Strangers to the World
by abbamoses
It is difficult to long for a heavenly home that we have not seen, and so God in His infinite wisdom has given us the Holy Church.
True spiritual life involves our being strangers to the world. How often we forget that this present, mortal existence is not all that is, but rather is only a shadow of reality! We walk through our days completely immersed in our present circumstances, our bodies, minds and emotions, anxious for tomorrow and too often fearful for today. Our Savior has taught, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on” (Mat. 6:25), but still we worry.
It is difficult to long for a heavenly home that we have not seen, and so God in His infinite wisdom has given us the Holy Church. It is here that we begin to catch glimpses of our heavenly home and have awakened in our hearts the love and longing for union with our Maker. The Holy Church both sets us apart as strangers to the world and provides us consolation in our earthly sojourn. Here we find “love, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22–23), all of which sustains us until the end. Earthly things cannot compare.
— Fr Michael Crowley, St. Xenia Parish News, Methuen MA.
That Which is Bread 
This is from the monthly bulletin of St Xenia Church, a wonderful ROCOR parish that we attend when we’re in Massachusetts visiting family. We get there no more than once a year, but they send us their bulletin, for which we’re grateful.