SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Christ the Word of God pushes His disciples to get into the boat and go out onto the sea which He knows will become stormy. Christ doesn’t spare His disciples such trials and temptations, something we wish He did. Rather, He uses these trials and temptations to help strengthen their faith and trust in God. The stormy boat ride was a means to help prepare them for the trials they would endure when they went into all the world to proclaim the Gospel.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “Without

“And here is the crucial point: we begin with God as Being, Truth, Goodness, Beauty. The words and concepts only have meaning when grounded in such a way. We do not take our own minds to be the center of all things – we are relative and contingent. It is why atheism seemed so perverse to the ancients. To deny the existence of God was to deny these things as well. The identity of God could be debated (“by what name shall we call Him”). However, the notion of a self-existing un

“We can speak of “human nature,” but it does not exist as a thing-in-itself. Human nature is only revealed in the uniqueness of a human person.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “The Lord Who rose from the dead in order to make us participants in His eternal life showed mercy throughout His earthly ministry to people who suffered from death and disease in the world as we know it. In doing so, He provided signs of His fulfillment and restoration of the human person in the image and li

“Deep down we all yearn for the true life in Christ, whether we are rich and poor, men or women, slaves or masters (1 Tim 6:19). For this reason, Christ Jesus enlightened His apostles to understand both the spiritual pitfalls and the potentials for good inherent in material wealth.” (Dynamis 12/23/2021) “Wealth can be a terrible burden or temptation to many. Wealth, as the aphorism says, is a good servant but bad master. Unfortunately, many submit themselves and their goals t

“Our orienting loves are like a kind of gravity—carrying us in the direction to which they are weighted. If our loves are absorbed with material things, then our love is a weight that drags us downward to inferior things. But when our loves are animated by the renewing fire of the Spirit, then our weight tends upward.” (James Smith) “While for many…repentance implies going to confession and enumerating one’s sins, the Prophet Joel…gives us a much broader sense of what repenta

“People think about how to live a good life in many different ways. Some want rules to follow, regardless of how obedience to them impacts their neighbors. Others focus on achieving the results that they think are best, even though we often cannot predict the consequences of our actions. It is also possible to construe the good life in terms of virtues that become characteristic of people who consistently put them into practice. Someone needs to have good moral character in o

“None of us can entirely separate ourselves from who we are. Our culture, education, family, nation, and religious background affect the way we view the world. We all accept as true many common presumptions of our era and culture. They are so deeply ingrained that we do not recognize them as cultural presumptions that may in fact not be true.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou) “There is a model of what it means to be human that is simply wrong, regardless of its elements o

“Desires are blameless passions that need to be kept under control. But a slothful man refuses to control his desires. He chooses not to do anything about his spiritual laziness; therefore, his desires control him.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Proverbs 21:24) “When the soul does not direct itself toward higher things, it lets itself run loose uncared for in lower desires. While not directed with the vigor of lofty aims, it suffers the hunger pangs of lust, and, while neglecting to

“Zeal without knowledge is damaging and dangerous. A little knowledge can be worse than complete ignorance, especially when we become wise in our own conceits. A little knowledge without humility is the worst of all.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou) “We long to know God (it is our natural will, indeed). It is also true that what we know of God is extremely limited. Our knowledge is always framed with an abiding ignorance. Christ, in His extreme humility, embraced certain

“In a medieval world, the “order” of things was thought important: kings and commoners, high-born and low-born, masters, yeomen, and apprentice, etc. The whole of the universe had an order (hierarchy) that included the angels, human beings, and all creatures. The point was not oppression or suppression, nor to “keep people in their place.” Rather, the order of things served the purpose of union with God.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “Order reflects the nature of God’s holiness.