SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“…passion is an internal tendency a person struggles with (taken from the Latin word for suffering). It is not the transgression itself, or even the associated temptation, but rather a proclivity toward both. In general, the passions represent the disordered spiritual condition of an individual….The Church Slavonic word for “passion [strast, страсть]” is translated as “suffering.” From this comes, for example, the word “passion-bearer [strastoterpets, страстотерпец],” that is

“…the goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of love for God and others. The Lord Himself speaks of only two commandments, upon which hang all the Law and the Prophets. These are: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Matt. 22:37, 39). Christ didn’t say these are just two of ten or twenty other commandments, but rather: On these two commandments hang all the Law and

“When we are preoccupied, we cannot see things clearly. We misjudge people and situations. We miss out on opportunities to grow closer or to guide people closer to God. Preoccupation means that our heart is not open and our intellect is full of ‘wise’ rubbish.” (Bishop Emilianos) “God’s mercies are “new to us every morning” (OSB Lamentations 3:24). So is His call to discipleship. The Lord said, “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (OSB Matthew 6:34). As we should not w

“…the witness of Christians generally is seriously hindered in the modern secular world by the great variety of voices that all claim to speak authoritatively for Christianity.” (Dr. Mary S. Ford) “Christ is giving a humbling lesson to His chosen Apostles about how difficult evangelism will prove to be. Even if you are offering people eternal life and entrance into God’s Kingdom, they may not believe you or may not be interested in your offer. Evangelism must be done in love,

“For in a very real sense no general ‘man’ – be he American or any other – no ‘society’, no ‘culture’ has at any time truly accepted...

“If a man were to see himself in a mirror in a fit of anger, of rage, he’d be horrified and wouldn’t recognize himself with such a...

“Divine justice is radically different from human justice. There is no equal exchange remotely possible;…“the whole moral order as we...

“On some level we feel that we can’t trust others, that we can’t trust God to do what is right, and that we have to be in control by...

“I am becoming increasingly convinced that in our age of inattention, distraction, and scattered focus, the greatest gift we can offer...

“Like Paul, we can be the Lord’s “Chosen Vessel.” We can be a container of the Gospel and an instrument of the Word but only if we have...