SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Many people make the serious error of thinking of the Holy Spirit as only some kind of vague principle or influence. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is as much a person (individual existence of a conscious being) as the Father and the Son.” (Foundation Study Bible, Ephesians 4:3) “Everything begins from our faith in Christ and accepting His word. When we make His commandments the unique law of our life, then we gradually acquire a certain mystical depth. We become mystical,

“Because the Scriptures have a specific, God-given meaning (2 Peter 1:20, 21), it is impossible to truly understand them apart from the Church, for apostolic interpretation is held in the consciousness of the Church.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Acts 8:30-31) “…to assert the "centrality" – even "sufficiency" – of Scripture does not mean a self-sufficiency. As Father Georges Florovsky writes, "We cannot assert that Scripture is self-sufficient; and this not because it is incomplete

“God is fire. God is love. God is a self-propagating emotional power, a fire that shares itself. Centuries after Moses beheld the flames of the burning bush, this same fire merged with the tongues of flame at Pentecost, and with the fire that burned within the hearts of the disciples at Emmaus. In saying that God is a fire of love we are certainly stating a truth that plays havoc with many of our ideas, in fact almost all our ideas. (Fr. Lev Gillet) “There is no accident in G

“…even good deeds, if they are done apart from Christ, are futile. “God’s all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy Spirit, an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which cannot be rightly valued . . . Every soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit . . . and mystically illumined by the Triune Unity.” (St. Seraphim of Sarov) “The Kingdoms of this world” [Matthew 4:8] is not a temptation to fantastic wealth...I believe it is similar to the idylls we whisper to ou

“Jesus’ Parable of the Ten Minas stands at the heart of today’s Gospel passage. The parable points ahead to the time of our Lord’s return when each disciple will be assessed. Hence, our Lord urges us to invest the “spiritual capital” He has entrusted to us, for He will look for growth as evidence of what we have gained from the love, grace, and power we receive through the Holy Spirit.” (Dynamis 11/27/2020) “Do you understand, what acquiring money means? Acquiring the Spirit

“It is a form of an affliction where we permit ourselves to indulge in thoughts of unfairness, until we become thoroughly miserable and obsessed by it. It is a pattern that destroys the good fruit of the Spirit, especially the fruits of inner joy and peace…we all worry about ourselves too much and that only he who leaves everything to the will of God can feel truly joyous, light, and peaceful…He who lives according to God's will has no worries. When he needs something, he sim

“In order to become wise, we must first become fools. The most valuable knowledge of all is the knowledge of what we don’t know. The Fathers followed a path of apophatic theology (theology that cannot be spoken). It is a path towards knowing the Unknowable. However, we cannot know the Unknowable without first acknowledging that we do not know what we do not know. A simple place to begin is to recognize the passions that accompany our opinions. We not only imagine ourselves to

“Even if we do not constantly struggle against “murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 12:19), all of us have evil thoughts! We are all defiled before God…We must earnestly address the impurity in our heart, that secret defilement which spawns both evil thoughts and actions. The impure heart is the greatest barrier between ourselves and God, for it separates us from Him who alone is able to restore in us the power to do good.” (Dynamis

“The things which are highly esteemed among men include money, power, position, and praise…Jesus emphasizes the virtues required for entrance into the kingdom of heaven: humility, dependence, lowliness, simplicity, obedience, and a willingness to love and be loved.” (Orthodox Study Bible, Luke 16:15, Matthew 18:1-4) “The Lord teaches that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless we revert to the nature of children, that is, we must recall into the simplicity of children t

“Joy requires single-mindedness. The world is full of reasons to be sad or distressed, but beauty and goodness also abound. Which to look at? What you see is what you get.” (Mike Mason) "You cannot command yourself to be joyful, but you can choose where to focus. You can choose to focus on the bad things in your life. And if you do, you will be gloomy and depressed. But if you choose to focus on the Lord, you're going to rejoice with God's kind of joy, regardless of what is b