Life and Death
“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
Peace
“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...
Salvation
“…Chrysostom understands original sin not in terms of inherited or personal guilt but in terms of an inherited mortality that causes...
Sacrifice
“The rejection of egotism, that is, the ability to sacrifice your own interests for the sake of another, is an important and highly...
Thoughts (Battling Them)
“I once confessed to an experienced priest that sinful thoughts were torturing me, and this is what he advised me: “Think of the thoughts...
Holiness
“One of the most encouraging lines of the Divine Liturgy comes shortly before Holy Communion, when the priest says “The Holy Gifts for...
Looking Backwards/Looking to the Past
“Ultimately, none of us are defined by our past, but rather we are defined by what we become in Christ. This is why we can declare...
Rules and Legalism
“Isn’t it amazing that everyone is taught grammar so no one writes in his own way, but according to the rules? They try to teach everyone...
Order and Disorder
“Have you seen how, with creation, when God wished to make creation, with how much harmony and godly wisdom everything was put together,...
Contentment
“From a lack of contentment comes death…What we see in the Garden is paradise. A place of intimate and immediate communion with God,...