NOTE: — 43 —

[...of the body] and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us taste in holiness, which, having descended from heaven, is distributed among us. This is life, hope, resurrection, expiation, and remission of sins." Shall the minds of the slanderers perchance be persuaded, or shall the fabricated notions of the newly invented word *purgatory* [*kʻawaran*] be cast out from their minds, or will they obstinately remain [and] persist in the same, being altogether unskilled in the power of the meaning of the word which the holy Church sings, having received [it] from Nersēs Shnorhali, our holy Patriarch: "Awful mystery of the priest; with arms outstretched he stood upon the *bēm* [altar-platform] before the holy altar. Fire is quenched, darkness is dispelled; the sorrowful souls rejoice, for there is remission of sins." We have no need to give explanations of this hymn [*sharakann*] with fanciful words and according to our own whim; for whenever we read the *Encyclical Letter* [*Ěndhanrakan girkʻ*] of our Patriarch Shnorhali, then do we find the powers of the graces of the dreadful mystery of the saving Communion, whereby there is remission of sins for those who have repented with complete confession, and expiation of sins for the souls of those who have fallen asleep with venial sins. Wherefore he writes: "Now the sacrifice [*patarag*] of Christ, which the holy priests offer with true faith in the name of the departed, is beyond mind and speech. For if Christ, being sacrificed once upon the cross, wiped out the sins of human nature which were from Adam, when [the sacrifice] is offered many times in the name of departed Christians, what sins indeed can there be which the Heavenly Father will not remit unto them on account of the immolation of His Only-Begotten Son? And whoever believes—one and the same is the sacrifice which Christ offered and which the priests offer; provided only that the departed one at the hour of death was in the orthodox faith and in the turning away from sins" (*Encyclical*, Polso [Constantinople] edition, pages 160–161). Therefore, it is the power of the graces of the holy and immortal sacrifice that quenches and dispels from the souls of sinners the fire and darkness of sins; and not that, hearing [the word] *fire*, one must understand some sensible fire and material darkness, but rather the severe torment and anguish of sins, by which the soul suffers and is afflicted. Wherefore Holy Scripture likens the anguish of sins to fire and darkness, which the soul and the conscience of the mind always perceive; for the sin-laden soul is deprived of the light of divine grace. Because sin, according to Holy Scripture, is fire: "A fire kindled in all the mem[bers]..."