SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Love flares up from understanding that the Lord doesn’t turn away from the impurity and sinfulness of man, doesn’t withdraw from our guilt, criminality, and ungodliness: He never pushes anyone away, but on the contrary, always allows approach, draws near, listens, even caresses, shows mercy, and finally, forgives everyone!” (St. Seraphim Chichagov) “Love is service. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave us a great example of this when He washed the feet of the Apostles at the M

“Why was the entire dispensation of history and work of Christ necessary? Could not God simply have saved humankind by fiat?...The solution God has provided is to heal our nature from the inside out. By joining His divine, eternal life to human flesh, Jesus Christ has overcome the power of death; hence mortality will be abandoned in the grave when the universal resurrection dawns. If this explanation is not sufficient for the inquirer, ‘Say something like this to reasonable p

“Mankind is carried away by other aspirations and goals, created for its own detriment and ruin. There are people who don’t pray at all, who don’t feel the need for it, who don’t understand the point of praying and don’t believe in the possibility of being heard by God; and many people do pray, but rarely and always reluctantly, with compulsion and difficulty. Thus, there are very few people who live by fervent, strong, sincere, noetic, and unceasing prayer, according to the

“Seeking the Kingdom of God isn’t a retreat into the wilderness or a complete renunciation of the world; withdrawing from the world for...

“He [Gadarene Demoniac – Luke 16:19-31] is an icon of our brokenness and represents us all in many ways. He did not ask Christ to deliver...

“Christ then appears through shut doors in the midst of them and tells them one thing: ‘Peace be with you.’ For these to be the first...

“People always seem to be thinking too literally, and Jesus is always moving them from the literal to the spiritual level—to seeing...

“Bound in a world of information that falsely imagines that knowledge, power, management, and expertise are the secrets to well-being, we...

“The Gospel is very simple, and yet we don’t understand it. I’m not impressed with overactivity in the Church, and I’m not impressed with...

“There is a natural pattern of the telos in our genetic reality. DNA is an example of a natural telos, a patterning within us that moves...