The Morning Offering

Thank You!

Holy Virgin Cathedral, San Francisco, CA

Your Support of the Monastery is Greatly Appreciated

On behalf of the holy brotherhood, I want to thank all of you who have been donating towards the support of the monastery, either through PayPal, or by mail. These are difficult economic times for everyone, and as our $250.000.00 mortgage looms over our heads, knowing we have friends who care enough to share what they can with the monastery, is very much appreciated. All of you who donate are considered "founders of this holy monastery", and are prayed for as such.

Pastoral Conference in San Francisco

I will be flying to San Francisco tomorrow morning, to attend our annual Diocesan Lenten Pastoral Conference, and will be returning to the monastery on Monday, April 2nd. Your prayers for my safe travel is requested. The Pastoral Conference will be held at Holy Virgin "Joy of All Who Sorrow" Cathedral. This conference will allow me a chance to spend some time with Archbishop Kyrill, the Ruling Bishop of the Diocese of San Francisco and Western America, and Bishop Theodosy, his vicar bishop. Archbishop Kyrill is the bishop who ordained me some 18 years ago.

This trip will also allow me to spend time with some old friends, and provide me with a much needed rest. My continued health issues have, according to my physician, a direct relationship to my lack of sleep, stress level, and being overextended. Although monks do not get "vacations", getting away from my duties in the monastery, will provide me the time needed to get some walks in, enjoy time with brother priests, and explore some of my favorite bookstores and coffee houses. I'll still be writing my daily blog, and posting it while on this trip, so will not be falling off the job, completely!

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

 

Sunday March 25, 2012 / March 12, 2012

Fourth Sunday of the Great Lent. Tone eight.
Great Lent. Food with Oil

Venerable John Lestvichnik (movable holiday on the 4th Sunday of the Great Lent).
Venerable Theophanes the Confessor of Sigriane (818).
St. Alexander confessor priest (1933).
New Hieromartyr John priest, New Hieromartyr Vladimir (1938).
New Hieromartyr Sergius priest (1943).
Righteous Phineas, grandson of Aaron (1500 B.C.).
St. Gregory the Dialogist, pope of Rome (604).
Venerable Symeon the New Theologian (1022) and his elder Symeon the Reverent of the Studium (987).
The Lydda Icon of the Mother of God Not-Made-by-Hands (1st c.).
Righteous Aaron the High Priest, brother of Prophet Moses the God-Seer.
Venerable Cyrus, monk of Alexandria (6th c.).
St. Alphege, bishop of Winchester, England (951) (Celtic & British).
St. Paul, bishop of Leon in Brittany (572).
St. Nicodemus of Mammola in Calabria (990).
Restoration of the Autocephaly of the Georgian Apostolic Church (1917) (Georgia).
St. Demetre the Devoted, King of Georgia (1289) (Georgia).
St. Theoctistus Dragutin of Serbia (1316).

We are hoping to retire the mortgage debt of $250,000.00. Having this hanging over our heads, and knowing the bank owns the monastery, is not a good thing. Your prayers are most appreciated, as we need a miracle.

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

Hebrews 6:13-20

God’s Infallible Purpose in Christ

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” ¹⁵ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. ¹⁷ Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, ¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

¹⁹ This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, ²⁰ where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Mark 9:17-31

¹⁷ Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. ¹⁸ And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

¹⁹ He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” ²⁰ Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood. ²² And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

²³ Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” ²⁶ Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

²⁸ And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁹ So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

Jesus Again Predicts His Death and Resurrection

 

³⁰ Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. ³¹ For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.”