SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Leviticus, indeed the entire Torah, envision sin and uncleanness not merely as legal infractions or ceremonial status, respectively, but as ontological realities among the people, in particular within the tabernacle, the center of their life…[The Torah considers and treats] sin as a contaminant, at least at a ritual level. This idea challenges an understanding of sin as the transgression of a commandment or similar views that hold sin to be a primarily legal category. Sin in

“Leviticus, indeed the entire Torah, envision sin and uncleanness not merely as legal infractions or ceremonial status, respectively, but as ontological realities among the people, in particular within the tabernacle, the center of their life…[The Torah considers and treats] sin as a contaminant, at least at a ritual level. This idea challenges an understanding of sin as the transgression of a commandment or similar views that hold sin to be a primarily legal category. Sin in

“Christ points later in St. John’s Gospel as He gives up His life on the Cross, saying, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The Greek verb here used by St. John is the same verb used in Genesis 2:1 at the completion of the work of Creation, leading to God’s rest. Christ, therefore, rests in the Tomb on the seventh day of the week, fulfilling the Sabbath. In three days He completes the work of Creation, rising again on the first day of the week. The Sabbath was, thereby, fulfilled.

“Fasting needn’t be limited to abstinence from food alone, because true fasting is departure from evil deeds. Forgive your neighbor any insult, abstain from causing your neighbor offence, abstain from irritation, from senseless sorrows, from fear, wrath, and so on. ‘True fasting is alienation from evil, temperance of the tongue, setting aside of wrath, casting out of lust, idle talk, lies, and oath-breaking’…This is a true and pleasing fast for the Lord. Departing from these

“Our lives are a gift from God and not of our own making. The Classical Christian spiritual life is not marked by choice and self-determination: it is characterized by self-emptying and the way of the Cross. When a modern Christian confronts the season of Lent – the question often becomes: “What do I want to give up for Lent?” The intention is good, but the question is wrong. Lent quickly becomes yet another life-choice, a consumer’s fast.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “Lent is a

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). In Matthew’s Gospel, four times people approached Jesus with the petition, “Have mercy on me” or “mercy on us – they include two blind men, the Canaanite mother, and a father of a sick boy. Each time Jesus grants their requests for mercy…Mercy is standing in the shoes of the other and deciding what to do based on how the other feels. Compassion allows us to see things from their point of view. This is exac

“Perhaps a particularly acute aspect of words is their ability to distort and misrepresent. And so, from the earliest times, there has been a prohibition against lying. The importance of speaking the truth is emphasized repeatedly in the epistles of the New Testament, even though it might easily seem to be a minor matter of morality. In our culture, words cascade at a never-ending pace, many of them disincarnate without reference to anything true or real. Arguments abound. Wo

“Scripture memorializes two types of events. On the one hand, the righteous exploits of God working through His saints (e.g., Ps 104) are held up as examples to be followed. On the other hand, there are the mistakes of the people of God and their consequences (e.g. Ps 105)…In various circumstances, every human is both the committer of sin and its victim. For this reason, even when God gives sinful humanity over to the consequences of their sin, they are measured and aimed at

“Christ is the New Adam. He comes to repair the damage inflicted on life by Adam, to restore man to true life, and thus he also begins with fasting. ‘When he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he became hungry’ (Matthew 4:2). Hunger is that state in which we realize our dependence on something else – when we urgently and essentially need food – showing thus that we have no life in ourselves.” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann) “To understand fasting as simply abstaining from meat and d

“God is free and cannot be expected to behave in a predictable manner (known to us). We can expect certain things according to His promise, but even those things remain largely hidden. For example, we can trust that He is always at all times and in all things working for our salvation, our true communion with Him and healing from the ravages of our brokenness. But we are creatures who dream of being gods, though entering by a false door. Rather than being raised up and confor