SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Perhaps the Incarnation of the God-Man occurred in such difficult circumstances in order to make clear that His salvation is not an escape from the grave problems posed by even the harshest realities of life. Instead of looking for distractions from our difficulties, let us entrust ourselves to Him as we cooperate with His gracious purposes for the healing of our souls and for the salvation of the world. Jesus Christ became a human person so that we might become nothing less

“We should strive to make ourselves aware of God’s presence at every moment of our lives. Whether we are in church or at home, whether we are playing, vacationing, working, exercising, resting, shopping, surfing the internet, or in any other activity, we need to cultivate in our hearts and minds awareness that we are always in God’s presence.  Creating that awareness of God’s presence helps keep God close to our hearts rather than thinking of God as some distant or remote dei

“One test of spiritual attainment is peace. Those who are truly advanced in the Spirit have peace of mind and share the peace of God… “Wherever God is — there is peace. And the opposite is self-evident: where there is envy, enmity, impatience, self-love — there is the devil. Wherever the devil is — there, everything is ruinous, proud and hostile.” (Fr. Basil, St. Anatoly of Optina) “How do we attain peace? We put aside all…pride and hostility and destructiveness. And we acqui

“Freedom is an essential characteristic of the Christian life Christ promised that the truth would set us free…The experience of freedom comes to us when we recognize the connection between the material and spiritual worlds. They are not divorced from one another…Anxiety and obsessiveness are qualities of the world, but our relationship with Christ results in freedom and inner peace…Whoever wants to create Christian culture must try to cultivate in his own heart a child of th

“…it is in our nature to aim toward what is good, true, and beautiful. But the impulse toward the good often misfires as we follow after merely transitory and temporal goods rather than the Eternal Good, or as we pursue the fleeting ephemeral beauty of this world, which cannot satisfy the soul…The power that transitory goods have to entice us away from the Ultimate Good lies precisely in the fact that they are genuine goods. Because of our fallen state, we do not approach God

“The signs of God’s grace surround us and lie within us. But we have our own idols that blind us to all the signs that witness to the steadfast love of God. God is good. Yet the troubles of this world, the suffering of illness and grief, the attractions of this age, the temptations of greed, jealousy, and avarice, and the press of daily affairs conspire to hide the goodness of God from us. And in times of distress, we might even blame the Almighty and All-Merciful for our tro

“Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more.” [John 5:14] Experience proves that sins and passions destroy the health of the soul and the body, whilst victory over the passions affords heavenly tranquility and health both to the soul and the body. Conquer the many-headed hydra of sin - and you will be made whole. Preserve tranquility of spirit; do not be disturbed, do not be irritated by any opposition, offences, negligences, injustices - and then you will always enjoy spiritua

“Effective witness requires that we first learn to rely on the Spirit to help us….You can’t witness effectively by relying on your own strength, because fear will keep you from speaking out for God. Only by relying on the power of the Holy Spirit can you live and witness for Him.” (Foundation Study Bible, Acts 1:8, Life Application Study Bible, Micah 3:8) “Let us take heed about this: what we are called to is not simply preaching in the sense of communicating some information

“The story of ‘the Fall’ is the story of human self-will: we like to do what we want regardless of how our relationships or others are affected by what we do…Adam and Eve felt God was denying them something good by forbidding them to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are given all of Paradise (the perfect world!) and yet they imagine God is withholding something more from them and they want what they imagine they have been denied rather than

“Here are two types of worshipers—one (Cain) merely discharges a duty at the proper time, while the other (Abel) goes out of his way to please God with the first and the best… Abel by faith offered a better sacrifice. Cain’s offering as well as his reaction to God’s displeasure did not reflect faith.” (NET Bible, Genesis 4:4-5) “In this vein, we might ask, what do we gain from our worship attendance? If we participate in services merely for what we get out of them, we will dr