Our Patronal Feast

The Feast of Christ the All-Merciful Saviour

Today our brotherhood celebrates the Patronal Feast of our monastery. Thirty years ago the beloved and ever memorable Archimandrite Dimitri (Egoroff) of Santa Rosa, CA blessed Father Paul and me to found a new Orthodox monastery under his spiritual guidance. Inspired by Father Dimitri’s kind and prayerful spirit, and a wisdom and holiness gained through his many years of monastic struggle, our brotherhood was planted on the firm ground of the Russian monastic tradition.

Thirty years ago we chose to place ourselves under the banner of the All-Merciful Saviour, and the protection of the Holy Virgin. We chose Saint John the Wonderworker of Shanghi and San Francisco, as our patron, seeing in him the sanctity, simplicity, and holiness that we’d found in our blessed Father Dimitri.

It was twenty-eight years ago, after a six month search, that we moved the monastery from a working class neighborhood in Richmond, CA., to Vashon Island, with the blessing of our bishop.

It has been a journey filled with poverty, suffering, and persecution, yet because of these experiences, the monastery has risen like a phoenix. Planted like a garden in the midst of a beautiful forest, on an island, in the Salish Sea of the Puget Sound region of the State of Washington, we look in wonder at all God has given us.

For all this we offer our heartfelt thanks, and “to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (I Timothy 1:17).”

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Sunday August 14, 2016 / August 1, 2016
8th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone seven.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. Food with Oil
The Monastery’s Patronal Feast
The Feast to the All-Merciful Saviour
Beginning of the Dormition Fast.

Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord (1164) (First of the three “Feasts of the Saviour” in August).
The Feast of the Most Holy Mother of God.
Holy Seven Maccabees, Martyrs Abimus, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus, and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher Eleazar (166 B.C.).
New Hieromartyr Basil, archbishop of Chernigov (1918).
New Hieromartyr Demetrius priest (1937)
Uncovering of the relics of Venerable Sophia of Suzdal (1995).
Nine Martyrs of Perge in Pamphylia: Leontius, Attius, Alexander, Cindeus, Minsitheus (Mnesitheus), Cyriacus, Mineon (Menaeus), Catanus, and Eucleus (3rd c.).
St. Nicholas (Kassatkin), enlightener of Japan (1912).
Martyrs Menas, Menais, and others of England (Greek).
Martyr Elessa of Cythera (Greek).
St. Timothy the Wonderworker, archbishop of Priconissus of Peloponnesus (Greek).
Martyr Papas the New (Greek).
Martyr Eleazar (Greek).
Martyr Cyricus (Greek).
Martyrs Theodore and Polyeuctus (Greek).
St. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester (984) (Celtic & British).
Virgin-martyr Sidwell of Exeter (or 7/31 or 8/2).

Scripture Readings
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Sectarianism Is Sin

10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Matthew 14:14-22

14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Jesus Walks on the Sea

22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.