SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Creation has a sacramental purpose: it reveals God….the…rejection of sacramentalism is the beginning of naturalism, or it at least opens the door to its possibility. It is also the beginning of a certain evacuation of the sacred as a presence in the world.” (Father Stephen Freeman, James K.A. Smith) “In the modern world, we have largely lost this sacramental way of looking at things. One of the reasons so many people become victims of disordered pleasures, such as drugs, imm

“… 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

“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…Emptiness of spirit has many causes, such as disappointment, grief, lack of spiritual nourishment, burnout, and depression. Then too, the feeling of being spiritually worn out and exhausted is a sign that we have taken on too much and that we have tried to carry heavy burdens by our own p

“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

“Saint John the Theologian declares, “No one has seen God at any time” (1 Jn 4:12). Yet in another place the evangelist records Christ’s words to Philip: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Somehow both statements are true, despite the fact that they seem contradictory. Taken together, the two expressions balance the truth concerning vision of God. On the one hand, the vision of God in glory has to be terrifying for fallen, sinful humanity – an unbearable sigh

“Today’s passage [Genesis 4:16-26] describes the history of Cain and his descendants, whom we might call the first “secularists.” Cain shows us what becomes of human life when it is devoid of any awareness of God. Here we see into the heart of secular man: his existence is entirely organized around the material and psychological dimensions of life, where the passions reign over the spirit…This is secularism: a life devoid of relationship with God…Secularism inevitably leads m

“Nothing is more fascinating than a human face…It is no mistake that the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, is of an elusive and compelling human face. Even so, not one face painted…is greater than the human faces you will see in the coming week… look at each face with the reverence due to one made in the image and likeness of God…In Christ, all are one, all of creation. This unity includes each human face we see, and so each face has the potential, when we remember

“… when we deal with suffering it can be difficult to understand and convey why things are happening. St. Paul writes of suffering (and remember, he suffered a lot), “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18). This can be difficult to remember or to find consolation from when we are in the midst of trials.” (Melissa Tsongranis) “It is, of course, one thing to say that our

“As we tend to center our world (and ourselves) in the question of our choices, we are constantly tempted to justify those we feel were wrong. By the same token, we bring an anxiety about the choices that are yet to come. The power of goodness is not within our choice. We do not create the good – it is given to us. The impossible reality that surrounds our choices is seen when we examine the limits of our existence. We cannot see the consequences of our actions (beyond the mo

“Vulnerability is something we instinctively reject because we are taught from kindergarten on that we must protect ourselves, control our behavior and our lives. But in becoming man for us, Christ made himself totally vulnerable for us in Jesus of Nazareth, and it is not possible to be a Christian while refusing to be vulnerable.” (Madeleine L'Engle) “In times of suffering, the Church encourages us to fully experience our story and, as my good friend and teacher Dr. Albert R