Community

Community is one of the most essential elements for the Christian life

Our Christian faith is communal in nature, and requires us to be actively involved with others. We come together in worship, and the Divine Liturgy itself is a corporate act, one that necessitates interaction with others. We are not “saved” in a vacuum, but as part of the corporal life of the Church.

Your salvation must be as much a concern to me as is my own salvation, for my relationship with Christ is not about me, but about us. My sins are not just against God, but against you, for we are all part of the Body of Christ, which is the Church.

Our love of God cannot be salvific if we do not love others, for just as the Lord said, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20)”.

When we isolate ourselves from others, the essential nature of what it means to be human is lost. It is thus imperative that we guard against the temptation of spending too much time in front of the computer and/or the television, and too little time with others. Mobile phones, text messaging, ipods, communication through email, and countless hours on facebook, leads to the furtherance of an isolation that is murdering the soul.

As humans, we are meant to be together, for it is in our lives together that we grow in mind and spirit. It is in community that we learn to love God. For friendships to be limited to on-line chat rooms is a tragedy of major proportions, one that will ultimately be the ruin of society.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Wednesday August 26, 2020 / August 13, 2020
12th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Apodosis of the Transfiguration.
Venerable Maximus the Confessor (662).
Uncovering of the relics of St. Maximus of Moscow, fool-for-Christ (1547).
St. Tikhon (Tychon), bishop of Voronezh, wonderworker of Zadonsk and All Russia (1783).
New Hieromartyrs John, Ioasph and Constantine priests (1918).
New Hieromartyr Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), bishop of Dmitrov, Nicholas, Jacob priests and Alexis deacon (1937).
New Hieromartyr Basil (1942).
New Hieromartyr Basil (Preobrazhensky) bishop of Kineshma.
Martyr Hippolytus of Rome and 18 martyrs with him, including Martyrs Concordia, Irenaeus, and Abundius (258).
“Minsk” (1500), “Seven Arrows” (1830) and “Of the Passion”(1641) Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Venerable Serid (Seridos), abbot, of Gaza (6th c.).
Empress Irene, tonsured Xenia (12th c.).
St. Eudocia the Empress (460), wife of Theodosius the Younger.
Venerable Radegunde of Poitiers, nun (587) (Gaul).
Venerable Abba Dorotheos of Gaza (Greek).
St. Wigbert, abbot of Hersfeld, English missionary to Germany (738).

The Scripture Readings

John 10:9-16

9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

2 Corinthians 6:11-16

Be Holy

11 O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. 13 Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.

14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”

Mark 1:23-28

23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.

Hebrews 7:26-8:2

26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

The New Priestly Service

8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

Matthew 5:14-19

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Christ Fulfills the Law

17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.