A Lecture given at the Youth Conference
of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia,
San Francisco, August 3, 1981
by Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)

Every Orthodox Christian is placed between two worlds:  this fallen world where we try to work out our salvation, and the other world, heaven, the homeland towards which we are striving and which, if we are leading a true Christian life, gives us the inspiration to live from day to day in Christian virtue and love.

But the world is too much with us.  We often, and in fact nowadays we usually forget the heavenly world.  The pressure of worldliness is so strong today that we often lose track of what our life as a Christian is all about.  Even if we may be attending church services frequently and consider ourselves “active” church members, how often our churchliness is only something external, bound up with beautiful services and the whole richness of our Orthodox tradition of worship, but lacking in real inner conviction that Orthodoxy is the faith that can save our soul for eternity, lacking in real love for and commitment to Christ, the incarnate God and Founder of our faith.  How often our church life is just a matter of habit, something we go through outwardly but which does not change us inwardly, does not make us grow spiritually and lead us to eternal life in God.