SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“God is not an idea, something that we think about, that we discuss or read about, but a Person with Whom we come into living and personal communion. It is something we live, and somebody from Whom we receive experience. Then we see what a great, unspeakable and inexpressible joy it is to have Christ within us.” (Archimandrite George) “Christ did not come to bring us a philosophy from God. He did not provide us with mere proverbs or good advice. He came to reveal God the Fath

“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

“Gratitude is strongest in times of want and weakest at times of abundance. This is one of life's greatest ironies…by sharing the little we have with guests, we find that God blesses us with the paradox of abundance amidst poverty…Listen to the stories of people who went through hard times, such as those who lived through the Great Depression or the years of World War II. Certainly there were horrible and frightful moments of terror that elicit pain. But enduring through thos

“It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves.” The Apostle Paul reminds us that we, who are the Church, are also “the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My People’” (2 Cor 6:16; Lev 26:12; Eze 37:27). The admonition contained in this portion of Saint Luke’s gospel is directed at our own church communities, for the identical judgment will be levie

“In a culture where materialism is not seen as unusual, it’s fascinating how immaterial the spiritual life is for many…When one’s material needs consume all one’s attention, nothing more will be sought after; the demands of physical life can totally colonize the mind.” (Father Stephen Freeman, Matthew the Poor) “This is important to bear in mind as we go through a world that boasts of its objectivity and commitment to what’s “really there.” To the average modern person, objec

“Struggle is inescapable, for if we are not struggling in the service of Jesus, we will be struggling in the service of sin…In Christ, by contrast, we have a relationship with the living God. He loves us, illumines us, stands with us, and forgives us as we struggle to have Him and His being formed within our hearts and souls.” (Robin Phillips, Dynamis 9/7/2018) “There is an ascetic imperative, an utter necessity to enter into the struggle that is Christ’s own struggle. We fas

Quotes of the Day for November 14, 2025 – Thoughts on unity and division “Without unity, there can be no diversity (for on what common basis could we then establish difference itself?) while without diversity, there can be no unity (for what would then be left to be unified?)…Unity is good because the Church is One (as is affirmed in the Creed). But it is not good because it is “useful.” Indeed, I suspect that God has allowed our disunity for His own purposes – including savi

“And truly, we ourselves are not at all strangers to the roaring winds and crashing waves of the storm of this temporal life. We live in what many now term “the attention economy.” We are surrounded on all sides by the most powerful corporations and the most advanced technology in the history of the world, all cleverly preying on our psyches to keep our attention constantly fixed on the desires and cares of this world. From morning till night, we are assaulted by advertisemen

“Two fundamental truths were incarnate in the Person of Christ: the truth of God and the truth of man. Without Christ, the truth of God would remain foreign to man’s mind and distant from his emotions. God would be an entity utterly removed from man’s experience; the only grounds for extolling Him would be His stark otherness, His sheer separation from our meager, sinful state Without Christ, the truth of man would likewise be obscured. For man would see himself only as a cre

“A conference participant once asked the speaker, "What is the best way for a father to love his children?" The speaker replied, "The best way for a father to love his children is to love their mother." I reflect often upon that superbly accurate statement. And I think the reverse is equally true: the best way a mother can love her children is to love their father. More than anything else in the world, children need a loving family and parents who support each other, even if