“Let us be vigilant for we do not know at what hour the thief – death – is coming. Let us be watchful in order to guard our riches – not only the riches of our Orthodox faith but also of the grace we were counted worthy of when we were baptized in the holy baptismal font. What will come more certainly than death? Is the most certain thing that every person will encounter. We want to keep remembrance of death alive within us constantly to that through this most saving remembrance we may avoid the soul’s death which is nothing but a complete separation from God in the afterlife.”
(Elder Ephraim of Arizona in ‘Counsels from the Holy Mountain’)

EphraimArizona5