In Our Love for God We Must Set Aside All Estrangement
Faith is a gift that requires us to work diligently. We are not simply saved in that moment we’ve committed ourselves to the Lord, but must see it as the very first important step. This gift from God requires our cooperation. It requires us to focus our eyes on Christ, and invite Him to fill the whole of our being with His presence.
Our cooperative response begins when we commit to increasing our time in prayer, both in the corporate liturgical prayer of the Church, and in our private prayer. It is the corporate prayer of the Church which brings us into contact with the Holy Mysteries, the very Body and Blood of our Saviour which feeds our souls.
Our faith is further increased by the hearing of God’s Word, and bowing before the Lord with a repentant heart. Like the bride who responds to the touch of her husband, so too does our soul respond to the love of God.
Just as the husband who never tells his wife of his love, so too our love for God must be communicated if it is to grow. Our soul responds to our tenderly expressed love of Christ, and our faith has grown stronger, with all estrangement cast aside. Only then can our faith save us.
With Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Saturday November 18, 2023 / November 5, 2023
24th Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Martyrs Galacteon and his wife Episteme at Emesa (253).
Repose of St. Jonah, archbishop of Novgorod (1470).
St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus (Election 1917).
New Hieromartyr Gabriel priest (1937).
Apostles Patrobus, Hermas, Linus, Gaius, and Philologus of the Seventy (1st c.).
St. Gregory, archbishop of Alexandria (9th c.).
All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918.
Martyrs Domninus, Timothy, Theophilus, Theotimus, Dorotheus, Eupsychius, Carterius, Pamphilius, Agathangelus, and Castorus of Palestine (307).
Hieromartyr Silvanus, bishop of Gaza.
St. Kea, bishop of Devon and Cornwall.
Venerable Odrada, virgin of Balen (8th c.) (Neth.).
St. Cybi, abbot in Cornwall and Wales (550) (Celtic & British).
St. Gregory of Cassano, Calabria (1002).
The Scripture Readings
2 Corinthians 11:1-6
Concern for Their Faithfulness
11 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
Paul and False Apostles
5 For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. 6 Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.
Luke 9:1-6
Sending Out the Twelve
9 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.
4 “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”
6 So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.