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

Wednesday, February 24 / 11 (Church Calendar)

Saints of the Day:

 

February 11 / 24. Hieromartyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste. St. Demetrius, monk, wonderworker of Priluki (Vologda). St. Vsevelod (inholy baptism Gabriel), wonderworker of Pskov. St. Theodora, wife of Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast. New-Martyr George of Serbia. (Greek Calendar: St. George, abbot in Serbia.) Repose of Archbishop Simon of Shanghai and Peking (1933).

Photo of the Day:

All-Merciful Saviour Monastery, at dusk.
(click for enlargement)

Quote of the Day:

"...all that we can offer God is our desperate longing to be made such that God will receive us."

 

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

 

Scripture Readings for the Day:

Isaiah 5:16-25

¹⁶ But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
      And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
       ¹⁷ Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,
      And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.
       ¹⁸ Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,
      And sin as if with a cart rope;
       ¹⁹ That say, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work,
      That we may see it;
      And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,
      That we may know it."
       ²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
      Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
      Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
       ²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
      And prudent in their own sight!
       ²² Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
      Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
       ²³ Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
      And take away justice from the righteous man!
       ²⁴ Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,
      And the flame consumes the chaff,
      So their root will be as rottenness,
      And their blossom will ascend like dust;
      Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,
      And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
       ²⁵ Therefore the anger of the LORD is aroused against His people;
      He has stretched out His hand against them
      And stricken them,
      And the hills trembled.
      Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

      For all this His anger is not turned away,
      But His hand is stretched out still.

Genesis 4:16-20

The Family of Cain

¹⁶ Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. ¹⁷ And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.
¹⁹ Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. ²⁰ And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

Proverbs 5:15-6:3

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
      And running water from your own well.
       ¹⁶ Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
      Streams of water in the streets?
       ¹⁷ Let them be only your own,
      And not for strangers with you.
       ¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed,
      And rejoice with the wife of your youth.
       ¹⁹ As a loving deer and a graceful doe,
      Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
      And always be enraptured with her love.
       ²⁰ For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman,
      And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
       ²¹ For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD,
      And He ponders all his paths.
       ²² His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
      And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
       ²³ He shall die for lack of instruction,
      And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Proverbs 6

Dangerous Promises

 ¹ My son, if you become surety for your friend,
      If you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
       ² You are snared by the words of your mouth;
      You are taken by the words of your mouth.
       ³ So do this, my son, and deliver yourself;
      For you have come into the hand of your friend:
      Go and humble yourself;
      Plead with your friend.