SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The Lord allows a man's vices to humble his soul. Perhaps he will turn from them. But courage is one of the general virtues begotten by Wisdom. Courageous people enrich others in virtue.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Proverbs 10:4) “When you think of what it takes to be a Christian, does the word “courage” ever come to mind? The first words that tend to come mind when describing what it takes to be a Christian are usually the obvious ones like faith and trust. Certainly those are

“It is not incorrect to describe our relationship with the passions as an addiction. The fathers described the passion-driven life as a constant swing between pain and pleasure. We experience boredom as a pain and seek to replace it with pleasure, which will only yield more pain later on. This movement, as it dominates our experience, draws us away from the opportunity to grow in noetic experience. As such, it tears us away from God other than as an entertaining idea or a con

“Why was the entire dispensation of history and work of Christ necessary? Could not God simply have saved humankind by fiat?...The solution God has provided is to heal our nature from the inside out. By joining His divine, eternal life to human flesh, Jesus Christ has overcome the power of death; hence mortality will be abandoned in the grave when the universal resurrection dawns. If this explanation is not sufficient for the inquirer, ‘Say something like this to reasonable p

“Mankind is carried away by other aspirations and goals, created for its own detriment and ruin. There are people who don’t pray at all, who don’t feel the need for it, who don’t understand the point of praying and don’t believe in the possibility of being heard by God; and many people do pray, but rarely and always reluctantly, with compulsion and difficulty. Thus, there are very few people who live by fervent, strong, sincere, noetic, and unceasing prayer, according to the

“For the inability of human personhood to be ekstatic towards what is outside creation and thus to unite nature in personhood leads to...

“God is beyond our human conceptions and we cannot describe Him thoroughly with human language. But the Church Fathers go even further:...

“If we try to describe our perception and experience of the Holy Spirit, we will quickly realize that human words are not enough for...

“Bound in a world of information that falsely imagines that knowledge, power, management, and expertise are the secrets to well-being, we...

“It is very interesting that…it is only when God “empties himself” for the life of the world, that He actually takes on being. Before...

“One of the most encouraging lines of the Divine Liturgy comes shortly before Holy Communion, when the priest says “The Holy Gifts for...