SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The will of God is not a judicial imperative, it is an influx of life; it bestows existence and renews it when it goes astray. The will of God is, first of all, creation itself, the universe itself entirely borne up by the will-ideas, by the logoi, the sustaining words of the poet-God.” (Olivier Clement) “God’s will is that all be saved, however, humans with free will can reject God’s love and salvation. God gives us free will and is willing to allow us to use it to choose o

“There will be good days – those days when things fall into place and you feel that God is using the gifts that He has given you for His purposes. You will sense that He has placed you in a certain situation for which you are uniquely prepared. You will succeed and hopefully you will honor Him with your success, knowing that all that you accomplish has come from Him. There will be bad days – those days when the world seems to reward those who do not honor God or His commandme

“It may be easy to think that we have devoted ourselves to the Lord quite well when we believe that we are getting what we want from religion. Perhaps we attribute the happiness of our marriages and families to our faith. Maybe we see our physical health, financial success, or good reputation among our peers as a reward for our dedication to God. Of course, all the good things of this life are God’s blessings and we should be grateful for them. We must be on guard, however, a

“Indeed, Peter and John place no faith in their own abilities [Acts 3:1-8]. They trust wholly in Christ’s authority. They give what they know: the compassion of Jesus. They trust in Him that everyone should be healed and brought to the knowledge of the living God. They expect Christ, their Risen Lord, to act. Full of faith, they take the lame man by the hand and lift him up (Acts 3:7). To all who come attentively to the Church, the Lord extends His hand for our healing.” (Dyn

“The soul that desires to please God needs first of all patience and hope, because one of the tricks of the devil is, in time of trouble, to make us despondent and divert us from hope and trust in God. God never allows those who trust in Him to be overwhelmed by temptations so as to reach utter exhaustion; for says the Apostle, God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation, He will also dispose the issue of it, and enable you

“In all of creation light is the first thing spoken into existence. “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). The finite mind is tempted to ask, “How can there be light without sources that generate it? How is there day and night without a sun?” Light, however, is the first order of the Word of God…Our loving Lord is Light. If He comes to illumine the world, how then do we still love darkness? Our choice is self-defeating, and yet our practice of ev

“The peace of God is a beautiful thing; it is there for each of us if we desire it. Assuredly, just as we miss the sound of a gentle wind blowing through the trees during a busy day, so we miss and take for granted the peace of God that is all around us. It is as close to us as a breeze brushing across our face. It is as close to us as the present moment, yet we often look for it in the past and future.” (Fr. Joshua Makoul) “Foremost among these fruits is the restorative peac

“ ‘Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus’ (Acts 4:13). Uneducated and untrained refers specifically to religious education. This lack of religious training stands in contrast to the expertise of the Sanhedrin. The wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit transcend earthly religious training, for God works in the humble and simple as well as in those

“ ‘Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,…’ ( 2 Thessalonians 1:11). What is this, ‘work of faith in power’? Patient endurance through persecutions. How? He gives us power and strength; for patience is a work of faith.” (Blessed Theophylact) “ ‘By your endurance you will gain your lives’ (2 Thessalonians 1:19, New English Translation). “By yo

“There are very few people who come to their senses, very few who understand life. We pray with our lips only, and we hurry through our prayers to “get it over with” as soon as possible, and then we lose peace. Fasting and prayer are a means of embellishing our soul and bringing it back to its original state.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “...God’s answers [to prayers] come from God’s perspective. They are not always in harmony with our expectations, for only he knows the wh