SACRAMENTAL LIVING

Understanding Christianity as a Way of Life

Ideas

“In the contemporary world, secularism, neo-paganism, along with eastern spiritualities, abound in the market-place of ideas, confusing many so that they neither hear nor heed the voice of the Lord…In the case of our beliefs in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of God, we can let the deceivers steal them from us. They can plant contrary ideas in our minds that confuse us or replace our spiritual understanding with other notions. Or we can lose our faith in the doctrine of

Quotes of the Day for March 5, 2021 – Thoughts on dealing well with the world of ideas

Quotes of the Day for March 5, 2021 – Thoughts on dealing well with the world of ideas

“In the contemporary world, secularism, neo-paganism, along with eastern spiritualities, abound in the market-place of ideas, confusing many so that they neither hear nor heed the voice of the Lord…In the case of our beliefs in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of God, we can let the deceivers steal them from us. They can plant contrary ideas in our minds that confuse us or replace our spiritual understanding with other notions. Or we can lose our faith in the doctrine of

Thoughts and Feelings

“This thinking mind that “whirls about” is constantly concerned with thoughts, concepts, and images, and we obviously need this dimension of mind to meet the demands of the day, to think, to reflect on and enjoy life. But the thinking mind has a professional hazard. If it is not engaged in its primary task of reason, given half a chance it fizzes and boils with obsessive thoughts and feelings…Our normal response to an afflictive thought-feeling is to pounce on it with a comme

Desire

“Desire is transformed into lust when we exclude God from the picture. Without God, the natural powers of our soul become corrupt…the problem with desire is not something inherent in the order of creation. Rather, the difficulty arises from our enslavement to the things of this world and to our physical being (1 Jn 2:15-16). God made the world, forming our very flesh and our eyes, yet sin turns even our natural desires into lust.” (Dynamis 2/26/2021) “…the word for “passion”

Self-Condemnation/Self-Hatred

“We pray with such extreme language, reflecting not a vision of legal condemnation: rather, it is the recognition of Beauty itself, in Whose Presence we appear broken, soiled, with nothing to recommend us. It is the language of repentance – but not of morbid self-hatred. It is the language of self-forgetting of leaving the self behind, of finding nothing within the self to cling to. There is another word for this self-forgetting: ecstasy. Again, this word has been abused in m

Abstraction

“…Christian life encompasses: a set of beliefs and practices gleaned from experience and a profound way of life, not a system based on regimented acts coldly governed by abstract beliefs and rules propped up with mere emotionalism..” (V. Rev. Chrysostomos) “The great flaw in anti-sacramental thinking is its abstracted notion of “spiritual.” It is presumed that for something to be “spiritual,” it must have nothing to do with the material world. That “talking to Jesus” only con

Personhood

“Genetic uniqueness is only the physical part of life, not taking into account the more important reality, which is creation of a spiritual being in which soul and body are thoroughly integrated with each other. We are created in the image and likeness of God. The created being is “personal” not only because it has the capacity to develop into a complete human being, but because at every stage of human existence it bears the image of the personal God. A person is always an im

Faith as Relationship

“In theory, our modern culture believes that relationships with other people are merely psychological phenomena – they are all in our head. There is occasional research to try and establish some notion of extra-psychological relationship (such as ESP), but even that is largely an extension of psychology. But there is an entire realm of human experience that such a belief ignores. And it is an experience that lies at the very heart of classical Christianity. This experience is

Process

“…“what does it mean to process something?” To process something means to have gained understanding and acceptance about any particular experience, event, or change. It means to have gained a sense of mastery over an experience. It means what happened is now understood, assimilated into our lives, and we have found peace and closure. It may also mean having to get out any emotion associated with the event such as grief or temporary anger. There might be tears or there might b

Paradox

“…A paradox, you probably already know, is a statement which is seemingly self-contradictory; a statement which appears to be false, but which, upon careful examination, in certain instances proves to be true… Spirituality is a paradox…let me pass on what I consider the four paradoxes… we surrender to win…we give away to keep…we suffer to get well…we die to live.” (Fr. Bogdan Djurdjulov) “…Christian life is filled with paradoxes, what the Holy Fathers referred to as antinomie

Fire (Divine and Spiritual Fire)

“God is fire. God is love. God is a self-propagating emotional power, a fire that shares itself. Centuries after Moses beheld the flames of the burning bush, this same fire merged with the tongues of flame at Pentecost, and with the fire that burned within the hearts of the disciples at Emmaus. In saying that God is a fire of love we are certainly stating a truth that plays havoc with many of our ideas, in fact almost all our ideas. (Fr. Lev Gillet) “There is no accident in G

Passions

“To sin is to miss the mark, to fail to realize one's vocation and destiny. Sin brings disorder and fragmentation. It diminishes life and causes the most pure and most noble parts of our nature to end up as passions, i.e., faculties and impulses that have become distorted, spoiled, violated and finally alien to the true self…we have responsibilities to one another and, of course, to God. When we sin, or relationship to God and to others distorted. Sin is ultimately alienation

Troubles and Trials

“… when we deal with suffering it can be difficult to understand and convey why things are happening. St. Paul writes of suffering (and remember, he suffered a lot), “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18). This can be difficult to remember or to find consolation from when we are in the midst of trials.” (Melissa Tsongranis) “It is, of course, one thing to say that our

Faith and Choice

“As we tend to center our world (and ourselves) in the question of our choices, we are constantly tempted to justify those we feel were wrong. By the same token, we bring an anxiety about the choices that are yet to come. The power of goodness is not within our choice. We do not create the good – it is given to us. The impossible reality that surrounds our choices is seen when we examine the limits of our existence. We cannot see the consequences of our actions (beyond the mo

Faith and Action

“God’s being and actions are one. This is essentially the teaching of the Church on the topic of the Divine Energies… Another simple term for “energies” is “actions” or “doings.” The root of the Greek word simply means “doing.” Indeed, it is most often translated as “deed” or “work.” “Workings” would be another accurate way of rendering “energies.” Understanding this points us towards the heart of the Church’s proclamation. Who God is, and what God does, are not two separate

Meekness

“We tend to think of meekness as a personality trait. When we hear the word meek, we usually think of someone softly spoken, easily pushed around, someone who never raises his voice, maybe even someone who is weak. But meekness is not the same as weakness, nor is it a particular kind of personality; it is a virtue...” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou) “It [meekness] is an inner grace of the soul that accepts the will of God without complaint or resistance. Yet, those wh

Unwittingly

“ From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:21

Perception

“As Aaron Beck once said, “all emotion is preceded by perception”. This is quote is quite consistent with the ascetical teachings of the church. We would do well to study that simple quote and begin to apply it to our lives. How exactly have we been perceiving all of these events, what meanings have we been assigning to them? What have we felt as a result of these meanings assigned or perceptions?” (Fr. Joshua Makoul) “Early in my career as a high school guidance counselor,

Desert/Wilderness

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights He was hungry. The tempter came to Him…” (Matthew 4:1). The same Spirit will lead you into a desert that you must fashion by separating yourself from whatever prevents you from self-discovery. You need not go anywhere, but you have to put a distance from your routine way of life.” (Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky) “The Russian word, “Poustinia”, means “desert”, and t

Goodness

“…even good deeds, if they are done apart from Christ, are futile. “God’s all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy Spirit, an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which cannot be rightly valued . . . Every soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit . . . and mystically illumined by the Triune Unity.” (St. Seraphim of Sarov) “The Kingdoms of this world” [Matthew 4:8] is not a temptation to fantastic wealth...I believe it is similar to the idylls we whisper to ou

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