SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Struggle is inescapable, for if we are not struggling in the service of Jesus, we will be struggling in the service of sin…In Christ, by contrast, we have a relationship with the living God. He loves us, illumines us, stands with us, and forgives us as we struggle to have Him and His being formed within our hearts and souls.” (Robin Phillips, Dynamis 9/7/2018) “There is an ascetic imperative, an utter necessity to enter into the struggle that is Christ’s own struggle. We fas

“And truly, we ourselves are not at all strangers to the roaring winds and crashing waves of the storm of this temporal life. We live in what many now term “the attention economy.” We are surrounded on all sides by the most powerful corporations and the most advanced technology in the history of the world, all cleverly preying on our psyches to keep our attention constantly fixed on the desires and cares of this world. From morning till night, we are assaulted by advertisemen

“ ‘The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural...

“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...

“In shame, the only thing we accept is our failure and the idea that we deserve perpetual punishment….The shame we are speaking of is a...

“To be made in the image of God is a sign of highest dignity; so high, in fact, that outside of Christ no human being can even be said to...

“What were God’s first words, having become man, in His peaching? ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ There are no hopeless...

“The Fathers of the Church tell us to hate the sin, not the sinner. They tell us to refuse to sin ourselves, and to understand that the...

“…there’s no reason to be depressed by your shortcomings or discouraged when you fall. Repentance as a lifestyle doesn’t mean that you...

“It’s important to understand that when early Christians talked about love, they didn’t just mean a feeling. Their idea of love was...