SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“This is an age of ideology. People divide themselves according to their allegiance to sets of dogmas and doctrines that dominate their thinking and their relationships. Many define themselves by the categories of left or right, red or blue, conservative or liberal, etc. In such an age, these social, political, and cultural theories set people against each other. But the Gospel is not an ideology. It is not a set of truths, or tenets that come from the human mind. As we see i

“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

“When a seed dies, it produces fruit. Life comes by death. This principle is not only true in nature, but it is also true spiritually.” (Foundation Study Bible, John 12:24) “Every year we have autumn and winter when things begin to die and then die, and spring and summer when things begin to come back to life and then come back to life fully. What we see in physical nature is part of spiritual nature too. Often something about our lives and ourselves must begin to die and the

“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