In our illness we come to understand affliction brings about true healing Saint Gregory Palamas instructed we faithful Orthodox Christians to look upon illness as a blessing, for suffering is actually better than good health. Illness leads towards salvation because it blunts the inborn evilness that would destroy our move
Author: Abbot Tryphon
I am abbot of All-Merciful Saviour Orthodox Monastery (ROCOR) on Vashon Island, WA. The island is a twenty minute ferry ride from West Seattle, and a fifteen minute crossing from Tacoma.
Surrounded by the Salish Sea, the island is some 87% undeveloped forest, with a rural population of around eleven thousand citizens. If you wish to contact me personally, you can email me at: abbottryphon@vashonmonks.com
The Power and Influence of Good Deeds “For it is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men (1 Peter 2:15). Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic tells us in The Prologue from Ochrid that we are better off if we do not engage
Ownership of Our Heart Should be Reserved for God Alone The lifeless things of this world offer no spiritual satisfaction, yet we often sell ourselves off to things or people by giving them power over our hearts. It is easy to feel abandoned or hurt by those to whom we’ve
Detachment, and the Life of a Christian Detachment from the world is not necessarily cutting off all social contact with people, or avoiding any exposure to, or contact with, things of the world in some Pharisaical obsession with keeping oneself ritually ‘pure’. The work of purification is an inner work.
Be still, and know that I am God Great and Holy Lent is seen by most as the forty days before Pascha when we give up certain foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish), and give more attention to alms giving. The season of the Great Fast is also a time when
It Is Satan Who Has Set Out to Destroy The Unity of the Slavic Lands My heart breaks for what I am witnessing, for as an American of Scandinavian and Scottish ancestry, I am broken hearted at what I see as a mass exodus from Christianity in the land of
He Who Lives the Will of God Has No Worries With all the troubles that are now befalling our world, many people find themselves worrying about the future. The war in Ukraine, the terrible economy that has seen skyrocketing prices at the gas pump, and grocery prices higher than any
Let Us Stand Firmly Against Those Who Would Destroy the Church and Usher in The Great Reset Like most of you, I am filled with sorrow as I witness two great Orthodox nations at war with one another. My sadness is only compounded knowing that it was from Kievan Rus’