SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“It takes the spiritual gift of discernment to recognize the difference between what comes from our own ego and what comes from the Spirit of Christ. What originates in our ego comes from our own pride. But we receive what is of Christ. We can only accept it with humility and gratitude as a gift…humility will realize that whatever wisdom, knowledge, spiritual gifts, and blessings it has, it has received.” (Fr. Basil) “Saint Paul urges us to be careful not to detach the forms

“God gave us a mind in order that we might learn and receive help from Him, not in order that the mind should be self-sufficient. Eyes are beautiful and useful, but if they choose to see without light, their beauty is useless and may even be harmful. Likewise, if my soul chooses to see without the Spirit, it becomes a danger to itself.…we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, making us capable of spiritual discernment…The indwelling Spirit works in and through our spirits, illumin

“Jesus now describes the guilt of the world. He came to these people with both words (15:22) and sign-miracles (15:24), yet they remained obstinate in their unbelief, and this sin of unbelief was without excuse. Jesus was not saying that if He had not come and spoken to these people they would be sinless; rather He was saying that if He had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of the sin of rejecting Him and the Father he came to reveal. Rejecting Jesus is th

Quotes of the Day for July 23, 2021 – Thoughts on challenging our understanding of true morality “The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The Lord’s holiness is first and foremost his transcendent sovereignty as the ruler of the world. He is “set apart” from the world over which He rules. At the same time His holiness encompasses His moral authority, which derives from His royal position. As King He has the right to d

“Evil is a mutation, a parasite, an interloper. It is an ancient Darkness that fears and despises the Light. At war with the good, it is an immensely powerful force in human life and human societies…A veil of darkness – the fire of the worldly spirit – surrounds the heart preventing . . . the soul from praying, believing, and loving the Lord as it desires to do…we must look to Christ to contend with the dark forces of evil that otherwise would overpower us. Of all the visible

“We live in a world where actions and choices have consequences. That is what it means to be human. Those saying that the cost of living in a world where such consequences are possible is too high a cost are really asking to live in a non-human world, a world of machines running on programs or animals running on instinct. But God made a world for men and women to live in, a world of consequences, a world full of invitations to joy.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley) “Since God will not a

“There are two ways in which the prayer of a righteous man is effective. The first is when the person praying does so by offering to God his works done according to His commands. Then the prayer is not just a matter of words, blurted out meaninglessly with the empty echo of the tongue, but powerful and living and inspired with the spirit of the commandments. For the true basis of prayer and supplication is the fulfillment of the commandments by virtue. This makes the prayer o

“St. Paul called “that mindset which was in Christ Jesus,” the phronema Christou (Phil. 2.5).”…Our phronema is our mindset, but mental attitude can never be separated from behavior. Our phronema is revealed by our manner of life. Conversely, the way we choose to live shapes and reinforces our phronema.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou) “At the end of his letters, the Apostle Paul often provides practical applications for his teachings. He follows this pattern in Romans…Sa

“Quite simply, the events…usually spoken of in terms of God’s “special” action may be seen, not as the product of some kind of divine interference with the world, in which the laws of nature are set aside or manipulated. Rather, they may be seen as the outward manifestation in this world of something that is already present but hidden within it: what we can properly call its “natural” state. The miraculous is not, in this perspective, the result of something being added to th

“God works invisibly beneath our actions to deal with desperate circumstances. He uses our striving to face troubles and perils to carry out His will… We may act skillfully or clumsily. We may live wisely or foolishly. We may be clever or clueless, but the Almighty is with us. He is always working beneath what we do to fulfill His will in our lives. So let us abandon our pride and give Him the glory whether what we do turns out well or badly. Thus, let us trust that ultimatel