Every Room is a Church
Every room in our home is like the inside of the Monastery:
1. In the family room is our icon corner, where we pray together and read the Scripture together as a community in Christ.
2. In our living room, there is no music or television program, book or magazine, friend or neighbor or visitor and their behavior — that is not compatible with Christ and His teachings.
3. In our kitchen, the same rules for eating and drinking in moderation, and fasting according to the guidelines of the Church, are followed as they are in the monastery.
4. In every bedroom, we practice the virtue of chastity — in marriage as in the celibate life — as in the Monastery, although not in the same degree.
5. In the office, we practice the same honesty in finances, in dealing with people and possessions, as the monks do in the monastery.
6. In the closets and basements of our lives, we clean out the “rubbish” and the “dark secrets” regularly and thoroughly — as in the Monastery — through the mystery of holy confession.
7. In every room of our home, we live as the hymn of the Nativity beckons us: “God is with us!” And each day over the ways of the world we choose with Joshua: “Choose today whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
Archpriest Michael G. Dahulich (prior to becoming a Bishop)