sofia ☦

“God is not a deceiver, that he should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.”

wake up

The beauty of woman is the greatest snare. Or rather, not the beauty of woman, but unchastened gazing! For we should not accuse the objects, but ourselves, and our own carelessness. Nor should we say, Let there be no women, but Let there be no adulteries. We should not say, Let there be no beauty, but Let there be no fornication. We should not say, Let there be no belly, but let there be no gluttony; for the belly makes not the gluttony, but our negligence. We should not say, that it is because of eating and drinking that all these evils exist; for it is not because of this, but because of our carelessness and insatiableness. Thus the devil neither ate nor drank, and yet he fell! Paul ate and drank, and ascended up to heaven!

I am going to (attempt to) write a detailed guide about visiting an Orthodox Church for the first time that’s kind of written in a questions & answers format. Although depending on the number of questions I get, the format may change.