“We have to know God in a godly manner and speak about Him accordingly. Thus only those who are free from the anxiety and constraint of their own will and have given themselves over to the will of God can move about at their ease in the testimony to the truth, moved in a place of freedom, beyond all anguish, by the Spirit of God Himself.
The Apostle Peter’s bravado is a transient illusion, powerless before the temptations of life. The big brave man falters when faced with a servant-girl. The thief was not afraid because he was crucified. Peter denied Christ because he feared crucifixion. The free man is the man who is crucified. A dead man does not fear death. No one can lose what he does not have. No one who has security can know God. No one who has worldly defences, like Peter, can believe. Inevitably, with curses and oaths he will confess the truth–that he does not know Christ. Then, after this painful process of self-emptying and feeling of total ignorance, will come weeping, contrition and grace. From then on, the sun will rise and faith will blossom. Worn out by much weeping like a baby child, Peter becomes once again the rock of faith.”

–taken from HYMN OF ENTRY by Archimandrite Vasileios, pp. 93-94