SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“When we forgive we open doors and we know that this reflects the love of God who opens His arms to us and opens the doors of His kingdom to everyone who would enter with faith. And our behavior towards others must reflect this commandment given by our Lord right before His betrayal and crucifixion, “that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” It is a commandment that is self-enforcing. Either you love and have mercy or you can’t understand that language, it’s like

“Fasts and vigils, the study of Scripture, renouncing possessions and everything worldly, are not in themselves perfection, as we have said; they are its tools. For perfection is not to be found in them; it is acquired through them. It is useless, therefore, to boast of our fasting, vigils, poverty and reading of Scripture when we have not achieved the love of God and our fellow men.” (St. John Cassian) “…there is often no faith in people, but there is a lot of ritualism in t

“Humanity has never run short of ways to distract itself, but in the media age, distraction has become a way of life.” (Sarah Clarkson) “Modern people have a hard time setting their hearts and minds on any one thing. Intervening in our lives is an endless number of media and electronic disruptions. Being “single-minded” may be another thing that contemporary society has left in the past. Many studies have noted the shortening attention span of modern people. The ubiquitous fl

“The whole of the Law and the Prophets can be summarized in the commandment to love God and neighbor (Mt. 22:40). God descends from Heaven and identifies Himself with our neighbor. He calls Himself “prisoner,” “sick,” “stranger,” “hungry,” and “naked,” and says that whenever we visit a prisoner, a sick person, a beggar, we visit Him (Mt. 25:35–40). In our neighbor, we find either salvation or perdition. That’s why encountering our neighbor—that is, the challenges that come fr

“He [man] is the only being that is distinguished from all else in creation, because he is the only one which can become a god. The phrase “in His image” describes the gifts which God gave only to man in order to complete him as an icon of God, and not to any of His other creatures. These gifts are: a logos related nous, conscience, and individual sovereignty, i.e. freedom, creativity, eros, and the yearning for the absolute and for God, personal self-awareness, and anything

“Our yearning for renewal knows no limits. Even the seemingly mundane things can reflect, like in a drop of water, something truly great… An encounter with God always results in renewal. It has been this way for centuries, throughout the history of Christianity… What is spiritual renewal? It is when you are no longer weighed down by the burden of past traumas and mistakes, your present is filled with joy, and you anticipate the future without fear. We are happy people, becaus

“If we truly care for one another, let us help one another spiritually.… Let us hinder those things that lead our friends away to hell.” (St. John Chrysostom) “…the Lord entrusts each one of us with responsibility for those who have spiritually faded. A word of comfort, help in trouble, and involvement in the lives of others—all this can become that very “spirit” that will quicken our loved ones and ourselves…It is important to note that when we do outreach to those in distre

“God creates like an artist rather than a scientist. The language which the Bible and the Fathers employ in describing the creation of the world by God seems to be borrowed from the building of an edifice (Hebrews 3:3-4), ordering and furnishing it, so that it may become cosmos, a well ordered, beautiful thing…There is, of course, major difference between God and a human artist in that the former creates ex nihilo and the latter ex vetere. And yet, when we come to the idea of

“Christ himself did not preach “faith alone,” but a rather more complex picture of salvation that also involved repentance and self-denial…The foremost question we must resolve is one of desire (Mark 8:34-35)…we declare that our foremost desire is to follow Him [Christ]. But let us ask ourselves if this truly our heart’s desire. Our criteria for determining whether or not this is so can be found in the three conditions that the Lord stipulates in these verses: self-denial, ta

“Christianity is not a religion. It is a spiritual path towards union with God. Jesus did not come to usher in a new system of how to get what we want. He “emptied Himself,” and repeatedly invited us to do the same. That emptying is the path of union, and the very definition of love. If unfulfilled desires can be of use to us, then this world becomes the perfect arena of our salvation…we can describe two essential actions within that life as it has been passed down to us by T