SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The gift of speech is the greatest gift and corresponds to man’s need for expressing feelings, for exchanging thoughts, impressions, and conversations. But nothing can do more harm to one’s neighbor and nothing can so easily destroy as verbosity, which the enemy uses cunningly and especially successfully to catch people in his nets.” (St. Seraphim Chichagov) “We live in a remarkable and frightening time—the age of an information flood. Every day, through the screens of our s

“While very detailed instructions are given for other elements of sacrificial rituals, none are given for the means of killing the animals involved. To sacrifice something is not to kill it, but to eat it as a sacred meal. This required its death, whether the sacrifice was of animals or plants (such as first fruits from the harvest and grain offerings).” (Fr. Stephen De Young) “…the empty formalism of ritual sacrifices will not make up for sin. Perfunctory religious practices

“Christ points later in St. John’s Gospel as He gives up His life on the Cross, saying, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The Greek verb here used by St. John is the same verb used in Genesis 2:1 at the completion of the work of Creation, leading to God’s rest. Christ, therefore, rests in the Tomb on the seventh day of the week, fulfilling the Sabbath. In three days He completes the work of Creation, rising again on the first day of the week. The Sabbath was, thereby, fulfilled.

“Despondency is often confused with sadness, a feeling of grief for specific sins or losses. However, it is known that sorrow can also be useful: for example, Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10). But despondency is aimless, all-encompassing melancholy, despair of God’s mercy, and depletion of love for God and others…it is sadness that turns into self-centered despair, an extremely dangerous degree of despondency. St. Theophan the Recluse called

“The Christians who worshipped in that original roofless shrine could look up into the sky, in their imaginations following Christ as He ascended from earth to heaven. There is always something inspiring and uplifting about looking up. The sky is one of the many miracles surrounding us, whether we see it filled with clouds or with stars. Sorrow makes our heads hang down and look towards the earth, while joy lifts up our heads.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley) “Christian hope is the con

“He [Gadarene Demoniac – Luke 16:19-31] is an icon of our brokenness and represents us all in many ways. He did not ask Christ to deliver...

“The heart of worship is the offering of praise and thanksgiving to the God who has given us life and sustains all things in their...

“Has the world always been such a mad dash and so busy, or is something just wrong with me? But it’s not the outer disquiet that troubles...

“That the soul is superior to the body is an assumption based in Hellenistic philosophy and is a bit dualistic as the bible presents...

“God, the Holy Trinity, is perfect love. As Gregory of Nyssa observes, the Holy Trinity “is a sort of continuous and indivisible...