SACRAMENTAL LIVING

Understanding Christianity as a Way of Life

Order and Disorder

“God is a God of order, That is what He is doing when He creates the world as we read in Genesis. He is ordering it, moving things from disorder to order. Moving from evening to morning, night to day, darkness to light, is a movement from disorder to order. In the Hebrew Old Testament the word for evening is erev (air-rev). The root of this word is disorder or chaos. The word used for morning is boker (bo-kare) and it comes from the root or words that means “being orderly” an

Asceticism

“Asceticism does not consist of prohibitions. Asceticism is activity, a working out, a perfection of oneself . . . inspired by the task of inspiration…When you have no theology of asceticism because you believe you’ve got salvation wrapped up, then cultivating virtue has no incentive. All that’s left is activism and activities.” (Father Georges Florovsky, Father Andrew Stephen Damick) “In the first stage a man turns from darkness to light, from the domain of Satan to God; in

Spiritual Warfare and Thought

“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

Soul and Self

“It is impossible to know God and not know the self. It is also the case that it is impossible to know the self and not know God. St. Gregory of Nyssa described the soul as a “mirror.” And though this image can be abused, it is, nevertheless, the case that it is within the soul that we see and encounter God. The search for God is thus a search for the self as well. If these are authentic, they tend to occur together.” (Father Stephen Freeman) “…we believe that God is in the “

Transformation

“Because God created all things through Christ, He will transform and reunite all things—material as well as spiritual—to Himself through Christ.” (Orthodox Study Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17) “The reality that we see is “transient,” it “passes away.” There is, however, a Reality (the unseen) that is eternal. It is this that cannot be shaken. There is a relationship between the two. When we think of the Incarnation of Christ, we see not the change of the material world (Chris

Prayer

“There are very few people who come to their senses, very few who understand life. We pray with our lips only, and we hurry through our prayers to “get it over with” as soon as possible, and then we lose peace. Fasting and prayer are a means of embellishing our soul and bringing it back to its original state.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica) “...God’s answers [to prayers] come from God’s perspective. They are not always in harmony with our expectations, for only he knows the wh

Burdens

“For nothing so weighs upon the soul, and presses it down, as consciousness of sin; nothing so gives it wings, and raise it on high, as the attainment of righteousness and virtue…” (St. John Chrysostom) “The Lord is the Author of the virtues (knowledge with righteousness). Man cannot have the Lord without the virtues, nor can he have the virtues without the Lord. Therefore, when man seeks the Lord and finds Him, he will also find the virtues of which He is the Author. Those w

God's Purpose

“God often permits the wicked to carry out their evil plans in order to fulfill some larger purpose He has for the objects of their violence and cruelty. Since it is not possible for us to see the whole picture from God’s perspective, we must exercise faith and believe that the God of all the earth will do right and that all things do work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” (Foundation Study Bible, Genesis 45:5) “Joseph's brothe

Heart (Good and Bad)

“Disasters have their spiritual beginnings in men’s hearts…Within the heart’s recesses, our passionate thoughts hasten our journey toward visible, sinful action. This corrupt interior movement effectively negates the truth of God, leading us to question whether He truly acts in our lives. Such interior insults leave us utterly without excuse before God (Rom 1:20). When we deny and destroy the image of God within us, we first do ourselves in by the disastrous consent of the he

Thankfulness

“Every time we truly see and are thankful for the goodness of God in our lives, it changes us…Thanksgiving naturally creates the desire to give back—to share and multiply the goodness of God…being grateful to God is fundamental to being human.” (Kevin Scherer) “Gratitude is closely linked to optimism. The grateful person sees goodness and God in even the smallest of blessings.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis) “By giving praise and thanks to God, our hearts are illumined…Prais

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