SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“We should strive to make ourselves aware of God’s presence at every moment of our lives. Whether we are in church or at home, whether we are playing, vacationing, working, exercising, resting, shopping, surfing the internet, or in any other activity, we need to cultivate in our hearts and minds awareness that we are always in God’s presence.  Creating that awareness of God’s presence helps keep God close to our hearts rather than thinking of God as some distant or remote dei

“Christ does not simply die on our behalf, or instead of us, He becomes sin in order to destroy sin (2 Cor. 5:22). Christ is without sin, and yet He becomes sin. There is nothing “noble” in such an action; nobility would be a deeply unjust accusation. It is self-emptying love…This act of self-emptying is known as kenosis. It is the ultimate act of love, the ultimate act of self-giving, self-forgetting…We are Baptized into the self-emptying love of Christ, for this is the only

“Just as God sent Jesus back into the world with his wounds, so we are sent into each day with our wounds…Jesus His followers with their wounds to use their wounds to heal, just as He used his wounds to heal. Using our wound is a way to grow in love. This is because the wound abides in us whether life is difficult and sad or centered and joyful, and so we are ready to love others in whatever state they happen to be…As the coming one, Jesus always appears with his wounds. The

“Reading the Scriptures, studying the church fathers, attending worship, praying, and meditating are all good and godly things. But they are not ends in themselves. When we engage in these holy activities, our sincere and fervent goal should be to encounter the Lord Jesus Christ. We may be the most informed and even enthusiastic students of the Word. We may be devoted to the teachings of the church. We may excel in Christianity as Paul excelled in Judaism. But everything that

“Are the choices that people make in their lives based on reason? The “Rational Choice Theory” claims that people choose the options they believe are in their best interest. That is, they select the most reasonable choices among alternatives. Our reading of Proverb 15:7-19 rejects this presupposition. The wise sage of Proverbs writes, “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred” (vs. 17). This saying suggests that the theory that people make reas

“We are God’s vineyard, charged with bearing fruit and offering “the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb 13:15). We are to abide in Him or risk being “cast out as a branch and . . . withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (Jn 15:6). Let us give God His due in the time allotted to us. Sin is around us and within us. Its allure deceives us so that we often fail to consider the cons

“Just as Saint Paul calls us to live in purity, he also calls us to be watchful, for those “who are of the day” should live soberly (1 Thessalonians 5:8). In modern times, any talk of sobriety raises the specter of substance abuse, for this widespread health issue affects marriages, destroys productivity and health, and corrupts every aspect of one’s physical, social, and spiritual life. No doubt addiction and drunkenness were as prevalent in first-century Greco-Roman society

“Just as man's failure to worship God led to his downfall (Romans 1:20–25), so now true worship is the first expression of mankind's renewal.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Romans 12:1) “Our relationship with God is renewed as we respond to His grace through prayer and worship. Our knowledge of the truth of life and our experience of His power, holiness, and love lead us to offer Him praise and thanksgiving. This is a continuous response that originates in our hearts, that is guided

“Critical for every servant of God, given our unavoidable struggle against the passions, is prayerful watchfulness…God endows each person with many gifts. However, instead of being grateful to God for these gifts, he is often not watchful. He claims them as his own, inwardly boasting. Then the cunning devil, the thief that he is, goes and steals the gifts—infects them with his poison, rendering them useless” (Dynamis 10/4/2019, St. Paisios the Athonite) “Without watchfulness

“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