"The temple of God is a foundry, where rusty, sinful natures are melted down. It is a bath-house where filthiness of the flesh and spirit is washed away. It is a school for teaching crude and wandering souls. It is a sun that enlightens and vivifies those in darkness and deadens sins. The temple of God is a hospital in which spiritual wounds are healed. The temple of God is a sanctuary in which the uncleanliness of sin is taken away and our souls and bodies are sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit and Sacramental services. The temple of God is a paradise on earth in which we are fed with immortal, incorruptible food--the Body and Blood of Christ. The temple of God is a mystical Mountain of Sinai from which the true Lawgiver, Christ our God constantly announces to us His will. In the Church of God and the Heavenly Kingdom are mysteriously mingled all the members of the Body of Christ, the heavenly, earthly, and those from the underworld. Here is the full Church of the first-born, for here are the forefathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, the choir of monk-saints and all the righteous ones who sing and together with us glorify the only God, our Savior and Life-Giver.
The Church of God is holy as you are holy...Do you not kow that you are a temple of God?
All of you, my beloved brethren, came to this temple to repent, to throw off from yourselves the yoke of sins, to be at peace with God, reconciled with God and your conscience, to receive peace in your souls, freedom, lightness of soul, renewal, the power to lead a virtuous life. But what is sin, that darkens all of us, that fogs us up, that shames us, dooms us? This is the smiting of the devil, that evil spirit that has lost its original goodness and light through pride and resistance to God and complete, unimaginable evil. Sin is a vicious pain, a wound that covers the whole of humanity, a pussing wound that carries a foul smell over all mankind. It's a frightful decomposition that rots gradually, and sometimes with excessive speed, the whole of mankind. So it was in the time of Noah, of Abraham and Lot, and so it is today. It is embryonic death, threatening to turn into the outward death of souls. Against this sickness, against this plague, against this pussing wound, this decomposition, there is only one remedy---faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and sincere repentance. The wisest people, most highly educated, strongest and greatest in the sight of the world, though having performed many great deeds could not conquer themselves--just as also comtemporary, secular and intelligent people, great in the sight of the world, cannot conquer sin without faith in Christ."
---St. John of Kronstadt
