taken from some paragraphs from Georgios I. Mantzaridis' book "Man and Time". (I experimented by pulling put just a few paragraphs from each of the three logical "sections" and arranging a summary.)

Section ONE:

* "The kingdom of God is not simply awaited as something that is to come; it is also perceptible as something now present. The resurrection and regeneration in Christ as well are not only awaited in the future, but are also already offered in the present... The period of the presence of Christ and his Church is the period of the 'last days.' It is the period during which God and his kingdom are made manifest in history. It is the beginning of eternal life, which cannot be interrupted by death. ..... Thus, the eschata are at once present yet awaited, experienced yet expected." (p. 51-52)

* "Participation in the kingdom of God brings about an eclipse of time, just as the presence too of the kingdom of God, turns all understanding of logical sequence of time on its head." (p. 54)

* "The Church still stands as a sign of eternity in the world and guides the world towards eternity. The institutions of the Church...transport the mind of man 'from things present to the things to come.'" (pp. 54-55)

* "The Church is not subordinate to time, but leads from time into eternity." (p. 55)

* "For those who become "sons of light," and "sons of day," and behave as sons of light and day in their lives, the "day of the Lord" is already come. These people are already living the "day of the Lord" and contemplating his glory. These things, of course, do not come about simply as a result of a formal receiving of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, but rather through real communion and union with Christ. And just as Christ is not limited by time and space, so the experience too of his presence, or the experience of his "day," is not confined to the 'eschata,' the last times, but is offered here and now. The eschata will not present entirely new things, but will manifest in their full and perfect form those things which exist and are offered already as a sort of betrothal in the Church." (p. 50)


Section TWO:

* The Church cannot preserve her identity in history without developing organically in time and space. And the Church's preaching cannot be offered unaltered to the world without adapting in an appropriate way to her respective environment. (p. 64, 66)

* The question of the correct consideration of tradition is, in the final analysis, a question of the correct consideration of time and space. .......The question of consideration of space and time is a question of whether, and to what extent, man refers the question to a transcendent reality. Without this reference, any understanding of space and time is fragmentary and limited. ....... The only real possibility of reference to a transcendent reality is offered in Christ. It is in the person of Christ that the temporal is united with the eternal, the finite with the transcendental. Union with Christ within space and time. It is a union which brings about the relation to a transcendent reality and true communion. ....... The union with Christ comes about in the Church by the grace of the Holy Spirit. ....... Christ, who recapitulates the past, the present and the future, keeps perpetual and indissoluble communion with all the members of his Body, the Church. The tradition of the Apostles, the Fathers and the saints of the Church ministers to this communion between God and man, and finds in it its summary and final expression.

* "Tradition without a direct or indirect link with Christ has no meaning in the Church, and the importance of the various traditions is in direct proportion to the extent of their relationship to Christ." (p. 63)

* "All the traditions that are associated with Christ have a eucharistic or worshipful character. This is why they are offered 'in a mystery" (p. 63)


Section THREE:

* "St. Nicholas Cabasilis points out that for the saints, the future is already present in is life, but its presence is not full and complete, as it will be in the life to come." (p. 84)

* "The Church with her feasts and services actuates the work of divine economy within time, thereby sanctifying the transforming of time of everyday life...she integrates it with, and directs it towards, its eschatological fulfillment--the kingdom of God.

The Church¹s feasts, preeminent among which are the feasts of the Lord, are not mere commemorations. They are opportunities...for communion with Christ and the Church. ....... In following the...cycles of feasts...and the daily cycle of day and night offices, the faithful worshipper lives the whole work of divine economy and comes to share in the life of the kingdom of God even in this present life.

Distinction is made between the movable feasts and fixed feasts of the Church.

The Immovable Feasts are tied to a fixed date in the Church¹s year which begins the first day of September. They present us with specific redemptive interventions of God in the history of man, or with historical persons and events in the life of the church: the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Theophany, the Transfiguration, feasts of the Theotokos, and the feasts of the angels and saints. These feasts serve to sanctify time and transform it in the light of the kingdom of God. (p. 87)

* "The Moveable Feasts constitute a special sequence which stands apart from historical time and guides man above and beyond it. Fashioning a new dimension of time as though suspended above that temporality to which history is subjected, it thus offers limitless vistas to the man who is shackled by time.

* "Apart from the movable feasts, which highlight, above all the eschatological character of the Church and her passage from time to eternity, there are also, as we have seen, the immovable feasts, which stress the sanctification of time and the presence of the eternal within it. The Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Theophany, the feasts of the Theotokos and the feasts of the angels and the saints stress above all the presence of eternity within time itself.


IN SUMMARY:

* "Liturgical time transfigures physical time and transports us from symbol to truth, from the transient to the eternal, from creation to the Lord of creation. ... Behind the symbolism is the one symbolized. ..... Thus the function of time is to refer creation to the uncreated Creator." (p. 105 )

* "...the mystery (sacrament)...preserves...the memory of all the events in the divine economy, and of the events in the history of mankind in their eschatological perspective." (p. 102)

* "In this way, all time becomes sacred time. Every day and every moment is sanctified because it becomes a bearer of eternity. In the same way, all space becomes sacred because it is sanctified by spiritual worship." (p. 104 )

* Eternal life is not abstract or imaginary. It is God himself, who became man and manifested himself to the world in Christ....for a Christian, the memory of God is made concrete in the memory of Christ and his regenerative work in the world. So the content of the memory of Christ is the Church herself as the Body of Christ, the enter and essence of which is the mystery of the Holy Eucharist." (p. 103)

* "By taking part in the Divine Liturgy and approaching for Holy Communion, the believer experiences the unique and eternal event of his regeneration in Christ. Without ceasing to be in time, he nevertheless shares in eternity. Even one participation in holy Communion would be sufficient for his regeneration. ... Each one of these approaches is the one unrepeatable approach to the mystery of his union with Christ. It represents his approach to, and his progress within, the ties indestructible and constantly renewed communion which deifies the Church. Furthermore, whatever happens in time and is of truth, no longer belongs to time, but to eternity. And what ever is repeated in time and is of truth, is not confined to time but extends into eternity. Thus every Holy Eucharist is a repetition of the unique and unrepeatable Eucharist of the Last Supper." (p. 102)