As Christians

As Christians, we sometimes become complacent and think that it is enough to possess knowledge about our faith, or to go to church regularly, or to undergo the necessary procedures, such as getting sprinkled with holy water or receiving Communion. We think that we just have to read more homilies by John Chrysostom, or attend more vigils, or venerate more traveling icons or relics, or to own more books about the Desert Fathers, or to get the latest fashionable bracelet woven somewhere by monks. All of these are laudable and holy things, but our Lord did not say: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you wear a bracelet, own the Paterikon, and attend church every Sunday.”