SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“…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

“…humility substitutes for everything. And even if we do not have any other virtues, but humbly realize that we have nothing, then we will be ready to receive the Holy Spirit. Let us try not to forget about this…And let us live in such a way as to be worthy successors of the apostles and worthy bearers of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is what we are all called to do—to try and humble ourselves before God and our neighbors, to fulfill God’s commandments; and then the Lord

“Sons of the world see distraction as innocent, but the Holy Fathers see it as the beginning of all evil. One of the greatest ascetics of old, St. Poemen the Great, teaches that the beginning of evil is distraction.” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, Archbishop Averky Taushev) “Quiet, for me, seemed an impossible quality to cultivate without a sense of time as ample. I wanted our lives to be, not crammed with endless activity or entertainment or things, but ordered, roomy, so that

“To establish a solid and fruitful relationship with God and build himself up spiritually, a Christian must be attentive to himself. He needs a permanent attitude of vigilance (nepsis) to avoid evil thoughts (including diverting thoughts) and must remain attentive to God in undistracted prayer so as to develop a solid and fruitful relationship with God, which also builds him up spiritually by uniting him with the One God.” (Jean-Claude Larchet) “The fruits of sincere prayer a

“God created this entire visible world so that, through man, He might become all in all. This is the human person’s specific mission: to be the link between God and the world, a link between all things, by uniting his spirit with God.” (Fr. Dumitru Staniloe) “It is the meaning of human existence that must be dealt with and not the regulation of human behavior and the legalistic prohibition of human actions, especially when these are dogmatized as ‘the norm.’…The creation of m

“All the Christians of St. John’s time, by “receiving of His fullness,” the “grace for grace,” actually shared in what the Logos...

“…the opposite of love is ego…love is outwardly focused while ego is inwardly focused. Our little ego continually limits our worldview,...

“Such is our life! Calm and tempest alternate with each other; and time passes, passes, seeking to plunge into the abyss of eternity....

“The asceticism of prayer is important for each one of us. It is not always easy to pray. Quite the opposite! Prayer may bore you, it may...

“I find the bits and pieces of everyday life much more precious than the hopes and dreams of an unlived future. Clouds passing in the sky...