SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Our modern self-understanding sees people primarily as individual centers of choice and decision. A person is seen as the product of their choices and decisions – our lives are self-authenticated. As such, we are managers. Of course there are many problems with this world-view from the perspective of Classical Christianity. Though we are free to make choices and decisions, our freedom is not unlimited. The largest part of our lives is not self-determined. Much of the rhetori

“… the acquisition of wisdom is always conditional, for God makes wisdom available only when two major “ifs” apply to us: “if [we] call upon wisdom. and search for her as treasure” (Proverbs 8:3, 4). God reveals wisdom but we must undertake the work… Take heart, for the “if” clauses are followed by God’s promise that we will then “understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” (vs. 5).” (Dynamis 3/13/2023) “…wisdom is not merely the result of a long life of ex

“…asceticism is the path to holiness, growth, and stability…If we practice asceticism and strip away our ego, control our ‘false self’, and learn ‘self-forgetfulness’, we each embody the Lord’s Prayer. We have to empty the self (kenosis) in order to become our true self.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley, Fr. Ted Bobosh) “…asceticism “is the struggle of the person against rebellious nature, against the nature which seeks to achieve on its own what it could bring about only in personal un

“Humans were made for fellowship with God: this is the first and primary affirmation in the Christian doctrine of the human person. But humans, made for fellowship with God, everywhere repudiate that fellowship: this is the second fact which all Christian anthropology takes into account. Humans were made for fellowship with God: in the language of the Church, God created Adam according to His image and likeness, and set him in Paradise. Humans everywhere repudiate that fellow

“I will tell you a true story. When I was a deacon many years ago, we met for daily matins at 6:00 am every day. We had a young man in our community who was unemployed and in a public way vowed that he would attend morning matins to pray. However, after a couple of weeks, he slowly stopped attending. A friend of mine asked him why, and he said, “6:00 am is just too early. I just can’t do it.” It was only a few weeks later that this young man got a great job. It was a union jo

“A relationship with Jesus Christ-this is prayer. When people think about what is required to receive Holy Communion, they almost immediately think of fasting. There are so many things “higher on the list,” including prayer-what good is fasting without prayer? That’s just dieting.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis) “Take fasting. Some people are extremists in this while many others, perhaps most, are not at all so. Saint Isidoros Pilousiotis says that we should be ‘experienced

“What leads to the inner decision to ignore Wisdom’s call? Since the issues that Wisdom raises “are the issues of life” (Proverbs 8:34), it really depends on how we define life. The Lord Jesus says, “I am…the life” (Jn 14:6). If we exclude Christ from our consideration of any aspect of our lives, then we are operating on an entirely different ground from that of the Lord. Life’s issues might then seem to encompass nothing more than health, wealth, status, ideology, or the boa

“It is possible we could have forgiven someone cognitively (with our thoughts and even verbally) but not forgiven them emotionally. Sometimes this occurs because we fear the wrong or hurt happening again and don’t let our guard down. Also, we might, due to our faith convictions, embrace the concept of forgiveness and thus readily extend it verbally, but under the surface we still harbor resentment. Sometimes we do this intentionally and sometimes we are not conscious that we

“God bless those who clean up the pain and grief of the world without seeking recognition, for their sorrow, too, will turn to joy. May God grant us the grace to relieve suffering as we are able, offer gestures of comfort to those in need, tell the truth with love, and assuage the world’s pain whenever we meet it. And may the Lord say to us, “Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom” (Mt 25:34).” (Dynamis 2/17/2023) “When a person truly loves Christ, he cannot but h

“There is a teaching on the energies that is far more prosaic even practical to be found in the early fathers . That teaching can be understood by simply looking at the meaning of the word, “energy” or “energeia.” In Greek “energeia” simply means “doings” or “actions.” The Divine Energies thus means the divine actions, everything that God does. What does God do? He creates; He sustains; He holds all things in his goodness; He moves all things and draws all things towards unio