The Morning Offering

Living the evangelical life of Orthodox monasticism in witness to the salvific truth of the Gospels of Our Lord, God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever!

The Morning Offering
Sunday, September 20 / 7 (Church Calendar)

Saints of the Day:

September 7 / 20. Martyr Sozon of Cilicia St. John, Archbishop and Wonderworker of Novgorod. Martyr Eupsychius of Caesarea inCappadocia. Apostles Evodus (Euodias) and Onesiphorus of the Seventy. St. Luke, abbot near Constantinople. Martyrdom of St.Macarius, archimandrite of Kanev. St. Cloud (Clodoald), abbot-founder of Nogent-sur-Seine near Paris. New-Martyr priest John Maslovsky. Repose of Elder Macarius of Optina (1860).

Photo of the Day:

 The library, trapeza, and plaza, as seen from the temple's porch. (click to enlarge)

Quote of the Day:

"What then, brothers, what is to be done by us wretches save that we awaken to the words of this book and castigate with tears the sins we remember committing, so that through laments of penitence we may arrive at the song of life? Lest if we are unwilling now to be afflicted by penitence we afterward feel woes without end. And let not the multitude of our wounds reduce us to desperation because the power of the Healer is greater than the magnitude of our feebleness. For what can He not restore to salvation Who could create all things from nothing? For He is the Only-Begotten, Co-Eternal with the Father, Who lives and reigns with Him in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ages of ages. Amen."

St. Gregory the Great

Scripture Readings for the Day:

2 Corinthians 4:6-15

⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Cast Down but Unconquered

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death is working in us, but life in you.
¹³ And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. ¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Matthew 22:35-46

³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
³⁷ Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Jesus: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?"
They said to Him, " The Son of David."
⁴³ He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:
       ⁴⁴ ' The LORD said to my Lord,

      " Sit at My right hand,
       Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"'?

 ⁴⁵ If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?" ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.