The Morning Offering

The Planting
of a Monastery

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The Flowering of a Monastic Community

In many ways this monastery was founded as one would plant a garden. The germination took place in a small blue collar house in a poor part of Richmond, CA, in 1983, where we struggled in a neighborhood constructed for ship builders in World War II. With police helicopters hovering over the monastery at night, and drug busts at the homes of neighbors, it was sometimes a rather scary place. The noise of cars with their boom box stereos blasting, the attempted break-ins, and untended yards, was a far cry from my days living in a beautiful Portland, Oregon, neighborhood.

I remember laying in bed at night, looking at the orange colored sky tinted by the flames of a nearby refinery, jets flying overhead, and remembering the star studded skies of Northern Idaho, home to my youth. The night we were awakened by the sound of a police helicopter hovering directly overhead for forty-five minutes, spotlights trained on the front and back doors of a neighbor's house during a drug bust, was the very night I decided to pray that God, if it be His will, would let us relocate to a rural location. Little did I know that All-Merciful Saviour Monastery would one day be nestled in a forest, on an island, in the Salish Sea.
 

Love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon

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Thursday October 11, 2012 / September 28, 2012
19^th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
 

Venerable Chariton the Confessor, abbot of Palestine (350).
Venerables Cyril, schemamonk and Maria, schemanun (1337) (parents of St. Sergius of Radonezh).
Martyress Anna (1925).
New Martyr Hilarion, Virgin-martyr Michaela (1937).
Virgin-martyr Tatiana (1942).
 Synaxis of the Saints of the Kievan Caves Monastery, venerated in the near caves of Venerable Anthony: Anthony the Founder (1073) - Prochorus the Gardener and Wonderworker (1107) - John the Faster (12th c.) - Juliana the Virgin, Princess of Ol'shansk (c.1550) - Monkmartyrs Basil and Theodore (1098) - Polycarp, Archimandrite of the Kievan Caves (1182) - Varlaam, Abbot of the Kievan Caves (1065) - Damian the Presbyter and Healer (1071) - Nicodemus the Prosphora-baker (12th c.) - Lawrence the Hermit, Bishop of Turov (12th C) - Athanasius the Hermit (c.1176) - Gerasim the Black-Robed (12th c.) - Luke, Steward of the Kievan Caves (13th c.) - Agapit the Unmercenary Physician (c.1095) - Theophilus the Clear-sighted and John the God-pleasing (12th c.) - Nectarios (12th c.) - Gregory the Iconographer (12th c.) - Hieromartyr Kuksha, Enlightener of the Vyati (12th c.) - Alexis the Hermit (13th c.) - Sava the God-pleasing (13th c.) - Sergius the Obedient (13th c.) - Mercurius, Bishop of Smolensk (1239) - Pimen the Muchailing (1110) - Nestor the Chronicler (c.1114) - Monkmartyr Evstratius (1097) - Elladius the Hermit (12th-13th c.) - Jeremiah the Clairvoyant (11th c.) - Monkmartyr Moses the Hungarian (c.1031-1043) - John the Much-ailing (1160) - Mark the Grave-Digger (12th c.) - Nikola Svyatosha, Prince of Chernigov (1143) - Martyr Gregory the Wonderworker (1093) - Onysimus the Hermit (12th-13th c.) - Matthew the Clairvoyant (11th c.) - Isaiah the Wonderworker (1115) - Abraham the Lover of Labor (12th-13th c.) - Niphont, Bishop of Novgorod (1156) - Sylvester the Wonderworker (12th c.) - Pimen the Faster (12th c.) - Onuphrius the Silent (12th c.) - Anatolius the Hermit (12th c.) - Alipy the Iconographer (1114) - Sisois the Hermit (12th-13th c.) - Theophilus the Hermit (12th-13th c.) - Arethas the Hermit (c.1195) - Spiridon the Prosphora-baker (12th c.) - Onysiphorus the Confessor (1148) - Simon, Bishop of Suzdal (12th c.) - Nikon, Abbot of Kievan Caves (1088) - Theophan the Faster (12th c.) - Macarius (12th c.) - Monkmartyr Anastasius the Deacon (12th c.) - 12 Master Architects (11th c.) - Abraham the Hermit (12th-13th c.) - Isaac the Hermit (c.1190) - Martyr John the Infant (11th-12th c.) - Elias of Murom (c.1188) - Nikon the Lean (12th c.) - Ephraim, Bishop of Pereyaslavl' (c.1098) - Tito the Hieromonk (1190).
Venerable Chariton, monk, of Syanzhema Lake (Vologda) (1509).
Venerable Herodion, abbot, of Iloezersk (1541).
Prophet Baruch (6th c. B.C.).
Martyrs Alexander, Alphius, Zosimas, Mark, Nicon, Neon, Heliodorus, and 24 others in Pisidia and Phrygia (4th c.).
Martyrdom of St. Wenceslaus, prince of the Czechs (935).
St. Juliana, Princess of Olshansk.
Martyr Eustace of Rome (Greek).
St. Faustus, bishop of Riez (495).
St. Leoba, abbess of Bischofsheim, English missionary to Germany (779).
St. Alkison, bishop of Nicopolis (Preveza) in Epirus (561).
St. Auxentius the Alaman, Wonderworker of Cyprus (12th c.).
St. Neophytus the Recluse of Cyprus (1214) (Cypriote).
St. Machan, disciple of St. Cadoc.

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 1:20-27

²⁰ according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹ For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. ²⁴ Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. ²⁵ And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, ²⁶ that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

Striving and Suffering for Christ

²⁷ Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,

Luke 6:12-19

The Twelve Apostles

¹² Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. ¹³ And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: ¹⁴ Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; ¹⁵ Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; ¹⁶ Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

Jesus Heals a Great Multitude

¹⁷ And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, ¹⁸ as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. ¹⁹ And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

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