SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“If we truly care for one another, let us help one another spiritually.… Let us hinder those things that lead our friends away to hell.” (St. John Chrysostom) “…the Lord entrusts each one of us with responsibility for those who have spiritually faded. A word of comfort, help in trouble, and involvement in the lives of others—all this can become that very “spirit” that will quicken our loved ones and ourselves…It is important to note that when we do outreach to those in distre

“In today’s reading we see that Our Lord Jesus Christ has completed His long day of teaching, healing and feeding the multitudes. He dismisses the crowds and then He does something that we would not expect in our human logic. After a long and exhausting day outside, in the elements and with the many people and their many pains and struggles, we would very likely be drained. We would probably want to sit down and rest. We would want to eat and possibly go straight to bed. That

“God creates like an artist rather than a scientist. The language which the Bible and the Fathers employ in describing the creation of the world by God seems to be borrowed from the building of an edifice (Hebrews 3:3-4), ordering and furnishing it, so that it may become cosmos, a well ordered, beautiful thing…There is, of course, major difference between God and a human artist in that the former creates ex nihilo and the latter ex vetere. And yet, when we come to the idea of

“Often, we’re so caught up in the rush of life that even when we’re with loved ones or doing something together, it can feel perfunctory. We rush around, trying to accomplish what we perceive as important tasks. But these very tasks make us insensitive, coarse, and callous, even as we reassure ourselves that this isn’t the case. We might think our outward cheerfulness is a sign of happiness, but that’s far from true. The Holy Fathers teach that one of the primary signs of des

“Christ himself did not preach “faith alone,” but a rather more complex picture of salvation that also involved repentance and self-denial…The foremost question we must resolve is one of desire (Mark 8:34-35)…we declare that our foremost desire is to follow Him [Christ]. But let us ask ourselves if this truly our heart’s desire. Our criteria for determining whether or not this is so can be found in the three conditions that the Lord stipulates in these verses: self-denial, ta

“Christianity is not a religion. It is a spiritual path towards union with God. Jesus did not come to usher in a new system of how to get what we want. He “emptied Himself,” and repeatedly invited us to do the same. That emptying is the path of union, and the very definition of love. If unfulfilled desires can be of use to us, then this world becomes the perfect arena of our salvation…we can describe two essential actions within that life as it has been passed down to us by T

“Sometimes the only and best way to enter into the cell of your soul is to disconnect from the outside world and simply immerse yourself in silence. It’s precisely in silence that we’re able to hear the voice of God. It may seem scary at first; the silence may frighten and irritate us, since we’re so accustomed to noise, music, conversations. But it’s only in silence that you can sense God and the peace of Christ. But the inner silence that we acquire through prayers and sobr

“The Tradition of the Eastern Church largely avoided the concept of the guilty man that came to dominate the Christian West. Instead, sin was largely understood in terms of disease, a force that comes from outside us and yet is within us, corrupting us like a cancer. Sin is a “disease,” and the ministry of the Church is the “science of spiritual medicine…the sacraments and life of the Church are more accurately understood in a medical model. What truly takes place within the

“In my view, the category of happiness is hardly ever discussed in the Church, and for me it is a puzzle. We have nine Beatitudes: blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers... If we translate the word “blessed”, it means “happy”. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, happy are the meek, happy are the merciful, and so forth. These are the commandments of happiness. But, unfortunately, in Orthodoxy happiness is not s

“The Greek word here [for simplicity in Romans 16:18-19] means literally “unmixed”…Thus, St. Paul is saying that in regard to evil, we should not mix evil with good but be pure in our motives, attitudes, thoughts, and behavior…the Gospels themselves, Christ didn’t pay much attention to people’s external image and formal religiosity, but was more interested in the state of their heart. From there proceed “evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wic