The service of ‘Holy Unction’ is spiritual medicine for sickness which has at its heart a spiritual disease – our mortality which we inherit from the sin of the spiritually human nature that we all share. Sickness is not only physical and mental it is the result of the sinful nature we possess.
The service of Holy Unction’ is held in times of sickness and as a preparation for our celebration of the eternally salvific act of the death and Resurrection of our Lord at the time of Holy Week and Easter (Pascha).
The basic items of the service as it developed were:

• oil – the means through which God brings his blessing upon us;
• seven candles – the light of Christ in our midst;
• a bowl of flour – which would be kept after the service and from it would be baked a loaf of ‘Prosphora’ for use as the bread for the service of Holy Communion;
• the priest(s) – gathered together as vehicles of God’s grace and as ones who intercede for the people, asking God to bless and lift up him who is need before God;
• the readings and the prayers – a service of listening to God, preparation for the grace which God gives to us and our response to him, in humility, faith and expectation.
• the blessing and anointing with oil – literally God ‘blessing us’.