The Morning Offering

Syria

Way of a Pilgrim Bookstore (click to enlarge)

Christian Populace 
Prefers Dictator to Sharia Law

All the Middle East bishops, both Orthodox and Roman Catholic, know what is coming in Syria if Assad is overthrown. It is not that they like him, but that under his governance all the minorities have known freedom and protection. The reality is clear, Christians are already being slaughtered by these "freedom fighters", and we in the West are running head on into siding, once again, with an Islamic force that, like Kosovo, will turn on the Christians.

For years, U.S. foreign policy has been nothing but a disaster in the Middle East. The U.S. armed the Mujaheddin in the 1970s giving rise to Osama bin Laden. We then lied about weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to overthrow Iraq, losing lives and treasure, only to see Iraq teetering on the brink again. Then came Egypt, another disaster. Now we come up with some fantasy about chemical warfare  being used by the Syrian government as an excuse to supply weapons and support to radical Islamist groups who are bent on destroying Christianity.

History has proven time and again the West can not invade and control what is essentially a land of tribal people by nature. We have failed, as Western nations, to create nations out of these tribal groups, and do not have, nor never have had, the right to take these people by force, and impose what has essentially been colonial governance over them. In our attempt to do so, we have turned neighbor against neighbor, and radicalized, on a large scale, Muslims.

Because we are seen as Christian nations by these subjugated peoples, they turn on their own Middle East Christian neighbors with even more vengeance than in the past. The end result is that mass numbers of Eastern Christians have been forced to flee the land of their ancestors, or face ethnic cleansing, all because we choose to conveniently ignore their plight. Egypt and Palestine are quickly seeing the depopulation of their Christian peoples, either by mass immigration, or slaughter, and we sit by waiting for our oil companies to move into the lands that are not ours to begin with.

In pretending to care for the people living under a dictatorship, we choose to ignore the plight of the Christians living in those very areas. Middle East bishops plead with us to resist supporting the "freedom fighters" with more weapons, and Russia, the one nation knowing what will happen to the Orthodox and Catholic populations once the Syrian government falls, is made out to be the bad guy by the U.S. Congress. The United States MUST discontinue funding these murderous mercenaries or history will repeat itself, and the United States will be bogged down in yet another war we can not win, and Orthodox Christians will once again be deprived of their homeland, by forced immigration or ethnic cleansing.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

 
Thursday June 20, 2013 / June 7, 2013
Afterfeast of the Ascension. Tone six.

Venerable David of the Gareji Monastery and Lukiane, Georgia (6th-7th c.) (movable holiday on the Thursday of Holy Ascension).
Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra (303).
New Hieromartyr Archbishop Andronicus of Perm, Alexander, Alexis, Alexander, Valentine, Benjamin, Viktor, Alexander, Paul, Vladimir, Ignatius, Michael, Nicholas, Paul, Alexander, Nicholas priests, Gregory deacon and Martyrs Athanasius and Alexsander (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Nicholas and Peter priests (1919).
Hieromartyr Marcellinus, pope of Rome (304) and with him the Holy Martyrs Claudius, Cyrinus and Antoninus (304).
Hieromartyr Marcellus, bishop of Rome, and those with him: Sisinius and Cyriacus deacons, Smaragdus, Largus, Apronian, Saturninus, Pappias, Maurus, Crescentian, Priscilla, Lucina, and Princess Artemia (304-310).
Martyrs Kyriaki, Caleria (Valeria), and Mary, of Caesarea in Palestine (304).
Synaxis of All Saints of Ivanovo.
Venerable Daniel of Scete in Egypt (420).
Virgin-martyr Potamiaena of Alexandria.
Martyr Zenais (Zenaida) of Caesarea in Palestine.
St. Colman, bishop of Dromore, Ireland (6th c.) (Celtic & British).
Holy women Aesia and Susanna, disciples of Venerable Pancratius of Taormina and martyred with him (1st c.) (Greek).
Martyr Lycarion of Hermopolis in Egypt (Greek).
Venerable Panagis of Cephalonia (Greek).
Martyrs Tarasius and John (Greek).
St. Stephen the hieromonk (Greek).
St. Anthimus the hieromonk (Greek).
St. Sebastian the Wonderworker (Greek).
St. Anthony (in schema Abramius), monk, of Kozha Lake (1634).
You can read the life of the saint in red, by clicking on the name.

THANKS 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

The Scripture Readings for the Day

Acts 25:13-19

Paul Before Agrippa

¹³ And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus. ¹⁴ When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying: “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, ¹⁵ about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him. ¹⁶ To them I answered, ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him.’ ¹⁷ Therefore when they had come together, without any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in. ¹⁸ When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I supposed, ¹⁹ but had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

John 16:23-33

²³ “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Jesus Christ Has Overcome the World

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; ²⁷ for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. ²⁸ I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”
²⁹ His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! ³⁰ Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”
³¹ Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³ These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

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