Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Treatises & Other

On Worship in Spirit and Truth

Modern English Translation

Saint Nektarios of Aegina

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Περὶ τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ λατρείας

Cover: Interior of St. Mark’s, Venice by David Dalhoff Neal (American, 1838–1915), Art Institute of Chicago, which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:on_worship_in_spirit_and_truth:en:1

Introduction

The Author

Nektarios of Aegina was born Anastasios Kephalas on the first of October, 1846, in Selymbria—modern Silivri—a town on the Sea of Marmara in Thrace, then within the Ottoman world and the ecclesiastical orbit of Constantinople. His family was poor and pious, and the boy’s early hunger for learning outran the means at hand. At about fourteen he made his way to Constantinople, where he supported himself by manual work while continuing to study, and where the habits of self-denial and steady labor that marked his whole life were already visible. In 1866 he took a teaching post on the island of Chios, and it was there, after some years, that his vocation turned decisively toward the monastic and clerical life. He was tonsured a monk on Chios, and not long afterward ordained deacon, receiving the name Nektarios by which the Church now knows him.

His gifts drew the notice of Sophronios, Patriarch of Alexandria, who became his patron and made his advancement possible. Under that patronage Nektarios went to Athens and enrolled in the theological faculty of the university, completing his degree in 1885—the very year of the present treatise. He then followed Sophronios to Egypt, where he was ordained priest in 1886 and quickly raised to archimandrite, serving with distinction in Cairo. In January of 1889 the Patriarch consecrated him Metropolitan of Pentapolis, an ancient see in Cyrenaica within the jurisdiction of Alexandria. He was not yet forty-three.

The elevation proved as brief as it was rapid. Nektarios was widely loved—a preacher of unusual power, an administrator of evident ability, and a man of transparent simplicity—and that very popularity bred envy among clergy who whispered to the aging Patriarch that the young Metropolitan coveted the patriarchal throne. Sophronios, troubled by the slanders, relieved Nektarios of his duties in 1890 and shortly afterward required him to leave Egypt. No trial was held; no charge was ever substantiated. What is striking in every account of the episode is the manner of the man wronged: he neither defended himself with recrimination nor sought to avenge the injustice, but bore it in silence. Rumor traveled ahead of him to Greece, and for a time even there he was met with suspicion. Long after his death the wrong was formally acknowledged—the Patriarchate of Alexandria lifting the old censures and confessing the harm done to him “through human weakness.”

The remainder of his life was spent in Greece, and it is the portion the Church most cherishes. After several years as an itinerant preacher he was appointed, in 1894, director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens, a seminary for the formation of priests, where he remained for some fifteen years, teaching, writing prolifically, and shaping a generation of clergy. In 1904, at the request of a small group of women drawn to the monastic life, he founded a convent of the Holy Trinity on the island of Aegina. There he withdrew permanently after resigning his post at Rizarios, giving himself to prayer, confession, manual labor, and an unbroken stream of publication. He died on the eighth of November, 1920, after illness, and is commemorated on the ninth. In 1961 the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople formally numbered him among the saints; he is today among the most widely venerated figures of the modern Greek Church, honored well beyond it, and remembered as a wonderworker and a model of patience under injustice.

He left a large and varied body of writing—dogmatic and moral theology, church history, studies of the sacraments and of Christian ethics, pastoral works, sermons, and hymns, the best known of them the Marian hymn Agni Parthene. On Worship in Spirit and Truth belongs to the earliest layer of that output, composed at the threshold of his public career.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The treatise is dated at its close: “Athens, March 17, 1885,” and signed “Nektarios D. Kephalas.” That date places it precisely at the hinge of his life. He was a deacon and a preacher, completing his university studies in the capital, four years before the Egyptian episcopate and its collapse. The polished academic Greek of the piece—the katharevousa of the educated nineteenth-century clergy—and its confident deployment of the psychology of the soul reflect a mind fresh from the lecture hall, eager to bring the tools of formal theology to bear on the most practical of subjects: how a human being ought to pray.

The occasion is not a controversy or a commission but a text—the words of Christ to the Samaritan woman at the well, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24). The whole essay unfolds as an extended meditation on that single saying, and on the phrase Paul gives the same idea in the Epistle to the Romans, logikē latreia — “reasonable” or “rational worship,” the offering of the mind and heart in place of the blood of bulls and goats (Romans 12:1). Nektarios reads the encounter at the well as the announcement of an epoch: the moment when the localized, symbolic, sacrificial cult of the old covenant gives way to a worship no longer bound to Jerusalem or any single mountain, offered from every place upon the inner altar of the rational soul.

Its purpose is at once expository and pastoral. Nektarios wants to define true worship—to say what it is, where it is seated, and out of what powers of the soul it arises—and then to draw the practical consequence: that such worship makes claims on the whole moral life of the one who offers it, and that it cannot be separated from the outward, embodied, communal life of the Church without ceasing to be what it is. In the shape of his corpus this short piece stands as an early statement of themes he would return to across four decades—the primacy of the heart, the necessity of the Church and her mysteries, and the union of doctrine with a disciplined ethical life. It is the work of a young theologian, but its concerns are those of the whole man.

Argument and Structure

The treatise falls into three movements: a proem, and then the two parts into which Nektarios himself divides the subject—inward, spiritual worship, and outward worship with the moral life that sustains it.

The proem is a sustained lyrical outburst rather than an argument. Setting the words of Christ at its head, it celebrates the dawn of the new worship in a cascade of exclamations: the veil of symbolic worship is lifted, the “types” and “enigmatic symbols” of the old order fall away, the privileges of sacred places are abolished, and humanity, freed from every impediment, may now offer worship to God from any land. The old bloody sacrifices cease; in their place stands “spiritual offering and reasonable worship.” Nektarios reaches for a great architectural image—a new temple whose foundation is the whole earth and whose dome is the starry heaven—within which rational man raises spiritual altars. The register is deliberately exalted: worship in spirit and truth is “the work of angels,” and the human being who performs it, though made of clay, joins the incorporeal choir. The proem closes by turning the celebration into a demand: because this vision is so lofty, it requires “a certain noble life” in those who would be worthy of it. The essay’s true subject is thereby set—not worship in the abstract, but the character of the one who truly worships.

Part One treats internal worship. Its governing claim is that spiritual worship is what properly befits a rational creature and what is properly pleasing to a God who is spirit; that man by nature seeks communion with God, so that the absence of worship is a condition “contrary to nature.” Nektarios then gives the essay its analytical spine. Worship is offered in three modes—glorification, thanksgiving, and supplication—and these correspond to the three “primary powers of the soul,” which he names the cognitive, the volitional (or appetitive), and the affective. Glorification arises when the mind grasps the perfections of God, the will is moved to praise, and the affective faculty senses what intellect cannot compass. Thanksgiving arises from the sense of gratitude owed for creation and, still more, for the restoration of fallen humanity. Supplication arises from awareness of our weakness, of God’s omnipotence, and of the soul’s longing for the heavenly kingdom. This tripartite psychology—a marriage of patristic anthropology with the faculty psychology current in the nineteenth-century academy—is the intellectual signature of the work.

From this analysis Part One turns to a difficulty. True worship requires purity of intellect and clarity of spirit, and these depend on the health of the moral life; yet the steadfast keeping of the moral law lies beyond fallen human power. Nektarios traces the disorder to the primal sin, which he says weakened all three faculties at once—darkening the intellect, enfeebling the will, and dulling the affective sense of shame. Man therefore cannot ascend to true worship on his own resources. The remedy is the Church, which frees him from the inherited corruption, initiates the holy life, and strengthens the soul’s powers—“the Jacob’s ladder bridging heaven and earth,” offering her steps as supports for feeble feet. With this, Part One arrives at its pivot: internal worship, being an inner life, necessarily expresses itself outwardly through sacred rites, and so is inseparably bound to external worship. That bond is the theme of Part Two.

Part Two defends external worship and defines its purpose. Its aim, Nektarios says, is the shaping of the heart into a holy temple; the mark of any true act of external worship is the sacredness of its purpose and love of neighbor. From here he mounts a sustained critique of worship reduced to mere works. Charitable deeds and outward offerings are worthless—“a painted image,” lacking even the name of virtue—when they do not flow from a heart made clean; virtue cannot be purchased like merchandise but is won only through struggle. He gathers a chain of Scripture behind the point: David’s prayer for a clean heart (Psalm 51), John’s teaching that boldness before God depends on a heart that does not condemn us (1 John 3), the prophetic denunciations in which God declares that he seeks not temples or sacrifices but a clean heart (Isaiah 66 and Isaiah 1), and the summary of the whole law in the twofold command to love God and neighbor (Mark 12; 1 John 4). Temple-building and almsgiving offered by one who oppresses his neighbor are, he insists, labor spent in vain.

Yet the same critique might seem to justify discarding external worship altogether, and against that conclusion Nektarios turns in the essay’s most distinctive stretch. Some, he observes, seeing the emptiness of merely external acts, decide that inward worship alone suffices and that outward signs are superfluous—even beneath the dignity of a cultivated mind—since God is spirit and is best worshipped by pure contemplation. This opinion he calls “half true,” and therefore the more dangerous, for it severs from inward worship its natural consequence. His refutation is grounded in what he repeatedly calls “psychological observation.” Inward states, he argues, do not remain sealed within; by the very constitution of the soul they externalize themselves through the body’s spontaneous, reflexive movements, so that the outward sign is the natural image and likeness of the inward reality. The absence of external worship therefore betrays an absence of the inward content it would express: those who reject the outward forms do so, most likely, because the inward fire is not truly in them. Such people, he suggests, mistake philosophizing about God for worshipping him; but the worship that springs from natural knowledge yields only intellectual satisfaction, whereas the worship born of revelation engages all the powers of the soul and alone bears the character of worship “in spirit and in truth.” True worship, he says memorably, is “philosophy of the heart.” The essay ends in exhortation and doxology—a call to seek first the kingdom of God, to make the longing for God the center around which every activity turns, and to render him praise and glory—before the closing date and signature.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The lasting interest of the treatise lies in the way it holds together two things that are often pulled apart: the interiority of true religion and the necessity of its embodied, communal form. Nektarios grants the deepest premise of the spiritualizing party—that worship is seated in the heart, that God seeks a clean heart before any offering, that outward acts divorced from inward love are worthless—more fully, perhaps, than they do themselves. Half the essay is a relentless insistence that the heart comes first. But he refuses the inference that the outward may therefore be dispensed with. His argument is not merely that the Church commands external worship, but that the human being, as an ensouled body, cannot help expressing an inward reality outwardly; a worship that produces no outward life is, on the evidence of the soul’s own workings, a worship that is not there. This is a genuinely integrative account, and it speaks directly to a perennial temptation—as alive in the pietist and rationalist currents of Nektarios’s own century as in any other—to treat sacraments, rites, and the visible community as optional scaffolding around a purely private faith.

The essay’s method is equally notable. Nektarios brings the analytical vocabulary of the modern academy—the three faculties of the soul, the language of reflex and psychological observation—into the service of an entirely traditional theology of prayer. The threefold offering of glorification, thanksgiving, and supplication is old; the mapping of it onto the cognitive, volitional, and affective powers is the contribution of a scholar trained in nineteenth-century thought. The result is a small model of how a believing theologian of the modern period could take up the intellectual instruments of his age without surrendering the content of the faith to them. His reading of the primal fall as a wounding of all three faculties, and of grace as their restoration through the Church, gives the anthropology a soteriological depth it might otherwise lack: the point of the psychology is not description but the diagnosis of why unaided worship fails and how it is healed.

There is also a quiet ecclesiology running through the whole. For Nektarios the Church is not an external aid added to an already-complete inner piety but the very means by which the wounded powers of the soul are restored to the point where true worship becomes possible at all—the “saving vessel,” the ladder, the perfector of the moral life. That the treatise engages, and gently rebukes, those who would set a refined interior religion against the “ceremonies” of simple believers gives it a pointed contemporary edge; Nektarios answers not with contempt but with the claim that Christianity is itself a “philosophy from above” that can make the simplest believer wise. Read across the whole Christian tradition, the essay stands within the broad consensus—voiced by Fathers East and West and by the prophets before them—that God desires mercy and a clean heart before sacrifice, and that true worship is the offering of the whole person, inward and outward, to God.

The Text and This Edition

On Worship in Spirit and Truth was first published at Athens in 1885 as a slim volume under the author’s lay-clerical name, Nektarios D. Kephalas. This English edition has been translated directly from that Greek first edition, a public-domain copy of which survives in digital facsimile. Because no printed transcription of the Greek was available, the underlying text was recovered from the page images by optical character recognition using a model trained for polytonic Greek, and then corrected by hand against the scan before translation. To the best of our knowledge this is the first complete rendering of the treatise into English.

The translation is a fresh, modern English one, made to read clearly for a contemporary reader while preserving the elevated cadence of Nektarios’s own prose—the long, cumulative sentences of the proem and the deliberate, almost geometrical progression of the argument. Where Nektarios weaves Scripture into his text, the quotations are given in the register in which he himself cites them, following his wording rather than conforming it to any single English Bible; scriptural references are supplied in a plain modern citation style for the reader who wishes to look them up. The house conventions of this series are observed throughout: the author is named as the Church has always received him, and those who prepared this English text are credited as translators, never as authors. No critical apparatus, footnotes, or bibliography intrude on the text; this introduction stands in their place, and the sources behind its statements have been verified separately and kept off the page.

Suggestions for Reading

The treatise rewards being read as what it is—a young preacher’s meditation on a single verse, mounting from celebration to analysis to exhortation. A first-time reader may find the proem’s rush of exclamations easier to follow if it is heard as a hymn rather than parsed as an argument; the reasoning proper begins with Part One. The essay’s hinge is the moment, at the end of Part One, when inward worship is said to require outward expression; readers who keep that turn in view will see why the long defense of external worship in Part Two is not a change of subject but the completion of the first half’s logic. The most demanding passages are those on the three powers of the soul and on the “psychological” necessity of outward signs; they repay a slower reading, and they hold the key to what is original in the piece. Above all, the treatise is best read as devotion as much as doctrine—an invitation, in its author’s own closing words, to make the longing for God the center around which everything else turns.

Proem

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23–24)

What a revelation! What teaching! A mystery hidden from ages past is now unveiled; truth long unknown is made known. The dark veil of symbolic worship is lifted, and the types that accompanied it and the enigmatic symbols perish with it. The bonds of worship are loosed and the privileges of sacred places are taken away; man, freed from all impediment, is now able from every land to offer worship to God. The necessity of sacrifices and bloodshed ceases; instead, spiritual offering and reasonable worship are firmly established; the old things have passed away, behold all things are new; new worship, new altar, new sacrifice, new edifice! How beautiful is this new edifice! How magnificent the Temple! The entire earth forms its foundation; and the starry heavens compose its magnificent dome. In this, the rational man, raising spiritual altars, desires to offer to God spiritual sacrifice and reasonable worship; for God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. How joyful a gospel! The words of the Lord are the twilight of the dawning day, and the forerunner of the rising sun; a ray of his radiant light, which he sent beforehand as a herald to those dwelling in darkness and the shadow of death. But behold also the all-bright disk of the sun, which rises in majesty above the horizon upon the firmament of heaven, and illuminates all things with boundless light, and bathes the entire earth in its gleaming rays and effulgence. Creation is renewed and takes on new life through the warming rays of the sun; the heavenly light has illuminated the spiritual eyes of our soul, has given us spiritual vision, by which we see through and discover in all things what is truly beneficial to us in the good that appears, as well as its purpose and aim; now reconciled through the Son of God and adopted as children, we approach God unveiled and as sons to a Father with boldness; and though we are earthly, we join ourselves with the angels and offer to God the sacred worship in chorus. How exalted have we become! How honored are we! Though we are men, we perform the ministry of angels! For spiritual worship is the work of angels; and though we are made of clay, we reach toward the incorporeal; and we, formed as clay by our Maker and Creator, draw near to him. How lofty is the work of divine worship! How wonderful, how sacred is the worship of God in spirit and in truth! But how holy those must be who are united with God! Since, therefore, the loftiness of this vision demands a certain noble life so that we may be worthy of it and may worthily worship God, I wish to speak concerning the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and to show the character of the man who truly worships God.

Part One

Man, liberated from the bonds of material worship and introduced into the spiritual realm, ought by natural reason to offer to God spiritual and reasonable worship; for such worship is that which properly befits him and is fitting to offer to God; for to him, as a rational being, it is appropriate; and to God, as something proper to his nature, it is pleasing; for by nature what is proper is beloved, and spirit and reason are proper to God.

As spiritual rather than material beings, we ought to offer to God spiritual worship; and moreover we ought to do this without ceasing, continually; for we are indebted to him for the spiritual soul which he has endowed with such powers, so that the fulfillment of such a duty appears to be accomplished more naturally than by compulsion; therefore we can confidently assert that by nature man seeks communion with God, and by nature loves to worship him; for this sacred longing is an innate character of the human soul; and therefore the absence of this sacred work can be considered a condition contrary to nature.

How much then is man justified in glorifying himself! For what honor is not worthy of him through divine worship! What good things with which he is filled does he not possess in abundance! This raises him above earthly things and unites him with the angels; this sanctifies him; for it binds him with the All-Holy God; this perfects him; for through it he draws from an inexhaustible spring the grace that perfects him. But the fulfillment of this sacred duty, being as lofty and honorable as it is, requires also a lofty and pure life, full of consciousness and awareness. Therefore, whoever intends to offer to God spiritual worship ought, first, to perform this work with knowledge of its exceptional nature; second, to be moved by great and ardent love; and third, to have awareness both of himself as a human being and of the one to whom his worship is directed as the great God; for only through the concurrence of the three primary powers of the soul can the rational man be raised above earthly things, and standing apart from the world, offer to God worship that is pleasing and acceptable. From the cooperation of this threefold power of the soul in us proceeds pure and spiritual worship, which, rising like fragrant incense toward God and placed as an acceptable sacrifice upon the steps of his divine throne, draws down upon the one who worships the divine grace and the gift of the All-Holy Spirit.

Man offers spiritual worship to God in three different ways; these are glorification, thanksgiving, and supplication. In this threefold worship is concentrated every religious feeling, every disposition of the soul; for these flow from the three primary powers of the soul: the cognitive, the volitional (or appetitive), and the affective.

Glorification is prompted in us by: first, the understanding of the infinite perfections and attributes of God; second, the desire aroused in us therefrom to sing his praises and to relate the great and wonderful works which the infinite wisdom of God has wrought, and which declare his glory; and third, the affection, this mystical language of the soul, through which we are assured of those things which the intellect is unable to comprehend and speech is unable to describe; through affection we sense the majesty of God’s nature and are assured concerning the truths that transcend reason.

We are moved to thanksgiving by the lively sense of gratitude which we owe in infinite measure to the All-Good God for all the good things he has given us and continues to bestow upon us abundantly each day; for he, being in need of nothing and moved only by his divine goodness, not only created man that he might share in his divine perfection and blessedness, but also raised up the fallen, restored to life the dead, and through a new creation remade him, and showed him to be a son and heir of his heavenly kingdom.

Supplication proceeds first from our awareness of our weakness and powerlessness, second from the consciousness of God’s omnipotence and sovereignty, and third from the longing for the heavenly kingdom, which our soul desires and seeks; for we sense that this is the highest good and inexpressible joy; for we long to behold the inexpressible beauty of the divine countenance.

We ought therefore to offer this threefold worship to God as rational beings; for since it is conducted with reason and is fitting for the rational man and befits the Spiritual God. But for the precise fulfillment of this lofty duty there is required purity of intellect and clarity of spirit; for these are the distinctive characteristics that distinguish the rational being who prepares himself for the worship of the divine. But since the attainment of these qualities depends on the healthy condition of our moral life, it is necessary that we direct all our attention to our moral life and take the utmost care of it; for otherwise we miss the mark.

We need therefore moral formation so that we may truly and spiritually render true worship to God; and we achieve this if we regulate our life according to the moral law and trace out its path in accordance with the unchanging spirit of the law; for the moral law is man’s true program drawn by God, which man must fulfill to the letter throughout the duration of his earthly life; for only its strict observance provides him with the assurance that he will be pleasing to his Creator and that he himself will prove blessed and happy; for the moral law is the law suited to man, the natural guide of his course, and the one most fitting for him; and therefore its neglect is a grave moral sin; for it leads to ruin, brings dishonor and reproach, contributes to the degradation of his noble character, and renders futile all hope of improvement. You must therefore hold firmly to the moral law, so that you may walk unswerving on the straight path and with boldness may offer to God and your Father your reasonable worship as a pure spiritual being.

However, the steadfast observance of the moral law is not at all possible for man; for the original sin, which brought death to the human race, not only inflicted corruption upon the flesh but also brought weakness into the powers of the soul; therefore man became powerless and incapable of fully accomplishing his lofty duty; for it darkened the clarity of the spirit, weakened the will, and dulled the affective faculty. Therefore, because of his darkened intellect, man often finds himself in ignorance concerning his own actions, and in many things is unable to distinguish clearly truth from falsehood, good from evil. Because of the weakness of his will, he feels himself powerless always to choose good over evil, from which comes the yielding of his will to unseemly desires. Because of the dulling of his affective faculty, he has become insensitive to the disgrace of evil deeds, from which arose a tolerance of evils, since through their disgrace and shame he is unaware. Therefore he needs divine aid and assistance to strengthen and fortify the powers of his soul, to gain victory in the struggle waged in the field of the heart between good and evil, and to remain steadfast in the observance of the moral law, through which he preserves and secures the purity of his spirit and heart and his communion with God.

Man receives this divine aid through the Church, which frees him from the original sin, initiates in him a holy life, gives him strength in the powers of his soul, and guides him as by the hand toward spiritual perfection and communion with God; for the Church is God’s foundation on earth (the pillar of truth upon which man, leaning, is able to walk), the saving vessel which our Lord Jesus Christ directs through the All-Holy Spirit, and which brings us into communion with God; the Church therefore is the perfector of our moral life, the guide and director of the Christian throughout the arduous course of his life, the strength of our weakness, and the Jacob’s ladder bridging heaven and earth and carrying us to the heavenly kingdom, offering us her steps as supports for our feeble feet and as a means of ascent on high; man therefore has an inescapable need of the Church so that he may draw from her strength and power to prevail against the other law in his members, which wars against the moral law; for the dominance of the moral law will exalt man to the spiritual world and will show him to be truly a rational and spiritual being and worthy of communion, intercourse, and spiritual worship with God. This spiritual worship, being an internal life, is expressed and manifested outwardly through various sacred rites; therefore it is closely connected with external worship, which is an inseparable companion of internal worship and a fellow-worker in the work of man’s spiritual elevation. Because of this relationship between internal and external worship, I consider it necessary to demonstrate the function or purpose of external worship and the relation of the latter to the former, and finally the natural necessity of external worship.

Part Two: On External Worship

External worship has as its chief purpose the formation and shaping of the heart, which it seeks to renew and establish as a holy temple of the Almighty God, who shall dwell and walk in it and make his dwelling place in it. Therefore spiritual worship sets before itself a great and lofty purpose, and its work is sacred and holy. The character of the works of external worship should be the sacredness of the purpose pursued through these works and the love of neighbor. Therefore every activity of external worship must necessarily pursue this purpose, for its diversion from this purpose makes it a work without meaning, a ministry without significance; for the purpose and aim is the criterion of the significance and worth or worthlessness of any action or work. In the sphere of external worship belong all good works, that is, the works of charity; for through external signs we manifest the feelings nourished in the depths of our hearts, which are the fruit of internal worship; therefore these works are works of worship, for they are images of our internal disposition. Therefore if these are dictates of the Christ who speaks in us, they are truly works of worship and works of building up; but if they happen to be bereft of such grace and have another origin from which they proceed, they fall entirely short of being works of worship, works of virtue; their character is false and counterfeit, they are a painted image and lack the name of virtue; therefore the work loses its value because of the disposition and intention of the worker. Therefore every action, every work must necessarily be the outflow of good intention and must tend toward the renewal of our hearts and the establishment within us of the kingdom of God. One who neglects his own heart and performs works of charity seeks communion with God, like the sick seeking relief from drugs unsuited to their illness. But these works are not works of charity, works of virtue; for they do not proceed from it. For works to have this name, the heart of the one working must be filled with love; it must be good, so that the works may be called good works. Since a work is called what it is from its source, therefore those works that do not proceed from a good source fall short of being good and consequently are unfit for a good purpose. Therefore those who seek their grace from God through mere works and attempt through these works as through a ransom to purchase virtue fall into error, a terrible error. But virtue is never purchased, for it is not sold even as merchandise, but is obtained through earnest struggle; therefore it becomes a possession of those alone who strive for it and remains with them alone. He who seeks communion with God must first direct his attention to his heart; for with its inclinations it determines our standing before God; it will be the judge who judges us, and it will condemn or acquit us; therefore we must take great care of it, so that our works may flow from a good source and may contribute to building up and be true expressions of our internal and spiritual worship. The God-bearing prophet David, knowing this truth, cried out from the depths of his soul to God, that he might create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit in his innermost being; Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my innermost being, for he knew that his heart would be his judge and he sought from God its propitiation. The Apostle John, speaking of boldness before God, says: If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing in his sight. (1 John 3:20–21) And so we can have no boldness through works alone if our heart condemns us. Likewise the Apostle Paul, speaking of a perverted heart, says to avoid such a man; for he is already self-condemned. (Titus 3:10–11) Therefore we must take great care of the heart if we wish to have boldness toward God and to offer spiritual worship with confidence; that God is not pleased with meaningless works and offerings without intention he himself proclaimed through the mouths of the prophets, saying that he is pleased neither with the building of temples nor seeks sacrifices, and that he actually turns away from these; for those who offer these to God do not have a clean heart. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is a footstool for my feet. (Isaiah 66:1) Concerning sacrifices and offerings he says: I hate your new moons and your offerings. That he seeks a clean heart, he says: Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil and come, let us reason together. And that he will then listen to those who offer sacrifice, he says: And I will hear you, and I will accept your offerings, and I will be to you a father, and you will be to me as sons and daughters. Therefore a clean heart first, and then sacrifices and offerings. So first a clean heart and then sacrifices and offerings. What value indeed can zeal for building a temple to God have when you tear down the house of your neighbor, when you hate, persecute, and oppress him, never yielding to his pleas? For what purpose the temple? If it is for propitiation of God, you have labored in vain; for if you have not shown mercy to your fellow servant and have oppressed him, how can you hope to obtain forgiveness? If it is for the glory of God, God is and will be glorified; but he will never forgive a sin committed in his name, especially because you considered him the cause of injustice. And if it is from love, that is a lie; for how can one who hates his brother whom he has seen love God whom he has not seen? If anyone says that he loves God and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20–21).

What value, then, will the offering, the sacrifice, the gifts, and the whole collection of good works have when the one offering these violates the moral law, which is summed up in these two commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:30–31).

What confidence can the offering of the plotter, the slanderer, the liar, the false witness, and those committing similar sins have? Assuredly none. Impossibly he seeks what does not exist, for virtue is not traded like a commercial transaction of a wicked merchant. The Church was not established by the Lord for spiritual commerce and moral transaction, but in order to create in us a clean heart and establish among us the kingdom of God, and to impart through her sacred rites and mysteries to the faithful the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, through which they are born again, justified, and sanctified. Therefore the works of external worship are the abundance of the good and virtuous, bringing great benefits; for they are beneficial only to those themselves and only they spiritually perfect them.

It is therefore necessary that those who enclose their virtue in works alone quickly recognize their own delusion and be built up in true worship, so that they may not be found on that day outside the bridal chamber like the five foolish virgins whose lamps were going out. From the worthlessness of such works, some have been led to consider external worship entirely superfluous, since it is not beneficial at all without internal worship; they think that internal worship alone is sufficient, because it is able to suffice for the fulfillment of man’s lofty destiny. The followers of this opinion put forward as an argument what has been said differently by us before, that the worship of God has its seat in the heart and that the essence of worship consists in this affection, and they say that external signs are superfluous, indeed unworthy for a cultivated man, as lowering him from the lofty vision to which rational understanding of God brings him, and through which God is better worshipped; inasmuch as God is a spiritual, intellectual, and incorporeal mind, and inasmuch as the Lord says God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

This opinion, though half true, brings with it a greater error, insofar as it separates from internal worship its natural consequence, external worship. The followers of this opinion are greatly deceived, relying on an unreliable opinion, not resting on psychological observation; their own daily experience should have taught them the truth and freed them from deception, completing what study failed to provide; for undoubtedly through many examples they would be convinced that the lack of external worship leaves a great void in internal worship; for it deprives it, so to speak, of the senses of spiritual worship, through which it manifests its own life and substance, and consequently its existence.

External worship, considered under psychological examination, is a natural consequence of internal worship; for internal worship, developed from the feelings aroused through the senses, is externalized through automatic reflex movements of the sense organs whenever a certain idea is awakened in us; for since the idea that has been awakened becomes known to us through a sense organ, at the same moment the idea is awakened, the sense organ transmits the received idea from within to without through reflex movements; therefore external worship is an image of internal worship and a type and likeness of it. Since, moreover, according to this psychological examination, the soul manifests its own feelings through externalization, we can conclude that the absence of external signs reveals the absence and deprivation of internal religious content. It is not at all improbable that those who reject external worship are driven to do so by the lack of true spiritual worship that speaks in the heart containing it; for truly, the one who truly worships God internally feels in his heart a mystical voice assuring him of the sacredness and holiness of the content of his heart; therefore he seeks through various means and movements to express the joy and gratitude of his worship toward God. These people are untouched by this heavenly food and are indifferent to it. They are completely deprived of worship and do not know its essence; yet they are seized by the delusion that they possess true spiritual worship. These good people, although they determine the heart as the essence and seat of worship, yet forget their own definition and contradict themselves, thinking that worship is to philosophize about God. But where then is the worship of the heart? They say that the philosophy of the spirit can influence the worship of the heart; examples of which we can offer from the history of great scientists; but these learned ones do not know that there is great difference between the worship arising from natural knowledge of God and the worship arising from revelation; for natural knowledge of God, as a product of intellect alone, produces humility, admiration, and satisfaction of the intellect itself; but the worship of revelation, being a product of all the powers of the soul, as we previously indicated, bears the character of true worship in spirit and in truth. Therefore they are deceived in thinking that they worship God by philosophizing; the worship of God is philosophy of the heart; for it alone is suited to philosophizing about metaphysical truths; in it all the powers of the soul unite and philosophize; therefore, if they truly wish to worship God in spirit and in truth, they ought to offer the worship that the Church of Christ continuously offers; for through her and only through her can they truly show themselves to be spiritual and true worshippers of God. Let them not boast in their own wisdom and let them not scorn simple Christians, leaving them to their ceremonies; for Christianity is a philosophy from above, working through the heart and by means of it, making the Christian wise; it is able to show the simplest yet true Christians to be men most wise in deeds and words. Knowing these things, let us bless ourselves for our orthodoxy, and let those who disagree with us go their way.

Let us give thanks to God who has granted us his Church, and let us give glory to his name; and let us take care to walk the path marked out for us, incling to neither error. Let our concern be drawing near to God and seeking him; for we have such a commandment from the Lord, who explicitly commanded us this, saying: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you. This longing must be the center around which all our activities revolve. Let all our actions be tested on this touchstone; let us remain precise observers of the divine commandments, and let God be our love; let us worship him in spirit and in truth and render to him praise and glorification; let our philosophy in worship be the longing for God, and our study be his will; through this philosophy may we be shown to be truly wise, preserving our communion with God and showing ourselves to be citizens of the heavenly kingdom, of which may we all be deemed worthy. Amen.

Athens, March 17, 1885.

Nektarios D. Kephalas

Scripture Index

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Psalms

Psalms 51:103. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.26, 3.1.27)

Isaiah

Isaiah 1:113. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.39)

Isaiah 1:16–183. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.40)

Isaiah 1:193. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.42)

Isaiah 66:13. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.37)

Matthew

Matthew 6:333. Part Two: On External Worship (3.7.5)

Mark

Mark 12:30–313. Part Two: On External Worship (3.2.2, 3.2.3)

John

John 4:23–241. Proem (1.1.1)

John 4:241. Proem (1.2.17); 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.4.5)

Titus

Titus 3:10–113. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.34)

1 John

1 John 3:20–213. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.30, 3.1.31)

1 John 4:20–213. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.52, 3.1.53)

Persons

Persons mentioned in this book, with short notes and back-links to every occurrence.

Christians

The collective designation for followers of Jesus Christ, used in early patristic literature to refer to the Christian community as distinct from pagan worshippers and Jews.

Mentioned in: 2. Part One (2.11.3); 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.6.25, 3.6.26, 3.6.27).

the Holy Spirit

The Third Person of the Holy Trinity, proceeding from the Father (John 15:26); confessed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed as ‘the Lord, the Giver of Life’. The Holy Spirit anoints with chrism in baptism, indwells the Church, and is invoked at every Eucharist (the epiclesis).

Mentioned in: 2. Part One (2.3.13, 2.10.4, 2.11.2); 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.3.4, 3.6.14).

Jesus Christ

The incarnate Son of God, second Person of the Holy Trinity; his name forms the centre of the Jesus Prayer and of all Orthodox spiritual life.

Mentioned in: 2. Part One (2.11.2).

St John the Forerunner and Baptist

Holy Prophet and Forerunner of Christ, son of Zacharias the priest and Elizabeth; last of the Old Testament prophets and the one who baptized Jesus in the Jordan. Beheaded by Herod Antipas at the instigation of Herodias. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on seven separate feast days: 23 September (Conception), 7 January (Synaxis, immediately after Theophany—the principal feast), 24 February (First and Second Finding of his Head), 25 May (Third Finding of his Head), 24 June (Nativity), 29 August (Beheading), and 12 October (Transfer of his right hand, Russian Orthodox). In Orthodox liturgical usage the primary title is ‘Forerunner’ (Πρόδρομος, Предтеча), with ‘Baptist’ (Βαπτιστής, Креститель) as a second appellation.

Mentioned in: 1. Proem (1.2.19).

St Nektarios of Aegina

Greek bishop and wonder-worker (1846–1920), Metropolitan of Pentapolis; founded a convent on Aegina and was widely venerated in his own lifetime. Canonised 1961. Feast day 9 November.

Mentioned in: 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.9.1).

St Paul the Apostle

Holy, Glorious, and All-Praised Leader of the Apostles; Apostle to the Gentiles (c. 5 – c. 67 AD). Born Saul of Tarsus of the tribe of Benjamin; converted on the road to Damascus. Author of fourteen epistles in the New Testament canon (thirteen attributed, including Hebrews in the Eastern lectionary). Martyred by beheading in Rome under the emperor Nero, with the Apostle Peter. The Peter and Paul Fast precedes their joint feast day. Feast day 29 June (with St Peter).

Mentioned in: 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.32).

Son of God

The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, who became incarnate to unite humanity with divinity. A central christological title in Orthodox theology referring to Christ’s divine nature and eternal relationship with the Father.

Mentioned in: 1. Proem (1.2.24).

Glossary

Theological and spiritual terms used in this book, with short definitions and back-links to every occurrence.

justification

The theological concept of being made righteous or justified before God, a central theme in patristic soteriology. In this context, it refers to how lawless and ungodly humanity can be made righteous only through the Son of God.

Occurs in: 2. Part One (2.3.1); 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.3.4).

Kingdom of God

The reign of God in the heart and in the age to come; in patristic and ascetic theology, an inner reality cultivated through prayer and ascesis and not merely a future state (cf. Luke 17:20–21).

Occurs in: 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.13, 3.3.4).

mysteries

The hidden divine realities or secrets of creation and salvation. In this context, refers to the cosmic mysteries faithfully kept by the elements of creation under God’s governance.

Occurs in: 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.3.4).

Prophets

The Old Testament prophets who spoke God’s word and foretold the coming of Christ. In patristic theology, the ‘grace of the prophets’ refers to their divinely inspired proclamation and their role in salvation history.

Occurs in: 3. Part Two: On External Worship (3.1.35).

Colophon

On Worship in Spirit and Truth
by Saint Nektarios of Aegina.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
Interior of St. Mark’s, Venice
by David Dalhoff Neal (American, 1838–1915), Art Institute of Chicago, which is in the public domain.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction
- Proem
- Part One
- Part Two: On External Worship
- Scripture Index
- Persons
- Glossary
- Colophon