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December 7
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Sunday |
New Style
December 20
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29th Sunday after Pentecost.
Tone 4.
Рождественский пост. |
 Fish, wine and oil allowed.
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St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan (397). 
St. Anthony, founder of Siya Monastery (Novgorod) (1556). 
St. Nilus, monk of Stolobny (1554).
Martyr Athenodorus of Mesopotamia (304). St. Philothea of Turnovo, whose relics are in Arges, Romania (1060) (Рум.). St. John the Faster, of the Kiev Caves (12th c.). St. Paul the Obedient, of Cyprus.
New Hieromartyrs Sergius (Galkovsky), hieromonk, and Andronicus (Barsukov), hierodeacon, of the Nosov Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Tambov) (1917). New Hiero-confessor Ambrose (Polyansky), bishop of Kamenets-Podol (1932). New Hieromartyrs Gurias (Samoylov), hieromonk of Optina Monastery, and Galacteon (Ubranovich-Novikov), hieromonk of Valaam Monastery (1937).
St. Bassa of Jerusalem, abbess (5th c.). St. Gregory the Silent, of Serbia, founder of Grigoriou Monastery, Mt. Athos (1405).
Repose of Abbot Gabriel of Valaam (1910).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Twenty Ninth Sunday After Pentecost. [Col. 3:4-11; Luke 17:12-19]
Ten lepers were healed, but only one came to thank the Lord. Isn’t there generally a similar proportion of people who are grateful after receiving benefactions from the Lord? Who has not received good things; or, rather, what do we have in us, or what ever happens to us that is not good for us? Even so, is everyone grateful to God, and does everyone give thanks for everything? There are even those who permit themselves to ask, “Why did God give us existence? It would be better for us not to exist.” God gave you existence so that you would be in eternal bliss; He gave you existence as a gift, as a gift He has furnished you with every means for attaining eternal bliss. The job depends on you: you need only to labour a bit for this. You say, “But I have only sorrows, poverty, diseases, misfortunes.” Well, these are also some of the ways to attain eternal bliss. Be patient. Your entire life is less than a moment compared with eternity. Even if you had to suffer unceasingly your entire life, against eternity it is nothing; and you still have moments of consolation. Do not look at the present, but at what is prepared for you in the future, and concern yourself with making yourself worthy of that; then you will not notice the sorrows. They will all be swallowed up by unquestioning hope in eternal consolations, and your lips will never cease to utter thanks.