Happy New Year!

A new year, a new beginning

Today we usher in a New Year, and with it a chance to recommit ourselves to working harder at making changes in our lives that will lead to spiritual growth. The Lord’s patience never runs out, so we always have the invitation to renew our commitment to Him. The New Year is that moment in time when we should take a closer look at how we are using this life God has given us. Are we focused on things spiritual or are we strolling through life as though there were no tomorrow?

If the truth be known, many of us give all kinds of justifications as to why we don’t attend services on a regular basis. If it were work related, or involving recreation, we’d be there, but church is seen as something that is at the bottom of the “to do list”. Yet we wouldn’t consider going to work only when we felt like it. Nor would we miss family celebrations, vacations, or social functions with our friends.

Relationships are what we put into them, and if we don’t feed relationships, they die, just like a vine that is not watered withers away. If we don’t place God at the center of our week, and the services in the temple as the central act of the week, how can we expect to be spiritually healthy?

Are we lazy about our spiritual life? Does a Sunday morning pass by without an effort on our part to get ourselves to church? Are social engagements more important than the worship of God? If any of this is true, the New Year is a good time to turn things around and get ourselves back on track. Let’s make 2016 the year that has as it’s focus, personal renewal. Let’s not sit back waiting for God to do it all. Let’s do our part! Let us take that important step, and make this the best New Year we’ve ever had!

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photos: On board the ferry from Seattle to Vashon Island, having returned from the Orthodox Christian Fellowship’s College Retreat, held at Saint Nicholas Ranch in Dunlap, CA.

Friday January 1, 2016 / December 19, 2015
31st Week after Pentecost. Tone five.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)

Martyr Boniface at Tarsus in Cilicia (290) and Righteous Aglae (Aglaida) of Rome.
Venerable Elias of Murom, wonderworker of the Kiev Caves (1188).
Martyrs Elias, Probus, and Ares, in Cilicia (308.
Martyrs Polyeuctus at Caesarea in Cappadocia, and Timothy the Deacon in Mauretania (309).
St. Boniface the Merciful, bishop of Ferentino (6th c.).
St. Gregory (Gregentius), archbishop of Omirits (552).
Hieromartyr Capito, bishop of Cherson (4th c.).
Martyra Hermylus and Phocas.
Martyrs Eutyches and Thessalonica and with them 200 men and 70 women (Greek).
Sts. George the Scribe and Sava of Khakhuli (11th c.).

Scripture Readings

James 2:1-13

Beware of Personal Favoritism

2 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mark 9:33-41

Who Is the Greatest?

33 Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. 35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” 36 Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”

Jesus Forbids Sectarianism

38 Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”

39 But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is on our side. 41 For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.