We are creatures of habit. From the time we get up in the morning to the moment we lay down to sleep, our lives are governed by our habits. Some habits are beneficial, others innocuous, still others detrimental. The beginning of a new year (and another political cycle) often brings with it a call for “change.” Whether or not the call for “change” is earnest or insincere, the results are, more often than not, the same—habits prevail.

Inevitably, good habits are hard to sustain and bad habits are hard to break. When good habits are lost, it is often very difficult to resurrect them. As St. Basil put it, “An illness that has become chronic, like the habit of wrong-doing that has become ingrained, is very hard to heal. If after that, as very often happens, the habit turns into second nature, a cure is out of the question.”

If our worldly life is so oriented, it should come as no surprise that our spiritual life is similarly affected by habits. At a very primitive level, simply coming to Church on a weekly basis is the most fundamental, yet most critical, aspect of our spiritual life. How many times have we seen, either with ourselves or with others, that when the habit of Church attendance is lost, it seems almost impossible to recreate.

In reality, good habits are not lost, they are replaced. The habit of Church attendance is replaced with the habit of sleeping in, or the habit of recreational activities, or any of a variety of habits that are much easier to sustain. Are any of the activities listed above above “bad habits”? Certainly not. The problem is not what these habits do to us quantitatively but how they affect us qualitatively. There are many opportunities for us to “sleep,” for example, but there are singular opportunities that we have to come into communion with God.

More often than not, the best habits are those that require effort and discipline. These “good habits” become replaced with other habits which are easier to sustain, but not as beneficial—much in the same way as watching television is easier than physical exercise. Is it any wonder then that the Fathers of the Church refer to our spiritual habits as askesis or exercise? Disciplines of study, physical exercise, and, yes, Church attendance, are all examples of “good habits” that are difficult to sustain but, in the end, ultimately beneficial.

Good habits, however, can also become “better” habits. One can always read more to enrich one’s self or run further to built up stamina. In the Church, it is also possible to create even more positive habits—the habit of daily prayer and scripture reading, the habit of periodic confession, the habit of fasting, to name only a few.

Just as good habits can become better habits, so too can innocuous habits become bad habits which can, in turn, become worse habits. The further we distance ourselves from God, the greater the danger that we lapse into habits that endanger our very souls. The Great Basil notes this possibility saying, “I have known some unfortunate people who in their youth let themselves slide into evil habits which have held them enslaved all their lives.”

Our habits determine who we are and how we behave. Without a doubt, bad habits are hard to break and good habits are hard to sustain. The only way to ensure that we sustain our good habits is to guard them and continue to add to them, because good habits, when protected, breed better habits—and there is no better habit than to continually seek the blessings of God in His Church.

Rev. Fr. Demetrios E. Tonias is the pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord, NH, one of many "Share the Light Parishes" around the country that partner with the Orthodox Christian Network in a cooperative effort to build an effective media outreach for Orthodoxy. Fr. Demetrios, whose articles and sermons will regularly appear on MyOCN.net, holds an M.Div. and Th.M. from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in historical theology at Boston College. You can read more written by Fr. Demetrios and listen to his parish's OCN-produced Internet radio station, by visiting Holy Trinity's Web site.

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