SACRAMENTAL LIVING

" 'In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all of own possessions' (Luke 10:33). The application of the saying is this: Discipleship requires that God be in first place. The reference to renunciation of all his own possessions refers to all earthly attachments that have first place.” (NET Bible, Luke 10:33) “We must understand that as long as we are still attached to anything earthly, as long as we lean on anything within or without

“There is a generalized sense in our culture…that with the eclipse of the transcendent, something may have been lost…Divested of the transcendent, this world is invested with ultimacy and meaning in ways that couldn’t have been imagined before.” (James K.A. Smith) “It seems thousands of years removed from us, but it was not so very long ago that life was marked out by religious feasts. Although everyone went to church, not everyone, of course, knew the exact contents of each

“By holding on so tightly to our sense of self, we choked God, strangling him, and put him to death. ‘But,’ you might ask, ‘can God die?’ He can die to us. He can be dead to each and everyone of us. ‘But can He rise again?’ Yes, when you change your mind, when you repent. When you do this, God comes to life within you, He rises up within you, and then you celebrate the Resurrection of Christ: you are baptized again, born again, and you give him the right to take away your pas

“There is within every human person gold and silver and mud and dross. Life in this age has been given to us for repentance and the pursuit of holiness. As a person draws near to God, the fire of His holiness purges away all that is sinful, wicked, and unclean to reveal, purify, and bring to full beauty what is precious that lies within. The process of growth in repentance and holiness is painful and difficult, as is coming to physical maturity. It is necessary, however, if o

“…most of our sins are not sins of violence, but sins of affection gone wrong. After all, who is it that we sin against the most? Our families and our friends, the ones we are the closest to. While we may never take up a weapon to hurt someone in a physical way, we all use our mouths and our minds as weapons to inflict emotional harm on others. In some way, we all betray friends, confidences, and courtesies and in so doing, we all betray Christ.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianaki

“…salvation is something plainly visible – salvation can be seen by all humans. Salvation is thus not merely a theological concept or something experienced by the heart or mind or even an event to be experienced by the many. Salvation is visible because it is a relationship with the Son of God…everyone in the world can see God’s salvation…And we are always to be seeking and searching for God because with the Lord we have a relationship that never ends, never grows old, never

“The average lifespan of an emotion is about ninety seconds. However, when we replay painful memories, or when we ruminate over unpleasant feelings, the lifespan of negative emotions increases. Through unhealthy thought loops, negative emotions can become compounded and self-perpetuating…Most human thought, if unchecked, is negative and critical.” (Robin Phillips, Albert S. Rossi, PhD) “It is very difficult to do a “negative” thing. It is why when we struggle to quit an addic

“In the Feast of the Holy Cross, the hymnography…makes the statement, “The Tree heals the Tree.” It is one of the marvelous commentaries on the life of grace and its relationship to the human predicament. It refers to the relationship between the Cross of Christ and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The latter was the source of the fruit that Adam and Eve consumed that was the source of their fall from grace. The “Tree that heals” is none other than the Cross of Chr

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6) Just as aside – I find this verse so intriguing because Paul has God commanding light to shine out of darkness, rather than into it. God needs nothing to create His universe and is even able to shine light from out of the darkness. Of course, this is not meant to be just a literal t

“Watch over the conduct of your soul and body, so that you develop a disposition receptive to divine thoughts. Then you will be able with full consciousness to understand all the mysteries and miracles hidden within the Holy Scriptures.” (St. Peter of Damascus) “The Bible is a product of synergy, divine-human cooperation. In order to understand it, we also are expected to contribute our human efforts, which should not be limited to learning facts, reading books, or acquiring