The Purveyor of Divine Revelation
When we say that Christianity is a way of life, we are referring to the fact that the Church is the purveyor of divine revelation from our Creator. This divine revelation infuses us with a transformational power that lifts us up, changes us, and makes us whole. We have a cure in this revelation, a promise of healing that which ails us. Infused as we are by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are lifted up from the quagmire of sin and despair, and taken up to the heights of the Heavenly Kingdom, where we join the cloud of witnesses that have gone on before us. In unity with the saints, we will participate forever in one Divine Liturgy, the heavenly banquet, continuing without end, unto the ages of ages.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: I am at Saint Nicholas Ranch and Retreat Center in Dunlap, CA., where I am the keynote speaker for the Orthodox Christian Fellowship’s college retreat. There are 57 registered college students for this gathering, and I consider myself blessed to have been asked to be here with these beautiful young people. Overlooking the center is the Monastery of the Life Giving Spring, a Greek Orthodox women’s monastery with 23 nuns, headed by Abbess Markella.
Sunday December 28, 2014 / December 15, 2014
29th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone four.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). Fish Allowed
Week of Holy Forefathers
Hieromartyr Eleutherius, bishop of Illyria, and his mother, Martyr Anthia and Martyr Corivus the Eparch (126).
Venerable Paul of Mt. Latros (956).
St. Stephen the Confessor, archbishop of Surozh in the Crimea (790).
Synaxis of All Saints of Crimea.
New Russian Hieromartyrs Joseph, metropolitan of Petrograd (1938), Hilarion (Troitsky), bishop of Verey (1929); Virgin-martyr Victorina (Diobronravova).
New Hieromartyrs Alexander, Basil, Victorinus priests (1937).
Venerable Tryphon, of Pechenga or Kola (1583), and his martyred disciple Venerable Jonah.
Synaxis of All Saints of Kolsk.
Martyr Eleutherius at Constantinople (4th c.).
Venerable Pardus, hermit of Palestine (6th c.).
Monk-martyr Bacchus of Mar Saba (8th c.).
Martyr Susanna the Deaconess of Palestine (4th c.).
Venerable Nektarius of Bitel’sk (1500).
St. Aubertus, bishop (668) (Neth.).
Scripture Readings for the Day
Colossians 3:4-11
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Luke 14:16-24
16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”