The Morning Offering

Drought

Encountering Drought in One's Soul

Like much of the country, Washington State is experiencing drought. When most people think of Seattle, they think of rain, lots of rain. Anyone who would choose to live in the Puget Sound region, better like rain, we tell our visitors. We love lush green forests, and rushing streams. We love our mountains, snow capped year round. We love the mist that rises over our lakes and rivers, and we love our foggy autumn days. We even love our rain!

Our governor just issued an emergency proclamation Sunday enacting a sweeping outdoor burn ban for every county in Washington state through the middle of the month. We have been experiencing a weather pattern like none any of us can remember, with seventy-seven days without rain. October is usually the beginning of our rainy season, but little is in sight, and many of us worry that the extreme drought conditions that have impacted much of our nation, may have arrived in the Pacific Northwest.

Drought has had a significant impact on whole civilizations, even being responsible for the total abandonment of great cities, now buried beneath the sands of history. The Great Dust Bowl led to the mass migration of our own people, as farms and towns were gobbled up by dust storms, with a devastating impact on the lives of thousands of families.

As we all meditate on the dire possibilities, should this drought continue, it is perhaps a good time to take a look at another type of drought, one that impacts the souls of believers. Periods of spiritual dryness come to all of us, and just as the earth is impacted, with the death of plants and animals, so too can this spiritual drought bring death to the soul.

The image of the nineteenth century "rainmaker" comes to my mind, when traveling entrepreneurs managed to garner sums of money from local townspeople and farmers, with the promise of "making rain". The desperate locals would fork over their remaining meager savings in the hopes of bringing the much needed rain for their crops, and dried up wells.

During periods of spiritual dryness, people tend to look in all the wrong directions, in a desperate attempt to quench their thirst for the meaning of life. Trying to fill a spiritual void, they look to entertainment, material goods, and worldly abandon, hoping to quench the drought they sense has taken hold of them. Like the farmers and townspeople of the Dust Bowl, they pay money to the "rainmakers" of pop music, entertainment, and material goods, all in a desperate attempt to find meaning to their lives, all the while ignoring the ocean of Living Water that resides within.
 

With love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon




Monday October 8, 2012 / September 25, 2012
19^th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
 

Venerable Euphrosyne, nun, of Alexandria (445).
Repose of Venerable Sergius, abbot, of Radonezh (1392).
St. Nicholas confessor, priest (1941).
Venerable Euphrosyne, nun, of Suzdal (1250).
Translation of the relics of St. Herman, archbishop of Kazan (1595).
Venerable Dosithea the Recluse of Kiev (1776).
Martyr Paphnutius and 546 companions in Egypt (3rd c.).
Commemoration of the earthquake in Constantinople in 447, when a boy was lifted to heaven and heard the "Trisagion".
St. Finbar (Barry), bishop of Cork (Ireland) (Celtic & British).
St. Cadoc of Llancarfan (Wales) (577) (Celtic & British).
Martyrs Paul and Tatta and their children Sabinian, Maximus, Rufus, and Eugene of Damascus (Greek).
St. Arsenius the Great, Catholicos of Georgia (887).

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

Philippians 1:8-14

⁸ For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
⁹ And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, ¹¹ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Christ Is Preached

¹² But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; ¹⁴ and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Luke 5:12-16

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

¹² And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
¹³ Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. ¹⁴ And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.”
¹⁵ However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. ¹⁶ So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

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