Our Quest for Humility

We must unite ourselves to the humility of Christ

As Orthodox Christians we must fight off the temptation of making our faith a form of ideology, for when we transform our Orthodox faith into an ideological and moralistic religion, we close the door to others, and turn Christianity into a list of requirements,  denuding the message of the Scriptures into yet another worldly political force.

It is only through our immersion in a life of prayer that our faith becomes something other than an ideology. Through uniting ourselves in the prayer of the Church, we lose ourself, and become one with Christ, and with all Christians. Our quest for humility comes through our having united ourselves to the humility of Christ, Who condescended to take on our flesh in order to unite His divinity, with our humanity.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photos: The young men who have been on retreat transformed our unused Saint John Chapel, where we celebrated the services before the construction of the Protection of the Holy Virgin Monastic Church, into a shrine to our patron saint, John the Wonderworker. The icon of Saint John was painted by our dear friend, Eleni Schumacher, of Post Falls, Idaho.

Tuesday September 4, 2018 / August 22, 2018
15th Week after Pentecost. Tone five.
Martyr Agathonicus of Nicomedia and his companions: Martyrs Zoticus, Theoprepius, Acindynus, Severian, Zeno, and others, who suffered under Maximian (4th c.).
Martyr Gorazd of Prague, Bohemia and Moravo-Cilezsk (1942).
Venerable Isaac I (Antimonov, the “Elder”) of Optina (1894).
New Martyrs Ephraim (Kuznetsov), bishop of Selenginsk and Priest John Vostorgov (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Macarius bishop of Orlov, John and Alexis priests (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Theodore bishop of Penza and with him Basil and Gabriel priests (1937).
New Hieromartyrs John bishop of Velikoluk, Alexis archbishop of Omsk, Alexander, Michael and Theodore priests, Hieromartyr Hilarion, John and Hierotheus (1937)
Hieromartyr Athanasius (270-275), bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia, Venerable Anthusa of Syria (298) and Martyrs Charesimus and Neophytus (270-275).
Virgin-martyr Eulalia of Barcelona (303).
Iveron Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos at the Monastery of St. Alexis of Moscow (1650).
Venerable Bogolep of St. Paisius of Uglich Monastery (16th c.).
St. Symphorian of Autun (2nd-3rd c.) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Sigfrid, abbot of Wearmouth (England) (688) (Celtic & British).
New Hieromartyr Andrew (Ukhtomsky), bishop of Ufa (1937).
Martyrs Irenaeus, Deakon, Or, and Oropsus (Greek).

The Scripture Readings

Galatians 2:21-3:7

21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Justification by Faith

3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Mark 6:1-7

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

6 Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.

4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

Sending Out the Twelve

7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.