The Giving of Ourselves Over to Depression
There are times when we are tempted by what has been called the Noonday Demon, and give ourselves over to depression. This tendency can often find life in an almost chronic habit of complaining. We complain about our health to the extent that it becomes the chief focus of our life. Money worries lead us to complain about what we don’t have, or what we might lose. We may become known as the office complainer and find that people want to avoid us. Being a complainer can give fodder to the noonday demon that leads to depression.
Depression is, of course, sometimes a matter of a chemical imbalance that may need the attention of a physician. However, it can also be a case of our setting ourselves up as an idol, worshiping self at the expense of having a relationship with God and others. Being God focused and in service to others can alleviate the cause of complaining and make depression less likely to take root.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: Mount Rainier as seen from Vashon Island. The mountain is also known as Mount Tahoma and is located in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about 59 miles(95 km) south-southeast of Seattle. With a summit elevation of 14,411 ft (4,392 m), it is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington and the Cascade Range, and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States, and the tallest in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.
Due to its high probability of eruption in the near future, Mount Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list. The large amount of glacial ice means that Mount Rainier could produce massive lahars that could threaten the entire Puyallup River Valley. According to the United States Geological Survey, “about 80,000 people and their homes are at risk in Mount Rainier’s lahar-hazard zones.”
Between 1950 and 2018, 439,460 people climbed Mount Rainier.
Approximately 84 people died in mountaineering accidents on Mount Rainier from 1947 to 2018
Thursday November 17, 2022 / November 4, 2022
23rd Week after Pentecost. Tone five.
Venerable Ioannicius the Great of Bithynia (846).
Hieromartyrs Nicander, bishop of Myra, and Hermas, presbyter (1st c.).
Martyr Nicholas confessor and priest (1931).
Virgin-martyr Eugene (1935).
New Hieromartyr Alexander priest (1937).
New Hieromartyr Ismail priest (1941).
Venerable Mercurius, faster of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
Venerable Nicander, abbot of Gorodensk (Novgorod) (1607).
Blessed Simon of Yurievets (1584).
St. Paul, metropolitan of Tobolsk (1770).
St. Sylvia, mother of St. Gregory the Dialogist (6th c.).
Martyr Porphyrius the Mime of Caesarea (361) (Greek).
St. John III Doukas Vataxis the Merciful, emperor of Nicaea (1254) (Greek).
Holy and Righteous Ioane, Stepane, and Isaiah the Georgians (Georgia).
St. Clether, hermit of Cornwall.
St. Birnstan, bishop of Winchester.
The Scripture Readings
1 Thessalonians 2:9-14
9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; 11 as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, 12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
Their Conversion
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,
Luke 11:47-12:1
47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.48 In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50 that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
53 And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, 54 lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him.
Beware of Hypocrisy
12 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.