The Morning Offering

Doubt

Doubt: The Ultimate Sickness

Yesterday was Saint Thomas Sunday, the day the Church commemorates doubting Thomas. The Apostle Thomas, though he had been a disciple of Christ, and had witnessed the Lord's many miracles, still insisted that he would not believe in the Resurrection, unless he could place his hands in the wounds of his Lord. In his doubt, the Apostle revealed man's ultimate sickness, that of unbelief. This world is for us, a great hospital, wherein we are prepared for the Kingdom that is to come. In this hospital, we find our medicine for the cure of our sickness, within the life of the Church, which is the hospital of the soul.

In this world, there is no medicine for this sickness, for the only medicine that can heal us, is Christ Himself. If we are unwilling to receive this medicine, we will never be healed, and will never know the joys of the eternal Kingdom that is to come. Our doubt is usually based on our failure to avail our self to the medicine, which is abundantly available within the life of the Church.

The Lord said blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe. This faith comes as a free gift, from a God Who so love us that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, will have eternal life. All we need to do is cooperate with God's grace, and doubt will be gone. When we receive the Word of God into our heart, we have touched His wounds. When we confess our sins, and receive the Holy Mysteries of His Body and Blood, we have thrust our hand into His side. Doubt has, at this moment in time, no place to reside in our heart, and like the Apostle Thomas, we believe.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photos

Sunday afternoon I baptized, Nina, the daughter of Evgeny and Tatiana Uspenskiy. Evgeny is the Assistant to the Consul General, Consulate of the Russian Federation in Seattle. Father Moses stood in as proxy for the godparents, who live in Moscow, Russia. May God grant the newly illumined Nina, many years.

 

Monday April 23, 2012 / April 10, 2012

Second Week of Pascha. Tone one.

 

Martyrs Terence, Pompeius, Africanus, Maximus, Zeno, Alexander, Theodore, and 33 others, beheaded at Carthage (250).
New Hieromartyr Flegont priest (1938).
Martyr Demetrius (1942).
Martyrs James, presbyter, and Azadanes and Abdicius, deacons, of Persia (ca. 380).
New Hieromartyr Gregory V, patriarch of Constantinople (1821) (Greek).
Prophetess Huldah (Olda) (II Kings 22:14).
St. Milteades, pope of Rome.
The Holy Martyrs of the Kvabtakhevi Monastery, who suffered during the invasion of Tamerlane (1386) (Georgia).
New Martyr Demos of Smyrna (1763) (Greek).
Nun-martyr Anastasia, abbess of Uglich and 34 nuns with her (1609).
Monk-martyr Chrysanthus of Xenophontos, Mt. Athos (Greek).
Martyrs Beocca, Hethor and others, at Chertsey.

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 3:19-26

¹⁹ Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, ²⁰ and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. ²² For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. ²³ And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ ²⁴ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. ²⁵ You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

John 2:1-11

Water Turned to Wine

2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. ³ And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

⁴ Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

⁶ Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. ⁷ Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. ¹⁰ And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

¹¹ This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/morningoffering

I invite my readers to listen to my Ancient Faith Radio podcasts.