SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that He had to leave them in order to send them the Holy Spirit. Ten days after His ascension to the heavens, The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, we are told “like tongues of fire.” All of the sudden, they were clothed with the Holy Spirit. They each became individually, temples of the Holy Spirit and they became more. I’m going to tell you something that might sound strange or controversial. They became Christs. Don’t misun

“We may abandon God, but He never abandons us. Our actions may cause us to leave His loving embrace, but His love endures…nothing can separate us from God. He is with us, in our health. He is with us in our pain. He is with us in our healing. Yet, regardless of where we are at any given moment, He is still with us.” (Reverend Christopher T. Metropulos, D. Min, Jackie Morfesis) “The presence of the Holy Spirit, then, brings us into the presence of Christ “through faith” (Eph

“Whatever circumstances I am in, I can serve God. We may think that serving God means successfully accomplishing great and miraculous things. But St Paul saw himself serving God even when he languished in a prison cell. Even through the many disasters he endured (2 Corinthians 11:23-28), he believed he was there to do God’s will. The spiritual life is not always about success as the world measures it. Sometimes it is about remaining faithful no matter what.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)

“The word Adam in Hebrew comes from “adamah” which means earth. The word Christ, in Hebrew, Messiah, means the “anointed” of God. As Christ is the new Adam, so His mother Mary is the new Eve, for she is the true “mother of all living,” which is the meaning of the name given to the original “helper” of man (Gen 3.20).” (Fr. Thomas Hopko) “Readers of the New Testament are familiar with St. Paul’s description of Christ as the “Second Adam.” It is an example of the frequent Apost

“While there is a general connection between sin and suffering (Rom 6:23), this connection is not always one-to-one, for the innocent often suffer, and the guilty are often spared earthly sufferings...” (Orthodox Study Bible, Acts 5:14) “I believe that the question of innocent suffering and the existence of God may be the most significant and essential question of our time. The explosion of knowledge in our world has made an awareness of innocent suffering more apparent than

“As they say, it’s easy to love all of mankind, but it’s very difficult to love a particular man with all his flaws and weaknesses. When the Lord was asked: Which is the great commandment in the Law? He responded: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mt. 22:37–39).” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov) “In our eve

“Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbors, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness or unforgiveness of your sins, then, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation. You can see for yourself how serious it is…Our Lord Jesus gives us the teaching regarding forgiveness. He tells us that forgiveness is an integral part of the kingdom of heaven, and the

“The Christians who worshipped in that original roofless shrine could look up into the sky, in their imaginations following Christ as He ascended from earth to heaven. There is always something inspiring and uplifting about looking up. The sky is one of the many miracles surrounding us, whether we see it filled with clouds or with stars. Sorrow makes our heads hang down and look towards the earth, while joy lifts up our heads.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley) “Christian hope is the con

“…when you have new experiences, you never know what good will come out of them. You never know what you might be able to learn, how you might be able to grow. And, most importantly, you never know how your experiences will enable you to help others later on.” (Robin Phillips) “You never know where life will take you…When a day starts you never know how it’s going to end. That’s why I love that morning prayer, “Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with pe

“Gratitude is strongest in times of want and weakest at times of abundance. This is one of life's greatest ironies…by sharing the little we have with guests, we find that God blesses us with the paradox of abundance amidst poverty…Listen to the stories of people who went through hard times, such as those who lived through the Great Depression or the years of World War II. Certainly there were horrible and frightful moments of terror that elicit pain. But enduring through thos