We know the words and tunes of many songs but not of any hymns.

We read books and magazines on all subjects, even study for many long years; but afford little time to read and study Scripture.

We know the latest sports fixtures but little of the Church’s calendar.

We know of the rich and the famous but little of the lives of the Saints.

We talk all day long leaving little time to pray.

We go out and about in the world partaking in its frantic activity finding little or no time to worship God.

We fancy all kinds of tasteful works of art, decorating our walls and spaces, finding balance and harmony in all things, then as an after thought we place our icons in unreachable and inaccessible places, so that there is no hope of kissing the icons or saying our prayers before them. We leave them to gather dust.

We say that we have little time, that we are always in a rush, though we waste our time on things that are spiritually unprofitable.

We are used to noise and constant distractions so that we have lost the value of silence and the continuity of time.

Though we look for spiritual life we are strangers of it.
We are strangers of spiritual life because we do not know that holiness is not a quality of our own making or striving, but which only comes to us through the spirit of humility and repentance and given to us as a gift by the power and Grace of the Holy Spirit.

We live comfortably so that our heads rarely find reason to look up to heaven.

We look for blessings but cannot see the blessings we have already been given.

We are an ungrateful lot, forgetting that all things are given to us from above.

We plan, we scrutinise and we organise, all the things that come our way, ensuring that we are not cheated, defeated, or taken advantage of by others. We leave no room for chance, so we leave no room for love in our hearts.

We measure every word for our own justification, but we are blind to God’s universal Truth and Word and justice.

We say that we are compassionate but for the most part we rely on words that are disassociated from our hearts.

We watch and watch and watch the box, submitting to everything shown to us as our minds and bodies hypnotically comply.

We are troubled by any breach of our privacy, but we remain unconcerned about ourselves and the true accountability we have in the presence of God who sees and knows all things, even our heart’s intentions; the things we have done and the things we ought to have done, but have neglected to do.

We travel the world as if it is one big playground giving scant regard to the culture and the people we trample on and leave behind.

We raise our children and surround them with the best that money can buy. We live by high material standards but we do not apply the same rigour for the care and wellbeing of their souls through the love of Christ.

If we knew about love, we would not think and act in this way.
If we wanted to protect our children, we would raise them to know about God’s love through our example.
Spiritual negligence of children is a tragedy beyond imagination. It is the worst form of child abuse.

We fear the might and strength of guns and bombs and the evil that prevails in the world especially in times of war, but we do not fear the Power of the Almighty to whom we are accountable.

Distance from God produces in us the spirit of indifference, the spirit of laziness, the spirit of forgetfulness and the spirit of ignorance.

We go to the Church to Baptise our infants, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but we do not know either the Creed nor the true meaning and power of the sign of the Cross.

We seek to a good partner and seek to marry, to have “a traditional wedding” but we forget that the most important thing is to receive God’s blessing in the Sacrament so that an Angel goes before us to guide and protect us all the days of our life.

Fr Emmanuel Stamatiou