Get Up Again

When We Fall We Must Get Up Again

It is often the case that we fail to keep God’s commandments and find ourselves despondent, unable to make progress in the battle over our sins. The same sins seem to constantly plague us. Despondency is our enemy, for it is the tool the demons use to keep us distracted from the goal. They want us to give up the battle.

Holiness does not come easily but requires true struggle. When you fall, get up again. If you fall again, get up again, ever keeping your eyes on God Who will help you overcome your sins. Pray for God’s help each time you start anew, even if you start a hundred times in a given day. Progress towards holiness comes each time we get up and start anew. Each step we take towards God brings us closer to our goal.

All that we have comes down from the Father of Lights. We should not become impatient, wanting more than we are ready to receive, for the Lord knows what is best for us. He measures His giving, according to our need, sometimes delaying the things we’ve asked for.

When we give ourselves over to Christ, He nurtures us, as a father nurtures his child. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He rewards us, and when we say “glory to God”, all things are made holy, and we enter the Kingdom of God.

Our entrance into the Kingdom comes to us as grace abounds, and the Lord lifts us up, again and again, even as we fail in our commitment to acquiring holiness. But the Lord of Mercies is always there, ready to lift us up out of the quagmire of sin and death. The Father of Lights is our salvation and our hope, and as we submit to Him we have the comfort of knowing that life eternal will be ours if we seek after Him, never wavering in our journey into the Heart of God.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photo: The Hallak family joined us for the Feast Day Liturgy on Tuesday. Both Hallak’s are doctors who run a clinic in Aberdeen, Washington.

Thursday February 17, 2022 / February 4, 2022
Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. Tone one.
Fast-free Week. Fast-free
Venerable Isidore of Pelusium, monk (436-440).
St. George, prince of Vladimir (1238).
Venerable Cyril, abbot, wonderworker of New Lake (Novgorod) (1532).
New Hieromartyr Methodius bishop of Petropavlovsk (1921).
New Hieromartyrs Eustaphius, John, Alexander, Sergius, John, Theodora, Aleksander, Nicholas, Alexis, Nicholas, Alexis, Alexander, Arcadius, Boris, Michael, Nicholas, Alexis, Andrew, Demetrius, John, Peter priests, Martyr Seraphim, Virgin-martyrs Rafaila, Anna, Catherine, and Martyrs John, Basil, Demetrius, Theodore, and Demetrius (1938).
Venerable Abraham and St. Coprius, monks, of Pechenga (Vologda) (15th c.).
Martyrs Jadorus and Isidore who suffered under Decius (249-251).
Hieromartyr Abramius, bishop of Arbela in Assyria (ca. 344-347).
Venerable Nicholas the Confessor, abbot of the Studion (868).
St. John, of Irenopolis (325).
Venerable Aldate, hieromartyr of Gloucester, England (6th c.) (Celtic & British).
St. Modan, abbot of Stirling and Falkirk.
Martyr Theoctistus (1686) (Greek).
St. Jasim the Wonderwoker (1686) (Greek).
New Martyr Joseph of Aleppo (1686) (Greek).
Hieromartyr Phileas, bishop of Thmuis and martyr Philoromus the Magistrate (303).
St. Evagrius, fellow-ascetic of St. Shio of Mgvime (6th c.) (Georgia).

The Scripture Readings

1 John 1:8-2:6

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

The Test of Knowing Christ

2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

The Test of Knowing Him

3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Mark 13:31-14:2

31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

No One Knows the Day or Hour

32 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. 34 It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. 35 Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— 36 lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

The Plot to Kill Jesus

14 After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. 2 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”