Friday, February 3, 2012

Physician of Souls
A beautiful sunny day at the monastery.
God is not a Prosecutor, but a Physician


The Scriptures, the works of the Early Church Fathers, and the liturgical texts of the Church, all attest to the fact that the Ancient Church did not teach that Christ's Incarnation was intended to be a propitiation of divine righteousness. Rather, Christ came as a Physician intent on bringing healing to fallen mankind.  Christ's Incarnation brought the whole of human nature together, with His Divine Nature, for a cure. His spiritual medicine brings healing, removes the stain of sin that had introduced death to the cosmos, and makes everything whole.

This condescension of God, taking on our human flesh, and joining His Divinity to us, can not be seen in legalistic terms, but must be seen from a medical perspective. We are ill. Our sin is not about law, but about illness. In our fallen state, we've departed from communion with God, and Christ's death upon the cross was accomplished, not because the Father demanded blood, but because He desires to heal us, and restore life to His creatures who've inherited death from our fallen forefather, Adam. That Christ assumed our human nature, made possible the cure.

The Lord Jesus Christ established His Church as a hospital of the soul, and it is within Her walls that we are given the medicine to bring about the healing we so need. God does not desire suffering, nor our blood, but only that we be restored to the image He intended for us. This loving Father is not our prosecutor, but our physician.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon





Friday February 3, 2012 / January 21, 2012
34th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Fast. Fish Allowed
Venerable Maximus the Confessor (662).
Martyr Neophytus of Nicaea (305).
Martyrs Eugene, Candidus, Valerian, and Aquila at Trebizond (303).
Venerable Maximus the Greek of Russia (1556).
New Hieromartyr Elias priest (1938).
Virgin-martyr Agnes of Rome (304).
Martyr Anastasius, disciple of St. Maximus the Confessor (662).
Wonderworking Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Paramythia (Vatopedi, Mt. Athos).
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos "Stabbed" ("Zaklannaya") and "Xenophite Hodegetria".
Venerable Neophytes of Vatopedi on Mt Athos (Greek).
St. Zosimas, bishop of Syracuse (662).
Synaxis of the Church of Holy Peace by the Sea in Constantinople.
St. Timon, monk of Nadeyev and Kostroma (1840).


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


2 Peter 1:1-10


Greeting the Faithful

1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Fruitful Growth in the Faith

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

Mark 13:1-8


Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple

13 Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!”
2 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?”
5 And Jesus, answering them, began to say: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 6 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. 7 But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows.



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