“At the present time also many millions of people consider themselves Christians, and that means that they acknowledge the Gospel as the foremost book in the world; as a book which contains the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ about how we must live here on earth in order to be worthy after death, beyond the grave, of eternal, blessed life, as well as have earthly prosperity in this life. But what is amazing and to our great sorrow, very few people actually follow what is written in the Gospel. Most do not even pick up the Gospel and do not test themselves according to the it.

Have you picked up the Holy Gospel with the goal of testing whether you are walking the path that is shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ? If you do not do this, then you are making a fatal mistake that is perilous for you. By this you show that you do not value the Divine Blood that the Lord spilled for you on the Cross, and denigrate the Gospel He gave us, which is the way, the truth, and the life for the world as a whole and for each person in particular. Just as there is not a single name under Heaven given to us that could save us besides the name of Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4:12), so there is no other teaching in the whole world that can show us the direct path to the acquisition of blessedness and earthly well being other than the Gospel teaching.”

– Homily in pravoslavie.ru

***Now and then we include a particularly thought provoking or inspiring excerpt not from one of our regular ‘Elders’***