The Morning Offering

Molded

You were Created to be an 
Instrument of God's Glory
 

If you think you are simply the result of a random evolutionary happening, you are wrong. You were created, molded if you will, by the Father of Lights. You were granted life by God in order to enter into a relationship with God. It is none other than the hand of God that has received you, for you were molded by Him to become a vessel of His Holy Spirit. He created you that He might join His divinity with your humanity. You were created in order to become an instrument meant to proclaim the glory of God, and when you live in all holiness of life, worshiping before the Holy Trinity, you proclaim the glory of your Creator God.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Tuesday July 31, 2012 / July 18, 2012

9^th Week after Pentecost. Tone seven.

 

Martyr Emilian of Silistra in Bulgaria (363).
Martyr Hyacinth of Amastris (4th c.).
New Hieromartyrs Appolinarius (1918).
Venerable John the Long-suffering of the Kiev Caves (1160).
Venerable Pambo, recluse of the Kiev Caves (1241).
Venerable Pambo, hermit of Egypt (386).
Venerable Leontius, abbot of Karikhov (Novgorod) (1492).
"Kaluga" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1892).
St. Frederich, bishop of Utrecht (9th c.) (Neth.).
Martyr Marcel (Greek).
Martyrs Dasius and Maron (Greek).
Sts. Stephen, archbishop of Constantinople (928), and John the Confessor, metropolitan of Chalcedon (9th c.) (Greek).
Great-martyr Athanasius of Klysma, Egypt (4th c.).
Hieromartyr Kozman (1630) (Georgia).

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

To all my readers who have donated towards the support of the monastery but have not received a personal "thank you" note, I want to ask forgiveness. The amount of work I do on-line, together with lecturing in area colleges, has left me feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. My good intentions aside, I just haven't sat down in my office to personally respond to all our benefactors. 

Please forgive me. I will get to all of you in time, although it may seen too little too late for some of you.

Again, please forgive me. I'm averaging four or five hours at most of sleep per night, and find myself falling asleep at my desk. Not good. 

Please pray for this old monk.
 

With love in Christ,  
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

1 Corinthians 13:4-14:5

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Prophecy and Tongues

14 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. ² For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. ³ But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. ⁴ He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. ⁵ I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.

Matthew 20:1-16

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

⁸ “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ ⁹ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. ¹⁰ But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. ¹¹ And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”

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