Seeking Help From The Church For Living Honestly
Twittering on the internet for hours on end, or spending whole evenings sitting before the computer, mindlessly communicating with people who are unknown, personally, and who may not even be who they claim to be, are examples of squandering time that would better be spent in spiritual pursuits.
Forgoing time with family and friends who are in the room, while text messaging someone, is counterproductive for solid, healthy, relationships. Allowing ourselves to be consumed with online chat rooms, or endlessly talking on cell phones, is a form of self-destruction, for it ultimately leads to separation and alienation from profitable encounters.
Communal relationships, where we grow spiritually and socially, are all important for anyone who desires to have a deeper relationship with God, for such relationships become the foundation stone for learning true love. It is not really possible to become a loving person if we turn ourselves over to a life immersed in technology. Students who sit in lecture halls, text messaging their friends, are not participating in the learning process that is the hallmark of the classroom. People who leave their cell phones in vibrate mode, while attending the divine services, are demonstrating that their friends are more important than the worship of God.
If we are going to mature in the faith, we have to take the steps that lead to a deepening of our relationship with God, just as we must do if we are to have successful marriages, or lasting friendships. The age of technological advancement has its advantages, but it also has a dark side. When we spend the majority of our waking hours text messaging, talking on mobile phones, and becoming lost in cyberspace, we’ve become self-destructive, having succumbed to an addictive behavior that blocks true spiritual, social, and mental growth.
Living within the life of the Church, giving ourselves over to spiritual reading, personal prayer, frequent confession, and properly preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries, must be the priority of every Christian’s week. Technology has its place, but must not be allowed to become a god unto itself.
I use the internet for my daily blog, our monastery’s website, as well as postings I place on facebook, each and every day. Most of my personal correspondence is online. So, I am not dismissing the fact that social networking is here to stay. I am simply saying we should guard their time so as not to allow our life to become exclusively online.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Thursday April 20, 2023 / April 7, 2023
Bright Thursday.
Bright Week. Fast-free
Venerable George the Confessor, bishop of Mitylene (820).
New Hieromartyr Arcadius priest (1933).
Martyr Eudocia (1939).
Venerable Daniel, abbot, of Pereyaslavl-Zalesski (1540).
Martyr Calliopus at Pompeiopolis in Cilicia (304).
Martyrs Rufinus deacon, Aquilina, and 200 soldiers at Sinope (310).
Venerable Serapion of Egypt, monk (5th c.).
Venerable Nilus, abbot of Sora (1508).
Venerable Serapion archbishop of Novgorod.
The Byzantine Icon of the Mother of God.
St. George, patriarch of Jerusalem (807).
St. Gerasimus of Byzantium (1739).
Venerable Leucius, abbot of Volokolamsk (1492).
St. Govan of Cornwall.
The Scripture Readings
Acts 2:38-43
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
A Vital Church Grows
40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
John 3:1-15
The New Birth
3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.