On the danger of spiritual routine

I read once that: ‘There are some people who are orphans from the time they’re born. I’m very much afraid that the same is true in the field of faith. We’re born, baptized but never manage to come to know our Heavenly Father, and the Divine Liturgy is turned into a routine’.

If we  change the Divine Liturgy and our faith into something routine, then the fault’s entirely our own. The tragic thing is that we play ‘hide and seek’ with God. We have recourse to this so that we don’t see the terrible mess we’re in, nor the defaced image we present.

At the first hurdle, at the first temptation in our lives, we start off with the pledges and false promises: ‘Most Pure Lady, help my child and I’ll change my way of life’. And so we transform our relationship with God into one of subservience. And if anyone reminds us of the temptation we underwent, we start making excuses and shift the blame, instead of really repenting. People talk to us about Church attendance and fasting, but we say: ‘It’s summer, I can’t. I don’t keep this fast’. As if fasting wasn’t a command from God.

Our inability to change our lives leads us to reject God Himself, because we haven’t understood the love of our Creator.

Repentance and forgiveness, love and sincerity, observation of the commandments of God are what give us hope for improvement in ourselves. We have to make an effort to encounter Christ in our hearts, in our love for others, and then we’ll come face to face with His Presence.

Fr. P.K.