Transactional versus Transformational
“Our culture is deeply transactional…We buy and sell and give rewards to the deserving. We proudly declare, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” For many, there is a deep-seated satisfaction with what they “earn.”…when the “undeserving” are rewarded, segments of the culture fall into deep dudgeon. Perhaps this is a proper way to structure an economy (perhaps not). It is clearly not a blueprint of the Kingdom of God nor the path towards likeness to God. The words of Christ
Life and Death
“Why was the entire dispensation of history and work of Christ necessary? Could not God simply have saved humankind by fiat?...The solution God has provided is to heal our nature from the inside out. By joining His divine, eternal life to human flesh, Jesus Christ has overcome the power of death; hence mortality will be abandoned in the grave when the universal resurrection dawns. If this explanation is not sufficient for the inquirer, ‘Say something like this to reasonable p
Peace
“Christ then appears through shut doors in the midst of them and tells them one thing: ‘Peace be with you.’ For these to be the first...
Thoughts (Battling Them)
“I once confessed to an experienced priest that sinful thoughts were torturing me, and this is what he advised me: “Think of the thoughts...
Holiness
“One of the most encouraging lines of the Divine Liturgy comes shortly before Holy Communion, when the priest says “The Holy Gifts for...
Looking Backwards/Looking to the Past
“Ultimately, none of us are defined by our past, but rather we are defined by what we become in Christ. This is why we can declare...
Order and Disorder
“Have you seen how, with creation, when God wished to make creation, with how much harmony and godly wisdom everything was put together,...
Contentment
“From a lack of contentment comes death…What we see in the Garden is paradise. A place of intimate and immediate communion with God,...
Participation
“…our modern culture believes that relationships with other people are merely psychological phenomena – they are all in our head. There...
Rebellion
“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...