sick, more or less under both kinds, that is to say, that the Host that has been dipped into the chalice is taken out and kept in another chalice, where, of course, it becomes quite dry. It is given to the sick in a spoon with the usual form (p. 417). The chalice containing the Holy Eucharist is kept in a small tabernacle (ἀρτοφόριον or ἱεροφολάκιον) on the prothesis or on the altar. It is curious that they seem to take no notice of the Real Presence in their churches.[1] I have seen an Orthodox priest walk straight in front of his artophorion without paying the slightest attention to it. When one sees the enormous reverence they pay to the holy pictures, the burning lamps, prostrations, kissing and signs of the Cross they make before them, one realizes how little they trouble to be logical in their religious customs.[2] The Sacrament of Penance (μετάνοια) is administered as rarely as Holy Communion, usually only on the same four occasions. It takes a much less important place in their religious life than in ours. They have no confessionals. The ghostly father (πνευματικός) sits before the Ikonostasis under the picture of our Lord. The penitent kneels before him and several prayers are said, to which the rubric orders the choir to answer Kyrie eleison(!).[3] "Then the ghostly father says with a cheerful voice: Brother, be not ashamed that you come before God and before me, for you do not declare to me, but to God, who is present here." He then asks the penitent all his sins, reminds him that only God can forgive them, but that our Lord gave this power to his Apostles saying: "Whose sins you shall forgive," &c., and finally absolves them in a prayer, of which the essential form is: "May this same God, through me a sinner, forgive you all both now and for ever," and he goes on: "May he set you without blame before his holy altar, and have no more care for the sins you have declared. Go in
- ↑ The Blessed Sacrament is not reserved in nearly all churches. They have no such rites as our Benediction or Procession of the Blessed Sacrament.
- ↑ This can be explained. All these reverences to holy pictures are ancient customs that grew up when reservation was hardly known. The conservative Easterns keep to the old customs, and dislike new ones, however much the situation may be now changed.
- ↑ The "choir" must be really the penitent.
