“The Christian life is, properly, a life of spiritual asceticism in which we seek to shed that which is not truly ours. This is not always obvious (by any means). It is also not entirely private. The “mirror” of the soul is Christ Himself. Were we only looking within ourselves the journey would be nothing more than “anybody’s guess.” Instead, we become like Christ as we steadily gaze at Christ. He is the “measure” of the soul and the singular measure of what it is to be truly human and “who we are.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Our Christian life consists of a sustained effort to recover our lost likeness to God….Each day of our lives, we must refuse to invest ourselves in serving the false gods of our own vain imaginations and instead embrace the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian life in order to serve Christ in the life of His Body, the Church, and in our neighbors. The struggle to do so will often be inconvenient and frustrating, and at times we will perceive no visible signs of progress…Whenever we mindfully embrace the difficult struggle to turn away from slavery to our distorted desires and reorient our lives toward God, we take up our crosses. These are the most basic practices of the Christian life…” (Dynamis 5/24/2021, Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“The Christian life is simple; it is made up of love and humility…Forcing ourselves to have a humble mindset is most essential in leading a Christian life. Even if I have acquired all the wisdom in the world, it is all nothing if I don’t have love, St. Paul says (1 Cor. 13), and true love is firmly rooted in humility…humility is the perfection of the Christian life. It is not in the raising of the dead or in working miracles that Christian perfection lies, but in extreme humility.” (Constantina R. Palmer, Father Spyridon Baily, Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
“A Christian life without pain is bogus. Pain of the heart is essential for salvation…all the trials and disappointments of the Christian life and ministry are worthwhile.” (Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Orthodox Study Bible, 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20)
“One of the difficulties associated with the Christian life is the struggle for the liberation of the true self. We have already seen that much confusion exists surrounding what it means to “be true to yourself.”… Scripture and the Church Fathers challenge us to see virtue as the means of becoming more fully human, of realizing the true self that God created…Christian virtue enables us to plug back into our Life Source and thus to become more fully ourselves…no external suffering has the power to block us from becoming fully human as God intends…far from actually injuring a person, external affliction can assist her in the attainment of virtue (and thus human flourishing), as long as she remains receptive to the work of God in her life.” (Robin Phillips)
“The Christian life begins not with high deeds and achievements but with the most simple and ordinary act of humble asking. Then the life and joy grow in us over the years through commonplace, almost boring practices. Daily obedience, reading and prayer, worship attendance, serving our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as our neighbors, depending on Jesus during times of suffering. And bit by bit our faith will grow, and the foundation of our lives will come closer to that deep river of joy." (Pastor Timothy Keller)
“Christianity is a way of life or more properly said, the way of life…However, you cannot “look” at a way of life. Rational arguments, discussions, explanations, personal stories and the like certainly have the power to attract (and sometimes repel). But none of them represent communion with God. At some level, true salvation begins in a noetic experience between the soul and God. And this cannot be forced or managed. It is an intrinsically holy action in whose presence we can only be silent. St. Paisios noted that a person could be converted at the sight of a fox or a bear – the matter belonged, he said, to the “disposition of the soul.” (Sacramental Living, Father Stephen Freeman)
“The word “apocalypse” (from the Greek) means “revelation,” bringing into plain sight what had before been hidden. The Christian faith is, from beginning to end, apocalyptic in nature. It is always a bringing forth of hidden things. Very often the most important thing in the world is nearly invisible to everyone around: the birth of a child in a village in Palestine, the lonely execution of an itinerate preacher, an empty tomb that puzzles a city. Jesus is not what anyone expected. The entirety of His life is only understood after the fact, in the light of revelation.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
"Christianity is neither optimistic nor pessimistic, nor is it neutral. And that is so because it is true; it is life, based on the true story of God’s free choice to die for His creation, and our free choice either to rise or fall." (Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin)
“Christianity has a bad name in our world today, because many professing Christians live the same way as the world—and sometimes worse than the world...Our behavior is important because we represent Christ to a lost and dying world. What we do and what we say are seen by the world as representing Christ.” (Abbot Tryphon)
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