An Opportunity to Empty Ourselves to Make Way for the Lord
Monday is the beginning of the Nativity Fast. Fasting has always been an important element in the life of Christians. The Lord Himself fasted in the desert for forty days before beginning His ministry and both the Old and New Testament Churches regarded fasting as an essential element of the spiritual life.
In today’s society one often hears of fasting as being related to some weight loss program, with the spiritual aspects not even considered. However valuable fasting may be for weight loss, the essential purpose of fasting is to clear the way for spiritual growth. Depriving ourselves of the consumption of dairy products, eggs, meat and even dessert, is a way of bringing ourselves into a spiritual awareness that is otherwise not possible.
The periods of fasting call for increased effort in our prayer life and spiritual reading. Yet given all this Saint Basil the Great says, “True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one’s tongue, suppressing one’s hatred, and banishing one’s lust, evil words, lying, and betrayal of vows.”
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: My dear friends, Father Seraphim and Matushka Juliana Cardoza of Rogue River, Oregon, have sold their home and are on their way to Tennessee, where they will be taking up residence. Father Seraphim built the beautiful Saint Innocent Orthodox Church in Rogue River, which can be seen from I-5 between Grants Pass and Medford, Oregon. Father Seraphim’s son, Father Joshua, is now the parish priest of this most beautiful temple.
Monday November 28, 2022 / November 15, 2022
25th Week after Pentecost. Tone seven.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits)
Beginning of Nativity Fast.
Holy Martyrs and Confessors Gurias (299), Samonas (306), and Abibus (322), of Edessa.
Venerable Paisius (Velichkovsky) of Moldavia and Mt. Athos (1794).
New Hieromartyrs Nicholas and Peter priests, Gregory and Nicitas deacons (1937).
Martyrs Elpidius, Marcellus, and Eustochius, who suffered under Julian the Apostate (361).
Martyr Demetrius of Thrace (307).
“Kupyatich” Icon (1180) of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Venerable Philip, abbot of Rabang (Vologda) (1457).
St. Quinctian, bishop of Seleucia (4th c.).
St. Thomas the New, patriarch of Constantinople (665-668) (Greek).
Repose of St. Herman, wonderworker of Alaska (1836).
The Scripture Readings
2 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Greeting
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s Final Judgment and Glory
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, 4 so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, 5 which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; 6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
Luke 14:12-15
12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
The Parable of the Great Supper
15 Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”