SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“…love is to be actively expressed through tangible behavior. Hence when Saint Luke quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 [you shall love the Lord our God from your whole heart, from your whole soul, and from your whole power], the passage serves as the prelude to the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37) – a story that demonstrates how love for God is to be expressed to others in a tangible way. Crucial to a correct application of the Shema and the great commandment to love is the ve

“...all introspection is in one respect misleading. In introspection we try to look “inside ourselves” and see what is going on. But nearly everything that was going on a moment before is stopped by the very act of our turning to look at it…Unfortunately this does not mean that introspection finds nothing. On the contrary, it finds precisely what is left behind by the suspension of all our normal activities; and what is left behind is mainly mental images and physical sensati

“Faith is critical if we are not to remain earthbound. Divine matters cannot be comprehended with the mind, but we are conditioned in our Western society to believe that the highest level of comprehension is intellectual…the highest level of understanding is not intellectual but spiritual, and spiritual realities are beyond reason, since God’s ways are beyond human comprehension…Intellectual answers are limited and partial at best. It is truly tragic if we willingly remain at

“Jesus’ baptism began His mission of sanctifying all creation, driving out the demons, and reestablishing the rule of God.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick) “For in the sacraments, the laws of nature are overcome to allow the faithful to partake of the Lord's salvation. In baptism, for instance, the water in the baptismal font becomes in a mystery the very Baptism of Christ, by which we attain the forgiveness of sins. Also, in the Eucharist, the bread and wine become in a mystery

“Our first encounter with Him is through faith. Faith opens the door of the soul, so that Christ can enter. Faith receives Him, subjects our hearts to Him and engenders within us a fervent interest and powerful desire to approach Him. This is the initial requirement for Christ to dwell in our hearts, as Saint Paul says (Eph. 3, 17). But it takes love in order for the Lord to stay with us and make us His temple and altar. Jesus declares “Whoever loves me will keep my word and

“The love of beauty and our desire for it are the most fundamental parts of our being. This is particularly true if we use the word “beauty” in the fullest sense of its meaning. Beauty encompasses being and truth as well. It is God’s word for His creation (usually translated as “good,” the word in Scriptures also means “beautiful”). That which is beautiful and good is reflective (iconic) of the God who created it. All of creation longs for union with this Beauty and groans fo

“Another reason for the dullness of mind is the over-familiarity that breeds complacency. It is possible to go from one Christmas to the next without growing in our understanding of the incarnation of the Son of God. In that case, our mind is like a knife that keeps cutting the same thing until it loses its edge. The remedy for this loss of sharpness is not a novelty. Rather, we should pay more attention to what is sung, prayed, and proclaimed and probe more deeply into its m

“…humanity was created immortal and incorruptible, though not inherently immortal and self-sustaining (only God is so). Humanity is sustained by grace. So if God had left humans as they had been created after they sinned, then their disobedience would have fixed them in permanent rebellion, just as it had fixed the rebellious angels. God cut humans off from the Tree of Life, exiling them from Eden, so that they would not be confirmed and crystallized in rebellion the way the

“When we read the Scriptures, we may find that only certain of the biblical saints have personalities similar to our own. We may find it difficult to glean any similarity in our lives with that of certain other saints.  This is all OK. There are a variety of gifts which God gives to His saints – each saint doesn’t have all of the spiritual gifts which God gives, but may have only a couple or even one. There are a variety of personalities which God needs to accomplish His plan

“The deep calling of our lives is to find the fulfillment of our potential as those created in the divine image to become like Him in holiness. The God-Man has fulfilled this vocation and made it possible for all to share personally in His restoration and fulfillment of the human person. That is why our calling is nothing short of becoming ‘perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48)…Holiness transcends the values of tolerance, social justice, and brotherh