SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“How do we experience God? Do we hear voices? Do we sense a presence? Are there physical sensations involved? Should we see light or feel warmed? Some may be surprised to hear that our belief in God is not based in an interior human experience. Such things stretch across an incredible variety (such is the nature of human experience). However, none of these are definitive, none of them meet the standard of canonical authority, and none of them make the stuff of persuasive reli

“…for the Fathers, water is not merely water: It is chaos and destruction, the power of floods and tsunamis, and the abode of monsters; and it is also life and regeneration, rebirth in Christ, and even the Holy Spirit, who pours forth like a fountain from the Father…The noetic life that inherits the Kingdom (that which is birthed in us at Baptism) both hears the wind and sees where it comes from. It enters the gates of hell and walks in paradise. It mines the treasures buried

“Why was the entire dispensation of history and work of Christ necessary? Could not God simply have saved humankind by fiat?...The solution God has provided is to heal our nature from the inside out. By joining His divine, eternal life to human flesh, Jesus Christ has overcome the power of death; hence mortality will be abandoned in the grave when the universal resurrection dawns. If this explanation is not sufficient for the inquirer, ‘Say something like this to reasonable p

“God created this entire visible world so that, through man, He might become all in all. This is the human person’s specific mission: to be the link between God and the world, a link between all things, by uniting his spirit with God.” (Fr. Dumitru Staniloe) “It is the meaning of human existence that must be dealt with and not the regulation of human behavior and the legalistic prohibition of human actions, especially when these are dogmatized as ‘the norm.’…The creation of m

“Strictly speaking, the modern world has not been disenchanted. Rather, it is now enchanted with money and the “invisible hand” of the...

“…pride is stupidity. Why? Because how can we be proud when everything we have is not ours? How can I be proud of my appearance if God...

“An evil person is not someone who is nothing but evil, someone with no redeeming features or virtues whatsoever. An evil person is not a...

“The Fathers understood the Bible to be unlike other texts in that there are always two authors working in synergy to produce each verse:...

“Heresy comes from a Greek word that means “picking and choosing.” A heretic is someone who picks and chooses which parts of a religion...

“…although humans could feasibly have united the various natural divisions in the created order, they could not of their own accord...