The Morning Offering

Abbot Tryphon, and Brother Cyril

October 8 / September 25
Saint Sergius of Rodonezh
Saints of the Day:
Repose of St. Sergius, abbot, of Radonezh St. Euphrosyne, nun, of Alexandria. Martyr Paphnutius and 546 companions in Egypt. St. Euphrosyne, nun of Suzdal. Tr. re. St. Herman (Germanus), Archbishop of Kazan. Commemoration of the Earthquake in Constantinople in 447, when a boy was lifted up to heaven and heard the Trisagion. (Greek Calendar: Martyrs Paul and Tatta and their children Sabinian, Maximus, Rufus and Eugene of Damascus.) Repose of Elder Dositheus (actually a woman), recluse of the Kiev Caves who blessed St. Seraphim to go to Sarov (1776).

Quote of the Day:  
"We shall be faced by toil....until the divine fire enters into our sanctuary. And then the force of bad habit will no longer exist in us."
Saint John Climacus

Photo of the Day:
Brother Cyril Drnjevic, OSB, made a pilgrimage to our monastery, from Mt. Angel Benedictine Abbey, in Oregon.

Scripture Readings for the Day:
Philippians 3:8-19

Brother Cyril Drnjevic, OSB

⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing Toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
¹⁵ Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. ¹⁶ Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

Our Citizenship in Heaven

¹⁷ Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. ¹⁸ For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.

Luke 7:31-35

³¹ And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? ³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:


      ‘We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
      We mourned to you,
And you did not weep.’

 ³³ For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ³⁴ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ³⁵ But wisdom is justified by all her children.”