Fasting is universal temperance, prayer is universal communication with God; the former defends from the outside, whereas the latter from within directs a fiery weapon against the enemies. The demons can sense a faster and man of prayer from a distance, and they run far away from him so as avoid a painful blow.
Saint Theophan the Recluse

“Imitate not the example of coldness towards God, which is everywhere apparent in the world, but rather the example of the zeal of Jesus Christ and the saints, about which Christian history relates so much that is edifying. Imitate not the example of pagan life, which is so often apparent in the world, but the example of good behavior, modesty, sense of shame, temperance, and decency by which were distinguished the saints, or the true Christians, who constantly lived not by the rules of the world, but by the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Metropolitan Gregory (Postnikov) of St. Petersburg

The world says you should take everything from life, to try it all. But it’s just a trap. It doesn’t suggest you to try good things first. Rather it calls for everything that deceives you and destroys your life in the end. It shows the sin as something sweet and nice, hiding what’s inside in fact.

“Orthodoxy is life. If we dont live Orthodoxy, we simply are not Orthodox, no matter what formal beliefs we might hold.”
Fr. Seraphim Rose

The core of Orthodox life is repentance, worship, prayer, fasting, willing to make our best to live everyday life in accordance with the Scripture and guidance of Holy Church Fathers.

☦️?️Feel shame when sinning, do not feel shame when repenting. Look what the devil has done to you. Here there are two things: sin and repentance; sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine. . . the wound provokes gangrene, the medicine cleanses the gangrene. Sin provokes shame . . . while repentance brings boldness and freedom. What Satan has done is to reverse the order: he has given boldness to sin and shame to repentance. Knowing that sin brings shame, something sufficient to deter the sinner, and that repentance brings boldness, something sufficient to attract the penitent, Satan reversed the order and gave shame to repentance and boldness to sin. . . This is the devil’s villainy: he does not permit shame to attach to sin, because he knows that if someone feels shame he will flee from the sin, but rather he attaches shame to repentance, because he knows that if someone feels shame he will flee from repentance. He thus achieves two evils: he attracts to sin and deters from repentance.?️☦️

✤ St. John Chrysostom ✤