Holy Tuesday and Feast of St Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow & Enlightener of North America

AND WE HAVE been taught, and are persuaded, and believe that He accepts only those who imitate the good things which are in Him, temperance and righteousness and well-doing, and whatsoever else truly belongs to God who is called by no given name. And we have been taught that in the beginning He of His goodness, for people’s sakes, formed all things out of unformed matter; and if they, by their actions, show themselves worthy of His design, they are accounted worthy, so we have received, of reigning with Him, being delivered from corruption and suffering. For as in the beginning He created us when we were not, so we consider that those who likewise choose what is pleasing to Him are, on account of their choice, counted worthy of incorruption and of fellowship with Him. For the coming into being was not our choice; but in order that we may follow those things that please Him, choosing them by means of the rational powers He has given us, He both persuades us and leads us to faith.

—St Justin Martyr, The First Apology