““It is not a gathering of 'escapees' from the world, bitterly enjoying their escape, feeding their hate for the world. Listen to their psalms and hymns; contemplate the transparent beauty of their icons, their movements, of the entire *celebration. It is truly cosmical joy that permeates all this; it is the entire creation - its matter and its time, its sounds and colors, its words and silence - that praises and worships God and in this praise becomes again itself: the Eucharist, the sacrament of unity, the sacrament of the new creation.””
![“We were created as celebrants of the sacrament of life, of its transformation into life in God, communion with God … [R]eal life is “eucharist,” a movement of love and adoration toward God, the movement in which alone the meaning and value of all that exists can be revealed and fulfilled … [I]n…” quote by Norman Wirzba](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/515/norman-wirzba-41338_change_we-were-created-as-celebrants-of-the-sac_1707178.jpg)
![“To be more precise... death is [contrary to] God, and if death is natural, if it is the ultimate truth about life and about the world, if it is the highest and immutable law about all of creation, then there is no God, then this whole story about creation, about joy, and about the light of life is…” quote by Alexander Schmemann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/4e8/alexander-schmemann-18392_christian_to-be-more-precise-death-is-contrary-to_126170.jpg)
![“The additional problem with all these proofs [of the immortality of the soul] is that in their attempt to affirm the existence of another world, they in fact undermine the reality and the value of this visible world. It is, of course, the perennial argument: things are awful here, therefore let us…” quote by Alexander Schmemann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/85b/alexander-schmemann-18392_another-world_the-additional-problem-with-all-these-pr_278162.jpg)
