SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Creation has a sacramental purpose: it reveals God….the…rejection of sacramentalism is the beginning of naturalism, or it at least opens the door to its possibility. It is also the beginning of a certain evacuation of the sacred as a presence in the world.” (Father Stephen Freeman, James K.A. Smith) “In the modern world, we have largely lost this sacramental way of looking at things. One of the reasons so many people become victims of disordered pleasures, such as drugs, imm

Quotes of the Day for July 23, 2021 – Thoughts on challenging our understanding of true morality “The basic sense of the word “holy” is “set apart from that which is commonplace, special, unique.” The Lord’s holiness is first and foremost his transcendent sovereignty as the ruler of the world. He is “set apart” from the world over which He rules. At the same time His holiness encompasses His moral authority, which derives from His royal position. As King He has the right to d

“There is nothing worse than that man should measure and judge of divine things by human reasoning.” The great preacher says that heresies flow from attempts to apply human thinking to the divine will and works of God. We might add that when the Gospel is preached in human terms to conform to human ways of thinking, it loses its power. The casual, come-as-you-are Christianity that is so popular these days is a prime example of this powerlessness. Such preaching in human terms

“Reading the Scriptures, studying the church fathers, attending worship, praying, and meditating are all good and godly things. But they are not ends in themselves. When we engage in these holy activities, our sincere and fervent goal should be to encounter the Lord Jesus Christ. We may be the most informed and even enthusiastic students of the Word. We may be devoted to the teachings of the church. We may excel in Christianity as Paul excelled in Judaism. But all that we thi

“Redemption has a technical meaning relative to the freeing of slaves. Here, the bondage is to sins; the act of releasing is forgiveness; the price of redemption is blood—the human life of Christ given over to death for the sake of new life. This beginning of life in Christ is not merely legal, nor instantaneous, but living and dynamic.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Ephesians 1:7-8) “Forgiveness of sins follows redemption, for there would be no forgiveness of sin for anyone before

“The secular worldview says there is only this world. The here-and-now material universe is the only reality. The natural is real, there is no supernatural. The immanent is real, there is no transcendent..." (Pastor Timothy Keller) “The “modern” mindset also holds that “…as our knowledge becomes both broader and more unified, we will experience continued progress (and they have in mind not only technological progress, but also social, political, and moral progress)….In the mo

“We should always be wary of applying linear notions of progress to our prayer life and asking ourselves: “What stage am I in?” “How far have I progressed?” Whatever “progress” in prayer is supposed to mean, it certainly doesn’t work like that.” (Martin Laird) “We think we know a lot, but what we know is very little. Even those who have striven all their lives to bring progress to mankind—learned scientists and highly educated people—all realize in the end that all their know

“The crisis in contemporary civilization stems from the conflict between man's rational and non-rational activities and self-transcendence will be the only way to overcome the conflict.” (Andrew J. Sopko, Ph.D) “People gradually transferred the purpose and meaning of their lives from the internal world to the external—matter became most important, and spirituality stopped being valued. Everything was reduced to the earthly—the heavenly realm stopped attracting eyes and hearts

“St. Paul warns us several times in his Epistles about futile thinking, futile faith, and futile perception of reality. It all starts with not understanding and/or not accepting the truth of Christ. His knowledge comes from the experience of someone who once was confident in his own thinking apart from Christ until Christ showed him the futility of it as we read in the Book of Acts. Christ specifically tells Paul that he is ‘kicking against the goads’ (Acts 9:5)…Here Christ i

""Independent thinking is an important goal of our education system. We want our children to grow up thinking for themselves so that they can make rational judgements and not be led by the impulses of emotion. We want them to question the information placed before them and weigh up evidence in order to reach conclusions. This applies to the Christian faith as much as to anything else. We do not want what is sometimes called “blind faith” from our congregations, where anything