SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The Scriptures are not a manual on how to live a moral life or how to organize the Church as an institution. The Scriptures are the means by which we come to know the Risen Christ, always through the working of the Holy Spirit…A Christian does not come to read the Scriptures alone and isolated, left to his or her own devices to try to come to the right conclusions that will allow him or her to do what is needed to find salvation. A Christian comes to the Scriptures with the

“As we walk our individual life journeys, we pick up resentments and hurts, which attach themselves to our souls like burrs clinging to a hiker’s socks. These stowaways may seem insignificant at first, but, over time, if we do not occasionally stop and shake them free, the accumulation becomes a burden to our souls.” (Richard Paul Evans) “The harder thing for me is to stop the argument in my head. It’s the argument in my head that more often than not throws me into confusion

“…our goal is not to make the world into paradise, but rather to prevent it from becoming hell. Each of us can work to make holiness present in our lives – which means not so much becoming morally perfect as it means allowing Christ into our hearts and homes so that each of us is transformed by the Gospel commandments. We do not need to be sinless, but we do need to be repentant to have Christ in our lives. The Kingdom of God is not established on earth through governments, l

“Once, the monk John the Short told the desert father Poeman that he had asked the Lord to take away his passions. John said that the Lord answered his prayer, and he was at peace: the warfare between flesh and spirit in his heart was over. Poeman replied, “Go and ask the Lord to stir up in you a new battle against the passions. Fighting against temptation is good for the soul.” When the passions attacked John once more, he did not pray for the end of the fight against them.

“When the disciples first heard Christ say “Follow Me,” they were doing their daily work as fishermen. Let us not think that His calling is esoteric or removed from the mundane realities of life. We have no lack of opportunities to answer His call in our families, workplaces, friendships, and neighborhoods, as well as in this small parish. No one else is married to your spouse, is the father or mother of your children, or is the particular friend, worker, or parishioner that

“At times we may become so consumed and focused on our own problems and worries that we forget that God is there. We also may feel that God gets impatient or frustrated with our setbacks or slow progress.” (Fr. Joshua Makoul) “Our continual mistake is that we do not concentrate upon the present day, the actual hour, of our life; we live in the past or in the future; we are continually expecting the coming of some special moment when our life will unfold itself in its full sig

“…the concept of godly sorrow (2 Cor 7:10) is not well understood. How easy it is to settle into spiritual languor, remaining content with externals, satisfied with routine righteous acts and a limited idea of God. We either join our secular neighbors in thoughtless avoidance, or else we assume a false righteousness that does not respond to the call of Christ.” (Dynamis 7/1/2014) “There are two kinds of regret for the wrong we have done. In…2 Corinthians 7:1-10, Paul teaches

“It takes the spiritual gift of discernment to recognize the difference between what comes from our own ego and what comes from the Spirit of Christ. What originates in our ego comes from our own pride. But we receive what is of Christ. We can only accept it with humility and gratitude as a gift…humility will realize that whatever wisdom, knowledge, spiritual gifts, and blessings it has, it has received.” (Fr. Basil) “Saint Paul urges us to be careful not to detach the forms

“The Church’s tradition of fasting exists to restore balance between body and soul, between penitence and rejoicing, between us and the world around us…When the body is humbled, our thoughts become more peaceful, too. This is the purpose of fasting.” (Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou, Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “Withdrawing from earthly things whets our spiritual appetite for Christ’s heavenly gifts…fasting never devalues earthly things, but in a spirit of gratitude re

“Everyone who lives in this body knows that he must be committed to that special task or ministry to which he has given himself in this life as a participant and a laborer, and he ought not to doubt that in that everlasting age he will also be the partner of him whose servant and companion he now wishes to be, according to what the Lord says, “If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” (St. John Cassian) “To minister is to serve so