Let Us Stand Firmly Against Those Who Would Destroy the Church and Usher in The Great Reset
Like most of you, I am filled with sorrow as I witness two great Orthodox nations at war with one another. My sadness is only compounded knowing that it was from Kievan Rus’ that Orthodoxy became the faith of the Slavic people. Yet we are witnessing a terrible war that threatens the very unity of our beloved Holy Orthodox Church. The Metropolitanate of Ukraine and the Patriarchate of Moscow have been one united Orthodox Church since the foundation of Christ’s Church among the people of the land of the Rus’, yet this unity is in question because of the evilness of war, laid bare by the sinister plans of dark forces that have set out to destroy Christ’s Church.
For years dark forces have desired the death of Orthodoxy among the land of the Slavs. From before the creation of the Soviet Union, Orthodoxy has been seen as an enemy that must be destroyed. Now it is not Communism that has its sights on the destruction of the Church, but those evil forces that desire a world “without religion”. Their goal is the “Great Reset”, and this can not happen until the Church is divided, and ultimately destroyed.
Overcoming fear and anxiety requires determination and resolve. Blessed Augustine wrote that we must, “Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us”. Saint Gregory of Sinai counseled that we energize virtues according to our resolve and our determination, and that from this there arises a power of the soul.
Our determination and resolve provokes Christian efficacy that is not only “self efficacy” but ‘God-empowered efficacy.’ Thus, we can join ourselves in concert with the words of the psalmist and say, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence …” (Ps 90:1–3).
Now is the time when we Orthodox Christians must beseech the Lord as never before. On bended knees we must beg the Lord of the Cosmos to swiftly come to the aid of His Church, and usher in the “peace that passes understanding”. Let us join together in praying for our brothers and sisters in both Ukraine and Russia. Let us ask the Lord of Mercies to deliver His Church from the powers of darkness, and raise her up, once again, to proclaim to the whole world that we worship, united together as one people, that Jesus is Lord, and that He is our comfort and our salvation.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Sunday March 13, 2022 / February 28, 2022
First Sunday of the Great Lent: Triumph of Orthodoxy. Tone five.
Great Lent. Food with Oil
“Cyprus” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos from the village Staromniy, Moscow region (movable holiday on the 1st Sunday of the Great Lent).
Venerable Basil the Confessor (747), companion of St. Procopius at Decapolis.
St. Arsenius (Matsievich), metropolitan of Rostov, confessor (1772).
New Hieromartyr Sergius priest (1932).
Blessed Nicholas of Pskov, fool-for-Christ (1576).
Hieromartyr Proterius, patriarch of Alexandria, and six companions (457).
Hieromartyr Nestor, bishop of Magydos in Pamphylia (250).
Venerables Marana, Cyanna (Kyra), and Domnica (Domnina), nuns, of Syria (ca. 450).
Apostles Nymphas and Eubulus.
Venerable Romanus, desert-dweller of Condat in the Jura Mountains (460) (Gaul).
New Virgin-martyr Kyranna of Thessalonica (1751) (Greek).
Venerable Barsus of Damascus, bishop (Greek).
February 29th.
Venerable John Cassian the Roman, abbot (435).
Venerable John, called Barsanuphius, of Nitria in Egypt (5th c.).
Martyr Theoctyrist [Theostyrictus] (8th C).
“Devpeteruv” (1392) Icon of the Mother of God.
The Monk Leo, Cappadocian Monastic.
Venerable Cassian, recluse and faster of the Kiev Caves (12th c.).
St. Oswald, archbishop of York (992) (Celtic & British).
St. Germanus of Dacia Pontica (Dobrogea, Romania) (5th c.) (Romania).
St. Theosterictus the Confessor, abbot of Pelecete Monastery near Prusa (826).
St. Cassian of Mu Lake Hermitage, disciple of St. Alexander of Svir (16th c.).
St. Meletius, archbishop of Kharkov (1840).
The Scripture Readings
Luke 24:12-35
12 But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
The Road to Emmaus
13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
The Disciples’ Eyes Opened
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
Hebrews 11:24-26
24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Hebrews 11:32-12:2
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
The Race of Faith
12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
John 1:43-51
Philip and Nathanael
43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”