Anything that is quickly obtained is also easily lost
Since we Americans have grown accustomed to having everything happen quickly, and without delay, we also expect our spiritual lives to be on the same quick time line. We don’t have the patience to build upon the knowledge of the holy fathers, so we don’t practice regular spiritual reading. Our church attendance is limited to the essential Sunday Liturgy, and even then we arrive late and perhaps leave before the Thanksgiving Prayers have been concluded.
If fasting is difficult for us, we don’t fast at all. If keeping a Prayer Rule is tedious, we don’t try to develop a set time for our prayers. If our mind wanders during prayer, we let it, avoiding even the least amount of struggle.
We are like gardeners who buy flowers for our gardens that come fully grown, allowing us to drop them into the soil, so they look good without the germination of seeds, providing us with instant beauty. Yet Saint Isaac the Syrian tells us that “anything that is quickly obtained is also easily lost, whereas everything found with toil is also kept with careful watching.”
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Thursday April 25, 2019 / April 12, 2019
Passion Week: Great Thursday.
Great Lent. Food with Oil
Venerable Basil the Confessor, bishop of Parium (760).
New Hieromartyr Sergius (1938).
Hieromartyr Zeno, bishop of Verona (ca. 260).
Venerable Isaac the Syrian, abbot of Spoleto, Italy (ca. 550).
Martyrs Menas, David, and John of Palestine (630).
Virgin Anthusa of Constantinople (801).
Venerable Athanasia, abbess of Aegina (860).
“Murom” (12th c.) and “Belynich” (13th c.) Icons of the Mother of God.
St. Acacius of Kapsokalyvia Skete, Mt. Athos (1730).
St. Basil, bishop of Ryazan (1295).
Deposition of the Belt of the Most Holy Mother of God in Constantinople (942).
Martyr Sabbas the Goth, who suffered at Buzau in Wallachia (372) (Romania).
St. Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople (1019).
Martyrs Demas, Protion, and those with them (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
Luke 22:1-39 (Bridegroom Matins Gospel)
1 Corinthians 11:23-32
Matthew 26:2-20
John 13:3-17
Matthew 26:21-39
Luke 22:43-45
Matthew 26:40-27:2
John 13:1-11 (At the Washing of the Feet, Gospel)
John 13:12-17 (After the Washing of the Feet, Gospel)
I hope and pray that you are doing better, Abbot.
Dear, dear Abbot Tryphon,
Much love and prayers are with you. i pray that your hearing loss is temporary, and that the healing of both body and heart continues. I have been praying for the young man who hurt you. With Love in Our Lord Jesus.