SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Effective witness requires that we first learn to rely on the Spirit to help us….You can’t witness effectively by relying on your own strength, because fear will keep you from speaking out for God. Only by relying on the power of the Holy Spirit can you live and witness for Him.” (Foundation Study Bible, Acts 1:8, Life Application Study Bible, Micah 3:8) “Let us take heed about this: what we are called to is not simply preaching in the sense of communicating some information

“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? (1 Thessalonians 2:19). In the above quote, St Paul points us in an interesting direction as the source of our hope and joy. He points us not to Christ who is coming again to the world at the end of time. Rather, He is looking at his fellow Christians in the Thessalonian parish: YOU are our hope and joy and crown of our rejoicing. We may readily bel

“When we separate faith from everything else, we make it into belief. It becomes the assent to the truth of something that cannot be proven by empirical evidence. The Book of James addresses this mistaken thought directly when it says, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (OSB James 2:24)… Paul speaks of “faith active” in love. This poignant phrase indicates that Paul would agree with James, who wrote against the idea of “faith alone.” He ins

“God gave men and women a natural law within them—the ability to choose the good and avoid the evil—but they chose selfishness. Then God gave the law of Moses, and it too was broken. Great darkness falls upon the soul that is without the light of the commandments….Why was the law given then? Because Israel was transgressing what they knew of God's law through conscience and nature. So God put it in writing! The law was never a savior, but a tutor (Galatians 3:24) to convict I

“The sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s back yard.” (Father Alexander Schmemann) “We live in a sea of grace, in a world in which wonder and awe suffuse the whole universe. Often, the work of grace goes unnoticed, hidden both by its ordinariness and its lack of drama. Our culture is fond of singing, “Amazing grace,” with an expectation that what constitutes the work of God will always amaze a

“Reading the Scriptures, studying the church fathers, attending worship, praying, and meditating are all good and godly things. But they are not ends in themselves. When we engage in these holy activities, our sincere and fervent goal should be to encounter the Lord Jesus Christ. We may be the most informed and even enthusiastic students of the Word. We may be devoted to the teachings of the church. We may excel in Christianity as Paul excelled in Judaism. But all that we thi

“What lies hidden in the designs of God I confess I do not know—I am only a man—but this I know with full certainty, that, whatever it is, it is more just, more wise, and more solidly based on incomparable perfection than all the judgments of people….God’s will is determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good.” (St. Augustine, C.S. Lewis) “The story of Isaac blessing his son Jacob illustrates the intense meanin

“Seth was begotten from Adam and Eve. This threefold relationship illustrates, to a certain extent, the Holy Trinity. Adam had no human father. He was begotten by no one. Thus, he was unbegotten. Seth was begotten from Adam. Eve was neither unbegotten nor begotten. Instead she proceeded from Adam (Genesis 2:21). Therefore, Eve and Seth were related to the unbegotten Adam, but each in a unique manner—Eve proceeded from Adam, but Seth was begotten from him. Each person had his

“The Church’s tradition of fasting exists to restore balance between body and soul, between penitence and rejoicing, between us and the world around us…When the body is humbled, our thoughts become more peaceful, too. This is the purpose of fasting.” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou, Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “Withdrawing from earthly things whets our spiritual appetite for Christ’s heavenly gifts…fasting never devalues earthly things, but in a spirit of gratitude re

“If we find that we too are limping along in our walk with the Lord, then we might ask ourselves whether unknowingly or not, we have become double-minded. If we feel stuck in our growth in faith and unproductive in our spiritual life, then we should exam ourselves. We should ask ourselves whether we have set up a rival to the Lord in our concerns, motives, and interests. If our worship in the House of God loses its sense of devotion, then perhaps we have become devoted to som