According to the Church’s understanding, agiasma is not simply water with a spiritual significance, but it is a new being, a spiritual-physical being, an interconnection between Heaven and earth, between Grace and materiality, and one which is extremely close.

This is why, according to the rules of the Church, the Great Agiasma is regarded as but a degree lower than HolyCommunion. In those instances, when because of the sins they have committed, the members of the Church are submitted to an epitimia and forbidden to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, a common stipulation given with the rule is: “Only you may drink agiasma.”

Theophany water is a holy thing, which every Orthodox Christians should have in the home. It should be kept carefully in the holy corner near the icons.

Besides Theophany water, Orthodox Christians also often use water sanctified at molebens (the Lesser Blessing of Waters), which are served at various times throughout the year. It is appointed by the Church that this rite should be celebrated on the Day of the Procession of the Honourable Wood of the Cross (1st August) and on the day of Mid-Pentecost, when the Church recalls the words of the Saviour to the Samaritan woman, which contain such a deep mystery: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). [In the Greek practice, the Lesser Blessing of Water is celebrated at the beginning of each month as well.]

Holy Theophany water may be taken on an empty stomach with some prosphora after completing one’s morning rule of prayer; it should be taken with particular reverence as a holy thing. “When a person makes use of prosphora and holy water,” said the recluse George of Zadonsk, “then the unclean spirits do not approach him, he is sanctified body and soul, his thoughts are illumined unto the pleasing of God, and that person becomes inclined to fasting, prayer and every virtue.”

Prayer to be Said on Partaking of Prosphora (Antidoron) and Holy Water

O Lord my God, may Thy gift and Thy holy water be unto the enlightenment of my mind, unto the strengthening of my spiritual and physical powers, unto the health of soul and body, unto the subjugation of the passions and of my infirmities through Thy boundless kindheartedness, and by the prayers of Thine All-immaculate Mother and of all Thy Saints. Amen.

Translated from “First Steps in Church”
a publication of the Monastery of the the Meeting, Moscow, 2004