SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“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

“ ‘The fear of the Lord leads to life, And he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be visited with evil’ (Proverbs 19:23). There are two kinds of fear in this verse. One is the fear of the Lord, which nourishes spiritual life in a man. The other is fear in places where knowledge is not examined. What place is this where Wisdom's knowledge is not examined? In this fallen world where many refuse to examine such knowledge. Failure to examine Wisdom's knowledge nour

“For it is God Who acted in both an unexpected and also shatteringly decisive way by transforming the tomb into a womb from which emerges new and everlasting life.” (Fr. Stephen Kostoff) “Should I not rather say that the tomb itself is a womb? There is, in fact, a great similarity. Just as the Lord came out from his mother’s womb living, so also He rose living from Joseph’s tomb. Just as He was born from the womb in order to preach, so also now He has been reborn from the tom

“Repentance in deep mourning and joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great things of God.” (Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos) “ ‘The soul is a mirror.’ The proper function of the soul is to reflect the life of God (we are His image). It is striking that the emptiness and disgust of the [prodigal] son is met with the welcome of the father (who only sees him as son). He is welcomed, clothed, honored, and feted. He was created for this. It is th

“What is the sign to a man that a certain sin is forgiven? The sign that a sin is forgiven is that the sin does not generate any activity in your heart and that you have forgotten it to such a degree that, in conversation about a similar sin, you do not feel any inclination toward that sin, but rather consider it something totally foreign to you.” (Venerable Isaiah the Recluse) “We may think that we can hide the disposition of our hearts. But we cannot conceal anything from t

“While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws [Mark 10:20], he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command to give away all he had revealed that internally he loved money more than God.” (NET Bible, Mark 10:20) “Obedience is good but true obedience to God is evidenced by how we are obedient. It is easy to be unconsciously legalistic and think we are being obedient