Live Your Purpose
This earthly life that we have been given has no meaning unless we see it as a workshop for the future life. We must not neglect that which is of an eternal nature, for the Creator has bestowed this life upon us as a time of preparation for eternity with Him. This is the time when we should be progressing from God’s image to God’s likeness. This life takes a tragic turn if we do not look beyond the confines of this earthly existence, for the gift of love that is Christ, helps us escape the nightmare of an all-consuming death.
The Apostle Paul gave an account of the Christian understanding of death when he said, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54).'” It is in this life that we “put on Christ,” for in doing so we attain the holiness that is necessary for us to stand in the presence of God for all eternity, and not be burned. Focusing on this life as anything but a time of preparation for eternity is to ignore the reality that God has gifted us with life as a time of preparation for the heavenly vision of an all-consuming life.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Quote of the Day
“We, who believe in the living God and whose hopes depend upon Him, ought to rejoice that we have such a Father in the heavens, Who loves us more than all fathers and mothers and Who takes infinite care to render us worthy of Him.”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
Monday, August 20, 2024 (7532) / Monday, September 02, 2024
Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost; Tone I
No fast
Afterfeast of the Dormition
✺ Prophet Samuel (11th C BC)
Hieromartyr Philip, Bishop of Heraclius and with him the Martyrs Sevirus, Memnon, and the 37 Martyrs burned at Thrace († 304)
Martyr Lucius the Senator († 310)
Martyrs Iliodoros, and Dosos († 380)
Daily Scripture Readings
(Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost)(Liturgy)
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
5 But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.