SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Another reason for the dullness of mind is the over-familiarity that breeds complacency. It is possible to go from one Christmas to the next without growing in our understanding of the incarnation of the Son of God. In that case, our mind is like a knife that keeps cutting the same thing until it loses its edge. The remedy for this loss of sharpness is not a novelty. Rather, we should pay more attention to what is sung, prayed, and proclaimed and probe more deeply into its m

“The Church’s tradition of fasting exists to restore balance between body and soul, between penitence and rejoicing, between us and the world around us…When the body is humbled, our thoughts become more peaceful, too. This is the purpose of fasting.” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou, Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “Withdrawing from earthly things whets our spiritual appetite for Christ’s heavenly gifts…fasting never devalues earthly things, but in a spirit of gratitude re

“Forgetfulness is the forgetting of Wisdom's laws concerning virtue, and the beginning of its cure is obedience from the heart to Wisdom. Such obedience is the road to life and peace.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Proverbs 3:1,2) “In the 1981 film Excalibur, the wizard Merlin tells King Arthur and his knights that ‘it is the doom of men that they forget.’ This is true. Due to the virus of sin in us we tend to easily forget all of the wrong things we say or do, while easily remember

“Because God created all things through Christ, He will transform and reunite all things—material as well as spiritual—to Himself through Christ.” (Orthodox Study Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17) “The reality that we see is “transient,” it “passes away.” There is, however, a Reality (the unseen) that is eternal. It is this that cannot be shaken. There is a relationship between the two. When we think of the Incarnation of Christ, we see not the change of the material world (Chris

“To know and be known by another is a deep desire of the heart. This desire is implanted in us by God. He tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). This applies to all of us. God has intimate knowledge of us before we exist as we know existence, and then desires we know Him so we can be complete. This is why so many people who find their way to God and begin to know Him are filled with a joy and a fervor that often seems either irrational, o

“The Christian Faith is not philosophy, but rather communion with God…True Christianity raises the matter of community (communion) to an actual mode of existence. It is more than a mere moral activity – it is a manner of being.” (OCPM 11/9/2017, Father Stephen Freeman) “God has created us for mature and life-affirming communion with Him and each other…All this is so because God made us in His image to be made into His likeness, and He knows Himself as Persons in communion.” (

“The world is a production of God's free will, goodness, wisdom, love and omnipotence. God did not create the world in order to satisfy some need of His. Rather He created it without compulsion and without force in order that it might enjoy His blessings and share in His goodness. God then brought all things into being out of nothing, creating both the visible and the invisible.” (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese) “Things hoped for and not seen, a vision of the future, have encoura

“Our quest for communion with the everlasting God reorients our vision, directing it toward the eternal destiny of all mankind. We understand history and each person’s life from the perspective of our ultimate goal of union with Him.” (Dynamis 4/11/2014) “Our surrender to the Lord must include our whole heart, soul, and mind (Mt 22:37), if we are to unite our spirits to Christ our God. When we are truly joined to Him, He gives us the grace to obey Him. We are to strive to be

“Have you ever gotten out of your fitness routine – skipped a workout or two and ate some junk food you don’t normally eat. Before you know it, the wrong habits start flirting with becoming habitual and you gain some pounds and find it harder to motivate. Faith and doubt can operate similarly. Doubts can creep in when you get out of our prayer and liturgical routine. We miss a few Sunday’s at church, we get lazy with daily prayers, we lighten up on fasting, etc., and before w