SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The gospel is the report of the victory of God achieved by Jesus Christ over the hostile spiritual powers arrayed against humanity…The true gospel, the story of Christ’s victory, begins with Yahweh, God the Son, descending from the glory He shared with the Father eternally (John 17:5) to be made man. The incarnate Son of God then waged war against the hostile spiritual powers oppressing humanity, against the power of sin, and against death itself. Arising victorious, He asce

“For it is God Who acted in both an unexpected and also shatteringly decisive way by transforming the tomb into a womb from which emerges new and everlasting life.” (Fr. Stephen Kostoff) “Should I not rather say that the tomb itself is a womb? There is, in fact, a great similarity. Just as the Lord came out from his mother’s womb living, so also He rose living from Joseph’s tomb. Just as He was born from the womb in order to preach, so also now He has been reborn from the tom

“God and man then possess in common an uncreated energy and life, the One being the Source, and the other the vessel of grace.” (St. Gregory Palamas) “We know that Jesus emphasized faith. To the woman with the issue of blood whom He healed, He said: “Your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:34). To the blind beggar He met on a street in Jericho and also healed, He said: “Your faith has made you well” (Mark 10:52). Jesus tied personal faith in Him to the efficacy of healings. But

“Among human beings, love appears to spring from feelings and emotions. Thus some mistakenly characterize love as irrational. But love transcends feeling and reason. Love is not rationally justified nor is it just a “natural” affection. At its source, love is a divine reality. Love, as I have stated, is rooted in freedom, in the absolute freedom of God and, next, in the relative freedom of the creature.” (Vigen Guroian) “Love, in the Christian understanding of the word (which

“Sometimes we judge ourselves (and others!) too harshly, focusing on our flaws and we don’t turn to God because we view God through this harsh and incorrect mindset and believe He is just as harsh and unloving as us. This mindset is easy to acquire when we think of God the Father as angry and wrathful and needing to sacrifice His son to appease His wrath (of course, one could look at this as He also loves us so much to sacrifice His Son, but either way appeasement is needed f

“Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone He met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what He did was to call out this beauty.” (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh) “We are to seek Christ in eve