I don’t necessarily have a routine, but I pray after I wake up and before I eat any meals. Some days I fast to feel more clear of mind, and in those cases I try to dedicate some of the time spent fasting to reflection and prayer. In my free time I research a lot about Christianity (and religions in general) but that’s less out of obligation and more general interest. In my real life I attempt to keep at least some semblance of tranquility, as I find that the calm leaves more space to explore God and what He’s trying to show me. A lot of my inner work happens when I start writing things down. Once I start it’s like a floodgate opens and it’s easier to verbalize everything, so I often write about God and religion in my personal writings as well as those I share with others. Collaboration is a huge thing for me and I go to a theology class on occasion just for the discussion aspect but admittedly I have been slacking off on that recently (summer heat is a killer for my motivation)

I was raised and baptized as Orthodox, so it’s always been a part of my life. I’ve met people who are shocked at how many religious practices I have, just from day-to-day, but it truly has been something I’ve done my whole life and that doesn’t even phase me really. I think that in modern times it’s normalized to not feel a sense of devotion to God, even if you are Christian, or to be quite Relaxed in the way that you worship Him, which I object to. Of course, everybody’s faith is their own, but I can’t imagine how difficult it is for any grown adult to fast for the entirety of lent or to pray before every meal. If they abstain from such behaviors, and similar ones, I will quietly believe to myself that their faith must not be worth much in the first place.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”

Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:

babylon the great
the mother of prostitutes
and of the abominations of the earth.

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.