Rejoining Christ

Being the Body of Christ

Each and every time we gather together to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, we are not simply commemorating an event that happened almost two thousand years ago. We are not simply commemorating the Last Supper, when Christ shared a meal with His disciples. When we come together to celebrate the Eucharist, we are rejoining an event already in progress. Each and every Liturgy celebrated is bound together with an event already having taken place. Each Liturgy is not celebrated anew, for only one Eucharistic banquet was celebrated, and that was when Our Lord offered up the first Mystical Supper, together with his disciples. Our offering is a rejoining of ourselves to that very moment in time, when Christ is with His disciples.

We, at the moment of the Eucharistic offering, are made holy, just as the words spoken by the priest suggest, “holy things for the holy”. We are made a holy people, set apart from the world. We are a people brought together in Christ, no longer apart and alone. We rejoin Christ, and are made as One Body, which is the Church. The offering of the bread and wine which has been set forth for the Eucharistic offering, is to become the Body of Christ (the Church) prepared to BE the Body of Christ. We faithful are united together in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, with the Eucharistic banquet that is ongoing in Paradise. We are brought together with all the saints that have gone on before us, united together as One Body.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photo: Diocesan clergy gather for the Feast Day of Holy Virgin, Joy of All Who Sorrow, Cathedral, and in honor of the 25th anniversary of His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America, on the occasion of his consecration as a bishop, twenty-five years ago. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Friday November 17, 2017 / November 4, 2017
24th Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)

Venerable Ioannicius the Great of Bithynia (846).
Hieromartyrs Nicander, bishop of Myra, and Hermas, presbyter (1st c.).
Martyr Nicholas confessor and priest (1931).
Virgin-martyr Eugene (1935).
New Hieromartyr Alexander priest (1937).
New Hieromartyr Ismail priest (1941).
Venerable Mercurius, faster of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
Venerable Nicander, abbot of Gorodensk (Novgorod) (1607).
Blessed Simon of Yurievets (1584).
St. Paul, metropolitan of Tobolsk (1770).
St. Sylvia, mother of St. Gregory the Dialogist (6th c.).
Martyr Porphyrius the Mime of Caesarea (361) (Greek).
St. John III Doukas Vataxis the Merciful, emperor of Nicaea (1254) (Greek).
Holy and Righteous Ioane, Stepane, and Isaiah the Georgians (Georgia).
St. Clether, hermit of Cornwall..
St. Birnstan, bishop of Winchester.

The Scripture Readings

1 Thessalonians 5:9-13

9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:24-28

24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

25 Brethren, pray for us.

26 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.

27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Luke 12:2-12

2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

Jesus Teaches the Fear of God

4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Confess Christ Before Men

8 “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. 9 But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

10 “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.

11 “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”