Sequestered

Our Lenten journey sequestered into the heart of the desert

This period of the Great Lenten Fast, especially during a time when most Americans are confined to their homes because of the pandemic, is the perfect time to confront our sinful habits and weaknesses, such as the spirits of impatience, depression, and so on, for we’ve been gifted with an increased period of time where we can give ourselves over to private prayer.

Rather than concentrate on the pandemic that is upon us, let us turn our hearts towards the things of God. Through spiritual reading, along with building up the Church’s tradition of the Domestic Church, we can turn this into a contemplative time that most of us never have a chance to experience, but that the soul longs for.

As tragic as this period of the pandemic is for our nation, and even our world, there can be a silver lining, if we only let our hearts be open to the possibilities. Many priests have shared with me that this has been the most grace-filled Lenten journey they’ve ever experienced.

As for me, being in that particularly dangerous age group, (I’m seventy-four, and have a heart condition), it is a time to look deep within my soul, and seek out the Lord like I’ve never done before. Sequestered in my monastery, with the gate closed to all pilgrims, I have been gifted with the opportunity to focus on repentance, and my interior life. This may be the worst of times, but it has the potential to be the best of times.

In Psalm 39:12-13, we read, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were. Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, Before I go away and am no more.”

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Friday March 27, 2020 / March 14, 2020
Fourth Week of the Great Lent: Adoration of Cross. Tone seven.
Great Lent. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Venerable Benedict of Nursia, abbot (543).
St. Theognostus, metropolitan of Kiev and Moscow (1353).
St. Rostislav-Michael, prince of Kiev (1167).
St. Euschemon, bishop of Lampsacus (9th c.).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of St. Theodore (“Feodorovskaya”) (1613).
Martyr Eustathius and his company at Carrhae, Mesopotamia (741).

The Scripture Readings

Isaiah 29:13-23

13 Therefore the Lord said:

“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
16 Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

Future Recovery of Wisdom

17 Is it not yet a very little while
Till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?
18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
19 The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And the poor among men shall rejoice
In the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to nothing,
The scornful one is consumed,
And all who watch for iniquity are cut off—
21 Who make a man an offender by a word,
And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
And turn aside the just by empty words.

22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
23 But when he sees his children,
The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.

Genesis 12:1-7

Promises to Abram

12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Proverbs 14:15-26

15 The simple believes every word,
But the prudent considers well his steps.
16 A wise man fears and departs from evil,
But a fool rages and is self-confident.
17 A quick-tempered man acts foolishly,
And a man of wicked intentions is hated.
18 The simple inherit folly,
But the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
19 The evil will bow before the good,
And the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

20 The poor man is hated even by his own neighbor,
But the rich has many friends.
21 He who despises his neighbor’s sins;
But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.

22 Do they not go astray who devise evil?
But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.

23 In all labor there is profit,
But idle chatter leads only to poverty.

24 The crown of the wise is their riches,
But the foolishness of fools is folly.

25 A true witness delivers souls,
But a deceitful witness speaks lies.

26 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence,
And His children will have a place of refuge.