SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“…this is how the path of religious life begins. As the holy fathers write, the soul passes through three stages: slave, hireling, and son. The stage of the slave—a person does not yet love God, but fears hell. He keeps the commandments because he has been horrified by the description of fiery gehenna. This is faith expressing the religious instinct of self-preservation. The stage of the hireling—a person already hopes for reward. He fasts in order to receive the Kingdom of H

“I have no desire to wake up every day and look at the world and see only hopelessness. God did not create us to be hopeless. He created us, knowing us even before we were born, because of His infinite love and mercy. We too, are called to have love and mercy for each other.” (Jackie Morfesis) “Christ’s resurrection forced His disciples into a true paradigm shift: the finality of death was gone forever. Yet, life with all its trials and problems was still ongoing and the disc

“It is of note to me that there is a great darkness associated with God in some presentations of the Christian faith, enough to drive...

“So we see dramatized in Genesis the bitter “fruit” of an approach to the interpretation of spiritual realities that attempts to be...

“Sin remains an affront to the holy God. It alienates us from God again as if Christ had not reconciled us to our Creator. So it puts us...

“Our quest for communion with the everlasting God reorients our vision, directing it toward the eternal destiny of all mankind. We...

“In the Christian life, discouragement comes in many forms. There is discouragement when it seems our prayers are not answered; when we...