The Cure for Our Disordered State
Man is living in a perpetual state of disorder, far from the ordered life God intended for him. The cure for this disordered state is to be found in prayer. It is in the foundation of prayer that we seek out the healing that will restore us to the image that God intended at the moment of creation. Prayer is the yearning of the soul towards the image of its prototype. When we are purified by God’s grace, it is an attraction of like to like. We are deified by contact with the Creator, returned to an ordered state, and made whole.
We can achieve nothing by our own efforts alone; yet if we commit ourselves to a prayer rule, and stick with it, the Lord will reward us with an abundance of grace, and we will be restored to the ordered life we were intended to enjoy. Just as it takes two men, cooperating with one another, to move a broken down old car to the side of the road for repairs, so too much we cooperate with God, if we are to be made whole.
Someone once complained to me that he wasn’t sure there was anything to this “God thing”, sharing he had real doubts as to whether any of the Church’s teachings were true. I pointed out that he was hardly cooperating with the cure for his illness, since his church attendance was erratic, and his prayer life non-existent.
You don’t enroll in a French class, not show up, and expect to learn French. Nor do you take a woman out for dinner, refuse to engage her in conversation, and expect her to accept an invitation for another date. Likewise, if we want to learn about the things of God, we will show up for services, read books on Orthodoxy, and otherwise avail ourselves to the healing that takes place within the Church. A relationship with God, like in any human relationship, depends on our own commitment, for a relationship is dependent on both parties’ active participation.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: These four young visitors made a pilgrimage to the monastery for the Sunday Divine Liturgy.
Sunday before the Universal Elevation of the Precious and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord
Forefeast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
Commemoration of the Founding of the Church of the Resurrection (The Holy Sepulchre) at Jerusalem (335).
Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion (1st c.).
New Hieromartyrs Stephan, Alexander priests and Nicholas deacon (1937).
Martyrs Cronides, Leontius, and Serapion of Alexandria (237).
Martyr Seleucus in Scythia (320).
Martyr Straton of Nicomedia (3rd c.).
Martyrs Macrobius and Gordian at Tomi in Romania (320).
Hieromartyr Julian of Galatia (4th c.).
Martyrs Elias, Zoticus, Lucian, Valerian, Macrobius, and Gordian at Tomi in Romania (320).
Venerable Peter at Atroe (9th C).
Great-martyr Ketevan, queen of Kakhetia (1624) (Georgia).
Venerable Cornelius of Padan-Olonets (16th c.), disciple of Venerable Alexander of Svir, and with him Venerables Dionysius and Misail
Venerable Litorius, bishop of Tours (370).
Venerable John of Prislop (15th-16th c.) (Romania).
Venerable Basil monk of Iveron Monastery (Greek).
St. Hierotheus of Kalamata, monk of Iveron Monastery, Mt. Athos (1745) (Greek).
Mark 16:9-20 (3rd Matins Gospel)
2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4
Matthew 22:1-14
