The Morning Offering

The Kindly Priest

The Priest and the American Tourist

A protestant woman from Tacoma, WA. was on vacation with her husband in the Greek city of Athens. Each day she walked to a small sidewalk cafe near the hotel for her coffee and watched the locals pass by. One of these locals was an Orthodox priest who'd pass by the cafe on his way to his parish church. The woman would smile and the priest would nod, smile back, and continue on his way.

One day this Greek priest, who spoke English, noticed that the American woman had a sad look on her face and walked over to her table and asked if something was troubling her. She burst into tears and told the priest about her husband's medical problems, and that she feared for the worst. The priest sat with her and prayed for she and her husband. Each day he'd stop to sit at her table, praying for her husband's recovery.

A few weeks passed and the husband recovered from his illness and returned to the United States with his wife. The memory of this priest's compassion for a foreign woman has remained with her all these many years. She shared her memories with her doctor, who is a friend of mine, and I now share her memories with you.

What a true disciple and servant of the Lord, was this kindly priest. May we, like this priest, be attuned to those who are in need and of whom the Lord places before us. May we reach out with open hearts and bring healing to those who are suffering, letting them know that we care and that they have a friend during their time of sorrow, need and despair.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Friday August 12, 2011 / July 30, 2011

9^th Week after Pentecost. 

Tone seven. Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)

Apostles Silas and Silvanus of the Seventy and those with them: Crescens, Epenetus, and Andronicus (1st c.).
Martyr John the Soldier at Constantinople (4th c.).
New Hiero-confessor Anatole II (Potapov, the "Younger") of Optina (1922).
New Hieromartyr John deacon (1918).
Uncovering of the relics (1484) of Venerable Herman of Solovki (1479).
Hieromartyr Polychronius, bishop of Babylon (251), and Martyrs Parmenius, Helimenas (Elimas), and Chrysotelus presbyters, Luke and Mocius deacons, and Abdon, Sennen, Maximus, and Olympius.
Hieromartyr Valentine, bishop of Interamna (Terni) in Italy (273), and Martyrs Proculus, Ephebus, Apollonius, and Abundius, youths.
"Okonsk" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
St. Angelina (Brancovich), despotina (princess) of Serbia (16th c.) (Serbia).
St. Stephen (Vladislav) of Serbia (1243) (Serbia).
Prince Tsotne Dadiani, the Confessor of Mingrelia, Georgia (13th c.) (Georgia).

The Scripture Readings for the Day:

1 Corinthians 14:26-40

 

Order in Church Meetings

²⁶ How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. ²⁷ If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. ³⁰ But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. ³² And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. ³³ For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
³⁴ Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. ³⁵ And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
³⁶ Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? ³⁷ If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. ³⁸ But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
³⁹ Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. ⁴⁰ Let all things be done decently and in order.

Matthew 21:12-14

 

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹² Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³ And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
¹⁴ Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

Matthew 21:17-20

 

¹⁷ Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

The Fig Tree Withered

 

¹⁸ Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. ¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

The Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree

 

²⁰ And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”