By Abbot Tryphon, October 10, 2019
If you are to win the battle, focus only on your own sins
When we take our eyes off our own sins we focus only on the sins of the other. As we allow their sins get our attention, we fail to struggle with the passions that keep us from the wholeness that God intended, and we move ever closer to the abyss of our own fall. Ignoring our own sickness, we allow the doors of the fortress that guards our own heart, to be breached.
If we are to take ourselves out of the mire of sin and be made whole, our eyes must never look to the sins of others, “For a person cannot be disquieted or concerned about other people’s affairs if he is satisfied with concentrating on the work of his own hands (Saint John Cassian).”
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
~Abbot Tryphon, The Morning Offering, https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/morningoffering/2019/10/focusing-on-ones-own-sins/
By Abbot Tryphon, October 18, 2019
Without the corporate life of the Church our sins keep us captive
It is next to impossible to live as a Christian without the Church. Although immersing ourselves in the assigned daily scripture readings according to the Ecclesiastical Calendar, and keeping a Prayer Rule, are important foundations for a life in Christ for any Christian, these practices are ultimately incomplete without the mystical and sacramental life that is found within the Church.
In order to grow in the faith, we must take full advantage of the Mysteries that are found only within the Church. Without the Mystery of Penance and the absolution of the Church, we have no hope of transformation and holiness, for it is the corporate life of the Church, that keeps us from being held captive to sin. And, without the Mystery of the Eucharist, where we receive Christ’s Body and Blood, the healing of the soul remains undone, and salvation is next to impossible.
Since the center of the Church’s Eucharistic liturgy is to be found in the descent, the appearance, and the Divine Presence of the resurrected Christ, we would be fools to deprive ourselves of participation in the Divine Liturgy. As Orthodox believers, the partaking of Communion is actually that moment when we are encountering the living person of the Lord who enters the congregation as “King of the universe borne invisibly over their spears by the angelic hosts.” Thus, the participation in this Mystical Service is so central to the life of a Christian, as to make it the necessary component to being a Christian.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
~Abbot Tryphon, The Morning Offering, https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/morningoffering/2019/10/the-corporate-life-of-the-church/
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