When We do the Wrong Things Habitually
That we must struggle with our passions is a given. All the holy fathers council us to do battle with the passions, yet we continue committing the same sins over and over. Sometimes it is because we’ve allowed ourselves to fall into the habit of submitting to the same passions time and again. We stole an item from the office and got away with it, so the next time we think we need an extra pen, we take it. Perhaps we have twenty such corporate pens in a large mug, sitting on the counter in our kitchen. Do we need all of them, or do we ever even use any of them? Yet the count continues, because we’ve gotten into the habit of taking them from the office.
Do we think our job in a restaurant gives us the right to smuggle out food at the end of our shift, and does our low salary make us excuse such theft? Or perhaps we switch a high end bulk coffee into the low end store brand bag, paying three dollars less per pound than we should, because we could get away with it?
Perhaps we find we snap at our spouse, or our children, even when we are not angry. Or, we drive in an aggressive manner, thinking we need to be ahead of someone driving the speed limit, all because we’ve been doing so on work days. Maybe we are verbally abusive with our employees because we have the power to do so, given the economy (where are they going to work, if not here).
These are all examples of sinful behavior that can become habitual, and should be addressed directly if we are ever to be freed from our passions. We can start by slowly returning the pens to the office, two by two, until they’ve all been returned. We can arrive early at the restaurant job, and stay beyond our shift, paying for the stolen food with our extra hours of service. We can purchase a money order and anonymously pay back the grocery store the amount we’ve stolen from them over the years. We can choose to drive in the slow lane, on a daily basis, leaving early enough to reduce the temptation for aggressive driving.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: Fr. Deacon Timothy and Matushka Anna Read from Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Yakima, WA., stayed on the island for a few days while visiting the monastery. Nikolai and Jake, U.S. Coast Guardsmen, came for services on Friday.
Saturday July 22, 2023 / July 9, 2023
7th Week after Pentecost. Tone five.
Hieromartyr Pancratius, bishop of Taormina in Sicily (1st c.).
Venerable Gabriel, abbot of St. Elias Skete, Mt. Athos (1901).
New Hieromartyr Constantine priest (1918).
Hieromartyr Cyril, bishop of Gortyna in Crete (250-252).
Martyrs Patermuthius, Coprius, and Alexander the Soldier, in Egypt (361).
Sts. Patermuthius and Coprius, ascetics of Egypt (4th c.).
St. Theodore, bishop of Edessa (848).
“Cyprus” in the village of Stromyn (Moscow diocese) and “Koloch” (1413) Icons of the Mother of God.
Venerable Anthony Leokhnovsky (1611).
Venerable Euthymius of Karelia (1435).
Blessed Peter, hieromartyr of Cherevkov (Vologda) (16th-17th c.).
St. Everild, nun, of England (700) (Celtic & British).
Martyrs Andrew and Probus (Greek).
Venerables Dionysius the Rhetorician and Metrophanes of Mt. Athos (Greek).
Venerable Theodosius, stylite of Edessa (9th c.).
Venerable John of the Caves in Babylon.
Martyr Michael, disciple and the Kinsman of St. Theodore.
Martyr John (before holy baptism Moavy), king of Baghdad and with him the Three Holy Youths (9th c.).
New Hieromartyr Methodius of Amaria, Crete (1793).
Hieromartyr Killian, bishop in East Franconia and Thuringia, and his companions Hieromonk Colman and Hierodeacon Totman, at Wurzburg (689).
The Scripture Readings
Romans 12:1-3
Living Sacrifices to God
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Serve God with Spiritual Gifts
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Matthew 10:37-11:1
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
A Cup of Cold Water
40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
John the Baptist Sends Messengers to Jesus
11 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.