SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“…let’s take a look into the mysterious depths of human existence. The whole tragedy of our fallen world is rooted in one source—our “I,” in which we have since childhood habitually locked up everything, turning our soul into an impenetrable fortress. But authentic Christianity begins at the place where a person makes a great existential breakthrough; where he overcomes the pull of his egocentrism and turns to meet God. At this crosspoint of the vertical of the soul reaching

“When we come to realize the numerous mistakes that we have made and our shortcomings, we should start reforming the way we untangle tangled threads, for instance. It is useless to fiddle about with a bundle of tangled threads—nothing will come of it. We should take one thread, find the tip, start pulling it out, and so the whole ball will gradually unravel. That is why prudence, graduality, and patience are required in spiritual life.” (Priest Anthony Borisov) “Maturation in

“The “Good” is a term that ultimately applies to God. God is good and the source of all goodness. Indeed, goodness has a place in the “philosophical trinity.” That trinity is truth, goodness, and beauty. These are the three properties of being. God alone has true being. Everything that exists does so because God gives it being. Creation thus has relative being. The purpose (telos) of all created things is to move from relative being towards greater likeness and union with God

“In our everyday speech, the words “to listen” and “to hear” are often used as synonyms. But in a spiritual sense, there is a vast difference between them—one that brings either salvation or condemnation. Listening is a process. You can stand in church, listening to the reading of the Epistle or the Gospel, and even understand the meaning of the words with your mind—yet remain deaf in your heart. External listening without inner acceptance is like looking in a mirror, walking

“The gospels give us our meaning and our identity and every other identity that we have comes second to our identity as Christians. When we begin to compromise our identity in Christ, when we begin to compromise the way that we live and we begin to live a life of rebellion against the teaching of Christ and His Church then we find that our foundation cracks and before long we find ourselves on the outside looking in, completely unable to understand the Christian faith. We bec

“The intersection of earth and heaven was evident in the sacramental nature of early Christianity, with the central role of practices such as Baptism and the Eucharist. In these rites, the physical stuff of creation is imbued with heavenly significance, becoming theophanies or manifestations of the divine…When we begin Christian life in baptism, we are plunged into water, returning to the watery chaos that symbolizes non-being. This indicates that the way the cosmos itself wa

“Have you ever interrogated your yearning? I know you have it; we all bear unmet desire. Not just for love or safety, success or approval, though all those earthy, human things gesture to the larger things we’re missing. We desire something we can’t quite name, a deeper satisfaction than we have ever found in any one thing or person in this world.” (Sarah Clarkson) “A spiritual question is whether we are to seek the peace of God, or if we should be seeking the God of peace. W

“…we are content to say that God has no place in our lives. We think we want to be left alone to figure it out for ourselves. We have all seen how well this is working out!...Devotion to God’s will is the peaceful and restful haven in all temptations and sorrows, while reliance on one’s own powers is destructive.” (Reverend Christopher T. Metropulos, D. Min, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov) “The spiritual disease of the last times is the weakening of our will and determination. It

“The term ‘sacramental’ means here that the basic and primordial intuition which not only expresses itself in worship, but of which the entire worship is indeed the ‘phenomenon’ – both effect and experience – is that the world, be it in its totality as cosmos, or in its life and becoming as time in history, is an epiphany of God, a means of His revelation, presence, and power. In other words, it not only ‘posits’ the idea of God as a rationally acceptable cause of its existen

“Having come to church in extreme need, a person thinks that he and his life should change drastically. If I was depressed, I’ll become joyful. If I was aggressive and gloomy, I will become amiable and sweet. But nothing happens. I’m the same as before. It’s easy to get disappointed, offended, and go to look for miracles elsewhere. Or a dangerous attitude may appear: “I have come to God, so I must be joyful.” And once I start demanding something from myself, especially emotio