The Morning Offering

Cultural Relevancy
and Missionary Outreach

Young Penitent

 As my readers know, I am very involved in missionary outreach to young people. I speak on campuses, write a blog, post on facebook, and otherwise make myself available in any way I can to reach out with Orthodoxy to today's youth. It should therefore be no surprise to anyone that I would agree to do the recorded introduction for a Christian rap artist's new album. This young Orthodox rapper goes by the name Young Penitent, and although I have never been a fan of rap music, I must say that I like his style, and I especially like his lyrics.

His first album is now for sale on several online outlets.  It is available for digital download on itunes, as well as physical copy sales at cdbaby.com.  I am therefore choosing to give him a boost by using my social media pages to inform my readers.  Agreeing to lend my voice was an easy decision for me, since I've known this fine young man for many years. He is a dedicated cantor in a ROCOR parish, and lives a very monastic, pious life.

For those of you who use facebook, you can visit him as Young Penitent. For those of you who are not into rap, you might want to consider buying a CD for one of your young parishioners, or your own son or daughter, or a grandchild. Let us not be afraid to use whatever medium we can, that we reach out to today's youth, with the eternal message of Orthodoxy.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon


Monday January 28, 2013 / January 15, 2013
35^th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
 

St. Paul of Thebes, Egypt (341), and St. John Calabytes ("Hut-dweller") of Constantinople, monks (450).
New Hieromartyr Michael, priest (1942).
New Hieromartyr Benjamin, bishop of Romanov (1930).
Monk-martyr Pansophius of Alexandria (249-251).
St. Prochorus, abbot in Vranski Desert on the river Pchinja in Bulgaria (10th c.) (Serbia).
St. Gabriel, founder of Lesnovo Monastery, Serbia-Bulgaria (980) (Serbia).
St. Gerasimus, patriarch of Alexandria (1714).
St. Maximus, bishop of Nola (250).
Venerable Ita of Killeedy, hermitess and foster-mother of St. Brendan (570) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Maurus, disciple of St. Benedict (584) (Celtic & British).
St. Salome of Udjarma, and St. Perozhavra of Sivnia, Georgia (4th c.).
Venerable Barlaam of Keret Lake near the White Sea (16th 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

Hebrews 8:7-13

A New Covenant

⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ⁹ not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
¹³ In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Mark 8:11-21

The Pharisees Seek a Sign

¹¹ Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. ¹² But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”

Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and Herod

¹³ And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. ¹⁴ Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
¹⁶ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.”
¹⁷ But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?”
They said to Him, “Twelve.”
²⁰ “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?”
And they said, “Seven.”
²¹ So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?”

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/morningoffering

I invite my readers to listen to my Ancient Faith Radio podcasts.