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Holy Catechism
Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893
Of the Warm Water
The fervour of Faith, full of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This also itself takes place for a clear token of the dwelling of the All-holy Spirit. “Which is indeed signified (these are the words of Cabasilas) when the warm water is poured out on the Mysteries: for the water both being actual water and having a share of fire, signifies the Holy Spirit, which is even called Water, and appeared as fire at that time when it fell upon Christ’s Disciples. And this time signifies that occasion; for then He came down after all pertaining to Christ had been fulfilled: and now this Water is introduced when the gifts have been dedicated. And through the Mysteries as being Christ’s Body, and members in particular, the Church also is signified, which at that time received the Holy Spirit.”
Fervour of Faith, full of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
What answer was given to Pope Eugenius IV. by Dorotheus of Mitylene to the question why the Holy Eastern Church of God is accustomed to put the warm water into the Cup, we cannot tell. Germanus of Constantinople declares that the warm water symbolizes the Blood and Water of the Divine Side, from which when it was pierced flowed forth warm blood and water. “And as from the Divine Side in life went forth both filled with heat, so likewise the water being poured in last very warm at the time of the Communion fills up to perfection the sign of the Mystery, the communicants touching the Cup’s breast as the very life-providing side.”
Fervour of Faith, full of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Theodore Balsamon’s interpretation is that though the Body of the Crucified Jesus was in fact dead, yet from His holy side the Blood and the water gushed out warm, and not cold; which is the fact of which each time remembrance is made by the Warm Water. So in the commentary on the 32nd canon of the Sixth Council. “It is put in (he says about the warm water) to give assurance that what flowed from our Lord Jesus Christ’s side was life-giving, to wit the Blood and the Water, and not dead. Because the greatness of the wonder is proved hereby; for whereas warm blood does not naturally flow from a dead body, from the Lord’s Body even after death Blood and water flowed forth warm, like supplies of life from a life-giving Body.”
Fervour of Faith, full of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
And if you ask, why the warm water is not put into the Union before the Holy Cup is hallowed, but is put in after the consecration, your answer is that if it were put in warm at the time of the Union, it would get cold by the time of the Partaking of the holy gifts, and all would end just where it was before. For this reason therefore the warm water is put into the Cup after the Elevation, and the Faithful partake of it as life-giving. And certainly, if the warm water were put into the Holy Cup at the time of the Divine Oblation, the interpretations of all the doctors, whom we have quoted, would have had no place.
Fervour of Faith, full of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Thessalonian allegorizes the symbolism of the warm water in yet another way, by this interpretation, that the Fervour itself is the mark of the life-essence of Christ’s Body, which though it was both crucified and died, yet had in itself always the Godhead and the infinitely powerful benefits of the All-holy Spirit. “Moreover, he says, he pours the warm water into the Cup, witnessing that the Lord’s Body, even when it was dead upon the removal of His divine soul, yet remained life-giving, the Godhead not being separated from it, and all the benefits of the Spirit being undetached, since also the warm water affords by its warmth an appearance of life.” According to what is written,
Fervour of Faith, full of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This is the warmth of Faith, which Christ thought of in us as a grain of mustard seed, Matt. xvii. 20, which all who approach to the Table of His stainless Mysteries (and these nothing can admit save Faith only, as the divine Damascene teaches) are bound to keep warm and fervid, unshaken and unremoved. “Because thou art lukewarm I shall spue thee out of My mouth,” (shall disgorge thee) writes the Scripture about those in whom Faith not being fervid, but lukewarm, as they say, is not Faith but Unbelief, Rev. iii. 16.