The Morning Offering

Sin as Illness

Members of Saint Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church visit monastery

Sin is the Sign of Our Illness

In our sense of guilt over our sinful nature, it is quite easy to gaze upon God as though looking upon a judge. We, as sinners, are guilty, and we stand in the dock as one before a judge. Yet the truth of our situation is far more sublime. This relationship with our God is not of a juridical nature, but it is personal. God is not offended by our sin, just as a doctor is not offended by a sick patient, or a mother offended by her sick child.

Because of the darkness of our nous (the eye of the soul), we have forgotten God's true nature, as well as our relationship to our Creator. We have replaced God will idols of self, and with material things. We have replaced God with people, with music, with social engagements, and in the process have become pagans.

In a word, we have become ill, and we are in need of the cure. The symptoms of our illness abound, but God's grace abounds in greater amounts, and the doors of the hospital (the Church) open wide to us.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon 

My friend, Fr. Photios, brought members of his parish to the monastery.

Way of a Pilgrim Bookstore

Thursday December 6, 2012 / November 23, 2012
27^th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Nativity (St. Philip's Fast). Fish Allowed
Afterfeast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple.
St. Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium (394).
St. Gregory, bishop of Agrigentum (680).
St. Alexander Nevsky (in schema Alexis), grand prince of Novgorod (1263).
St. Metrophanes (in schema Macarius), bishop of Voronezh (1703).
New Hieromartyr Seraphim (1931).
St. John confessor (1932).
New Hieromartyr Boris bishop of Ivanonsk, Eleazar Spyridonov of Eupatoria priest, Crimea and Martyr Alexander (1937).
New Martyr Archimandrite Gregory (Peradze) of Georgia, who suffered in Auschwitz, Poland (1942).
St. Sisinius the confessor, bishop of Cyzicus (ca. 325).
Martyr Theodore of Antioch (4th c.).
Venerable Ischyrion, bishop in Egypt and hermit of Scete.
St. Amphilochius of the Kiev Caves, bishop of Volhynia (1122).
St. Anthony of lezeru-Vilcea (1714) (Romania).
Venerable Trudo, abbot (693) (Neth.).
St. Helenus of Tarsus, bishop (Greek).
St. Dionysius I, patriarch of Constantinople (15th c.).

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 Timothy 6:17-21

Instructions to the Rich

¹⁷ Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. ¹⁸ Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, ¹⁹ storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Guard the Faith

²⁰ O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge— ²¹ by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.
Grace be with you. Amen.

Luke 18:31-34

Jesus a Third Time Predicts His Death and Resurrection

³¹ Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. ³² For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. ³³ They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”
³⁴ But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.

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