Within the Fold but Without Love
That our Orthodox Church possesses the Fullness of Truth is a given, yet in our weakness as believers, the obviousness of that Truth is often invisible to others. In our weakness as sinful people, we Orthodox clergy, as well as the laity, often fail to demonstrate the love and joy that would make our faith attractive to others.
When people visit an Orthodox temple for the first time, if all they see is beautiful ritual, and a mystical interior, but are not received warmly by the Orthodox worshipers, they likely will walk away thinking this Faith has no impact on the soul. Beautiful worship and sublime theology mean nothing if we don’t live it out in love for others.
Grand services can be performed on any stage as reenactments of ancient Christian worship, complete with beautiful costumes, and authentic images of an ancient faith. Yet these rites will be nothing but empty externals, devoid of any meaning, if we Orthodox Christians make no effort to breathe in the faith, and allow Christ to change our hearts, and transform us into a holy people.
It is only when we invite God to make us His holy people, that the spiritual power of the services, and the beauty of our temples, become irresistible to others, and they, by God’s grace, become seekers themselves.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Friday October 27, 2023 / October 14, 2023
21st Week after Pentecost. Tone three.
Fast. Food with Oil
Martyrs Nazarius, Gervase, Protase, and Celsus of Milan (1st c.).
Venerable Parasceva (Petka) of Epibatima, Thrace, whose relics are in Iasi, Romania (11th c.).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1921).
St. Ambrose, bishop of Kamenets-Podolsk (1932).
New Hieromartyr Peter priest (1937).
New Hieromartyr Maximilian (1938).
Venerable Nikola Sviatosha, prince of Chernigov and wonderworker of the Kiev Caves (1143).
Hieromartyr Silvanus of Gaza (311).
“Yakhrom” (15th c.) Icon of the Mother of God.
Venerable Cosmas, abbot of Yakhroma (1494).
Venerable Euthymius the New of Thessalonica, confessor (889) (Greek).
St. Ignatius, metropolitan of Mithymna (1566) (Greek).
Martyr Peter Apselamus of Eleutheropolis in Palestine (309).
St. Burchard, first bishop of Wurzburg, English missionary to Germany (754).
St. Cosmas the Hymnographer, bishop of Maiuma (787) (Greek).
Venerable Manacca, abbess of Cornwall.
The Scripture Readings
Colossians 2:1-7
Not Philosophy but Christ
2 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Luke 9:12-18
12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”
13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ
18 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”