Without Stoking the Flames of Pride
Many years ago I remember attending a Liturgy at a parish church and noticing a young man standing in the front of the temple, making profound bows, together with frequent, almost exaggerated signs of the cross. My first thought was that he must be a newly baptized Orthodox Christian. After embracing Orthodoxy, many people fall into the trap of exaggerated piety, having first become attracted to the externals of the faith. Coming out of religious traditions that have little in the way of externals, is it any wonder some among us would gravitate towards such outward piety?
Some converts become experts in canon law and liturgical rubrics, and number themselves among the super correct. Archbishop Averky of Jordanville (of blessed memory) said of converts, “they are like envelopes and have a tendency to come unglued.” None of this is meant to diminish the importance of external piety, nor making the cross properly. Liturgical correctness has its place, and we should always avoid sloppiness in the way we make the sign of the cross. Nor is it necessary to stand in the back of the temple during services. What is important is that we be careful that our piety is not meant to be seen by others.
I once knew a monk who always stood in the back of his monastery’s katholikon, avoiding any public display whatsoever. He told me the temptation to be seen as a pious and holy monk was too strong, so he made a decision to give others no opportunity to witness him in worship.
It should not be construed that I am suggesting everyone stand in the back of the church, less everyone be battling for those few spots on a crowded Sunday morning. What I am suggesting is that we remember that we are there for worship. If you become aware that your motives for standing in front of others during worship is an occasion for pride, by all means move to the back. It is the Lord Who should see us, and for Whom our pious external acts of worship should give honor. Externals are meant to be an aid to worship, bringing our bodies into conformity with the heart. For this to happen, we must guard the heart, making sure the externals are not temptations for pride.
The way to make sure our piety takes us deeply into true worship is to express these external acts of worship without great fanfare. Orthodox worship, expressed by standing before the icons, making the sign of the cross with care, and doing prostrations, instructs the heart in true worship. If we’ve established a true relationship with the Lord, and approach worship with a humble heart, that which is expressed in the temple, publicly, will be authentic.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Wednesday June 21, 2023 / June 8, 2023
3rd Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Translation of the relics of Great-martyr Theodore Stratelates (319).
St. Theodore, bishop of Rostov and Suzdal (1023).
Finding of the relics (1501) of Sts. Basil (1249) and Constantine (1257), princes of Yaroslavl.
Venerable Ephraim, patriarch of Antioch (546).
Venerable Zosimas, monk, of Phoenicia (Syria) (6th c.).
“Yaroslavl” (13th c.) and “Uriupinsk” (1827) Icons of the Mother of God.
New Martyr Theophanes at Constantinople (1559) (Greek).
Venerable Atre (Athre) of Nitria (Egypt).
Venerable Naucratius, abbot of the Studion (848).
Venerable Theophilus of Luga and Omutch (1412), disciple of St. Arsenius of Konevits (Valaam).
Martyrs Nicander and Marcian at Dorostulum in Moesia (303) (Romania).
St. Medardus, bishop of Noyon (560) (Neth.).
Translation of the relics of Hieromartyr Alphege, abbot of Canterbury.
Martyr Callopia (Greek).
Venerable Melania the Elder, of Palladius’ Lausiac History (Greek).
Martyr Nicander (Greek).
Martyr Mark (Greek).
New Hieromartyrs Barlaam (1942) and his brother Herman (1937) (Riaschentsov) (1937).
St. Paul the Confessor, of Kaiuma in Constantinople (766).
Holy Hieromartyr Tevdore of Kvelta (1609) (Georgia).
Synaxis of the Church of the Cross at Mtskheta, Georgia (Georgia).
Venerable Naucratius, brother of St. Basil the Great (4th c.).
The Scripture Readings
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.