SACRAMENTAL LIVING

Understanding Christianity as a Way of Life

God's Nature/Our Nature

“Seth was begotten from Adam and Eve. This threefold relationship illustrates, to a certain extent, the Holy Trinity. Adam had no human father. He was begotten by no one. Thus, he was unbegotten. Seth was begotten from Adam. Eve was neither unbegotten nor begotten. Instead she proceeded from Adam (Genesis 2:21). Therefore, Eve and Seth were related to the unbegotten Adam, but each in a unique manner—Eve proceeded from Adam, but Seth was begotten from him. Each person had his

Secularism

“Today’s passage [Genesis 4:16-26] describes the history of Cain and his descendants, whom we might call the first “secularists.” Cain shows us what becomes of human life when it is devoid of any awareness of God. Here we see into the heart of secular man: his existence is entirely organized around the material and psychological dimensions of life, where the passions reign over the spirit…This is secularism: a life devoid of relationship with God…Secularism inevitably leads m

Fasting

“The Church’s tradition of fasting exists to restore balance between body and soul, between penitence and rejoicing, between us and the world around us…When the body is humbled, our thoughts become more peaceful, too. This is the purpose of fasting.” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou, Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “Withdrawing from earthly things whets our spiritual appetite for Christ’s heavenly gifts…fasting never devalues earthly things, but in a spirit of gratitude re

Alive (Fully)

“..the glory of God is man fully alive, the glory of God is the human person fully alive, living in loving relationships in harmony with nature and under God.” (Father John Zeyack) “…unless we are creators, we are not fully alive…Creativity is a way of living life, no matter what our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts or having some kind of important career.” (Madeleine L'Engle) “Another of our saints, who lived quite early on in the

Drawing Near to God

“We all have a general calling, which is to draw closer and closer to the Lord…” (Edith M. Humphrey) “God the Father loves humankind no differently than He loves the Son and the Holy Spirit, as He draws us into the perfect communion of the divine life, all the while respectful of our creaturely freedom.” (Vigen Guroian) “It is important to remember that our God did not create us as puppets, but rather as persons with the freedom to respond, or not, to His invitation to ente

Choice and Choices

“The problem of pain, of war and the horror of war, of poverty and disease is always confronting us. But a God who allows no pain, no grief, also allows no choice. There is little unfairness in a colony of ants, but there is also little freedom. We human beings have been given the terrible gift of free will, and this ability to make choices, to help write our own story, is what makes us human, even when we make the wrong choices, abusing our freedom and the freedom of others.

Modern Culture

“The term culture wars, which has become stock parlance in our day, can mislead and obscure the real drama unfolding. Culture wars is a hopelessly inadequate description of the choices that contemporary society is making for the future of humankind…growing indifference to the incarnation and rejection of it can only mean decadence and demise of the culture.” (Vigen Guroian) “…modern man has continued to travel ever further away from the eternal truth of Christianity. We hav

Holiness

“What is holiness? Freedom from every sin and the fulness of every virtue. This freedom from sin and this virtuous life are only attained by a few zealous persons, and that not suddenly, but gradually, by prolonged and manifold sorrows, sicknesses, and labors, by fasting, vigilance, prayer, and that not by their own strength, but by the grace of Christ.” (St. John of Krondstat) “The Lord never withdraws His demand for holiness of life. Thus He purifies the building dedicated

Heart and Mind

“When people deny God or ignore Him they become vain in their reasoning and their senseless minds are darkened…From sinful arrogance there follows the inversion of truth. As Isaiah declares, men “call evil good, and good evil [and] put darkness for light and light for darkness [and] put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (vs. 20). The prophet describes what the Apostle Paul calls the debased mind (Rom 1:28). When we flaunt God and choose not to “glorify Him as God, nor [

Prayer

“There are very few people who come to their senses, very few who understand life. We pray with our lips only, and we hurry through our prayers to “get it over with” as soon as possible, and then we lose peace. Fasting and prayer are a means of embellishing our soul and bringing it back to its original state.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “...God’s answers [to prayers] come from God’s perspective. They are not always in harmony with our expectations, for only he knows the wh

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