Brothers and Sisters in Christ…Be different.  The winds of change in “the world”, even in our own country, are constantly howling.  Right will become wrongs, and wrongs will be made right.  St. Anthony the Great once said: “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying: ‘You are mad; you are not like us.”

In a very real way dear ones, when we miss a Sunday, we miss the joy of Pascha!  We deprive ourselves of Christ’s joyful presence in our lives!  We deny ourselves the Holy Eucharist…Christ Himself!  We deny ourselves the inner change that comes from the descent of the Holy Spirit.  We reject the peace that can only be found within the walls of the Church and in the presence of Christ…in favor of a war torn, broken, and confused world, that has no answers. 

True and full happiness and satisfaction cannot be found in the world…but only in the love of God.  To think otherwise is insanity. 

If you are a “Sunday only Orthodox Christian”, you are deluding yourself into thinking that this journey through life, and into a real and meaningful relationship with God Himself, only requires you to sacrifice 2 hours on a Sunday morning to come to the Divine Liturgy.

It is about this time, in the middle Great Lent, where those who have been taking their spiritual lives seriously begin to feel weary and overcome by their struggles to fast. It becomes harder to give alms and even to pray.  It’s an annual tradition that every Orthodox Christian experiences: Great Lent around this time doesn’t always feel “Great”.