Desire
“Have you ever interrogated your yearning? I know you have it; we all bear unmet desire. Not just for love or safety, success or approval, though all those earthy, human things gesture to the larger things we’re missing. We desire something we can’t quite name, a deeper satisfaction than we have ever found in any one thing or person in this world.” (Sarah Clarkson) “A spiritual question is whether we are to seek the peace of God, or if we should be seeking the God of peace. W
Discipleship
“All Christians are to be disciples/students of the One Teacher, Jesus Christ our Lord. We never lose that relationship to Christ no matter how long we have been Christian, no matter how much we have studied or taught Christianity, no matter what role we have in the Body of Christ, no matter what gifts of the Spirit have been given to us.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “…three things that we need to follow Christ: Deny yourself: We must root out the bad habits that keep us from God and br
Ritual
“….a child at play is a child engaging in ritual activities. Rituals have rules, meaning, purpose, even repetition. It is not childish – it is merely human…Those who utter phrases such as “empty ritual” (something I’ve heard all my life) forget that it is God who first gave ritual to the people of Israel. This primary story about the faith runs counter to modern intuitions. For we presume that real things and true things are in the mind. It is thought and sentiment that we co
Trials and Temptations
“Trials should be distinguished from temptations. Trials come directly from the God of Providence, while temptations come directly from the evil spirits, although they are allowed by God. Trials are neither saving nor leading to spiritual death in themselves; they are only reasons for the manifestation of human will in relation to what the Lord gives us. The purpose of temptations is spiritual death, although they disguise themselves as something harmless and even good. Tempt
Worship
“The heart of worship is the offering of praise and thanksgiving to the God who has given us life and sustains all things in their...
Money
“God needs a place in our hearts, to grab a hold of something in a man’s soul. Then the man can be helped. But if his heart and soul are...
Reductionism
“We live in a culture of statistics – and they hide a lot. They obscure us in the reduction of our lives to generalities. None of us is a...
Personhood
“The teaching of the faith regarding Personhood requires an acceptance of the connectedness of existence. Human sin tends towards...
Order and Disorder
“Have you seen how, with creation, when God wished to make creation, with how much harmony and godly wisdom everything was put together,...
Modern Culture
“While every godly expression of our talents, and every lawful calling, can become an occasion to glorify God, the cultural mandate of...