As we continue through the Nativity Fast, we can consider where we are going on our spiritual sojourn.
“Monks and nuns are already living that future existence in this life, rather than considering themselves bound by our present postlapsarian existence. Monasticism (and, more generally, asceticism in all its forms) asserts that it is possible, to some degree, to live eschatologically even now, within our fallen stage of existence: acts of fasting and celibacy are ways of exercising self-control over our biological bodies to create unity and harmony between body and soul, and are simultaneously a foretaste of the future freedom from biological necessities.” (Valerie A. Karras in Thinking Through Faith: New Perspective from Orthodox Christian Scholars edited by Aristotle Papanikolaou and Elizabeth H. Prodromou, pg. 136)
Fraternized 