SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“One thing that should be clear from reading the New Testament is that there is no instant perfection. Rather, we strive, struggle and toil in this world to grow in faith and love. ‘Perfection’ will only be had in that day when Christ becomes all in all and this world as we know it is transfigured into God’s Kingdom. In life, we are to expect struggle and to strive for spiritual growth, becoming more Christ-like with each test and struggle.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “…the gifts of th

“Just as God sent Jesus back into the world with his wounds, so we are sent into each day with our wounds…Jesus His followers with their wounds to use their wounds to heal, just as He used his wounds to heal. Using our wound is a way to grow in love. This is because the wound abides in us whether life is difficult and sad or centered and joyful, and so we are ready to love others in whatever state they happen to be…As the coming one, Jesus always appears with his wounds. The

“Watch over the conduct of your soul and body, so that you develop a disposition receptive to divine thoughts. Then you will be able with full consciousness to understand all the mysteries and miracles hidden within the Holy Scriptures.” (St. Peter of Damascus) “The Bible is a product of synergy, divine-human cooperation. In order to understand it, we also are expected to contribute our human efforts, which should not be limited to learning facts, reading books, or acquiring

“None of us can entirely separate ourselves from who we are. Our culture, education, family, nation, and religious background affect the way we view the world. We all accept as true many common presumptions of our era and culture. They are so deeply ingrained that we do not recognize them as cultural presumptions that may in fact not be true.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou) “There is a model of what it means to be human that is simply wrong, regardless of its elements o

“The story of ‘the Fall’ is the story of human self-will: we like to do what we want regardless of how our relationships or others are affected by what we do…Adam and Eve felt God was denying them something good by forbidding them to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are given all of Paradise (the perfect world!) and yet they imagine God is withholding something more from them and they want what they imagine they have been denied rather than

“In a medieval world, the “order” of things was thought important: kings and commoners, high-born and low-born, masters, yeomen, and apprentice, etc. The whole of the universe had an order (hierarchy) that included the angels, human beings, and all creatures. The point was not oppression or suppression, nor to “keep people in their place.” Rather, the order of things served the purpose of union with God.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “Order reflects the nature of God’s holiness.

“Let me allow God to turn my emotional hunger into spiritual hunger for Him as I try to avoid pathways that lead only to my numerous cravings.” (Archpriest Steven John Belonick) “When the Lord came to the Samaritan city of Sychar (Jn 4:4-43), He and the disciples stopped near Jacob’s well. While the disciples go “away into the city to buy food” (vs. 8), an extensive conversation takes place between the Lord and a woman who has come to draw water. As the discussion is ending,

“Man follows his desire. One can even say that man is desire, and this fundamental psychological truth about human nature is acknowledged by the Gospel: ‘Where your treasure is,’ says Christ, ‘there shall your heart be.’ A strong desire overcomes the natural limitations of man; he does things of which ‘normally’ he is incapable…The only question, therefore, is whether we desire the right things, whether the power of desire in us is aimed at the right goal or whether—in the wo

“We see the ultimate magnitude and power of that compassion in the Cross of Christ. But as our baptism into the dying and rising of Christ symbolizes, our rescue from sin and corruption is not accomplished when we merely stand at the foot of the Cross and watch. It is achieved when we participate in the Lord’s sufferings.” (Fr. Basil) “…the bright-sadness — of which the fathers and the mothers speak. Even in the dryness of our desert journey, we are offered a sustaining taste

“The indwelling of the Holy Spirit…is God’s ultimate gift to every true Christian. The Holy Spirit is an inestimable divine endowment which we must strive to retain, submitting all that we are and all that we have to Christ as King and God…However, such an unqualified surrender runs against the grain of American values, which emphasize personal independence and “doing one’s own thing.” It runs contrary to our ego’s deep desire for self-actualization and self-expression…We oft