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December 27
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Saturday |
New Style
January 9
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| 32nd Week after Pentecost. Saturday after the Nativity. Tone 6. |  Fast-free period.
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Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen (34). 
St. Theodore Graptus (“the Branded”), of Palestine and Bithynia, confessor (840).
St. Theodore, patriarch of Constantinople (686). Uncovering of the relics of St. Therapont, abbot, of Belozersk and Mozhaisk (1514). St. Boniface, founder of the St. Panteleimon Monastery (Kiev) (1871). St. Barlaam, metropolitan of Tobolsk and all Siberia (1802).
New Hieromartyrs Tikhon (Nikanorov), archbishop of Voronezh, and with him 160 martyred priests (1919).
St. Maximus, bishop of Alexandria (282). St. Luke, monk, of Tryglia. Martyrs Maurice and his son Photinus, with 70 soldiers, of Apamea (286-305) (Gr. Cal).
Repose of Nicholas Ilminsky, missionary to the Tatars (1891), Archimandrite Agathangelus of Svir and Valaam (1909), Helen Ivanovna Motovilova (1910), Abbot Athanasius of Grigoriou, Mt. Athos (1953), and Archimandrite Seraphim (Rozenberg) of Pskov Caves Monastery (1993).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Saturday. [Col. 1:3-6; Luke 16:10-15]
Ye cannot serve God and mammon. A divided thought and divided heart make a person unfit for anything; for A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). He either does nothing, or does and redoes; that is, he builds with one hand and destroys with the other. The source of a truly God-pleasing life is a firm resolution to please God in all things. This resolution directs all of a person’s thoughts, desires and feelings toward one thing, and thus uniting his inward [powers], it makes him strong to do deeds, bringing unity into all of his activities and imparting to them a single character. Such deeds are successful and fruitful, because they are full of true life. Where do inertia, immobility and fruitlessness of deeds come from? From inner lifelessness; and inner lifelessness comes from inner division. One single goal is not acknowledged or established as a law of life—deeds are performed haphazardly. Therefore one deed goes in its direction, another goes in another direction, and the edifice of one’s life is never erected. Choose a goal and devote your life to it. The true, main goal is indicated by the God-like nature of man; it is living communication with God. Direct also toward this main goal all personal, scholarly, worldly, civic, commercial, official, and governmental goals. If everyone in society held to this [principle], there would be one general tenor to society, and one spirit would fill everyone.
Saturday. [Col. 1:3-6; Luke 16:10-15]
Ye cannot serve God and mammon. A divided thought and divided heart make a person unfit for anything; for A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). He either does nothing, or does and redoes; that is, he builds with one hand and destroys with the other. The source of a truly God-pleasing life is a firm resolution to please God in all things. This resolution directs all of a person’s thoughts, desires and feelings toward one thing, and thus uniting his inward [powers], it makes him strong to do deeds, bringing unity into all of his activities and imparting to them a single character. Such deeds are successful and fruitful, because they are full of true life. Where do inertia, immobility and fruitlessness of deeds come from? From inner lifelessness; and inner lifelessness comes from inner division. One single goal is not acknowledged or established as a law of life—deeds are performed haphazardly. Therefore one deed goes in its direction, another goes in another direction, and the edifice of one’s life is never erected. Choose a goal and devote your life to it. The true, main goal is indicated by the God-like nature of man; it is living communication with God. Direct also toward this main goal all personal, scholarly, worldly, civic, commercial, official, and governmental goals. If everyone in society held to this [principle], there would be one general tenor to society, and one spirit would fill everyone.