SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“For it is God Who acted in both an unexpected and also shatteringly decisive way by transforming the tomb into a womb from which emerges new and everlasting life.” (Fr. Stephen Kostoff) “Should I not rather say that the tomb itself is a womb? There is, in fact, a great similarity. Just as the Lord came out from his mother’s womb living, so also He rose living from Joseph’s tomb. Just as He was born from the womb in order to preach, so also now He has been reborn from the tom

“We go to church… in order to have our eyes opened to see the goodness which God bestowed upon creation… We begin to see God revealed in and through God’s own creation… It is this vision which we lost through sin – it is not the case that the world is totally depraved because of sin but rather that we have lost the ability to see and to have our proper place in creation.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “We see the world of God’s creation spread before us, its splendor awakening us to offer

“Virtue may be defined as the conscious union of human weakness with divine strength…if we rely on our own capability as if our natural powers are our strength, we confuse our human works with virtue. On the other hand, if we “do not make an effort” to receive divine help and “transcend human weakness” with the power of God, we will fall short of virtue…the development of virtue depends on…the cooperation between God and the human person.” (St. Maximus the Confessor, Fr. Basi

“People are called by God not according to former conduct —good or bad—but by God's grace…everybody is equally a priest before God, everybody is equally called…‘And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear…, (1 Peter 1:17). Why should we pray in fear? Because the Father we serve will judge us according to each one's work. While being certain of God's mercy, we conduc

“Redemption has a technical meaning relative to the freeing of slaves. Here, the bondage is to sins; the act of releasing is forgiveness; the price of redemption is blood—the human life of Christ given over to death for the sake of new life. This beginning of life in Christ is not merely legal, nor instantaneous, but living and dynamic.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Ephesians 1:7-8) “Forgiveness of sins follows redemption, for there would be no forgiveness of sin for anyone before

“The first evangelist was Jesus Christ. He is still the model. He set the standard for all evangelists. We read in Luke 4:18 how the Lord connected preaching the Gospel to the anointing of the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (Father Eusebius Stephano

“Brokenness is never an easy experience…There is no other way into the deep things of God but a broken spirit.” (Michael Youssef, Smith Wigglesworth) “Until we can honestly accept the broken reality of our lives and desire our true humanity and natural movement toward God, our lives will remain in this downward spiral.” (Kevin Scherer) “God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, aff