Replacing Faith With Materialism, Greed, and Hopelessness
If we think about it, there is a clear reason so many of our youth have given themselves over to the despair of nihilism, and surrendering to a viewpoint where traditional values and beliefs are dismissed as senseless and useless. These young people adhere to a doctrine that denies the possibility of an objective ground of truth. Young people are coming to believe that conditions in the social organization of our world are so bad as to make destruction and murder desirable for its own sake. Young people living in such total despair as to believe death is the only way out, and who have never been given the gift of hope.
We have seen whole new generations educated in public schools where Christian morals and values have been forced out under the guise of separation of Church and State. A nation whose young people have been raised without hope, without God, and deprived of the moral, spiritual, and ethical basis that had, in the past, been the very foundation of our nation.
Our problem is not that guns should be banned, but rather that we have already banned God, replacing faith with materialism, greed, and hopelessness. I truly believe the marked increase in the numbers of people suffering from mental illness is directly related to how we, as a nation, have banned God from our lives. People with no hope, and deprived of the stable influence of a loving faith community, are far more likely to slip into mental illness.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: Reader Joshua Bowden of Saint Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church (ROCOR) in Roswell, Georgia, will be staying at the monastery until Monday. Joshua recently lost his beloved wife Sophia, leaving him to care for their five children alone. Please pray for Joshua during his time of grief. And may Sophia’s memory be eternal.
Friday December 15, 2023 / December 2, 2023
28th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Prophet Habakkuk (Abbacum) (7th c. B.C.).
New Hieromartyr John priest (1919).
New Hieromartyr Mathew priest (1921).
New Hieromartyr Demetrius priest and Venerable Vera confessor (1932).
New Hieromartyrs Alexis, Constantine, Nicholas, Sergius, Vladimir, John, Theodore, Nicholas, John, Nicholas, Paul, Sergius priests, Hieromartyr Danact, Cosmas,, Woman Hieromartyrs Theuromia, Tamara, Antonina, and Mary; and Virgin-martyrs Mary and Matrona (1937).
Virgin-martyr Mary (1938).
Martyr Boris (1942).
Venerable Athanasius “the Resurrected,” recluse of the Kiev Caves, whose relics are in the Near Caves (1176).
Venerable Athanasius, recluse of the Kiev Caves whose relics are in the Far Caves (13th c.).
Martyr Myrope of Chios (251).
Venerables John, Heraclemon, Andrew, and Theophilus of Egypt (4th c.).
Venerable Jesse (Ise), bishop of Tsilkani in Georgia (6th c.) (Georgia).
St. Stephen-Urosh IV, king (1371), and St. Helen of Serbia.
Icon of the Mother of God, named “Gerontissa”.
St. Solomon, archbishop of Ephesus.
Venerable Cyril of Philea (1110).
Venerable Ioannicius, monk of Devich (1430) (Greek).
St. Abibus the New (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
Titus 1:15-2:10
15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Doing Good for the Sake of the Gospel
2 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
Luke 20:19-26
19 And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.
The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?
20 So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.
21 Then they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth: 22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test Me? 24 Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?”
They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
25 And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
26 But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.