Saint Basil’s book “On the Holy Spirit”, written for Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, is of exceptional importance for Orthodox theology. In this book, St. Basil polemicized with the heretics who rejected the personal nature of the Holy Spirit. They defined the Holy Spirit as divine presence, as a gift of God’s grace, but not as a subject, as a Person of the Holy Trinity, to whom the Church prays and gives glory. Apart from the obvious departure from liturgical tradition, this heresy also represented a form of subordination because it maintained the inequality between the Persons of the Holy Trinity. In the book “On the Holy Spirit” it is interesting the form in which Saint Basil expresses his refutation: although it clearly follows from everything that has been said that the Holy Spirit is God, that He is not lower in His essence than the Father and the Son, this nowhere not directly stated. This is a brilliant example of the “economy” of church housekeeping, according to the principles of which St. Basil first of all sought peace within the Church. (Fr. John Meyendorff)
Saint Basil’s explanations of certain customs related to the liturgy are interesting:
“That is why during prayer we all look to the east, but few of us know that by doing so we are looking for the ancient fatherland, the paradise that God planted in the east (Gen. 2:8). On the first day of the week, we pray standing straight (that is, without bowing and kneeling), but not all of us know the reason for this. Because, not only as we have risen with Christ and are obliged to seek the above, on Sunday with the upright position of the body during prayer we remember the grace given to us, but we do this also because this day is, obviously, an image of the expected future age. Therefore, since this day is the beginning of days, Moses does not call it first, but one. There was evening, there was morning—one day (Gen. 1:5), for this same day returns many times: therefore it is at the same time the first and the eighth day, depicting… that state which will follow after time, that which never sets, the never-evening, unchanging day, the never-ending, ageless age. That is why the Church teaches her children on this day to pray standing, so that with the frequent reminder of the endless life we do not forget to learn about the meaning of this day. But all of Pentecost is a reminder of the resurrection that awaits us in eternity. Because that first and eighth day, multiplied sevenfold by the number seven, completes the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost, because, starting from the first day of the week (Sunday), it ends with it, after a fifty-fold change between them… Therefore it (Pentecost) imitates the age to come with its circular motion, beginning and ending with the same law. During this Pentecost, the church rules have taught us to stand upright in prayer, reminding ourselves that we must move our minds from the present to the age to come. At the same time, with every kneeling and rising from the ground, we show in action that through sin we fell to earth, and with the love of the Creator we are called to heaven”. (“For the Holy Spirit”, 26)
Many different testimonies about the liturgical life of the Church are scattered throughout the writings of Saint Basil. In letter number 93 he speaks of the customs connected with receiving communion. He recommends daily, or as often as possible, communion:
“I receive communion four times a week: on the Lord’s day (Sunday), on Wednesday, on Friday and on Saturday, and also on other days, if the feast of a martyr falls.”
Illustration: Icon of the Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus († c. 250; 408-450) – Emperor Decius ordered that the entrance to the cave, in which they hid from the persecution of the Christians, be covered with stones. Two of the courtiers (Theodore and Rufim) secretly professed the Christian faith and placed in front of the stones lead plates on which they wrote the names of the seven boys buried alive in the cave. Meanwhile, God, according to His unspeakable decrees, gave the boys a mortal sleep and preserved them for two whole centuries incorruptible and unchangeable until their awakening for His glory and as a testimony that His words of resurrection are true. The miraculous awakening of the boys who had fallen asleep during the Persecution of Decius took place in the reign of Theodosius the Younger.
