The conscience is a gift that God has bestowed upon us that tells us when we have sinned against Him, and against our neighbor. The conscience calls us to turn from our sin, and seek to change the patterns of behavior that have caused us to sin in the beginning.
This tug by our conscience can be counterproductive if we make no effort at changing our behavior. It can also be counterproductive if we simply give in to despair, and resign ourselves to our sinful behavior, as though there is no cure for our illness. That sense of guilt is meant to aid in the fight to turn around our bad behavior.
When we have sinned, and our sins are tormenting us, it is at that moment that we must seek out Christ, for only His sacrifice for our sins is eternal and living. When we lay our sins before the face of that sacrifice, we have nothing to fear, for we recognize that we can not be saved by your own efforts.
If we simply surrender to guilt, we will find nothing but destruction, and our conscience will have been of no benefit whatsoever, and victory will not be ours.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Daily Quote
“Live according to your conscience, and implore the aid of the Queen of Heaven, and everything will be all right.”
– St. Isaac of Optina
Wednesday, July 18, 2024 (7532) / Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Wednesday of the 6th week after Pentecost; Tone IV
Xerophagy
Martyrs Emilian and Hyacinth of Amastris
Venerable John the Long-suffering of the Kiev Caves († 1160)
Venerable Pambos the Hermit of Egypt (4th C)
St John II, the Confessor, Bishop of Chalcedon
Holy Hierarch Stephen, Archbishop of Constantinople
Venerable Pambos, Recluse of the Kiev Caves (13th C)
Blessed Leonty, Abbot of Novgorod
Daily Scripture Readings
I Corinthians 2:9b-3:8
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
Chapter 3
1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
Matthew 13:31-36a
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.