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March 8
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Monday |
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March 21
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2nd Week of Great Lent.
Tone 1.
Великий пост. |
 Monastic rule: xerophagy (bread, uncooked fruits and vegetables).
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St. Theophylactus, bishop of Nicomedia (842-845),
Apostle Hermas of the Seventy (1st c.). Hieromartyr Theodoretus, priest, of Antioch (361-363). Sts. Lazarus, founder (1391) and Athanasius, monk (15th c.), of Murmansk Monastery (Karelia). St. Andronicus (Lukash), schema-archimandrite of Tbilisi, Georgia, elder of Glinsk Monastery (1974).
“Kursk Root” Icon of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos (1898).
St. Felix of Burgundy, bishop of Dunwich and enlightener of East Anglia (ca. 648). Martyrs Quintilian and Capatolinus, at Nicomedia. St. Paul the Confessor, bishop of Plousias in Bithynia (ca. 840) (Gr. Cal). St. Tarasius the Wonderworker, of Lycaonia (Gr. Cal).
Repose of Blessed Basiliscus of Uglich (1863) and Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko) of Eastern America (1960).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Monday (2nd week of Lent).
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (Prov. 4:23).[1] Having prepared,[2] confessed and taken communion with the holy mysteries, a Christian renews within himself the grace-filled springs which were opened in him through holy Baptism, and which then so many times were obstructed by carelessness and falls, and so many times cleansed by repentance. Now these springs have been cleansed once again after the most recent falls. Let us keep them, at least from this point onward, from renewed obstruction as a result of thoughtlessness, distractedness, and negligence about those actions which maintain the springs’ purity and proper flow of waters. Let us continue fasting, not give liberty to our feelings, not cease fervent prayers and tears, not forget works of love; let seek to hear the word of God, and most of all, to converse with the Lord, Who is within us. Through this conversation we shall uphold the fear of God and zeal to please Him within ourselves, for in this lies the spring of our spiritual life.
[1]The Slavonic for Prov. 4:23 reads: Keep thy heart more than all things kept; for out of it are the springs of life.
[2]“Having prepared…” in Russian, govenie. See footnote for Tuesday of the 1st week of Great Lent.
Friday.
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God (Wisdom 3:1). But in whose hand are the souls of sinners? The Saviour said to the apostles that satan seeks to sift them like wheat, that is, he seeks to knock them from the right path, to take them into his hands and do with them what he wants. That is why everyone turning away from the Lord is in the hands of satan, and he sifts them and casts them wherever he desires. Due to this the heads of sinners are constantly spinning, because the enemy, dragging them here and there, does not give them a chance to come to their senses. As soon as the enemy notices that someone is starting to have second thoughts, he starts to shake him even more strongly, so that his head again becomes clouded and his thoughts become scattered.