SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Our faith is called Christianity because Christ is at its center. We look to Him, we strive towards Him, and we become like Him…Christ proclaimed the God Whose love we do not need to earn, because God is Love…Christ proclaimed God and showed us in Himself a true man, called to be the image and likeness of God. St. Gregory Palamas says that “God assumes human nature to show to what extent it is free from sin and so pure that it was possible to unite it with Himself in hyposta

“…we are content to say that God has no place in our lives. We think we want to be left alone to figure it out for ourselves. We have all seen how well this is working out!...Devotion to God’s will is the peaceful and restful haven in all temptations and sorrows, while reliance on one’s own powers is destructive.” (Reverend Christopher T. Metropulos, D. Min, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov) “The spiritual disease of the last times is the weakening of our will and determination. It

“Christ himself did not preach “faith alone,” but a rather more complex picture of salvation that also involved repentance and self-denial…The foremost question we must resolve is one of desire (Mark 8:34-35)…we declare that our foremost desire is to follow Him [Christ]. But let us ask ourselves if this truly our heart’s desire. Our criteria for determining whether or not this is so can be found in the three conditions that the Lord stipulates in these verses: self-denial, ta

“…the person who “lives in the Eucharist and through the Eucharist,” to recall Fr. Florovsky’s words, (when, of course, that Eucharist is properly celebrated) becomes accustomed to looking not only “upwards” but also “forwards.” In other words, he gets into the habit of placing himself, his works and history itself under the light and the judgment of the Kingdom, always and in everything seeking its ultimate meaning (“ Seek ye first the Kingdom of heaven and its righteousness

“The second category, hope, occurs when life becomes more troublesome. When things are more difficult and confusing, we may feel an uncertainty about where God is in the mix. We hope the Gospel is true though circumstances may cause us to doubt a little and feel uncertain about what God is doing or if God is really there. We experience the ambiguities of life which cause ambivalence in our hearts and minds. Perhaps we imagine the world should be better than it is if God is th

“I believe that legends and myths are largely made of “truth,” and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear…story of Christ is simply a true myth, a myth that works on us in the same way as the others, but a myth that really happened?...The Father and the Spirit are involved in history, but only the Son becomes history.” (J. R. R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Humphr

“Bad art doesn’t die thoroughly enough; that’s why it never lives completely, and why bad art is almost always eventually discarded by...

“…“people today often see pity as condescending, another word that has lost any positive meaning. What does pity mean…?...”‘pity’ to be a...

“Everything we can see is in reality calling us to something much deeper, and everything in creation transcends its material existence.”...

“There is a movement to our grief—a progression that leads to a conclusion. That conclusion is a place of acceptance and peace—acceptance...