SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“...in Paradise, each person will see the glory of God in accordance with the purity of the eyes of their soul. The degree of visibility will not be determined by God, but will depend on each person's purity.” (St. Paisios of Mount Athos) “Nothing distances us more from the Good News [Gospel] than an impure mind. What makes the human mind of man impure? Sin makes the human mind impure as milk when you pour in poison; it all becomes poisonous, so the human mind when impure sin

“I see paranoia and anxiety increasing in our country – two factors which take away from our sense of freedom, security and safety and add to the mental problems of our society. We need to consider St. Paul’s words: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” That is the daunting task we face as Christians in our society…Some so fear the future that they suffocate the present. It’s like committing suicide to avoid being murdered.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh, Richard Paul

“Our modern self-understanding sees people primarily as individual centers of choice and decision. A person is seen as the product of their choices and decisions – our lives are self-authenticated. As such, we are managers. Of course there are many problems with this world-view from the perspective of Classical Christianity. Though we are free to make choices and decisions, our freedom is not unlimited. The largest part of our lives is not self-determined. Much of the rhetori

“Our reading [Proverbs 10:31-11:12] presents a stark contrast between the path of righteousness and the ways of wickedness. Is it, perhaps, too well-defined? Is there no middle ground, a little bit of evil mixed in with the good, a portion of sin blended with a measure of righteousness? St. Paul answers this question with a question: “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness” (NKJV 2 Corinthians 6:14)? No, our descript

“…asceticism is the path to holiness, growth, and stability…If we practice asceticism and strip away our ego, control our ‘false self’, and learn ‘self-forgetfulness’, we each embody the Lord’s Prayer. We have to empty the self (kenosis) in order to become our true self.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley, Fr. Ted Bobosh) “…asceticism “is the struggle of the person against rebellious nature, against the nature which seeks to achieve on its own what it could bring about only in personal un

“No servant can serve two masters,” not because there are two, but the Lord is One.” (St. Ambrose) “ ‘No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon’ (Matthew 6:24). In this life, it takes intensive effort to achieve a financial position which gives us anything resembling complete control. Our life becomes consumed with achieving temporary fiscal secur

“Our society values self-reliance. We teach that maturity means that we no longer depend on others for direction or support. When we are fully grown, we should take our own path in life. However, our reading of Proverbs 3:1-18 teaches us the opposite. The wise teacher of Proverbs says, “Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight” (OAB vs. 5)….Most English versions of Proverbs use the word “trust” to translate the idea of taking refuge in God…The H

“I will tell you a true story. When I was a deacon many years ago, we met for daily matins at 6:00 am every day. We had a young man in our community who was unemployed and in a public way vowed that he would attend morning matins to pray. However, after a couple of weeks, he slowly stopped attending. A friend of mine asked him why, and he said, “6:00 am is just too early. I just can’t do it.” It was only a few weeks later that this young man got a great job. It was a union jo

“A relationship with Jesus Christ-this is prayer. When people think about what is required to receive Holy Communion, they almost immediately think of fasting. There are so many things “higher on the list,” including prayer-what good is fasting without prayer? That’s just dieting.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis) “Take fasting. Some people are extremists in this while many others, perhaps most, are not at all so. Saint Isidoros Pilousiotis says that we should be ‘experienced

“In Lent, our focus must be set squarely on Christ and His living icons, not on us. The fundamental calling of the Christian life is to become like our Lord, Who offered Himself up for the salvation of the world purely out of love. If we want to approach Lent in a spiritually healthy way that will enable us to participate more fully in Him, then we too must offer up ourselves for our neighbors….The purpose of our Lenten journey is simply to become more beautiful living icons