SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“He [man] is the only being that is distinguished from all else in creation, because he is the only one which can become a god. The phrase “in His image” describes the gifts which God gave only to man in order to complete him as an icon of God, and not to any of His other creatures. These gifts are: a logos related nous, conscience, and individual sovereignty, i.e. freedom, creativity, eros, and the yearning for the absolute and for God, personal self-awareness, and anything

“The character of Christ, who is the Image according to which we are created, is such that human beings are more fully revealed to be what they are as they draw near to Him (or as He himself draws near to us)… The true self, in addition to being the gift of God—His image within us—is also a dynamic movement toward God, whose fulfillment and beauty are “being revealed.” We can describe this process as eschatological. Who I am has not yet been revealed (1 John 3: 2), but is “hi

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear (Mt. 13:16). This is the blessedness of being able to receive revelation spiritually. Not everyone who listens hears, and not everyone who looks sees. The Lord calls the disciples “blessed” for becoming worthy to know the mysteries of the Heavenly Kingdom. To know in the Biblical context means not only to perceive some theoretical information, but also to experience and partake of what is Known, graciously

“…when we speak of God as light, for He is not that created light we take as a given in our everyday lives. The light we know casts a certain illumination – but God is the One who creates all lights. Every created light comes into existence out of nothing, for “God said, ‘Let there be light: and there was light’” (Gn 1:3). The light of God, however, is uncreated. This light is not made of photons visible to our physical eyes. God is separate from and entirely other than His c

“The world insists: “There is only one life—take all you can from it!” Orthodoxy answers: “Insomuch as there is only one life, you should never take all you can from it!” Since there will be no second chance, the price of each choice skyrockets, and responsibility for it becomes critical and soteriological by nature. To waste this unique gift recklessly in pursuit of illusory happiness does not mean to “take everything”, but to lose everything: to lose “the one thing needful”

“In thinking about darkness and light – and their role in our apprehension of the truth – I cannot but think about Beauty, which is a primary place in which the light of God is made manifest among us (if rightly perceived). The heart that is full of darkness cannot truly perceive beauty: the heart which is full of light, cannot help but perceive it. Perhaps a measure of our heart can be found in how we perceive the world around us: is it primarily a place of beauty or darknes

“The heart is a biblical word little understood these days, yet it has a truly profound dimension. The heart is where union with God may be consummated; as such it has a spiritual dimension. More than an emotional center or a physical organ, the heart is a receptacle for all good and evil. The heart is our psychosomatic Centre, the deepest and most profound part of our being; it is our “inner man;” out of which the energies of the psyche issue forth. There is a close connecti

“In Christianity, hamartia means “estrangement from God,” or more accurately “failure to achieve one's destiny,” correspondingly the verb harmartanein means “to fall short of one’s destiny” - the original meaning was “to miss the mark.” These words were later translated as “sin,” “to sin.” The primary objective of human life is to unite with God; so any action or even thought that estranges us from God is a sin. As St. Paul tells us, “The sting of death is sin" (1 Corinthians

“Why is it that in moments when sorrow seems unbearable to us, and we are balancing on the verge of despair, that we can’t feel that strengthening Right Hand of the Lord, which as we’ve heard many times preserves everything in His power. Maybe because we ourselves in these hard moments find ourselves doing something not exactly right? Maybe we ourselves don’t go to where this support is being obtained? We do not want to raise even a small spiritual labor, expecting that such

“Unfortunately, the spirit of moralism which we mentioned earlier, i.e., basing the Christian life on moral improvement, has adversely influenced the piety and spirituality of Christians to a significant degree even here in our land…Guidance that only aims for moral improvement is anthropocentric - it is centered on man, and in it, human effort dominates, and not the Grace of God. It then seems as if it is our own morality that saves us, and not the Grace of God. Life under t