SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“God loves us more than a father, mother, friend, or any else could love, and even more than we are able to love ourselves…We need to understand as human beings that our personal value and the value of our so-called accomplishments is first and foremost rooted in God’s love for us.” (St. John Chrysostom, Father David L. Fontes, PsyD) “The challenge then is to take our sense of Godliness and transfer it over to every encounter with every person we meet today, to see God in the

“Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We are partially responsible for creating a problem that need not be. For example, we may encounter different life situations with the idea that it is a necessity to be loved or approved by significant people around us. If we don’t have this love or approval it is perceived as awful, terrible, the end of the world, and we respond with anxiety.” (Father George Morelli) “Being in service to others, such as volunteering for charitable cause

“...sin is committed in three stages, namely, the suggestion of it, the pleasure experienced, and the consent…Our captivity to sin begins with this interior progression from the reception of information (through the eyes, ears, or touch) to the awakening of a concrete desire.” (Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dynamis 12/16/2013) “Sin is first a simple suggestion, then a strong imagination, then delight, then assent.” (Thomas à Kempis) “When we decide to do what we know is wrong,

“That which is most obvious is never the full story, either about ourselves or others. Christ invites us into the fullness of His life, to live in union with the full story, no matter how deeply it might be hidden. At the very depth of the soul is a song of unbounded thanksgiving.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “No man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we

“Let us be aware of these consequences when we make solemn agreements, no matter whether they are vows to God or to our fellow men. All thoughts, actions, and agreements are made in the sight of the Lord (Jeremiah 41:15). Duplicity never escapes His notice. The Lord Jesus warns, “There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear i

“Only those who are mature in faith can hear and discern the promptings of the Spirit (JohnChr). Those of lesser faith are prompted more directly by words and angels.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Acts 8:29) “All of us have chosen to act against what is right and to resist the promptings of the Holy Spirit…A physical body, once it is dead, makes no response to its environment. So we who died with Christ in baptism must not respond to the promptings of sin, for we are freed from sin

“...there is no place where God is not, and God’s love is for all human beings, including sinners. Hell is presented as the state of self-exclusion from communion with that Universal Love.” (Father John Zeyack) “Heaven and hell are a condition of relationship with God...Heaven and hell are in the same realm, and that hell is not separation from God symbolically or physically; hell is a place chosen. For one who hates God, being in the presence of God will be eternal suffering

“The term saints refers to all Christian believers, for all who believe in Jesus Christ with their whole heart and are sanctified by the Holy Spirit are by definition saints. The later use of the term saints for holy people who lived particularly exemplary lives and who are canonized (or glorified) by the Church does not undo this primary meaning.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Acts 9:32) “The Greek word for saint is hagios, meaning"holy one.” Sainthood is therefore not the calling