Agency (God and Human)
“I consider it both a strange mystery and a settled matter of the faith that God prefers not to do things alone…He acts in a manner that...
Repentance
“What were God’s first words, having become man, in His peaching? ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ There are no hopeless...
Despair
“The first to enter heaven was a thief. And the first to enter hell was an apostle of Christ. And how all this happened is a great lesson...
Love and Sin
“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...
Providence
“All good things come from God providentially, and those who bring them are the servants of what is good.” (St. Mark the Ascetic) “We do...
Conscience
“Two gifts that God has given to man for the good of himself and others and which he should multiply are conscience and faith. The...
Burdens
“Paul tells us in Galatians 6:2 to ‘bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.’ The law of Christ is to love God and love one another as He has loved us. This love is a voluntary sacrificial love. We are to bear our cross, to overcome pride with humility, and accept help from others when our cross is beyond our capacity to bear alone. Perhaps more importantly, we are to help others bear theirs when they cannot bear it alone, and to do so out of Christ like
Faith and Works
“Faith, like hope and love, is a person’s internal state; it is essential that it be manifested in his behavior and works. The Lord...
Grace (Willingness to Receive)
“All the Christians of St. John’s time, by “receiving of His fullness,” the “grace for grace,” actually shared in what the Logos...
Heart (Change of)
“...mere outward confession of sin is not what God desires, but an inward change of heart.” (Orthodox Study Bible, 1 Kingdoms 15:24-26)...