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
Thursday, September 24 / 11 (Church Calendar)

Saints of the Day:

September 11 / 24. Afterfeast of the Nativity of the Theotokos. Translation of the Relics of Saints Sergius and Herman of ValaamSt. Euphrosynus the Cook of Alexandria. Martyr Ia of Persia and 9,000 Martyrs with her. Martyrs Diodorus, Didymus, andDiomedes of Laodicea. Martyrs Demetrius, his wife Euanthis, and their son Demetrian at Skepsis on the Hellespont. MartyrsSerapion, Cronides (Hieronides) and Leontius of Alexandria. Canonization of St. Xenia of Petersburg (1978). Weeping Kazan Icon ofKaplunovka. Repose of young Elder Melchizedek of Mzensk (1846) and Schemamonk Silouan of Mt. Athos (1938).

Photo of the Day:

One of the more than forty wrought iron crosses that serve as support brackets for our porch pillars. (click to enlarge)

Quote of the Day:

"The heart cannot remain firm in purity, so as not to be defiled, if it will not be crushed by fasting. It is impossible also to preserve holiness without fasting, and the flesh will not submit to the spirit for spiritual activity, and prayer itself will not rise up and act because natural needs predominate. And the flesh will be compelled to become feverish. And from thoughts the heart is aroused and is defiled, and through this, grace departs, and the unclean spirits have boldness to rule over us as much as they wish."

 St. Paisius Velichkovsky

 "Field Flowers"

 
Scripture Readings for the Day:

Ephesians 1:1-9

Greeting

 ¹ Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:

² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Redemption in Christ

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹ having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

Mark 7:24-30

A Gentile Shows Her Faith

²⁴ From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. ²⁵ For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."
²⁸ And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."
²⁹ Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."
³⁰ And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.