SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“…secularity is the negation, the evacuation from life, of the experience of the world as sacred reality, as “participant” in divine reality and “participated in” by the divine.” (Vigen Guroian) “Though the secular world denies all invisible spiritual forces, the Scriptures testify to their existence, pervasiveness, and impact on the world.” (Fr. Basil) “It is very simplistic to say that emergencies make people pay more attention to God and reawaken religious feelings. We mig

“Most North Americans view the US as a country built by rugged individualism. But all too often, promoting individualism can hinder a sense of community. Growing up with this embedded cultural heritage, US citizens are taught to keep their noses out of each other’s business and to preserve individual rights at all costs. At best, this societal norm might keep folks from becoming overbearing busybodies. At worst, it promotes isolation and noninvolvement, splinters communities,

“Most believers go through times of spiritual emptiness. They feel that they are in a spiritual “black hole.” Their heart feels hollow. They keep going, but they are running on an empty tank…When we lose our purpose and meaning, we ask ourselves, what is the use? We no longer hope that anything good will come from our efforts. Therefore, above all, Paul prays that hearts of the Holy Spirit would “overflow in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). We earnestly d

“To come face to face with the living God…is a humbling, wondrous, life-changing experience…In Saint Paul’s case, a face-to-face confrontation with God enlightened his inner being and illumined the darkness of his hatred and self-righteousness. God changed Saul of Tarsus from a mere man into a holy apostle. After his baptism, Saint Paul withdrew into Arabia and avoided the centers of Christian activity. He had faced the Lord Jesus, and he needed time to assimilate all that ha

“Human biological life is a gift from the Creator, not the negative consequence of sin. St Paul’s words about the first Adam becoming a ‘living being’ can be interpreted to mean a ‘biological being.’ Adam was created with a physical, even mortal nature like all other biological creatures, but had the potential to be a spiritual being. But as St. Paul notes, the physical/biological was first. The spiritual nature needed to be developed by humanity, but sin is the roadblock to

“The beautiful is identical with The Good, for all things seek the beautiful and the good at every opportunity, and there is no being that does not participate in them. They extend to all that is, being whatever is truly admirable, sought for, desired, pleasing, chosen and loved. Observe how the divine force of love –that power of Eros pre-existing in the good—has given birth to the same blessed force within us, through which we long for the beautiful and the good in accordan

“Repentance in deep mourning and joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great things of God.” (Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos) “ ‘The soul is a mirror.’ The proper function of the soul is to reflect the life of God (we are His image). It is striking that the emptiness and disgust of the [prodigal] son is met with the welcome of the father (who only sees him as son). He is welcomed, clothed, honored, and feted. He was created for this. It is th

“We go to church… in order to have our eyes opened to see the goodness which God bestowed upon creation… We begin to see God revealed in and through God’s own creation… It is this vision which we lost through sin – it is not the case that the world is totally depraved because of sin but rather that we have lost the ability to see and to have our proper place in creation.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “We see the world of God’s creation spread before us, its splendor awakening us to offer

“… Christ has brought salvation to the world, not by merely giving us a religious code of conduct, but by making us participants in His divine life by grace. By becoming fully human even as He remains fully divine, He has restored and fulfilled the basic human vocation to become like God in holiness…If we are truly united with Him in faith, then His boundless love must become characteristic of our lives. Among other things, that means gaining the spiritual health to show our

“We see the ultimate magnitude and power of that compassion in the Cross of Christ. But as our baptism into the dying and rising of Christ symbolizes, our rescue from sin and corruption is not accomplished when we merely stand at the foot of the Cross and watch. It is achieved when we participate in the Lord’s sufferings.” (Fr. Basil) “…the bright-sadness — of which the fathers and the mothers speak. Even in the dryness of our desert journey, we are offered a sustaining taste