SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“It is not that talking is evil or that it necessarily cheapens the truth. After all, if God himself communicates and does so in human terms, in the life and speech of Jesus, in the witness of Scripture, there must be talking that is wonderful, revelatory, transfiguring, that takes us into the heart of things. When we have found the word or phrase that anchors us in prayer, the mantra that stills and focuses us, we are discovering something of the grace and power of real lang

“When we read the Scriptures, we may find that only certain of the biblical saints have personalities similar to our own. We may find it difficult to glean any similarity in our lives with that of certain other saints.  This is all OK. There are a variety of gifts which God gives to His saints – each saint doesn’t have all of the spiritual gifts which God gives, but may have only a couple or even one. There are a variety of personalities which God needs to accomplish His plan

“Deep down we all yearn for the true life in Christ, whether we are rich and poor, men or women, slaves or masters (1 Tim 6:19). For this reason, Christ Jesus enlightened His apostles to understand both the spiritual pitfalls and the potentials for good inherent in material wealth.” (Dynamis 12/23/2021) “Wealth can be a terrible burden or temptation to many. Wealth, as the aphorism says, is a good servant but bad master. Unfortunately, many submit themselves and their goals t

“To be meek means to be gentle and kind, to be empty of all selfishness and earthly ambition. It means, in a word, never to return evil for evil, but always in everything to overcome evil by good (cf. Rom 12.14–21). Meekness means to distrust and reject every thought and action of external coercion and violence, which in any case can never produce fruitful, genuine and lasting results. Meekness is to have the firm and calm conviction that the good is more powerful than evil,

“…repentance does not fundamentally mean to feel guilty about our past sins, nor even merely to cease from sinning in the future. Probably we know that the English word “repentance” is a (quite dubious) translation of the Greek word μετάνοια, “metanoia,” meaning literally to change one’s nous — that is, to change our fundamental way of understanding reality…there is a common religious framework that our culture has instilled into our subconscious — and so when we hear Christ

“One test of spiritual attainment is peace. Those who are truly advanced in the Spirit have peace of mind and share the peace of God… “Wherever God is — there is peace. And the opposite is self-evident: where there is envy, enmity, impatience, self-love — there is the devil. Wherever the devil is — there, everything is ruinous, proud and hostile.” (Fr. Basil, St. Anatoly of Optina) “How do we attain peace? We put aside all…pride and hostility and destructiveness. And we acqui

“The sacrificial system of the Old Testament is not the slaughter of innocent creatures in order to appease the wrath of an angry god with their blood. It is the means of the purification of sin, which allows human persons to draw close to God once again and share a sacred meal of communion…the death of Christ is not the ultimate example of God avenging His justice through punishing His Son. Rather, it is the Son offering Himself up to be eaten as food by the faithful to puri

“A strange illness has appeared in our days – the passion for distractions. Never before was there such a desire for distractions; people have forgotten how to lead a serious life for the good of others; they have no spiritual life and are bored. They exchange the profound content of a spiritual life for distractions! What madness! It is here that pastors must deploy their strength: they must re-introduce into life its lost meaning and give back to the people the knowledge of

“One thing is for sure, the Holy Spirit, “who is everywhere and fills all things” hates limitations. If you doubt it, just test Him, for the Lord Jesus said, “…with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)…When Jesus asked Philip where they could buy a great amount of bread, Philip started assessing the probable cost. Jesus wanted to teach him that financial resources are not the most important ones. We can limit what God does in us by assuming what is and is not possible…

“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 in danger of losing the blessings of eternal life that are given to us by belief and baptism (Mark 16:16). And because we are members of one another, sin affects the whole Body of Christ. Some sins are especially contagious and contaminate the entire community of faith. Therefore, we need not fear anything in this world. But we do need to fe