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August 7
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Thursday |
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August 20
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12th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 2.
Успенский пост. |
 Monastic rule: cooked food, no oil.
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Afterfeast of the Transfiguration. 
Martyr Dometius of Persia and two disciples (363). Uncovering of the relics of St. Metrophanes (Macarius in schema), bishop of Voronezh (1832). St. Anthony, elder, of Optina Monastery (1865).
Martyrs Marinus the Soldier and Asterius the Senator, at Caesarea in Palestine (260). St. Or of the Thebaid (ca. 390). Virgin Potamia of Alexandria (4th c.). St. Theodosius the New, of the Peloponnese, healer (9th c.-10th c.). St. Pimen the Much-ailing, of the Kiev Caves (1110). St. Mercurius of the Near Caves in Kiev, bishop of Smolensk (1239). St. Pimen the Faster, of the Far Caves in Kiev (ca. 1141). Synaxis of the Saints of Valaam Monastery.
New Hieromartyrs Alexander Khotovitsky, protopresbyter, of New York and Moscow, and Athanasius (Yegorov), abbot, of Izmailovo (Moscow) (1937).
Hieromartyr Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem (ca. 213). Martyr Afra of Augsburg (ca. 304). St. Hyperechius of Egypt (4th c.). St. Victricius of Rouen (407-410). St. Nicanor, wonderworker, of Mt. Callistratus (1549). St. Dometius of Philotheou, Mt. Athos (16th c.). St. Theodora of Sihla (Romania) (18th c.). St. Joseph, monk of Kapsa Monastery on Crete (1874). Holy 10,000 Ascetics of the Thebaid (Gr. Cal). St. Sozon of Nicomedia (Gr. Cal). Holy Empresses Irene (803) (Gr. Cal) and Pulcheria (453) (Gr. Cal) of Constantinople.
Repose of Elder Adrian of South Dorotheus Monastery (1853), Schemamonk John the Silent, of Valaam (1894), Elder Callinicus the Hesychast, of Katounakia, Mt. Athos (1930), and Archimandrite Vladimir of Jordanville, New York (1988).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Thursday. [II Cor. 7:1-10; Mark 1:29-35]
In the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. Here is a lesson to get up early and devote the first hours of the day to prayer, in solitude. The soul, renewed with sleep, is fresh, light and capable of penetration, like fresh morning air; therefore it asks on its own to be allowed to go where all of its joy is found, to go before the face of the heavenly Father, to the company of the angels and saints. It is more convenient for the soul to pray at this time instead of later when the cares of the day already are piled upon the soul. The Lord orders everything. You must receive a blessing from Him for work, for needed understanding, and for crucial strengthening. And hurry as early as possible, before anything interferes, to lift yourself in solitude to the Lord in mind and heart, and to confess your needs and intentions to Him, and to beg for His help. Having disposed yourself with prayer and thoughts of God, from the first moments of the day, you will then conduct the whole day in reverence and fear of God, with collected thoughts. From this come discretion, steadiness, and harmony in deeds and mutual relations. This is a reward for the labour which you compel yourself to undertake in your morning solitude. Thus, even for worldly people this makes good sense, and is not something alien to their goals.