The Morning Offering

Reflecting God in Art

Our Wild Foxglove (click on photo to enlarge

Reflecting God in Our Art and Music

Some time ago I wrote, "some secular music sounds like it had it's birth in the depths of hell". Certainly music itself can not come from Satan, it comes from the creative mind of people. Some people, however, are influenced by evil powers, and their music, or anything they've created, including art, can appear as though it were from the depths of hell. We were created in God's image, and therefore share in a lesser way, our Creator's gifts in the ability to create. However, not all we create is good, for we are influenced by the fall. Overcoming the impact of the fall, is mankind's true vocation, and when we are in concert with God's will, our creative abilities reflect it. The most beautiful music, and the most sublime art, reflect God's creation in it's most pure way.

Music with foul language and harsh tones, does not reflect the sublime nature found in the core of the human heart. Nor does a jar filled with urine and a crucifix, or a Madonna made with excrement, demonstrate the connection between the human artist, and his Creator God. True art is a reflection of the soul that is journeying into the Heart of God.

Love and blessings,
Abbot Tryphon 

 

 

 

Saturday June 16, 2012 / June 3, 2012

2^nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Apostles' (Peter & Paul) Fast. Fish Allowed

Martyr Lucillian and those with him at Byzantium: four youths — Claudius, Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius; and Virgin Paula (270).
New Hieromartyr Cyprian (1934).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1938).
Translation of the relics (1606) of the slain Crown Prince Demetrius of Moscow (1591).
Hieromartyr Lucian the bishop, Maxianus the presbyter, Julian the deacon and Martyrs Marcellinus and Saturninus in Belgium (96).
Venerable Athanasius, the wonderworker of Cilicia.
The Meeting of Venerable Demetrius, monk of Priluki (Vologda) (1503).
"Yougskaya" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1615).
St. Hieria, widow, of Mesopotamia (312).
St. Clotilde (Chlotilda), queen of France (545) (Gaul).
Venerable Kevin, hermit and abbot of Glendalough (618) (Celtic & British).
St. Meriasek, bishop of Camborne.
Venerable Pappus monk (Greek).
St. Achilles, patriarch of Alexandria (312).
Monk-martyr Barsabus, abbot of Ishtar, and ten companions in Persia (342).
New Hieromartyr Joseph, metropolitan of Thessalonica (1821).

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

I want to thank all of you who have been making donations to the monastery through PayPal. Your generous heart is greatly appreciated by the monastic brotherhood, and by me, personally. May God bless you for your caring heart.
With love and blessings,
Abbot Tryphon

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

Romans 3:19-26

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

God’s Righteousness Through Faith

²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Matthew 7:1-8

Do Not Judge

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
⁶ “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.