SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“St. John the Forerunner witnesses that he saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus at His baptism – this is how he knew that Jesus is the Messiah. Additionally, the fact that the Holy Spirit not only descended on Jesus but remained upon Him, signifies that God is restoring humanity to its glorious original position. In Genesis 6: 3, just before the Great Flood, God in His disappointment with sinful humanity says His Spirit will not remain on us forever. Now in Christ, the Holy

“ On the day of Christ’s birth, the regular events of human history began to be penetrated by eternal events: the Incarnation, the redemption on the Cross, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the sitting at the Father’s right hand…the Nativity was not properly the beginning of the Life of Christ, but rather a bodily extension of His eternal spiritual presence. His Incarnation was only the means for His entry into the world in order to carry out the strategy designed by God f

“Seeking the Kingdom of God isn’t a retreat into the wilderness or a complete renunciation of the world; withdrawing from the world for...

“Our present-day culture is often torn between the attraction of an imaginary future in which science and such overcome all illness and...

“The Fathers of the Church tell us to hate the sin, not the sinner. They tell us to refuse to sin ourselves, and to understand that the...

“That first human sin was about turning away from God. He had explicitly told Adam and Eve not to eat of that tree, and yet they did it...

“We believe that God forgives us when we turn to Him for mercy. But though we receive this forgiveness from the Lord, do we forgive...

“While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws [Mark 10:20], he had confined...

“God speaks to the world largely in symbol and sacrament. The direct assault on reason is rarely effective…The heart is too often on...