Saint Nektarios of Aegina

On Worship in Spirit and Truth

19th c. · Treatises & Other · English translation, 2026

7,413 words · 37 min read· Moderate

Source edition: Περὶ τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ λατρείας

Cover art: Interior of St. Mark's, Venice — David Dalhoff Neal (American, 1838–1915) (Art Institute of Chicago, Public domain (CC0))

St. Nektarios of Aegina, writing in Athens in 1885, takes Christ's words to the Samaritan woman — "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24) — as the foundation for a complete theology of Christian worship. He identifies glorification, thanksgiving, and petition as the three interior movements of the worshipping soul, and argues that external worship is the natural, indispensable expression of that interior life — neither reducible to external forms alone nor dispensable in favour of a purely interior religion.