Successful membership requires commitment
Health clubs make much of their profit from people who decide to join because they want to get in shape, but after a few sessions with the weights, drop out. Membership in the Church, like the health club, requires that we put effort into it, lest we find ourselves dropping out for lack of spiritual growth.
Working out with weights does little for our overall health if we limit our time in the gym to an hour a week. Building muscular fitness takes effort, commitment and time. Building a healthy relationship with God requires effort, commitment and time. Like building up a healthy body, the health of the soul requires attention and commitment on our part. The end result is well worth the effort.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: We had a community outing to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park on Tuesday.
Wednesday October 8, 2014 / September 25, 2014
18th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Venerable Euphrosyne, nun, of Alexandria (445).
Repose of Venerable Sergius, abbot, of Radonezh (1392).
St. Nicholas confessor, priest (1941).
Venerable Euphrosyne, nun, of Suzdal (1250).
Translation of the relics of St. Herman, archbishop of Kazan (1595).
Venerable Dosithea the Recluse of Kiev (1776).
Martyr Paphnutius and 546 companions in Egypt (3rd c.).
Commemoration of the earthquake in Constantinople in 447, when a boy was lifted to heaven and heard the “Trisagion”.
St. Finbar (Barry), bishop of Cork (Ireland) (Celtic & British).
St. Cadoc of Llancarfan (Wales) (577) (Celtic & British).
Martyrs Paul and Tatta and their children Sabinian, Maximus, Rufus, and Eugene of Damascus (Greek).
St. Arsenius the Great, Catholicos of Georgia (887).
The Scripture Readings for the Day
Ephesians 5:25-33
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Luke 5:33-39
Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting
33 Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”
34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
36 Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. 39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”