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| Old Style
June 9
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Monday |
New Style
June 22
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4th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 2.
Fast of the Holy Apostles. |
 Fish, wine and oil allowed.
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St. Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria (444). 
St. Cyril, founder of White Lake (Belozersk) Monastery (1427).
Nun-martyrs Thecla, Mariamne, Martha, Mary, and Enmatha, in Persia (346). St. Alexander, founder of the Kushta Monastery (Vologda) (1439). Righteous Cyril of Velsk, or Vazhe (Vologda) (15th c.).
St. Alexis Mechev, archpriest, of Moscow (1923). St. Raphael, monk of Old Agapia Monastery (Moldavia) (2005).
Hieromartyr Alexander, bishop of Prusa. St. Columba of Iona (597). St. Baithene, abbot, of Tiree and Iona (600). St. John of Shavta, bishop of Gaenat (12th c.-13th c.).
Repose of Hieromonk Vitaly of Valaam (1856).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Monday. [Rom. 9:18-33; Matt. 11:2-15]
The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. The kingdom suffereth violence—that is, it is attained with violence, with labour, force, and difficult spiritual struggles; therefore only those who lead a labor-filled ascetic life attain it. This is how comfort of every sort is renounced along the path to the kingdom. Pleasures of all types distance us from the kingdom; but these days we have concern only for pleasures, sometimes emotional, but more often fleshly: to eat, drink, have fun, make merry and luxuriate in everything. We have said to the kingdom, “I beg you to excuse me,” though there is a feast in the kingdom—a royal feast, one so sumptuous that we could not even conceive of it, because we do not have the taste for it. What there is considered sweet, to us is bitter; what there is pleasant, for us is repulsive, what there gladdens, for us is a burden—we have gone totally separate ways. And the kingdom, together with the violent who take it by force, withdraws from us. We are glad, even ready to drive them away more quickly, indeed we already have started talking about it; but the evil one does not manage to arrange this.