“If we find that we too are limping along in our walk with the Lord, then we might ask ourselves whether unknowingly or not, we have become double-minded. If we feel stuck in our growth in faith and unproductive in our spiritual life, then we should exam ourselves. We should ask ourselves whether we have set up a rival to the Lord in our concerns, motives, and interests. If our worship in the House of God loses its sense of devotion, then perhaps we have become devoted to something else along with our Lord and Savior. And if doubts begin to toss us about, then we can be sure that some competing mindset has invaded the chamber of our souls.” (Fr. Basil)
“The journey to growth in holiness is never ending and goes to the very heart of us all. Instead of trying to make it less demanding as we stumble along the way, we must continue pressing on as best we can, calling out humbly for the Lord’s mercy and strength as we become more truly the people He created us to be in the divine image and likeness.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Our inner life, our relation to self and God, inevitably manifests itself to others. This applies both to those who walk in the way of Christ and to those who turn away from Him….People of godly integration walk through everything in life – even pain, defeat, rejection, loss, and death – with an equanimity received from above.” (Dynamis 3/19/2020)
“By becoming integrated, through communal worship and a shared partaking of the Holy Mysteries, into the larger Body of Christ, we are often times called upon to carry on our shoulders those who are struggling, and just as often to accept our need to be carried, when we are dry as bone and have nothing to give.” (Molly Sabourin)
“Besides guarding the peace in your hearts, practice standing before the Lord. This means being unceasingly aware that we are standing in the presence of the Lord and that He is watching us all the time. We must learn to awake with the Lord and go to sleep with Him, and eat, work, and walk with Him. The Lord is present everywhere in all things.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
“Life is a “walk” because it does not stand still; we are borne along in time. God is mainly concerned with how we walk along this temporal journey. By His grace, we hope to walk “in sincerity” before Him; we struggle to live with integrity. That is the Lord’s point. In order to walk with integrity, we must focus on Christ within us, who unifies our life at home, at work, at church, and in all our associations. Truly, an integrated person is at one with himself because of his relationship with Christ our God.” (Dynamis 3/19/2020)
“The need is increasingly urgent for the Christian to recover the Gospel’s cosmic vision in his heart and hand; he cannot be an integrated Christian without it. Christianity is a Faith rich in symbol, a word that means “to join together” two realities, as when bread and wine are joined with Body and Blood. Ecology is the study of connections, relationships, how an ecosystem is a unified whole. Connection, relationship, unity – this is an emphatically Christian way of seeing the world.” (Fr. John Oliver)
“One of the frustrating, and fascinating, things about life is that while it is easy to imagine one’s life as an integrated seamless whole, it is often hard to live that way. We compartmentalize: work, marriage, parenting, church, hobbies, current events, charitable activities, retirement. And, depending on the compartment in which we are currently operating, we might even find ourselves thinking or acting differently, as if one set of behaviors fits one category but not another. So, the pursuit of a governing dynamic continues. And it is pursued, usually, not by hypocrites – people who intentionally live in a state of conflicting behaviors because of some advantage it brings to them, but by sinners, people who strive, but fail, to reach a state of interrelated behaviors, simply because living a life of integrity is the right thing to do.” (Fr. John Oliver)
“Know that your soul is or can be radiantly alive with Christ in the Holy Spirit. You will realize it when you are integrated with yourself. When your mind is free of all anguish, grief, misery, remorse, vindictiveness, envy, frustration, self-rejection and suffering, your thoughts are filled with positive energy. When your heart is empty of heaviness, sighing and emptiness, you can fill it with warmth and love for all people and all creatures.” (Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky)
“Perfect prayer is prayer united to labor in an integrated spirit-body relationship. It sanctifies the means of achievement, harmonizes the human will with the divine, and invokes help when we fail.” (Father Alexander Turner)
"In Scripture the expression “to walk” indicates a characteristic mark of personal behavior. Thus Adam and Eve hear the voice of God walking in the garden and hide themselves, knowing by the voice and footstep that it is He (Gn 3:8). They are afraid, because they had shattered His covenant (Lv 26:15)… Judas Iscariot enjoyed the incalculable blessing of covering many miles in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea in the company of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet he never walked with Him in his heart…Saint Paul reminds us, “We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4)… “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). “As you . . . have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col 2:6).” (Dynamis 9/2/2019)
“Too many of us go to church not to be changed, but to fortify the ‘status quo’ of our church, which we have reduced in many instances to a museum, rather than what it is - the House of God. Thereby we frustrate the process of becoming spiritual people as God intends us to be. So much so that it can be said that we talk the good talk, but fail to walk the good walk!” (Bishop John of Amorion)
“One may answer the Call—or refuse it, turn away, and walk into Darkness. But indifference to the Call to struggle against evil is not an option; one must take sides…Walking closely with God in covenant [or not] is a choice every generation must make.” (Joseph Loconte, Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King)
“Even though we do not see Him today in the flesh, many people get the “sense” that He walks with them, or that they walk with Him.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis)
“Since our knowledge of Jesus grows as we mature in the faith, we will experience His grace and peace on many different occasions in our Christian walk.” (Foundation Study Bible, 2 Peter 1:2)
“Paul writes a great deal in his epistles about walking. For example, he says to ‘walk in love,’ ‘walk as children of light,’ ‘walk by the spirit,’ and ‘walk worthy of the calling to name a few. Walk implies a slow, steady pace; a daily effort; a marathon, not a sprint.” (Sacramental Living Ministries, Orthodox Study Bible, Ephesians 5:2-15)
“In a world that is unjust, we must act justly and do what is right. In a world of tough breaks, we must be merciful. In a world of pride and self-sufficiency, we must walk humbly with God. Only when we live according to God’s way will we begin to affect our homes, our society, and our world.” (Life Application Study Bible, Micah 7:20)
"If we try to walk in the dark we stumble. There are many examples of people in our modern world who have made huge mistakes because they were not living their lives in the Divine Light. Just turn on the TV and you will see image after image of the darkness of a world that hides from the joyful light of Christ.” (Abouna Justin Rose)
“Even if you go to church regularly and have an active prayer life…, you may find at some point you are in a bit of a rut – a spiritual dry patch if you will. You may say to yourself,"I am sick of the same old service week in or week out” or"praying the same kind of way each day.” This is normal and natural and all of us go through ruts from time to time. The best thing to do is just work through it. It will pass. It’s just part of our human condition. If you don’t believe me, remember that many great Biblical figures went through similar spiritual ruts. Read the Psalms from front to back. David and the other Psalm writers experience every high and low possible in their walk with God.” (Sacramental Living)
"When you turn to Christ, you begin to see Him differently. The longer you walk with Him, the better you will understand who He is.” (Life Application Study Bible, John 9:38)
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