Monday, December 21 / 8 (Church Calendar)

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever!

Saints of the Day

December 8 / 21. St. Patapius of Thebes. Holy Apostles of the Seventy: Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Tychicus, Epaphroditus,Caesar and Onesiphorus. Holy 362 Martyrs of Africa, martyred by the Arians, and Martyr Anthusa, at Rome. St. Cyril, abbot of Chelmogorsk. New-Martyr Priest John (Kochurov) of Chicago.

Photo of the Day

Hierodeacon Paul (Kilman) of All-Merciful Saviour Monastery, was ordained into the holy priesthood on December 20th, by His Eminence KYRILL, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America. The monastic brotherhood rejoices with Father Paul, knowing we now have a wonderful monastic priest, who’s service to this monastery, and this diocese, will be a blessing to all. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to His Eminence KYRILL, and to His Grace THEODOSY, and the clergy and lay people who blessed our monastic brotherhood with their attendance, and participation. Many years, Father Paul!

Financial Support Needed:
Your financial help is very much needed, especially with this economic downswing. Our coffee sales are down, and donations are down. All this at the very time fuel, food, and insurance costs are up; and we still have our monthly mortgage payments to meet. If you are able, we would be very grateful for your financial assistance. You may send contributions to: All-Merciful Saviour Monastery, PO Box 2420, Vashon Island, WA 98070-2420. Please make checks out to All-Merciful Saviour Monastery. Remember, we are a tax deductible, 501 C3, non profit religious organization.

Quote of the Day

“…you should be angry at your vices and your rage lest you grow dark on account of your wrath and Christ, the sun of righteousness, begin to go down in your dusky minds and, once he departs, you offer room in your hearts to the devil….”

St. John Cassia

Scripture Readings for the Day

Hebrews 3:5-11

⁵ And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, ⁶ but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Be Faithful

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
⁹ Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
¹⁰ Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
¹¹ So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.'”

Hebrews 3:17-19

¹⁷ Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? ¹⁹ So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Luke 20:27-44

The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?

²⁷ Then some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, ²⁸ saying: “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰ And the second^[a] took her as wife, and he died childless. ³¹ Then the third took her, and in like manner the seven also; and they left no children,^[b] and died. ³² Last of all the woman died also. ³³ Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife.”
³⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; ³⁶ nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. ³⁷ But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^{[c] 38} For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.”
³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” ⁴⁰ But after that they dared not question Him anymore.

Jesus: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?

⁴¹ And He said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David? ⁴² Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:

‘The LORD said to my Lord,

“Sit at My right hand,
⁴³ Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”‘

⁴⁴ Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?”