The more one forgets himself, the more God remembers him.
Sacrifice is a key component in the Orthodox way of life. This fact was recognized by the newly canonized St. Paisios (whose feast day we will celebrate the first time on July 12th). He taught, “You can only receive something in a spiritual way if you give something in a spiritual way and you can’t do that without sacrifice.” He expresses this by way of the following story: “A woman who had everything told me once that having children is a dizzying bother. She couldn’t be bothered to be a mother! When a mother thinks like that, she becomes useless, for mothers, after all, are supposed to have love naturally. Before having her own family, a young woman may be woken up by her mother at ten in the morning. But from the moment she becomes a mother and has to feed and bathe her child, she won’t even sleep at night, because the heart starts working. When a person has a sense of sacrifice, he does not complain, he is not lazy; he rejoices. As Christians, let us practice being sacrificial with Christ and each other.
—Fr. Michael
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