Exomologetarion

The "Exomologetarion" functions within the framework of the Church and orients the believer, not towards some individual justification, but towards readmittance into the life of the Church. Only through ascetical praxis... can the believer become receptive to grace, and this grace is imparted by the Mystery of the Church. The "Exomologetarion" is not without an ecclessiological pespective, for it greets man in the marthex of the Church, in order to lead him to the Holy of Holies. Spiritual Fathers, according to St. Nikodemos, are those physicians and innkeepers whom the Lord established, in keeping with the Gospel parable, in the inn of the Church to care for the sick; that is, those sinners who are wounded by the noetic thieves, namely, the demons. The "Exomologetarion" always presupposes the Church. (From the Introduction by Protopresbyter George Metallinos)