The Holy Venerable-Martyr Dometius.Post-feast of the Transfiguration.
Dormition Fast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients.
2 Corinthians 4:13-18; Matthew 24:27-33, 42-51.
Read 2 Corinthians 4:13-18
Fergus MacGregor enjoyed paying his business expenses as much as his hens enjoyed watching weasels devouring the chicks. The stress of all the losses consumed him. The cost of the feed, the hired help, the supplies—never-ending. Never mind his constitutional opposition to each quarter leaving his pocket. The burden of the constant loss and expense was worse than the actual physical labor of working on his chicken farm.
That all changed one day when he read about integrated farming and how combining a fish farm with a chicken farm served a dual purpose. If chicken manure could fertilize a fish pond, producing the natural food that helped fish thrive, perhaps all of my own losses could serve a greater good as well, he thought. That day he resolved to view his present losses as investments in future growth. That simple change in perspective transformed not only his business, but his entire outlook on life.
Do we not fall into that same trap in the spiritual life? We witness, or personally endure, grave tragedy. With time, the deepest wound is often no longer the tragedy itself, but the resentment toward God—or the unbelief—we have allowed to take root because we lack the wisdom to see suffering from heaven’s perspective
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Let us avoid becoming like those in this passing age who see only momentary affliction and miss the unseen, eternal realities. May we become Fergus MacGregors who see our losses in this world as short-term expenditures invested for an everlasting harvest in the unending paradise that awaits those who love Jesus Christ.