"When preparing for a journey, we try to learn as much as we can about our destination...
...Exactly the same can be said about our life’s journey to the Kingdom...
...We are already on our journey, and should be continually preparing for it. How? Is this the right question? There are as many ways to prepare for this journey as there are people living on this earth.
The Church is here for those of us who are blessed with belonging to Christ. The Lord knows the ways of many who haven’t found nor encountered Him. It is not for us to decide. But we know Christ, we partake of His Body and His Blood, we stand at the foot of His Cross, we know His Love...Love Him back! Always and forever, this is the answer: love Him back!
The Church provides all the tools that this journey requires...."
"The early Church knew that, in all creation, there is no one who is worthy through his own spiritual effort, through his own “worthiness,” to partake of the body and blood of Christ, and that therefore preparation consists not in a calculation and analysis of one’s “preparedness” or “unpreparedness,” but in the answer of love to love..."
+ Fr Alexander Schmemann, "The Sacrament of Communion" in "The Eucharist." Trans. by Paul Kachur (New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1987) 241.
...Exactly the same can be said about our life’s journey to the Kingdom...
...We are already on our journey, and should be continually preparing for it. How? Is this the right question? There are as many ways to prepare for this journey as there are people living on this earth.
The Church is here for those of us who are blessed with belonging to Christ. The Lord knows the ways of many who haven’t found nor encountered Him. It is not for us to decide. But we know Christ, we partake of His Body and His Blood, we stand at the foot of His Cross, we know His Love...Love Him back! Always and forever, this is the answer: love Him back!
The Church provides all the tools that this journey requires...."
+ Matushka Juliana Schmemann, The Joy to Serve (Montreal: Alexander Press, 2009) 86-88.
"The early Church knew that, in all creation, there is no one who is worthy through his own spiritual effort, through his own “worthiness,” to partake of the body and blood of Christ, and that therefore preparation consists not in a calculation and analysis of one’s “preparedness” or “unpreparedness,” but in the answer of love to love..."
+ Fr Alexander Schmemann, "The Sacrament of Communion" in "The Eucharist." Trans. by Paul Kachur (New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1987) 241.
