The Morning Offering

Self-Reliance

Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Inter-dependency

Since the foundation of this monastic community some twenty-seven years ago, our holy brotherhood has been working towards becoming as self-reliant as is possible, given the age we live in. Recognizing that most of human kind, since the beginning, had no choice but to depend on personal gardens for vegetables, raising cows for milk and cheese, and chickens for eggs, pigs for sausages, and harvesting trees for cooking and heating, we are now live in a time when being totally self-reliant is impossible for most. We are now dependent on others for much of our food and fuel, and the day is long past when most people are able to be completely independent of others for their daily needs.

When I was a child I remember most people in our neighborhood raised their own chickens and rabbits for food, grew large vegetable gardens, and even baked their own bread. Today, most people purchase prepackaged food that requires little preparation. The food consumed by the average American household comes pre-prepared in frozen, canned, or boxed form. "Home made" cakes require only the mixing of eggs and water, are popped into the oven, and frosted with icing out of a plastic container. I would guess most people have never made a cake from scratch, or kneaded their own bread, and few would know how to grow a vegetable garden. Fewer yet have taken eggs from the nest of their own chickens. In short, we have become a nation of codependents.

Growing and canning our own vegetables, baking our own bread, harvesting our own honey from our monastery's beehives, making our own cheese, and brewing our own mead, has given us a real sense of self-reliance. I can't even imagine what it would be like to revert back to the days when we were totally dependant on a local grocery store. Our move towards self-reliance and sustainability has been a great blessing for us.

But it has also opened the door to an awareness that, as Christians, our dependence on praying together and working together towards the common goal of living totally fearless lives of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is a dependency that one would not want to sacrifice for the want of independence. Our connection as members of the One Body of Christ, the Church, is an inter-dependency.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Our frozen over fountain

Sunday January 13, 2013 / December 31, 2012

32^nd Sunday after Pentecost. Tone seven.
Sviatki. Fast-free
Sunday after the Nativity of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, holy ancestors.
Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, Holy Righteous David the King, and James the Brother of the Lord (movable holiday on the Sunday after the Nativity of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ).
Apodosis of the Nativity of Christ.

Venerable Melania the Younger, nun, of Rome (439).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1937).
Martyr Peter (1938).
Holy Confessor Dositheus, metropolitan of Zagreb (1941).
St. Peter Mogila, metropolitan of Kiev (1646).
Venerable Gelasius, monk, of Palestine.
Venerable Gaius, monk.
Venerable Theophylactus of Ochrid (1126).
Ten Virgin-martyrs of Nicomedia (Greek).
Venerable Zoticus of Constantinople, feeder of orphans (4th c.) (Greek).
St. Anysius, bishop of Thessalonica (406).
Venerable Sabiana, Abbess of the Samtskhe Monastery (11th c.).
Martyrs Busiris, Gaudentius and Nemo (Greek).

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

Galatians 1:11-19

Call to Apostleship

¹¹ But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. ¹² For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
¹³ For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
¹⁵ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, ¹⁶ to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

Contacts at Jerusalem

¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.

Matthew 2:13-23

The Flight into Egypt

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”
¹⁴ When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, ¹⁵ and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

Massacre of the Innocents

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. ¹⁷ Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:

¹⁸ “A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”

The Home in Nazareth

¹⁹ Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, ²⁰ saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” ²¹ Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. ²³ And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”