Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States
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How are the sacraments driven to keep our personal bodies as temples, and as a result, the body of Christ (the church community) kept holy as well?

Holy Mysteries are more accurate a term and description than Sacraments. Each Mystery unites us with Jesus Christ in an incomprehensible way. By partaking of the Holy Mysteries, the entire body, mind, and spirit are sanctified. The Holy Mysteries are a fire that purifies and cleanses the believers from sins. Thus, we must thoroughly examine ourselves and reveal our inner thoughts and intentions before the Lord asking Him to forgive us our sins and to abide in us and allow us to abide in Him. The mysterious union with the Holy Spirit occurs through the blessed waters of Holy Baptism, an outward anointing as in Holy Chrismation and the Unction of the Sick, the union of two individuals as one in Holy Matrimony, the apostolic succession in the Laying of the Hands and the breath of the bishop, metropolitan, or pope in the newly ordained clergy, or the absolution in Confession. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit abides in us, we are indeed God's temples individually, and at the same time, as we are the body of Christ as a church community, and He is the head of the body, and thus, sanctifies us collectively inwardly and outwardly.

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