John Damascene

In his own words on Malachi

• Malachi 1:11

  It was with bread and wine that Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God, received Abraham, when he was returning from the slaughter of the alien tribes. That altar prefigured this mystical altar, even as that priest was a type and a figure of the true archpriest, who is Christ. For "you," he says, "are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." This bread was prefigured by the loaves of proposition. This is quite plainly the pure and unbloody sacrifice which the Lord, through the mouth of the prophet, said was to be offered to him from the rising of the sun even to its going down.

  ORTHODOX FAITH 4:13

• Malachi 4:2

  It is not without any reason or by any chance that we worship toward the east. On the contrary, since we are composed of a visible and an invisible nature, of an intellectual nature and a sensitive one, that is, we also offer a twofold worship to the Creator. It is just as we also sing both with our mind and our bodily lips, and as we are baptized both in water and in the spirit, and as we are united to the Lord in two ways when we receive the sacrament and the grace of the spirit. And so, since God is spiritual light and Christ in sacred Scripture is called "Sun of justice" and "Orient," the east should be dedicated to his worship. For everything beautiful should be dedicated to God, from whom everything that is good receives its goodness. Also, the divine David says, "Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; sing you to the Lord, who mounts above the heaven of heavens, to the east." And still again, Scripture says, "And the Lord had planted a paradise in Eden to the east; wherein he placed man whom he had formed," and whom he cast out, when he had transgressed, "and made him to live over against the paradise of pleasure," or in the west. Thus when we worship God, we long for our ancient homeland and gaze toward it. The tabernacle of Moses had the veil and the propitiatory altar to the east; and the tribe of Judah, as being the more honorable, pitched their tents on the east; and in the celebrated temple of Solomon the gate of the Lord was set to the east. As a matter of fact, when the Lord was crucified, he looked toward the west, and so we worship gazing toward him. And when he was taken up, he ascended to the east, and thus the apostles worshiped him. And thus he shall come in the same way as they had seen him going into heaven, as the Lord himself said: "As lightning comes out of the east and appears even into the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." And so, while we are awaiting him, we worship toward the east.

  ORTHODOX FAITH 4:12