“…Our faith will be tested in a very real way during this pandemic. There will be persecution, and it will come from two places. The first will come from the outside, from those who do not understand the power of the Divine Liturgy, and the necessity of the Eucharist. The second, and perhaps the more dangerous persecution, will come from the inside….

“Being an Orthodox Christian is not about being a part of a social club on Sundays that does nice things for people. This is a serious faith…one that comes with the tremendous responsibility to take what we have been given, to protect it, and to pass it on untainted and untouched until our Lord comes again.”

When we miss a Divine Liturgy (just ONE Liturgy) do we notice a change in our life? Do we feel that something is missing? Does it feel like a huge whole has entered into our hearts?

No amount of the external things we do, no matter how pious looking they may appear, will ever bring us closer to God until we can change what is on the inside.

Go through life remembering those last few words of the prayer that our Lord taught us, that with all things, it is never the expectation that “my will be done”…but rather the hope that  “His will be done.”  This is the key to happiness, it is the key to the Kingdom, and it is the key to the Glory of God, who answers all who call upon Him with hope.