The Morning Offering

Doubt

 The Opposite of Faith is Unbelief, not Doubt

Lack of doubt causes people to hold to beliefs which may not be enough to sustain them in this present world, for they, in their fear of doubt, fail to go beyond the external form of the Christian faith. In their fear, they may simply go through the motions of religion, thus making their faith no more than the adherence to a set of beliefs and practices that are not truly their own. Doubting your faith can be the beginning of deepening your faith, for it forces you to look beyond outward ritual, and blind belief.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Sunday January 22, 2012 / January 9, 2012

32^nd Sunday after Pentecost. Tone seven.

Sunday after the Baptism of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ
Afterfeast of the Theophany.

Martyr Polyeuctus of Melitene in Armenia (259).
Hieromartyr Philip, metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia (1569).
New Hieromartyr Paul priest (1943).
Prophet Shemaiah (Samaia, Semeias) (10th c. B.C.).
St. Peter, bishop of Sebaste in Armenia (395), and brother of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa.
Venerable Eustratius the Wonderworker of Tarsus (821).
St. Adrian of Canterbury (710) (Celtic & British).
New Martyr Parthena of Edessa in Macedonia (1375).
St. Jonah (Peter in schema), founder of Holy Trinity Monastery in Kiev (1902).
Translation of the relicts of St. Judoc, hermit of Ponthieu.
St. Fillan, abbot of Strathfillan.

I wish to thank those of you who have been contributing towards the principle of our mortgage ($250,000.00). For those of you who can't donate due to the depressed economy, please remember to pray for the monastery. It would be such a great blessing if we were able to retire the mortgage debt altogether.

Donations can be made directly to the monastery through PayPal, or you may send donations to:

All-Merciful Saviour Monastery
PO Box 2420
Vashon Island, WA 98070-2420 USA 

Ephesians 4:7-13

Spiritual Gifts

   
⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸ Therefore He says:


      “ When He ascended on high,
      He led captivity captive,
      And gave gifts to men.”

 ⁹ (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Matthew 4:12-17

Jesus Begins His Galilean Ministry

   
¹² Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
       ¹⁵ “ The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
      By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
      Galilee of the Gentiles:
       ¹⁶ The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
      And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
      Light has dawned.”

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”