Death to the World (About)
Some people by the word freedom understand the ability to do whatever one wants... People who have the more allowed themselves to come into slavery to sins, passions, and defilements more often than others appear as zealots of external freedom, wanting to broaden the laws as much as possible. But such a man uses external freedom only to more severely burden himself with inner slavery.
True freedom is the active ability of a man who is not enslaved to sin, who is not pricked by a condemning conscience, to choose the better in the light of God's truth, and to bring it into actuality with the help of the gracious power of God. This is the freedom of which neither heaven nor earth are restrict.
+St. Philaret of Moscow
From here: "...For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity... They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers... They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven."
-Epistle to Diognetus 5, discussing the behavior of Christians. The only tribe we belong to, is the heavenly one. Beware of those who teach otherwise.
See also
About Richard-Spyros Hagabimana, an Orthodox Christian of Burundi
Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa (& the Decolonization of Africa)
Ancient Christian faith (Orthodox Church) in Africa
"THE WAY" - An Introduction to the Orthodox Faith
Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life
The holy anarchists... in the Egyptian Desert
Why I’m not an atheist
Punks to Monks: Effects of the Last True Rebellion (Video)
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