Our charity must be based on love of God and neighbor
Food is a common problem for many people, for food so often fills a void, and becomes a way of comforting oneself when faced with the stresses that are a part of our modern age. Yet food is not the only addiction that can overtake the believer. The need for love and approval can be a form of addiction, and can even replace a fulfilling relationship with God. In serving others, we can sometimes find ourselves displacing God, and making charity a form of self worship.
This in no way suggests that “what we do for these, the least”, is not a godly direction to take, for we are directed by Christ Himself to be in service to others. However, we want to make sure our charity is based on love of God and neighbor, and not on love of self. There are some philanthropic people who give, not because they love the poor, or even a cause, but because they want to be noticed and admired by others. Pride rules, not love.
We avoid this sin of pride by living in a state of constant repentance. When we notice pride rising to the surface, we repent. We always seek to make Christ the cause and foundation of our charity, and not the praise of others. This can only be done if we are open with our confessor, and crushing the ego before it has a chance to take hold.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: Way of a Pilgrim Bookstore has taken on a new look, thanks to our Brother Apollos. Put in charge of the monastery’s gift shop some months ago, Brother Apollos has completely transformed the store, ordering a large quantity of new books and icons, and completely rearranging the interior. Visitors will marvel at the warmth and beauty of the little store.
Monday May 16, 2016 / May 3, 2016
Third Week of Pascha. Tone two.
Martyrs Timothy the Reader and his wife Maura of Antinoe in Egypt (286).
Venerable Theodosius, abbot of the Kiev Caves Monastery and founder of cenobitic monasticism in Russia (1074).
Venerable Peter the Wonderworker, bishop of Argos (10th c.).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas priest (1941).
Venerables Juliana (1393) and Eupraxia (1394) of Moscow.
St. Theophanes of Vatopedi, metropolitan of Peritheorion (14th c.).
Translation of the Dormition Icon of the Mother of God from Constantinople to the Kiev-Pechersk Far Caves (1073).
Pechersk Not-Wrought-by-Hand (1085), “Pechersk”(with Sts. Anthony and Theodosius) (1085), “Sven-Caves”(1288), “Yaskinsky” and Vlakhernsky” Icons of the Mother of God
St. Ansfried, bishop of Utrecht (1010).
Venerable Ecumenius the Wonderworker, bishop of Tricca (Greek).
Translation of the relics of Venerable Luke of Mt. Stirion (Greek).
New Martyr Ahmet the Calligrapher of Constantinople (Greek).
New Martyr Mary of Crete. (Greek).
St. Mamai, Catholicos of Georgia (744) (Georgia).
Venerable Fathers Michael and Arsenius the Georgians (9th c.) (Georgia).
Martyr Paul of Vilnius, Lithuania (17th c.).
Great-martyr Xenia the Wonderworker of Peloponnesus.
St. Glywys of Corwall.
Scripture Readings
Acts 6:8-7:5
Stephen Accused of Blasphemy
8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. 13 They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” 15 And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham
7 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. 5 And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abrahamhad no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
Acts 7:47-60
47 But Solomon built Him a house.
48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has My hand not made all these things?’
Israel Resists the Holy Spirit
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
Stephen the Martyr
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
John 4:46-54
A Nobleman’s Son Healed
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”
49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”
50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”
52 Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it wasat the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.
54 This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.
Thank you Father Tryphon for you daily meditations which almost always stimulate and challenge and of course nourish. I am shortly to be chrismated and received into Orthodoxy in Cornwall UK after a lifetime as an active committed Christian ( with many bouts of waywardness and doubt)at the age of 67. I have been looking at Orthodoxy since the 70’s! Now I can’t understand how it has taken so long. Pray for me. Jeremy
Many years, Jeremy!
Are there nuns at this monastery or only monks?
There are many women’s monastery in this country. Men and women each have their own monasteries. We’ve had a nun living on the island in the past, but she had her own hermitage.
Motivation, motivation.
Does my obedience issue from a purified heart (humility) or the flesh (the unrepentant ego)?
Perhaps the only thing the bookstore needs now is some of your fresh brewed Monastery Blend Coffee for visitors!?
Greetings Abbot Tryphon,
Thank you for your words. They are timely. I have a question about repentance (If you have time). How can I know my repentance is genuine or if it has ‘worked?’ It pains me to write ‘worked’ but that may be how I am viewing it.
Lord Have Mercy
Jonathan