A Model Sermon for Children Attending a Presanctified Liturgy

 By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani

First of all, I want to congratulate you for coming to church today and standing quietly, with reverence, here in the house of God.

I will tell you a few words about the Presanctified Divine Liturgy - this special Liturgy - which is performed only during this period of Great Lent.

The wise Fathers of the Church have instituted the Presanctified Divine Liturgy because at this time we cannot perform the normal, the glorious, the perfect, as we say, Divine Liturgy, and this is because this period is one of mourning, it is a period of fasting, of greater self-control and prayer, it is a period of greater spiritual struggles.

The Response of Saint Amphilochios Makris to a Request for Spiritual Advice from a Sixteen Year Old Girl

My child, the advice I give you will be a beacon throughout your life. These paternal words will guide you and bring you like a hurricane and auspicious wind near the eternal and happy port of your adoring love. Let your soul sail quietly on the calm waters so that it can reach its end. But to be able to reach this end of happiness, you need a lot of struggle and wrestling against the passions.
 

It is a struggle throughout this life of bitter exile, because in this life we are strangers and wandering sojourners, asking for refuge everywhere. We will find refuge and perfect rest only near our eternal homeland and there we will live in real security. There we will enjoy the unfading and all-white crown of our efforts.