The Morning Offering

Destructive and
Addictive Behaviors

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Seeking Help from the Church for Living in Honesty

Twittering mindlessly on the internet for hours on end, or spending whole evenings sitting before the computer, mindlessly communicating with people who are unknown, personally, and who may not even be who they claim to be, are examples of squandering time that would better be spent in spiritual pursuits.

Forgoing time with family and friends who are in the room, while text messaging someone, is counterproductive to solid, healthy, relationships. Allowing ourselves to be consumed with on-line chat rooms, or endlessly talking on cell phones, is a form of self-destruction, for it ultimately leads to separation and alienation from profitable relationships.

Communal relationships, where we grow spiritually and socially, are all important for anyone who desires to have a deeper relationship with God, for such relationships become the foundation stone for learning true love. It is not really possible to become a loving person, if we turn ourselves over to a life immersed in technology. Students who sit in lecture halls, text messaging their friends, are not participating in the learning process that is the hallmark of the classroom. People who leave their cell phones in vibrate mode, while attending the divine services, are demonstrating that their friends are more important that the worship of God.

If we are going to mature in the faith, we have to take the steps that lead to a deepening of our relationship with God, just as we must do if we are to have successful marriages, or lasting friendships. The age of technological advancement has it's advantages, but it also has a dark side. When we spend the majority of our waking hours text messaging, talking on mobile phones, and becoming lost in cyberspace, we've become self-destructive, having succumbed to an addictive behavior that blocks true spiritual, social, and mental growth.

Living within the life of the Church, giving ourselves over to spiritual reading, personal prayer, frequent confession, and properly preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries, must be the priority of every Christian's week. Technology has it's place, but must not be allowed to become a god unto itself.  

I use the internet for my daily blog, our monastery's website, as well as postings I place on facebook, each and every day. Most of my personal correspondence is on line. So, I am not dismissing the fact that social networking is here to stay. I am simply calling on people to guard their time, so as not to allow their life to become exclusively on-line.
 
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Thursday April 19, 2012 / April 6, 2012

Bright Thursday.
Bright Week. Fast-free

St. Eutychius, patriarch of Constantinople (582).
New Hieromartyr John priest (1934).
New Hieromartyr James priest (1943).
St. Sebastian, Elder of Optina and Karaganda (1966).
St. Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, enlightener of the Slavs (885).
Venerable Platonida (Platonis) of Nisibis (308).
120 Martyrs of Persia (345).
Martyrs Jeremiah and Archilias the Presbyter.
Venerable Gregory of St. Athanasius monastery on Mt. Athos, instructor of St. Gregory Palamas (1308).
Venerable Gregory the Sinaite (1346).
2 Martyrs from Ascalon.
New Martyr Nicholas of Lesbos (1463).
New Monk-martyr Gennadius of Dionysiou, Mt. Athos, who suffered at Constantinople (1818).
New Martyrs Manuel, Theodore, George, Michael, and another George, of Samothrace (1835).

You can read the life of the saint in green, by click on the name.

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

Acts 2:38-43

³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

A Vital Church Grows

⁴⁰ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” ⁴¹ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. ⁴² And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴³ Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

John 3:1-15

The New Birth

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? ¹¹ Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

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