These six reflections, which meditate upon the sacraments as sources of healing, reveal the wisdom, insight, and wit of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. He explores the human condition in light of the Orthodox Tradition from many angles: the deep meaning and mystery of the human body and its healing; the somewhat ambiguous role of the passions in our life; the therapeutic vision of the Church expressed in the Mysteries of Confession and Anointing; our experience of healing both in the Divine Liturgy and in the wider world, and, finally, in the great mystery of death itself. It is often said that the Orthodox Church is a hospital and that our understanding of salvation is therapeutic. Here Met. Kallistos explores what this means in many different ways, and helps us to understand more deeply our relationship with Christ the Physician of souls and bodies, who came to save and to heal both us and the world.
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware was Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies at the University of Oxford. World-renowned for his writings and lectures, his books include The Orthodox Church (Penguin) and The Orthodox Way (SVS Press).