“Whether we realize it or not, we are growing in the image of something or someone every day of our lives. We can easily become living icons of our culture’s ideals, values, prejudices, and practices without even noticing what we are doing. Without ever burning incense before the altar of another lord, we can easily conform our character to that of someone or something other than Jesus Christ. Doing so is a form of idolatry that will mar the beauty of our souls and block us from sharing in the blessedness of His life.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Reading this Book [Bible] will begin to make us free—free from the contamination of propaganda and lies which flow about us nonstop every single day. The Master said so: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). Indeed: it will make us free—but first it will probably get us into a lot of trouble. That is because this age does not like people who are really free. It prefers people who have been tamed, rendered passive, pliable, suggestible. People who believe everything they are told and are therefore safe. People who are slaves. But Christ sets us free from the values and lies of this age and from being the slaves of men, and only those who follow Him are truly free.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley)
“It is folly to think that God is awake only during the holy hours of church services and that He is asleep during the business hours of industry and labor. We show our ignorance of God’s will when we assume that the principles and values that guide our private lives do not apply to the conduct of our public life. And we fail to grow in godliness when we concentrate on our inner life to the neglect of the outward needs of our neighbor and the ways of justice, truth, and peace.” (Fr. Basil)
“When Christ becomes the significant other, He automatically becomes a firm, unchanging, and eternal point of reference, a criterion for our values, priorities, and ideas. In a world of constant change, of ideological confusion, and of ephemeral options, Jesus Christ, the significant other, remains absolutely actual and relevant, “the same yesterday and today and forever.” He has been the unique significant other for the people of the Roman Empire, for medieval and renaissance folks, for heroes of the industrial revolution, and for the anxious witnesses of the epoch of microchip supremacy, star wars, terrorism, and nuclear nightmares. To know Him means to have Him as the determining criterion and judging reference in all matters of value and priority in life and death.” (Archbishop Demetrios of America)
“Christ came to announce God’s coming Kingdom, but He was not establishing another earthly kingdom at all and so represented no political challenge to existing empires. His kingdom has the up-side-down values of heaven, where the first are last and the last first, where the leaders and powerful are those most committed to being servants of others. It is a kingdom based in love and joy and mercy rather than in power…Christ’s words are meant for each of us to wrestle with and put into practice. Taking up the cross is a challenge in a society which values things, doing what one likes, consuming and accumulating wealth and possessions. A more simplified lifestyle might be an answer, but then minimalism itself becomes a trend rather than a spiritual choice of self-denial and marketers find ways to sell fashion for the minimalist.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)