How to Remain in Communion With God

There are many necessary elements for remaining in communion with God. Among the chief are:

• Regular attendance at Sunday Divine Liturgy, as well as consistent participation in the Feasts and fasts of the Church year.

• Maintaining a daily prayer rule (for a basic outline; see Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers on pages 755 to 761 in the Orthodox Study Bible).

• Daily reading and study of the Holy Scripture.

• Regularly partaking of the Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion).

• Regular repentance and confession of sins.

"One of the best known of the Desert Fathers of fourth-century Egypt. Saint Serapion the Sindonite, traveled once on pilgrimage to Rome. Here he was told of a celebrated recluse, a woman who lived always in one small room, never going out.Skeptical about her way of life--for he was himself a great wonderer--Serapion called on her and asked: 'Why are you sitting here?' To this she replied: 'I am not sitting, I am on a journey.'

Biblically and historically, true worship has consistently been liturgical. "Spontaneous" worship is an innovation of the last century or so.