Sin and Forgiveness
“Sin is fundamentally a kind of demonic force that masters us and makes us demonic slaves when we give in to it (John 8:34)…Being an existential problem rather than merely a legal one, sin therefore is a kind of sickness and even addiction. That means that forgiveness of sins involves changing the human person into someone who is in communion with God and in the process of becoming like Him instead of what results from demonic communion.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick) “Notice t
Shame
“Acknowledging our emptiness and brokenness, our failures and weakness, is an exercise in confronting shame. It can be quite painful – something we either avoid or cover over with self-loathing. Shame is not self-loathing. Indeed, the energy behind our self-loathing is simply pride (ϕιλαυτία). Self-loathing is consumed with the self and driven by its unwillingness to be that person. Bearing our shame is the willingness to acknowledge the truth of ourselves and our lives as a
Priesthood
“In the Church of Christ, there is only one priesthood and one sacrifice. It is the priesthood of Jesus and the sacrifice of the Cross. The entire Church of Christ is a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet 2.4). The ordained clergy of the Church exists to manifest and realize the unique priesthood of Jesus in the community which is the “body of Christ” (1 Cor 12.27).” (Fr. Thomas Hopko) “All Christians are priests in Christ…In baptism we all are anointed with grace as priests in the Kin
Repentance
“…repentance does not fundamentally mean to feel guilty about our past sins, nor even merely to cease from sinning in the future. Probably we know that the English word “repentance” is a (quite dubious) translation of the Greek word μετάνοια, “metanoia,” meaning literally to change one’s nous — that is, to change our fundamental way of understanding reality…there is a common religious framework that our culture has instilled into our subconscious — and so when we hear Christ