SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Unresolved grief will linger until it is processed and dealt with—we can run, but we can’t hide. Many times we are afraid to grieve, thinking we may become lost in our grief and not be able to find our way out. However, grieving hidden losses is a necessary part of our healing and theosis, our striving to attain union with God…Grief often comes in waves, so we need to be careful not to prematurely declare our grieving process over. Those who have experienced intense grief co

“The God of love and peace became incarnate in history and, like a glowing landmark, made a clear distinction between pre-Christian darkness and Christian light, between pre-Christian hatred and Christian love, between the pre-Christian miasma of the ‘stench of death’ and the Christian hope of the resurrection. If life today is characterized by the pre-Christian features just mentioned, the fault for that lies within ourselves. The Birth of Christ doesn’t mean the enforced do

“…it is possible to strive for peace and gratitude even when everything is going wrong. They have helped me see that peace and gratitude are not things you either have or do not have; rather, these are virtues we can struggle toward regardless of what is happening in our lives…the struggle we face is not to be grateful for extraordinary things; rather, the struggle is to be grateful for the ordinary things in life that we so often take for granted.” (Robin Phillips) “Christ h

“Our egos, which I am distinguishing from the true self, often have difficulties with boundaries. The ego is a narrative of our lives that is our own creation. It is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. It is often how we make sense of things and sort things out. This is a process that is under constant revision. It pushes us to criticize and judge, to weigh and compare. The ego is me watching me. Strangely, this process creates false boundaries – borders that mark th

“The difference between obligation and obedience is more than mere semantics. An obligation is imposed on us, but obedience, as the Church uses and understands that term, is self-chosen…The Greek word for “obedience” is hypakoe. It comes from the root word akouo (“to hear”). The relationship between hearing and obedience is clear in the Scriptures: one obeys when one hears the word of God and does it.” (Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou) “While knowing that the people you ar

“What is the meaning of Jesus’ statement “I do not judge anyone”? [John 8:15] It is clear that Jesus did judge (even in the next verse) [John 8:16). The point is that he didn’t practice the same kind of judgment that the Pharisees did. Their kind of judgment was condemnatory. They tried to condemn people. Jesus did not come to judge the world, but to save it (John 3:17). Nevertheless, and not contradictory to this, the coming of Jesus did bring judgment because it forced peop

“The signs of God’s grace surround us and lie within us. But we have our own idols that blind us to all the signs that witness to the steadfast love of God. God is good. Yet the troubles of this world, the suffering of illness and grief, the attractions of this age, the temptations of greed, jealousy, and avarice, and the press of daily affairs conspire to hide the goodness of God from us. And in times of distress, we might even blame the Almighty and All-Merciful for our tro

“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? (1 Thessalonians 2:19). In the above quote, St Paul points us in an interesting direction as the source of our hope and joy. He points us not to Christ who is coming again to the world at the end of time. Rather, He is looking at his fellow Christians in the Thessalonian parish: YOU are our hope and joy and crown of our rejoicing. We may readily bel

“Our Lord Jesus Christ entered into this world to endure its suffering. He did not simply remove it from us, He shared in it. And as a result, He transformed it. Now, when we approach suffering with faith, it can become a source of blessings. When we introspect through the prism of suffering, rooted in prayer, we learn its meaning for our own lives. In one instance, it points us toward repentance, and in another it presents us with an opportunity to trust God. It is in this w

“To undertake this reverse orientation and remain ever true to Christ, our hearts must be committed to Christ first and foremost. In the original Greek text of verse 5, the word aplóteti (“sincerity”) connotes “singleness, simplicity, being uncompounded, pure, or even sound.” The Lord requires this of us, for “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ma