The Morning Offering

Monday, August 23 / 10 (Church Calendar)

Saints of the Day:

August 10 / 23. Afterfeast of the Transfiguration. Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Laurence of Rome Hieromartyr Sixtus, Bishop of Rome, and Martyrs Felicissimus and Agapitus, deacons. Martyr Romanus, soldier, of Rome. Blessed Laurence, fool-for-Christ at Kaluga. (Greek Calendar: with St. Laurence, Martyr Hippolytus of Rome. Six Martyrs of Bizin. St. Heron the Philosopher.)
 
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Photos of the Day:

Hieromonk Paul has been spending time studying liturgics, in our brother monastery (Holy Cross) in West Virginia.

Quote for the Day:

"Neither professors of philosophy nor leaders of the synagogue can offer any cure when peoples perish. It is Christ alone Who takes away the sins of the people, provided they do not refuse to submit to healing. But He does not deign to cure the unwilling and soon abandons the weak for whom it seems that His presence is a burden, like the peoples of the Gerasenes, who went out from that country, which appears to be an image of the synagogue, and besought Him to depart from them, because 'they were taken with great fear' (Lk. 8:37). For a weak mind does not grasp the Word of God, nor can it sustain the weight of wisdom; it falls apart and is dissolved."

St. Ambrose of Milan

 

Scripture Readings for the Day:

2 Corinthians 12:10-19

¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Signs of an Apostle

¹¹ I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. ¹² Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. ¹³ For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!

Love for the Church

¹⁴ Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵ And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.
¹⁶ But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning! ¹⁷ Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? ¹⁸ I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps?
¹⁹ Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, beloved, for your edification.

Mark 4:10-23

The Purpose of Parables

¹⁰ But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. ¹¹ And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, ¹² so that       ‘ Seeing they may see and not perceive,
      And hearing they may hear and not understand;
      Lest they should turn,
      And their sins be forgiven them.’”

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹³ And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. ¹⁶ These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; ¹⁷ and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. ¹⁸ Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹ and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

Light Under a Basket

²¹ Also He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? ²² For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”