After I graduated from college, while traveling around Europe, hitchhiking, doing the tourist thing, I went into a church in Dublin. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
My mother was an unbeliever – and still is. My father was a nominal Catholic. We would go in to church at the last minute before the gospel reading, take Communion, and walk right out again. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
The devil’s main purpose is not to scare us, in a horror-movie way; when we’re scared of him, we’re alert to him, and that might undermine his plans. Instead, he wants to quietly, subtly lure us into stepping away from God. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Somehow we just don’t make the same boisterous fun of Holy Week that we do of Christmas. No one plans to have a holly, jolly Easter. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Someone who wanted to challenge Orthodoxy would not be able to locate a building to hold a protest march in front of. The faith is too diffused. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Easter tells us of something children can’t understand, because it addresses things they don’t yet have to know: the weariness of life, the pain, the profound loneliness and hovering fear of meaninglessness. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
I know by experience that Jesus Christ is a very powerful spirit – I know by experience that he is probably the most powerful spirit in the universe. I know by experience he is not a mere human being. He is something beyond that. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
I think intellectualizing annoys me because it is the enemy of experience; you cannot experience the presence of God and analyze it at the same time. You can’t analyze anything and experience it simultaneously. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Easter may seem boring to children, and it is blessedly unencumbered by the silly fun that plagues Christmas. Yet it contains the one thing needful for every human life: the good news of Resurrection. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
The New Testament Scriptures are full of references to the malice of the devil, but we generally overlook them. I think this is because our idea of salvation is that Christ died on the cross to pay His Father the debt for our sins. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Of the seven deadly sins, anger has long been the one with the best box of costumes. When the guy in the next car rages at you, he’s dangerous. When you rage at him, you’re just. We can usually recognize the results of anger, especially in others, as destructive and evil. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Lots of Orthodox go to church every Sunday but don’t know much about the faith. Yet they know that there is something that they don’t know much about. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
The Church is the safe place to be. I can safely believe everything the Church teaches. It will not harm me, and in fact it will equip me to grow and grow and have a better and better ability to experience that direct presence. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
There are lots of things to like about being Eastern Orthodox – incense, liturgies, all the baklava you can eat – but you know what I like best? None of that stupid ‘women’s ministry’ stuff. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
People just don’t realize how much peer pressure, the desire for peer acclamation, influences them. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
People don’t do theology in a vacuum but in a community with other theological thinkers, where there’s jealousy, vanity, hurt pride, all those things. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
The Church’s teaching isn’t an official statement, but the cumulative understanding of all the people who have loved and experienced Jesus through time. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
God is not looking for repayment, but repentance. What heals a broken relationship is sincere love and contrition. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
As a teenager and a student, I totally cast away the Christian faith. I just believed it was stupid, and only stupid people could believe it. I actually became an anti-Christian, and very antagonistic. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Temptation coaxes us toward sin, and sin leads to sickness and death, and ultimately confinement in the realm of the evil one. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
The Christmas story has such power and such appeal every year. There are other stories we get tired of. You think of your favorite movie; you don’t want to watch it 15 times. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
I was raised in a nominal Roman Catholic home, but without any really strong faith there. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
The Orthodox hierarchy doesn’t have the kind of power that high-ranking clergy do in other churches. There isn’t even a worldwide governing board to hold all the various Orthodox bodies together. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
Jesus showed us how to be courageous and sacrificial while we die for our beliefs, not while we kill for them. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
You can latch onto theological ideas that are, in fact, not accurate, and refuse to let them go. I think we’ve seen this a few times in church history. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
I’ve been able to dig deeper into awareness of my own sinfulness, and take baby steps toward spiritual healing. I’m able to worship in an ancient communion full of awesome beauty, one that is now being blessed with quiet revival. – Frederica Mathewes-Green
