Sunday's message from the Diocese of Maroneia: "Christ is our Guide"translated

Always, but especially in our time, the worship of "Ego" has been for many a secret, idolatrous cult. We love, we value, we constantly think about ourselves. We see, judge, react with moderation to ourselves. And we often use our relationships with God to invest in a good reputation. We lean into the fortress of our "I" to be "safe", and we become unreachable, captives of ourselves. We love others only in relation to our own interest. Individuality is at the root of our every plan and action. Even the Gospel we pass through the filter of our own preferences, keeping what we like and leaving the most difficult orders for the supposedly excessive ones.

However, Christ continues to call those who really want to follow him, on a path of freedom. Freedom from the most implicit and continuous slavery. The slavery of ourselves. The first step to conquering our personal freedom is to deny ourselves. It is not about self-restraint, an abstinence from some pleasure or luxury. What is required is to deny ourselves; to become strangers to him, to have the...