The '''holy mysteries''' or '''sacraments''' in the Orthodox Church are vessels of the mystical participation in divine [[grace]] of mankind. In a general sense, the Orthodox Church considers everything which is in and of the Church as sacramental or mystical.

The sacraments, like the Church, are both visible and invisible. In every sacrament there is a combination of an outward visible sign with an inward spiritual grace. Saint [[John Chrysostom]] wrote that they are called mysteries because what we believe is not the same as what we see; instead, but we see one thing and believe another.

The sacraments are personal, — they are the means whereby God’s grace is appropriated to every each individual Christian individually. In most of the sacraments, the [[presbyter|priest ]] mentions the Christian name of each person as he administers the sacrament.

*[[Ordination]]varied asThe Latin influence of the seventeenth century, is the reason that the Church fixed the number, and list, to these sevenas only official sacraments. Earlier, Orthodox writers varied as to the number of sacraments; : [[John of Damascus]] lists of only two; [[Dionysius the Areopagite]] lists six; Joasaph, Metropolitan of Ephesus (fifteenth century), ten; and some Byzantine theologians who list seven sacraments differ on the items in their list.

* the blessing of waters at [[Theophany|Epiphany ]]

These also have contain a combination of outward , visible sign signs and inward , spiritual grace. Even the blessing blessings of homes, fields, fruits, cars, and pets have a sacramental nature.