Putting on Christ

Putting on Christ

Baptism is only the beginning of a life in Christ

We must not allow ourselves to view our ethnic links as assurances that our children will remain Orthodox Christians into adulthood. It is fine to be proud of one’s ethnic heritage, and want to preserve one’s ethnic language and ethnic traditions. But our ethnicity does not save us. Only Christ saves us! Being Greek or Russian will not save us, for God’s grace has nothing to do with one’s ethnicity. It is only putting on Christ that will bring about salvation. We must not link ethnic preservation to our Orthodox Faith, for in Christ there is “neither Greek nor Jew…”.

If we allow ourselves to see the parish as the cultural link to our family tree, but do not instruct our children in the life of prayer and repentance, and the importance that they bind themselves to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, we may inadvertently deprive them of a faith that will sustain them for the rest of their lives.

With love and blessings,

Abbot Tryphon

Photos: Icon of Saint Mary of Egypt, painted by my friend, Father Deacon Turbo Qualls (second photograph), of the inner city Serbian mission in Kansas City, MO.