'Daily Bread'
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
“If the poison of pride is swelling up in you, turn to the Eucharist; and that Bread, Which is your God humbling and disguising Himself, will teach you humility. If the fever of selfish greed rages in you, feed on this Bread; and you will learn generosity. If the cold wind of coveting withers you, hasten to the Bread of Angels; and charity will come to blossom in your heart. If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. If you are lazy and sluggish about spiritual things, strengthen yourself with this heavenly Food; and you will grow fervent. Lastly, if you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste.”
+ St. Cyril of Alexandria
Daily Scripture Readings
Philippians 1:12-20 (Epistle)
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;
14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill:
16 The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains;
17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
Luke 11:42-46 (Gospel)
42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”
45 Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.”
46 And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
Venerable Dragutin (Theoctistus in Monasticism) of Serbia
Saint Dragutin was the brother of Saint Stephen Milutin, the son of King Stephen Urosh I, and the grandson of First-Crowned King Saint Stephen (September 24). Dragutin, a true Christian, after a short reign, abdicated in favor of his brother Stephen. He withdrew to Srem, secretly living as an ascetic in a grave which he dug with his own hands. During his righteous life, Saint Dragutin toiled much over converting the Bogomil heretics to the true Faith. He surrendered his soul to God on March 2, 1316.
The Freedom to Choose How We See Life
Janet Hourihan Brooks is an amazing woman. She is the mother of one of my son’s best friends. She has suffered through aggressive metastatic pancreatic cancer for the past six years. Yet she is one of the most positive people I know, staying quite active in life through her kids’ sports, her ongoing coaching of town teams, through running 10k and other races, and staying so engaged in life that it’s hard to think of her as suffering. Yet, it surely isn’t easy for her. She’s in constant excruciating pain. Her medical prognosis isn’t positive as the cancer continues to spread. Despite any negative prognosis, she chooses to face life with hope. She reminds me of others in our church family who have struggled with cancer yet have remained so positive, people like Lorna and Engert and George and Stacy.
This week, Janet posted on facebook an update of her condition. Having just celebrated her birthday, she wrote: “I’m 58 years young and need a theme for this year.” She went on to talk about hearing a story about Viktor Frankl 30 years ago, and never forgot the message she got. A motivational speaker talked about what Frankl and his life in a Nazi concentration camp:
“Frankl was a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp where he endured, among other things, weekly medical “experiments.” You might remember hearing about Nazi doctors did things like injecting blue dye into the brown eyes of a person to see if you could change their eye color. You can’t but it can blind a person which then earned the poor victim a trip to the gas chambers since they were now disabled. In Victor’s case he was a test “dummy” to see how much electric shock a body could handle before it would go into cardiac arrest. Before the war, Frankl was a 30 something-ish psychologist and professor at the university of Vienna. He came from a highly educated, privileged Jewish family. One day Frankl returned to the barracks after a miserable session and started thinking about what had become of his life. This once happy, vibrant man who loved teaching young people and helping his patients with their problems in his private practice was gone. He had become a shell of himself and didn’t like it.
He started thinking about how the Nazis had taken away almost all of his freedom. Yet, he realized that there was one freedom his Nazi captors could not take away – and that was his ability to choose his response to his circumstances. He could continue to wallow in self-pity and eventually die or he could choose a different response. As he thought more about his new freedom, he immediately felt better and started to exercise his freedom. He began reaching out to others who struggled with their situation and encouraged them to use their freedom and choose to respond without hatred and self-pity He became a beacon of hope to those around him and he gained strength as he realizes he was returning to his old self. As he endured torture treatments, he would use his imagination to project himself far away and pretend he was back at the university lecturing his students about how much the human body can endure. That helped him get through the torture. Eventually WWII ended and allies liberated their camp. Frankl returned to Austria to out his life back together. He used the lessons learned in the camp as his guide with his patients. You could sum up his philosophy as this: Often we cannot determine what happens to us. Yet we can choose how we respond to all the unexpected and unfortunate situations that confront us.”
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 10/28: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday 10/29: no services or events
Wednesday 10/30: no services or events
Thursday 10/231: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Friday 11/1: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Saturday 11/2: Catechumen class 4:30; Great Vespers 6 pm
Sunday 11/28: Divine Liturgy 9: 15 a.m.
