The Morning Offering

The Struggle

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The Struggle Against the Passions 
and Our Victory in Christ

As we struggle with anger, gluttony, with judging others, sexual impurity and a myriad of others passions, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. We find ourselves feeling defeated and tempted to give up the battle. Sometimes we even tell ourselves that we have no choice, for we were born this way or our temperament is the result of an abusive household.

There is certainly a kernel of truth in all this for we were born into a fallen world and are therefore influenced by the results of our firstborn parents rejection of God's love. Death is all around us because of Ancestral Sin and our commitment to struggle with the passions is meant to return us to the Father. Yet this struggle is not about our power or strength, but simply surrendering to the Lord of Mercy, Who would save us.

This same Merciful God knows how difficult a struggle we have and has given us the strength we need to progress towards purity and holiness. He furthermore rewards us each according to our abilities and our reward is based on our willingness to commit to the struggle, a struggle that is empowered by the grace that abounds when we call upon His Holy Name.

What do we do when we seem to succumb to the same old sins over and over? Do we simply surrender in defeat because we've failed to curb our anger, blaming the family members or coworkers who know how to push our buttons? Do we give in to sexual passions because we've always done so and curbing our appetite for pleasure would be too difficult? Do we gossip about others or judge them because everyone does so?

Or, do we ask God to help us with our anger and confess before a priest when we have fallen, and ask the person who "pushed our buttons" to forgive us for getting angry? Do we ask for God's forgiveness when we've given in to lust and promise to better guard our heart and our eyes, lest we fall again? Do we choose to remain silent when others around us are gossiping and perhaps even avoid those social settings where we know this will be happening?

The good news is that in our struggle with the passions, we do not have to struggle alone. Our Lord Jesus Christ has promised to help us in our quest for purity and holiness. Like the Holy Apostle Paul we can say it is not me, but Christ in me, that we are able to do good. Transformation of the heart is the direct result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, from Whom we are given the power to change. All we have to do is approach God with a humble and contrite heart and victory will be ours.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Wednesday July 11, 2012 / June 28, 2012

6^th Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Apostles' (Peter & Paul) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)

Translation of the relics (412) of the Holy and Wonderworking Unmercenaries Cyrus and John (311).
Venerables Sergius and Herman (14th c.), abbots of Valaam.
New Hieromartyr Basil, deacon (1918).
Virgin-martyr Sebastiana (1938).
New Hieromartyr Gregory, deacon (1940).
Venerable Xenophon, abbot of Robeika (Novgorod) (1262).
Venerable Paul the Physician of Corinth (7th c.).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Of the Three Hands" (8th c.).
Venarable Sergius of Crete.
Venerable Moses the Anchorite.
St. Sennuphius the Standard-bearer of Egypt (4th c.).
St. Austol of Cornwall (6th c.) (Celtic & British).
Hieromartyr Donatus of Libya (Greek).
Three Martyrs of Galatia (Greek).
70 Martyrs of Scythopolis (Greek).
Martyr Pappias (Greek).
Martyr Macedonius (Greek).
Venerable Magnus, monk who reposed while praying to the Lord (Greek).
St. Sergius the Magistrate of Paphlagonia, founder of the monastery of the Mother of God called Nikitiatus in Nicomedia (9th c.) (Greek).
Martyrs Serenus, Plutarchus, Heraclides, Heron, Raiso, and others in Alexandria (202).

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

THANK YOU, to all of you who have been able to contribute towards the support of the monastery. These difficult times of economic hardship have impacted the monastery, and those of you who have been able to donate, have been our lifeline. May God bless you for your generosity, and kindness.
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 2:9-3:8

⁹ But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

¹⁰ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. ¹⁶ For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Sectarianism Is Carnal

3 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; ³ for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? ⁴ For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

Watering, Working, Warning

⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Matthew 13:31-36

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³¹ Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, ³² which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven

³³ Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

Prophecy and the Parables

³⁴ All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, ³⁵ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

“I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Tares Explained

³⁶ Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”

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