Daily Bread
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
“A dog is better than I am, for he has love and does not judge.”
+ St. Xanthias, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Daily Scripture Readings
Hebrews 13:7-16 (Epistle, St. Alexander)
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Luke 12:32-40 (Gospel, St. Alexander)
32 Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
35 Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.
37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.
38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Ven. John of Damascus (776)
Saint John of Damascus was born about the year 680 at Damascus, Syria into a Christian family. His father, Sergius Mansur, was a treasurer at the court of the Caliph. John had also a foster brother, the orphaned child Cosmas (October 14), whom Sergius had taken into his own home. When the children were growing up, Sergius saw that they received a good education. At the Damascus slave market he ransomed the learned monk Cosmas of Calabria from captivity and entrusted to him the teaching of his children. The boys displayed uncommon ability and readily mastered their courses of the secular and spiritual sciences. After the death of his father, John occupied ministerial posts at court and became the city prefect.
In Constantinople at that time, the heresy of Iconoclasm had arisen and quickly spread, supported by the emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741). Rising up in defense of the Orthodox veneration of icons [Iconodoulia], Saint John wrote three treatises entitled, “Against Those who Revile the Holy Icons.” The wise and God-inspired writings of Saint John enraged the emperor. But since the author was not a Byzantine subject, the emperor was unable to lock him up in prison, or to execute him. The emperor then resorted to slander. A forged letter to the emperor was produced, supposedly from John, in which the Damascus official was supposed to have offered his help to Leo in conquering the Syrian capital.
This letter and another hypocritically flattering note were sent to the Saracen Caliph by Leo the Isaurian. The Caliph immediately ordered that Saint John be removed from his post, that his right hand be cut off, and that he be led through the city in chains.
That same evening, they returned the severed hand to Saint John. The saint pressed it to his wrist and prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos to heal him so that he could defend the Orthodox Faith and write once again in praise of the Most Pure Virgin and Her Son. After a time, he fell asleep before the icon of the Mother of God. He heard Her voice telling him that he had been healed, and commanding him to toil unceasingly with his restored hand. Upon awakening, he found that his hand had been attached to his arm once more. Only a small red mark around his wrist remained as a sign of the miracle.
Later, in thanksgiving for being healed, Saint John had a silver model of his hand attached to the icon, which became known as “Of the Three Hands.” Some unlearned painters have given the Mother of God three hands instead of depicting the silver model of Saint John’s hand. The Icon “Of the Three Hands” is commemorated on June 28 and July 12.
When he learned of the miracle, which demonstrated John’s innocence, the Caliph asked his forgiveness and wanted to restore him to his former office, but the saint refused. He gave away his riches to the poor, and went to Jerusalem with his stepbrother and fellow-student, Cosmas. There he entered the monastery of Saint Savva the Sanctified as a simple novice.
It was not easy for him to find a spiritual guide, because all the monks were daunted by his great learning and by his former rank. Only one very experienced Elder, who had the skill to foster the spirit of obedience and humility in a student, would consent to do this. The Elder forbade John to do anything at all according to his own will. He also instructed him to offer to God all his labors and supplications as a perfect sacrifice, and to shed tears which would wash away the sins of his former life.
I Keep Repenting of the Same Sin Over and Over, But I Can’t Get Rid of It. What Should I Do?
By ARCHPRIEST FYODOR BORODIN
Having sinned, a practicing Orthodox Christian, comes to confession and repents. But if you have to confess the same sin again and again, you will involuntarily wonder: what is the purpose of confession? And what should you do in such a situation?
Indeed, when you struggle with your passions, you may get the feeling that confession is not fruitful. In this state, we can understand from our own experience what the Apostle Paul says in the seventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). But here it is important to remember that the Sacrament of Confession is not only an action: “you repent – you get cleansed”, but also a way of healing. Yes, a person can repent of the same sin for years, and only after a while the Lord rewards him for this work with deliverance from this sin.
Actually, sin is both a specific sinful act and a sinful passion. But if we can commit an act once and after making a confession no longer repeat it – for example, a person who is not angry by nature may one day lose his temper, repent and continue to control himself – a situation with a passion is more complicated. Passion is a sinful habit which one has become used to, and it is much more difficult to eradicate it. It is for a reason that the Holy Fathers compare it to the root from which other sins grow. For example, a man has shaved, his cheeks have become smooth, but the hair follicles have remained under his skin, and after a while the stubble grows back. The same thing is with a sin: we repent of it, but the root of evil lives in us, and a new sin grows out of it. And it is treated for years, and sometimes for decades.
So what, in this case, delivers us from sin – God’s help or our efforts?
God helps us in response to our desire, which is evidenced by our work. We are only required to constantly work spiritually, and then healing will surely occur. One of the definitions of God in Scripture is He is the One who grants the prayer of him who prays (see 1 Kings 2: 9). St. John of the Ladder explains it this way: the quantity of prayer paves the way for its quality (“Ladder of Divine Ascent”, Step 28). Yes, we can pray absentmindedly for a long time, get distracted, but if we continue to work, sooner or later our prayer will turn from dry and lifeless into fervent and sincere, with tears and a touch of God’s grace.
It’s the same with repentance. If you do not give up, and regularly go to confession, and repent – even of the same sins – sooner or later you will receive the help of the Lord.
Let me give you an example: one of our parishioners, who was used to following the rules of the Church from her childhood, after she got married, she continued to observe fasts, read morning and evening prayers and it was not difficult for her. But then she got pregnant, and it turned out that during Lent she simply physically could not live without meat and dairy products – by the way, pregnant women do not have to fast strictly according to the Church rules – and during confession she repented with tears that only then she realized that fasting meant only bodily abstinence for her for all the previous years, and she could bring nothing more to God in the days of fasting. And this revelation was granted to her for the work that she had carried out in all previous years, fulfilling the church rules, regularly confessing and partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. This is how the Lord opened her spiritual sight so that she could continue to grow spiritually.
Any spiritual work – asceticism, fasting, or regular confession – will definitely be rewarded by God. Therefore, when it seems that your spiritual life has reached a dead end, the best thing I can advise here is do not think that your struggle is meaningless, but continue your spiritual work and ask God for help, no matter what.
But if you cannot overcome passion for a long time, you can become disappointed in the healing power of confession, fall into despondency or even despair…
What are despondency and despair? They are the flip side of pride. A humble person is never discouraged at all, no matter what happens to him. And if you begin to fall into self-criticism and think of yourself as a worthless Christian, because you cannot cope with sin, this is a signal that pride lives in your heart.
Achieving humility is generally one of the most important criteria for a successful spiritual path. There are situations when the very fulfillment of the commandments becomes food for pride, although we do not even notice it. Then the Lord can deprive us of His help in our struggle with passions, so that we would realize our weakness and humble ourselves. It is more important for God if we become humble, than ascetics. The Venerable Mark, who, by the way, is called the Ascetic, said the following words: “God gives grace to man not for his virtues and not for the work he did for the sake of acquiring them, but for the humility he received during this work.”
When I was a seminary student, I ended up in the cell of a monk during Great Lent. The monastery’s brothers came to him, took out milk chocolate sweets and began to eat them. And to my perplexed look, they answered that it was their confessor who advised them to commit this sin once during Lent so that no one could boast later and say “I’ve done everything”.
It may, of course, seem that Christ wants us to feel weak, trampled and unworthy and deprives us of His help. And this feeling can in no way be combined with the Gospel’s call to rejoice. But the fact is that without humility, joy will not be real. Acquiring humility is a prerequisite for experiencing true, spiritual joy.
But even the Apostle Paul was desperate because he did evil which he did not want…
The despair of the Apostle Paul is not disappointment in the healing power of a sacrament, but disappointment in himself. Yes, in order to succeed spiritually, a person must despair of being able to overcome sin and be saved on his own, without God. But it’s not the despair that makes you give up, it’s just spiritual realism. Awareness of one’s weakness gives rise to hope in God, to an appeal to Him as a personal Savior, which is always accompanied by joy. It would seem that there is a combination of the incompatible: complete disappointment in yourself and joy that the Lord can help you. But this seeming contradiction is the key to spiritual prosperity.
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 12/2: Matins 8:30 am
Tuesday 12/3: no services or events
Wednesday 12/4: no services or events
Thursday 12/5: Matins 8:30 am; Vespers w/Litya for St. Nicholas 6 pm
Friday 12/6: Paraklesis to Theotokos 8:30 am
Saturday 12/7: Catechumen Class 4:30 pm; Choir Rehearsal 5 pm; Great Vespers 6 pm
Sunday 12/8: Divine Liturgy 9:15 am
