SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The Church is not merely a refuge from the troubles and sorrow of the world, though it can be that. Its real purpose is to equip us to go out of the church and into the world to be witnesses to the Gospel (Luke 24:48), to be a light to the world (Matthew 5:14), and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). We don’t go to church to escape the world or to withdraw from it. When Jesus prayed for us to His Father, he petitioned: I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but

“Our primary vocation is to have union with God and become Christ-like in all that we say and do. Our secondary vocation, or vocations, are what we do in our lives that enables us to express this Christ-likeness” (Sacramental Living) “In order to bear witness to the good news that the Son of God has become truly one of us, we must freely pursue the vocation of becoming like Him in holiness as we grow in our participation in His divine life. Our fundamental vocation remains th

“…the people of God did not fight with the hand or weapons so much as with the voice and tongue, that is, they poured forth prayer to God, and thus overcame their adversaries. Therefore, you, too, if you want to be victorious, listen to the apostle [Paul] say, “Be assiduous in prayer, being wakeful.” This is the most glorious fight of the Christian, not to presume upon his own strength but always to implore the assistance of God.” (St. Caesarius of Arles) “ ‘But someone will

“ “Abiding in the word” (keeping the commandments, engaging in the practices of the faith) is the necessary pre-condition for “knowing the truth.” One manifestation of this with which many believers are familiar is the “coin drop.” Any amount of information may have passed our ears and eyes. The Scriptures, the Liturgy, various hymns and writings, all of them bathe us in their wisdom while we remain inert, untouched, and even bored. And yet, there can come a moment when the “

“In all four Gospels we find the Lord Jesus often leaving behind the crowds that follow Him in order to spend time by Himself. He seeks solitude to be with His Father. If the Lord, who is both man and God, needs to withdraw from the world to find intimacy with the Father, how much more do we, as fallen human beings, need to follow His example!” (Dynamis 7/21/2020) “Christ taught by example, spending whole long nights in the desert praying. He did this to teach and admonish us

“There are very few people who come to their senses, very few who understand life. We pray with our lips only, and we hurry through our prayers to “get it over with” as soon as possible, and then we lose peace. Fasting and prayer are a means of embellishing our soul and bringing it back to its original state.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “...God’s answers [to prayers] come from God’s perspective. They are not always in harmony with our expectations, for only he knows the wh

“God loves us more than a father, mother, friend, or any else could love, and even more than we are able to love ourselves…We need to understand as human beings that our personal value and the value of our so-called accomplishments is first and foremost rooted in God’s love for us.” (St. John Chrysostom, Father David L. Fontes, PsyD) “The challenge then is to take our sense of Godliness and transfer it over to every encounter with every person we meet today, to see God in the