Quotes of the Day for March 5, 2026 – Thoughts on supporting others in their struggles with faith
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“The greatest obstacle to sharing Christ’s pastoral care is the temptation to serve only ourselves. We may give in to weariness, or simply become indifferent to others. However, the Lord Himself calls us to this struggle!” (Dynamis 9/2/2021)
“All the truths that are given to us in the Gospel, that the Church presents to us in the Apostolic Epistles, in the Church’s typikon, speak of one and the same thing: that saving your soul, and even more so the souls of others, takes time and struggle. There’s a time of preparation, a time of growth, and then a time of testing, when something gets sent your way now and then to see what you’ve actually achieved. As we grow spiritually, we’re visited by temptations and trials and constantly checked about how much we fulfill the law. Whether it’s about prayer, going to church, fasting, or other Church rules, our growth is constantly being checked.” (Schema-Archimandrite Mikhail Krechetov)
“Some people are always early for services, make good confessions, receive the Holy Mysteries frequently, and volunteer for whatever task is set before them. Others struggle with the Christian life and are barely identifiable as belonging to Christ. Yet both sets of people are in need of the healing that comes in an encounter with the living God. If the Church loves only those who are in the first list, we have failed, for those in the second list are in need of more attention and love than those on the first.” (Abbot Tryphon)
“Take note also of the disciples’ reaction to Thomas and his disbelief. Do they cast him out from their midst? Do they shun him or excommunicate him? No, one week later he is still with them, despite his vocal exclamation that he does not believe them. The disciples kept him as part of the community for Thomas had received his call from Christ, not from them. Thomas was chosen by Christ, not by the disciples. And though the 10 disciples were powerless to change Thomas’ mind, they kept him in the fellowship and apparently despite his disbelief he was still attracted to Christ and to His followers for a week later he still is meeting with them. This is a lesson for us in how we are to treat those who express doubt and disbelief among us. If those who struggle with faith are still willing to come to our fellowship and be numbered among us, we are to welcome them. For though we fail in our witness to them to bring them to faith perhaps Christ Himself will speak to them when He is in our presence. Our task is to keep such troubled believers in our midst so that Christ can speak to them.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“Paul writes in Romans 14:1 that we should “receive one who is weak in the faith…” Sometimes that person is us and we need to receive ourselves gently. Sometimes our faith gets challenged by circumstances and our thoughts and feelings can range from doubt to despair. We begin to question what we previously felt convicted about. In those moments we need to do remember to not make it worse by chastising ourselves for weakness. We need to pray, whether we feel like it or not, and we simply need to remain faithful – go to church, read the scriptures, pray daily, and pray as a first resort not as a last resort. We care for our children and loved ones even when we are mad as heck at them. We do our jobs even when we hate them because we need to make a living. There are a lot of things we do despite our emotional state. Christ knows we will have moments of weakness and He receives us anyway. If we hang in there and do the things of faith by remaining faithful our faith will strengthen again.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
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