The Morning Offering

HOSPICE OR HOSPITAL?

Spiritual Pain Control or Spiritual Healing?

Since the Church is a hospital for the soul wherein we come for healing, it is important that we take full advantage of all the resources the Church offers us for such healing. Frequent confession, where we bare our sins before God with the priest as the witness is an important beginning to the healing process. Receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood on a regular basis gives us the grace needed for the healing of the soul, freeing it from the bondage that comes from the sin that has weighted us down.

Keeping to a regular Prayer Rule, given to us by our priest, confessor, or spiritual father or mother, also contributes to the healing process. Reading spiritually uplifting books, as well as the lives of the saints, also greatly contributes to the transformation that can be ours if we take our faith seriously. As well, the fasting rules of the Church are designed to help us become whole, furthering the healing process that began when we first made a commitment to living a life in Christ.

If we fail to follow these time tested spiritual practices that are meant to bring about healing of body and soul, we will not find the healing that is available to us. Instead, we will find ourselves treating the Church as though she were simply a hospice, where we get a quick fix for the pain and sin that keeps us from becoming whole, and find ourselves with short term results that only mask the sin and sickness that rule our lives.

It is up to us to decide if we will allow the Church to be a hospital that brings about the cure, or simply use the Church as a hospice that only masks the pain and sin. The choice is ours.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

 

Looking towards the enclosure (click to enlarge)

 

 

Wednesday July 10, 2013 / June 27, 2013

3^rd Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Apostles' (Peter & Paul) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)

Venerable Sampson the Hospitable of Constantinople (530).
St. Joanna the Myrrh-bearer (1st c.).
New Hieromartyr Priest Gregory Nikolsky of Kuban (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Alexander and Vladimir priests (1918).
New Hieromartyr Peter priest (1939).
Uncovering of the holy relics of Optina Elders: Ambrose, Leonid, Macarius, Anatole I, Anatole II, Barsanuphius, Hilarion (1998).
Venerable Serapion of Kozha Lake (1611).
Venerable Severus, presbyter of Interocrea in Italy (6th c.).
Venerable George of Mt. Athos and Georgia (1066) (Georgia).
Venerable Martin of Turov (1146).
Commemoration of the victory of the Russian Army of the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709.
Martyr Anectus of Caesarea in Cappadocia (304).
Hieromartyr Pierius, presbyter of Antioch (Greek).
St. Luke the hermit (Greek).
Matryrs Mark and Marcia (Greek).
Hieromartyr Kirion II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia (1918) (Georgia).
Hieromartyrs Crescens, Maximus, and Theonest, bishops of Mainz (Germany) (5th c.).

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

Romans 8:2-13

² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Sonship Through the Spirit

¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Matthew 10:16-22

Persecutions Are Coming

¹⁶ “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. ¹⁷ But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. ¹⁸ You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; ²⁰ for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
²¹ “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. ²² And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

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