SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“The fear of God brings peace and tranquility to the heart. Fear as a phobia is demonic fear. Who is the most neurotic? The devil. And the fear instilled by him gives rise to precisely this state in the heart…I compare and contrast repentant lamentation over sins and neurotic self‑criticism. Repentant lamentation over sins gives rise to peace, tranquility, and joy in the heart. But neurotic self‑criticism is like grinding water in a mortar, like running in circles, sorrow for

“The enemy of mankind tries in every way to trouble our consciousness and our lives, ultimately to suffocate our souls with pride and malice. We, as Christians, must understand this and wage spiritual warfare, armed with sobriety, prayer, fasting, humility, meekness, and love for Christ.” (Priest Tarasiy Borozenets) “We have to learn, figuratively speaking, to rise above the clouds. When a plane rises above the clouds, it enters a field of sunlight, where everything is so bea

“Thus, we can’t look to Adam or the book of Genesis to see human perfection because Adam was not created perfect; he was only potentially perfectible. We will not find in the book of Genesis how to be a perfect human. Adam did not fall from a state of perfection, rather he failed to develop this potential in himself. Jesus Christ is the perfect human and it is only from Him that we can understand what human perfection means. And Christ was born as a baby who also had to grow

“There’s a fundamental difference between the need to convince someone and the need to convey the truth. Truth, being the fullness of knowledge and unchangeable in its integrity, doesn’t need to convince. Therefore, when Christ was asked by Pilate: What is truth?, He didn’t respond (Jn. 18:38). That’s not how it goes for people gripped by the need to convince others they’re right—convictions that can be nothing more than simple ideas, not stemming from any personal experience

“The world insists: “There is only one life—take all you can from it!” Orthodoxy answers: “Insomuch as there is only one life, you should never take all you can from it!” Since there will be no second chance, the price of each choice skyrockets, and responsibility for it becomes critical and soteriological by nature. To waste this unique gift recklessly in pursuit of illusory happiness does not mean to “take everything”, but to lose everything: to lose “the one thing needful”

“This serpent has many tongues and teeth, often very subtle and inconspicuous. Every kind of care for the flesh, self-gratification—these are the tongues of this poisonous snake. But the most important of them is self-love, when a man thinks and cares too much about himself, about his own comfort.” (St. Seraphim Zvezdinsky) “Thinking of ourselves first leads us to believe the lies Satan whispers. He tells us that happiness comes from things, property, and sensual activities a

“We may abandon God, but He never abandons us. Our actions may cause us to leave His loving embrace, but His love endures…nothing can separate us from God. He is with us, in our health. He is with us in our pain. He is with us in our healing. Yet, regardless of where we are at any given moment, He is still with us.” (Reverend Christopher T. Metropulos, D. Min, Jackie Morfesis) “The presence of the Holy Spirit, then, brings us into the presence of Christ “through faith” (Eph

“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

“The gift of speech is the greatest gift and corresponds to man’s need for expressing feelings, for exchanging thoughts, impressions, and conversations. But nothing can do more harm to one’s neighbor and nothing can so easily destroy as verbosity, which the enemy uses cunningly and especially successfully to catch people in his nets.” (St. Seraphim Chichagov) “We live in a remarkable and frightening time—the age of an information flood. Every day, through the screens of our s

“Today we continue to celebrate the most fundamental and joyful proclamation of our faith: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! He is our Pascha, our Passover, from death to life, for Hades and the grave could not contain the God-Man Who shares with us His victory over corruption and decay in all their forms. In a world enslaved to the fear of the grave, He has illumined even the dark night of the tomb with