In Orthodoxy, we often hear talk about the mortification of the passions. What do we mean by this? Perhaps the Paschal season helps us to understand.

Christ destroyed death not by killing, but by voluntarily accepting his own death. Through his voluntary death, he destroyed death, and that destruction of death by death gave abundant life — life to those in the tombs!

So we don’t fight against the passions directly, we mortify them by our death… [ read more ]