Like many of my readers, I’ve experience much pain and sorrow over this past year. But a beloved bishop friend gave me this sound advice: “The grass is greener where the manure is thickest.”
The devil, warring against us, would have us believe the grass IS greener elsewhere, but we must always remember Satan is “The Great Deceiver”. Allowing ourselves to run away from the pain, or give up hope and surrender to despair, must never be an option.
Saint Anatoly of Optina said, “Without winter there would be no spring, and without spring there would be no summer. So it is also in the spiritual life: a little consolation, and then a little grief—and thus little by little we work out our salvation. Let us accept everything from the hand of God. If He comforts us, let us thank Him. And if He doesn’t comfort us—let us thank Him.”
We must always live with the knowledge that God loves us, and that whatever pain or sorrow He allows to come our way, is always for our salvation. Knowing this to be true, we must live in joyfulness of heart, comforted with the knowledge that we are loved by God, and that whatever suffering we have in this present moment of time, is but a temporary deviation from the joyful life we will have in the coming Kingdom.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Quote of The Day
“This is how you pray continually: not by offering prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so your life becomes a continued and uninterrupted prayer.” – St. Basil The Great
Saturday, July 21, 2024 (7532) / Saturday, August 03, 2024
Saturday of the 6th week after Pentecost; Tone IV
No Fast
Venerable Simeon of Emessa, Fool-for-Christ, and his fellow-ascetic, Venerable John († c. 590)
Prophet Ezekiel (6th C BC)
Venerable Victor of Marseille
Venerable Onuphry the Silent of the Kiev Caves, near caves (12th-13th C)
Venerable Onysim the Hermit, of the Kiev Caves, far caves (12th-13th C)
Venerable Anna of Kashin
Daily Scripture Readings
Romans 9:1-5
1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Matthew 9:18-26
18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
23 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.