SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“While Rome postured and threatened Jesus, telling him that it had the power to kill Him or release Him, He patiently waited for the crucifixion He knew would come. “You could do nothing had it not been given to you from above,” He tells Pilate. God is in charge of the outcome of history, plain and simple. He has, however, entered into history itself, not as its Master and Builder, but as its Savior. That salvation is a way of life, to walk the way of the Cross.” (Father Step

“As has been frequently noted in the spiritual realm – if you only read those parts of the Scripture which you like or agree with then you are not listening to God but only to yourself. To correct, improve or sharpen our thinking, we have to allow ourselves to be challenged by God…In the Gospel we find that the apostles’ perfection also grew; it did not appear overnight. It all started with something small, with “hearing” about Christ and an inspiration that carried them away

“As I stepped outside of my house this morning, I was braced by the cold. A light wind was blowing and the sky was a clear blue, a refreshing change from the rains of the past two days. God was (and is) everywhere present and filling all things, and, in this, He is meek. He provides the opportunity to ignore Him and imagine the world to be inert and to declare Him absent (or non-existent). By the same token, we see suffering in the world and wonder where God is, refusing to s

“The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews contains these powerful words: ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever’ (Heb. 13:8). God’s love has not gone anywhere from us—it is we who have grown spiritually poor; but grace in the world is no less today than it was in the days of the apostles. We often look for the root of our problems in external things, forgetting that a ship does not sink because of the water around it, but because of the water that gets

“…it’s important to learn to see the small wonders of everyday life. In a drop of rain, in a breath of wind, in a stranger’s smile—in places where we previously didn’t look for meaning—a new discovery of life can begin. In simple things, in the ordinary, may lie the answer to the most complex questions of the soul.” (Viktor Luzhkov) “The physical world is astounding and amazing. It is filled with wonder and beauty. We can often find resonance between the magnificence of natur

“Within the Tradition, and the Scriptures, the knowledge of God (and thus of the self), comes as revelation. It is hidden and must be made known. That which hides God is within us, not outside of us. It is the “pure in heart” who see God. This does not necessarily imply a sinlessness or perfection. Rather, it is a stillness that can see what truly is without turning away.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “We “hear” God in our hearts. We know God through our hearts. We can’t hear pro

“Each time we read or hear the holy gospels we are encountering God. The gospels stand in a place of preeminence in the life of the Church. We believe in the Bible and revere it as the inspired word of God. But we put the gospels even higher than the rest of the Bible. As you see the gospel book sits alone, wrapped in gold (gold plating) on the Holy Altar table. Why? Because the gospels reveal God to us clearly and completely. The gospels are the eyewitness accounts of the li

“To the faithless question “Why should the Son of God have become flesh for the salvation of mankind and have sacrificed Himself?” we can answer that love always expresses itself in sacrifices. When I love someone, I give him gifts, thus sacrificing a part of my property; or provide him with some comfort, possibly denying myself, consequently sacrificing my own comfort; or help him in need or in sickness, consequently sacrifice my work or my leisure; or else I may defend him

“It is common for us to conceive of God as giving us grace (help) so that we can do this thing or that and become this thing or that. And the emphasis becomes our own doing, with God reduced to an auxiliary position. It is a path of anxiety, failure, and despair. The Pharisees were champions of this approach and excelled in exercising themselves in everything they thought of as good. At the same time, they became angry that tax-collectors and harlots were freely given even mo

“For those who have become inextricably attached to earthly things, an encounter with God becomes a veritable catastrophe. Why? Because the wrath of God is not a desire on His part to inflict suffering upon us, but the inherent incompatibility of light and darkness. When the sun rises, the dampness of the night disappears. If a person has willingly allowed the “dampness” and “mold” of sin to take root within him, the Sun of Righteousness will scorch him. But if he has purifie