SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“We certainly want to believe in the goodness around us and also in the goodness of humanity. And in many cases, this is true, and we see and experience evidence of this daily. Yet, we must not lose our awareness of what moves upon this earth in addition to the light-the darkness. And the darkness of which I speak does not only come at night when the sun goes down. The darkness of which I speak happens in broad daylight. We are at a time when there is no shame in committing a

“Thus, we can’t look to Adam or the book of Genesis to see human perfection because Adam was not created perfect; he was only potentially perfectible. We will not find in the book of Genesis how to be a perfect human. Adam did not fall from a state of perfection, rather he failed to develop this potential in himself. Jesus Christ is the perfect human and it is only from Him that we can understand what human perfection means. And Christ was born as a baby who also had to grow

“In Christ there is no such thing as sacrifice without deliverance. And deliverance does not just mean remission of personal sins…but the ultimate transfiguration of the world, the overcoming of corruption and death.” (Metropolitan John Zizioulas) “We are saved by His life!” This involves a change of metaphors. The Greek word for “saved” takes us down two metaphorical tracks. The first word picture is the deliverance or rescue from some sort of danger…The second is the delive

“There’s a fundamental difference between the need to convince someone and the need to convey the truth. Truth, being the fullness of knowledge and unchangeable in its integrity, doesn’t need to convince. Therefore, when Christ was asked by Pilate: What is truth?, He didn’t respond (Jn. 18:38). That’s not how it goes for people gripped by the need to convince others they’re right—convictions that can be nothing more than simple ideas, not stemming from any personal experience

“It’s my deep conviction that a Christian’s home prayer should be at least in some way connected with that of the Church, so you live “in the rhythm of the Church.” (Nun Kallista Golik) “…since you have touched on the subject of the home prayer rule. Firstly, the very word “rule” should not be understood as a duty, but as a model. The Church has collected for us the best examples of Patristic prayers so that we ourselves can learn to pray to God. Penetrating into the Patrist

“Our fragmentation and disintegration into our private worlds is a contradiction of God’s intention for human well-being. Just as the Trinity is One God in Three Persons, so we are One humanity in a multiplicity of persons. The fullness of our existence is never found within ourselves, but within the mutual indwelling of each in all and all in each.that spiritual things can be understood only by spiritual people, not by the “natural” man, the unspiritual person. Spiritual thi

“The whole of the Law and the Prophets can be summarized in the commandment to love God and neighbor (Mt. 22:40). God descends from Heaven and identifies Himself with our neighbor. He calls Himself “prisoner,” “sick,” “stranger,” “hungry,” and “naked,” and says that whenever we visit a prisoner, a sick person, a beggar, we visit Him (Mt. 25:35–40). In our neighbor, we find either salvation or perdition. That’s why encountering our neighbor—that is, the challenges that come fr

“Some who are opposed to the established Church use this verse to claim that “all you need is Jesus—not the Church, her clergy, and her sacraments.” But the Son became the one Mediator by becoming Man through the Holy Spirit and a virgin—that is, through God and men. He “built” His humanity not from Himself alone but from another, the Virgin Mary. Likewise, as the Mediator He says, “I will build My church” (Mt 16:18); He establishes her leaders and her worship. As Mary gives

“…the Lord calls people to Himself in many different ways. Even a path of protest, mistakes, and wandering, if it is sincere, can lead to Christ…the Church does not reject anyone who sincerely seeks salvation. There is no sin or spiritual blindness that the Lord cannot lead a person out of, if they truly want to come to Him. But it is also a warning: a “comfortable God” is not God, “freedom without obedience” is not freedom, and “love without the cross” is not love. Only thos

“Our spiritual goal is to align our life, our hearts and minds, and our wills with the will of God. We are endeavoring to have Christ be the Lord of our hearts and minds so that all of our actions, thoughts and feelings are unified and coincide with His. We want it to be that Christ can look at us, as He did Nathaniel, and measure our hearts with the words that here is a person “in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47)” (Fr. Ted Bobosh) “I find that the more I surrender to God’