The Most Arduous of all Ascetic Practices is Prayer St Gregory of Sinai spoke of the effort involved in prayer, when he wrote, “No bodily or spiritual activity without pain or toil ever brings fruit to him who practices it, because ‘the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent
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
We Are Not Compelled To Love God We are not compelled to love God, having been created with free will. God does not compel His creatures to love Him. Mutual love requires, by it’s very nature, freedom to either respond in love, or not. Yet when we respond to God’s
Embracing the Dormition Fast for the Right Reasons The Lord condemned the Pharisee, not because he fasted, but because his motivation was based on pride. The Pharisee wished to be seen by men, and he had no fear of God. He dared to stand before the Lord in pride and
The Feast of Christ the All-Merciful Saviour Today our brotherhood celebrates the Patronal Feast of our monastery. Thirty-five years ago the beloved and ever memorable Archimandrite Dimitry (Egoroff) of Santa Rosa, CA tonsured Father Paul and me as Orthodox monks. Having previously been monks in the Eastern Catholic Church, we
Our Prayers Should Not Be in the Form of Bargaining When we approach the Lord with our needs we should take care that our prayer not be a form of bargainingl. God knows our needs before we ask, and it is from our fallen nature that we tend to approach
Let Us Show Compassion For All Of God’s Creatures These very moving photos first appeared in a French newspaper. The photos showed a male swallow attending his mate, who’d been hit by a car and was unable to fly. The male sparrow was photographed bringing food to the female in
The Orthodox Practice of Standing for Worship Standing before God has been the only acceptable posture for Orthodox Christians from the earliest of times. We recognize that a faithful servant would never sit before his master, for the faithful are all servants of the Lord, whom we worship as we
Holy Tradition is the Memory of the Church at Work The fact that protestants, by and large, have traveled far from the faith and traditions of the Apostolic Church, is testament to what happens when one departs from the “memory” of the Church. This “memory” is kept alive through Holy
We Must Never Allow Ourselves to View Anger as Righteous Most people, when angered by someone, think the best way to deal with the anger is by avoiding the person who offended us. The problem with this approach is that it allows the anger to take root in the heart,