Self-reliance and interdependency
Since the foundation of this monastic community some thirty-three years ago, our holy brotherhood has been working towards becoming as self-reliant as is possible, given the age we live in. Recognizing that most of humankind, since the beginning, had no choice but to depend on personal gardens for vegetables, raising cows for milk and cheese, and chickens for eggs, pigs for sausages, and harvesting trees for cooking and heating, we are now living in a time when being totally self-reliant is impossible for most. We are now dependent on others for much of our food and fuel, and the day is long past when most people are able to be completely independent of others for their daily needs.
When I was a child I remember most people in our neighborhood raised their own chickens and rabbits for food, grew large vegetable gardens, and even baked their own bread. Today, most people purchase prepackaged food that requires little preparation. The food consumed by the average American household comes pre-prepared in frozen, canned, or boxed form. “Home made” cakes require only the mixing of eggs and water, are popped into the oven, and frosted with icing out of a plastic container. I would guess most people have never made a cake from scratch, or kneaded their own bread, and few would know how to grow a vegetable garden. Fewer yet have taken eggs from the nest of their own chickens. In short, we have become a nation of codependents.
Growing and canning our own vegetables, baking our own bread, harvesting our own honey from our monastery’s beehives, making our own cheese, making our own soap (for sale in our on-line store), and brewing our own mead, has given us a real sense of self-reliance. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to revert back to the days when we were totally dependant on a local grocery store. Our move towards self-reliance and sustainability has been a great blessing for us.
But it has also opened the door to an awareness that, as Christians, our dependence on praying together and working together towards the common goal of living totally fearless lives of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is a dependency that one would not want to sacrifice for the want of independence. Our connection as members of the One Body of Christ, the Church, is an inter-dependency.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: The tip of Vashon Island, as seen from the north end ferry.
Saturday November 16, 2019 / November 3, 2019
22nd Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Martyrs Acepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter, and Aeithalasthe Deacon, of Persia (376).
Dedication of the Church of the Great-martyr George in Lydda (4th c.).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas and Martyr Paul (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Basil, Peter, Basil, Alexander, Vladimir, Sergius, Nicholas, Vicentius, John, Peter, Alexander, Paul, Cosmas priests and Simeon deacon (1937).
Virgin-martyr Evdokia (1938).
New Hieromartyr Sergius deacon (1942).
Martyrs Atticus, Agapius, Eudoxius, Carterius, Istucarius (Styrax), Pactobius (Tobias), and Nictopolion, at Sebaste (320).
Venerable Acepsimas, hermit of Cyrrhus in Syria (4th c.).
St. Snandulia of Persia (380).
Venerable Anna, daughter of Prince Vsevolod I Yaroslavich (1112).
Venerable Elias of Egypt.
St. Achaemonides, (or Hormisdas), confessor, of Persia (4th).
St. Winifred of Treffynon (Holywell), N. Wales, (630) (Celtic & British).
Translation of the relics of St. Edith, nun of Wilton.
St. Theodore, confessor, bishop of Ancyra (8-9th c.) (Greek).
New Martyr Hieromonk George of Neopolis, Asia Minor (1797) (Greek).
Martyrs Dacius, Severus, Andronas, Theodotus, and Theodota (Greek).
St. Hubert of Maastricht (727) (Neth.).
Venerable Nicholas, Radiant Star of the Georgians (1308) (Georgia).
St. Pimen of Zographou, Mt. Athos (16th-17th c.).
The Meeting (1196) of St. Sava (1235) and St. Symeon the Myrrh-gusher (1200) of Serbia at Vatopedi, Mt. Athos.
St. Pirmin, bishop and monastic founder (753) (Germany).
The Scripture Readings
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Assurance of the Resurrection
5 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Luke 9:1-6
Sending Out the Twelve
9 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.
4 “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city,shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”
6 So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Father Tryphon, i am writing this in the hopes that you will pray for my nephew, Tyson, who has been addicted to drugs all his life. He is in his 40’s and is destroying himself. The psych drugs they give him actually make him psychotic. In my weakness i am throwing him out after a year of trying to get him into Jesus. He is a possessed person, possessed by the drug demons… Help!
May the Lord help Tyson in every way. Keep praying for him, and by your love and support, may God deliver Tyson from his drug addiction.
Relying on God and nature for our food and having to plant, grow and harvest ourselves bring us closer to God and our families/communities who participate daily. Just popping in and out of the local grocery store is not enough of a reminder of all that goes into the food starting from God, who provided the soil for planting and the animals to be fed and raised. (Of course we are dealing with the topic of toxins in our store- bought food too!) Our minds are all on the wrong page and we have forgotten that all comes from God!
Blessings for the 33rd anniversary of your community!!
Thankyou for all you bring to us each day to help us remember what is important and what is not and also for your heartfelt prayers…..