SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“For it is God Who acted in both an unexpected and also shatteringly decisive way by transforming the tomb into a womb from which emerges new and everlasting life.” (Fr. Stephen Kostoff) “Should I not rather say that the tomb itself is a womb? There is, in fact, a great similarity. Just as the Lord came out from his mother’s womb living, so also He rose living from Joseph’s tomb. Just as He was born from the womb in order to preach, so also now He has been reborn from the tom

“We go to church… in order to have our eyes opened to see the goodness which God bestowed upon creation… We begin to see God revealed in and through God’s own creation… It is this vision which we lost through sin – it is not the case that the world is totally depraved because of sin but rather that we have lost the ability to see and to have our proper place in creation.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “We see the world of God’s creation spread before us, its splendor awakening us to offer

“How do we make idols in our time? Whenever organizations, behaviors, and enterprises claim the commitment and loyalty that belongs to God alone, they tempt us to idolatry. When anyone or anything demands our ultimate dedication, that is, our worship, we can be sure that the demons are hovering around us. When we join in a group, ambition, or habit whose spirit carries us away and controls us, we can be assured that the devil has recruited us…every created thing is, in its de

“Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom” (Genesis 13:12). Lot “pitched his tent” in Sodom, but Abraham built an altar (Genesis 13:18)—a notable difference in the two men….Lot was attached to the beauty of the landscape. It looked like the Garden of Eden. Unlike Abraham, he walked by sight, and not by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). Thus, he chose wrongfully, not because of the beauty itself, but because of his immature faith. His poor judgme

“If you do good, you must do it only for God. For this reason you must pay no attention to the ingratitude of people. Expect a reward not here, but from the Lord in heaven. If you expect it here—it will be in vain and you will endure deprivation.” (St. Ambrose of Optina) “We most often experience cause and effect as a sense of control. Our failures haunt us while we obsess about what might have been. Some seek to partner with God, looking for ways of praying and living that r

“…marriage is an icon of the mystery between Christ and the Church…Christ’s teaching had little to do with keeping a set of marriage rules. Rather, we were meant to learn the purpose of the divine mystery of marriage.” (Dynamis, Father Barnabas Powell) “The union of man and woman as husband and wife is sanctified and blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit creating a new entity - "the Church in the home."...With love and harmony in the house, married couples become mini-Chu

“There are very few people who come to their senses, very few who understand life. We pray with our lips only, and we hurry through our prayers to “get it over with” as soon as possible, and then we lose peace. Fasting and prayer are a means of embellishing our soul and bringing it back to its original state.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “...God’s answers [to prayers] come from God’s perspective. They are not always in harmony with our expectations, for only he knows the wh

“Our world is a material world. We are constantly presented with technological advances and improvements and sentiments such as: “He who has the most toys wins!” We must learn how to hold on to material things lightly with our fingertips, rather than grasp them firmly with our fists, if we are to avoid being mastered by them. We are stewards of the world, not owners.” (Fr. Joseph Irvin) “Reverence for material things is in itself a healthy and natural movement of the heart an

“…we have a misleading idea at the very head of our Constitution: the pursuit of happiness. One can not pursue happiness; if he does he obscures it. If he will proceed with the human task of life, the relocation of the center of gravity of the personality to something greater outside itself, happiness will be the outcome.” (Alexis de Tocqueville) “Modern western man has some basic misconceptions about the nature of happiness. The origin of the word is instructive: happiness s

“People who have the sort of mind that sees only one side to every question tend towards vigorous action. They succeed in everything they do because they do not stop to split hairs and have abounding confidence in their own abilities …On the other hand, those with subtle and cultivated minds tend to get lost in a maze of fine distinctions. They always see how complicated things really are, so that their powers of persuasion are nil. That is why the world is led by those who a