God infuses His Energies into the icons
The Old Testament God was revealed to us by Christ Jesus. Prior to the incarnation of the Logos, God’s people were forbidden to make any image of Him, for no one had seen His face. Yet when Christ said to His disciples, “he who has seen Me has seen the Father”, the fullness of this loving God was revealed to His creation.
Early Christians used icons to depict this truth of the incarnation. The very first icons showing the Holy Virgin and the Christ Child, were painted by non other than the holy Apostle Luke. Since Christ is revealed in His saints, even the Holy Virgin and the Martyrs were soon depicted in images, worthy of veneration by the early Christians. The icons are not worshiped, nor are the saints worshiped, for adoration is reserved only for God. They are venerated because Christ dwells in His saints.
Orthodox, from the very first century, have venerated the holy icons as windows into eternity, representing as they do, the deified state of those who’ve won the good fight and are in Paradise with God. Our icons are not seen as religious art, but indeed windows into the other world. Perhaps a better description would be to say the icons are doors into the Heavenly Realm, for God infuses into the icons His Divine Energies, whereby we are lifted up into a place where there is neither time nor space. When we venerate the icons, our devotion and love is passed on to the archetypes, where we are connected to the saints who are in the Church Triumphant, together with the heavenly hosts, and Christ is glorified in His Saints.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: Metropolitan Jonah ordained Monk Gabriel into the sacred priesthood, and Monk Alexei as a hierodeacon. I was honored to have been asked to give the sermon on Sunday during the Hierarchical Liturgy, presided over by the Metropolitan.
Monday October 25, 2021 / October 12, 2021
19th Week after Pentecost. Tone one.
Martyrs Probus, Tarachus, and Andronicus at Tarsus in Cilicia (304).
Venerable Cosmas the Hymnographer, bishop of Maiuma (787).
St. Euphrosyne (Mezenova) the Faster, schema-abbess of Siberia (1918).
New Hieromartyr John (1930).
New Hieromartyr John (Pommer) bishop of Riga (1934).
Venerable Laurence (1937).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas confessor metropoliten of Alma-Ata (1955).
New Hieromartyr Alexander priest (1940).
Venerables Amphilochius (1452), Macarius, and Tarasius, abbots, and Theodosius, monk, of Glushitsa Monastery (Vologda).
Martyr Domnina of Anazarbus (286).
St. Martin the Merciful, bishop of Tours (397).
Translation from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord, together with the Philermia Icon of the Mother of God, and the right hand of Saint John the Baptist (1799).
“Jerusalem” (48), “Yaroslav-Smolensk” (1642), “Rudensk” (1687) and “Kaluga” (1748) Icons of the Mother of God.
St. Mobhi of Glasnevin (544) (Celtic & British).
St. Edwin, king and martyr (633) (Celtic & British).
St. Wilfrid, archbishop of York (709) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Anastasia of Rome (250) (Greek).
St. Theodotus, bishop of Ephesus (Greek).
St. Jason, bishop of Damascus (Greek).
Venerable Symeon the New Theologian (1021) (Greek).
Venerable Theosebius the God-bearer of Arsinoe in Cyprus (Greek).
Martyrs Malfethos and Anthea (Greek).
Hieromartyr Maximilian, bishop of Noricum (284).
The Scripture Readings
Philippians 1:1-7
Greeting
1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thankfulness and Prayer
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
Luke 7:36-50
A Sinful Woman Forgiven
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” 44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
