresy).

It's important for us to dwell a little on the way in which the passions are stirred up. This will also show us how to keep them quiet. We should point out that the path of arousal is in essence the same as the conception of the passion. This only to the extent that the birth is harder than the arousal. It doesn't yet exist in us as a sleeping beast which has only to be awakened. But a flammable material is in us even before any passion, made up of the natural passions; these help in some way in the conception of the passions, just as the already existing passion helps in its arousal.