"All images reveal and make perceptible those things which are hidden. For example, a man does not have immediate knowledge of invisible things, since the soul is veiled by the body. Nor can man have immediate knowledge of things which are distant from each other or separated by place, because he himself is limited by place and time. Therefore the icon was devised that he might advance in knowledge, and that secret things might be revealed and made perceptible. Therefore, icons are a source of profit, help, and salvation for all, since they make things so obviously manifest, enabling us to perceive hidden things. Thus, we are encouraged to desire and imitate what is good and to shun and hate what is evil."
- St. John of Damascus
Romans 7:1-13 (Epistle)
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
Matthew 9:36-10:8 (Gospel)
36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
1 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
4 Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Meeting of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God
The Celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was established to commemorate the deliverance of Moscow from an invasion of Tatars led by Khan Makhmet-Girei in 1521. The Tatar hordes approached Moscow, burning and destroying Russian cities and villages, and exterminating their inhabitants.
Great Prince Basil raised an army against the Tatars, while Metropolitan Barlaam and the people of Moscow prayed fervently for deliverance. At this time a certain pious blind nun had a vision. She saw Moscow’s bishop-saints exiting from the Savior gates of the Kremlin, forsaking the city and taking with them the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, the holiest object in the city of Moscow. This was God’s chastisement for the sins of its inhabitants.
At the Savior gates the holy hierarchs were met by Saints Sergius of Radonezh (Sept. 25) and Barlaam of Khutyn (Nov. 6), tearfully imploring them not to leave Moscow. All of them offered intense prayer to the Lord for the forgivness of their transgressions and the deliverance of Moscow from its enemies. After this prayer the bishop-saints returned to the Kremlin, and they carried back the holy Vladimir Icon.
St Basil the Blessed (August 2) saw a similar vision. It was revealed to him that Moscow would be saved, through the intercession of the Theotokos and the prayers of the saints. The Tatar Khan also had a vision of the Mother of God with a fearsome host, contending against his forces. The Tatars fled in fear, and the capital of the Russian realm was saved.
The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God is also commemorated on June 23 and August 26.
Tribulation As a School of Patience
by Metropolitan Ephrem (Kyriakos)
It says in the epistle reading, “We have been justified by faith” (Romans 5:1).
“Tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
Faith inspires trust, in obedience or submission to the Lord and His teachings, which brings us to resemble him and to take the Lord Jesus as a model for us. Blessed is the believer, for he accepts this tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle Paul says (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:6).
Tribulation comes from persecutions, but it also comes, as we witness today, from difficult material possibilities.
The world today has become accustomed to excessive consumption in everything, but economic circumstances have become difficult, jobs and opportunities for work have become sparse and austerity has become necessary in all areas.
Thus the current tribulation in the family and in society. Blessed is the one who can persevere without losing his faith and his reliance on the Lord. This is what the epistle reading means when it speaks of patience and hope in the love of God that “has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).
This is also because “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
In times of tribulation we feel our weakness in overcoming the present difficulties through our own efforts, which guides us, if we have kept our faith, to rely on God Almighty to bring us out of the present difficulties.
This causes us in the present tribulation not to despair, but rather to experience more the power of God who can bring us out of this difficult situation in order to bestow upon us great hope and glory.
The believer prays and feels in his fervent prayer that he is cast into God’s hands. This is when he falls into the temptation of his tribulations and physical and mental suffering.
Experience will show him that no obstacle that he encounters will cause him to abandon his faith and his struggle. This is because he experiences that his patience in struggle leads him to victory and to greater assurance in preserving his faith and his attachment to the Lord and indeed, to greater joy (and glory) by the power of the Holy Spirit who is in him.
Tribulation, physical, mental and material trials are a school that trains us in patience and it depends on the power of faith in God Himself (cf. Colossians 1:11).
+Ephrem
Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 6/23: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday 6/24: no services or events
Wednesday 6/25: no services or events
Thursday 6/26: Matins 8:30 a.m.; Men’s Group 7 p.m.
Friday 6/27: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Saturday 6/28: Catechumen Class 4:30 p.m.; Memorial Service 5:30 p.m.; Great Vespers 6 p.m.
Sunday 6/29: Hours & Divine Liturgy 9:15 a.m.; Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
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Christ the Savior Orthodox Church is located in Southbury, Connecticut, and is part of the New England Diocese of the Orthodox Church of America.
Mailing address: Christ the Savior Church, 1070 Roxbury Road, Southbury, CT 06488
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Fr. Moses Locke can be reached at frmoseslocke@gmail.com