1. ያለው መንገድ አንድ ብቻ ነው፥ በመከራ ጊዜ የተጠረበና ዘወትር በመጸለይ የተጣራ ፍቅር / 2. በክርስትና ህይወት ውስጥ መካከለኛ መሬት ሊኖር አይችልም፥ በሙሉ መኖር ወይም ምንም/ 3. በምድር ላይ ዓለት ማቆምና ይህ ዓለት ቋሚ እንዲሆን ማድረግ / 4. ምንም እንኳን በስደት ብንሆንም ለከተማችን ሰላም እንሠራለን / 5. እንሠራለን፣ እንፀልያለን፣ ኃጢአታችንን እንናዘዛለን፣ ምህረትን እናሳያለን፣ እንግዳን እንቀበላለን እንዲሁም ትእዛዛቱን እንጠብቃለን። ስቃይ ሲደርስብን (በተለይ ስለ ክርስቶስ ከሆነ) እናመሰግናለን

Love is the only way we will make it through what is to come. Love is not romantic ecstasy. It has to be a kind of love that has been honed and intensified through regular prayer, fasting, and repentance and, for many Christians, through receiving the holy sacraments. And it must be a love that has been refined through suffering. There is no other way.

Start by getting serious about living as Christians, he said. Accept that there can be no middle ground.

“That used to be my life”, said Marco. “I didn’t know the teaching of Jesus Christ was for all my life” not just the ‘religious’ part of it. If you recognize that He is the Lord of all, you will order your life in a radically different way”.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next in life, but in the meantime, we have to fight for the good”, he told me. “The possibility of saving the good things in the world is only that: a possibility. We have to take the chances we have to set a rock in the earth and to keep this rock steady”.

We live liturgically, telling our sacred Story in worship and song. We fast and we feast. We marry and give our children in marriage, and though in exile, we work for the peace of the city. We welcome our newborns and bury our dead. We read the Bible, and we tell our children about the saints. And we also tell them in the orchard and by the fireside about Odysseus, Achilles, and Aeneas, of Dante and Don Quixote, and Frodo and Gandalf, and all the tales that bear what it means to be men and women…

We work, we pray, we confess our sins, we show mercy, we welcome the stranger, and we keep the commandments. When we suffer, especially for Christ’s sake, we give thanks, because that is what Christians do. Who knows what God, in turn, will do with our faithfulness? It is not for us to say. Our command is, in the words of the Christian poet W. H. Auden, to “stagger onward rejoicing”.

(From ROD DREHER, Benedict Option, Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, pp. 237-244)