The Morning Offering

The Orthodox Church is evangelical, but not Protestant. It is orthodox, but not Jewish. It is catholic, but not Roman. It isn't non-denominational - it is pre-denominational. It has believed, taught, preserved, defended and died for the Faith of the Apostles since the Day of Pentecost 2000 years ago.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever!

The Morning Offering
Tuesday, June 30/ June 17 (Church Calendar)

Saints of the Day:

June 17 / 30. Martyrs Manuel, Sabel, and Ismael of Persia. Hieromartyr Philoneides, Bishop of Kurion in Cyprus. Saints Joseph and Pior, disciples of St. Anthony the Great. The Alfanov brothers (see May 4). St. Ananias the Iconographer of Novgorod. (Greek Calendar: lM Isaurus, and with him Basil, Innocent, Felix, Hermes and Peregrinus of Athens.)

Photo of the Day:

(click to enlarge)

Thought for the Day:

"To be victorious over pleasure is the greatest pleasure, and there is no greater victory than victory over one's desires....he who has overcome his desires shows himself stronger than himself. Every other evil is easier to overcome than pleasure, for all other evils are repulsive, while pleasure is an attractive evil. Those who free themselves from their desires are freed also from fear, for desire is the root of fear."

St. Cyprian 

 Scripture Readings for the Day:

Romans 9:18-33

¹⁸ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
¹⁹ You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" ²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" ²¹ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
²² What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³ and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴ even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
²⁵ As He says also in Hosea:


      " I will call them My people, who were not My people,
      And her beloved, who was not beloved."
       ²⁶ " And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,

      ' You are not My people,'
      There they shall be called sons of the living God."

²⁷ Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:


      " Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
       The remnant will be saved.
       ²⁸ For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
       Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

²⁹ And as Isaiah said before:


      " Unless the LORD of Sabaothhad left us a seed,
       We would have become like Sodom,
      And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

Present Condition of Israel

³⁰ What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; ³¹ but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. ³² Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written:


      " Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
      And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

Matthew 11:16-20

¹⁶ "But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, ¹⁷ and saying:


      ' We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
      We mourned to you,
And you did not lament.'

 ¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children."

Woe to the Impenitent Cities

   
²⁰ Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: