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| Old Style
March 10
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Wednesday |
New Style
March 23
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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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Martyr Codratus (Quadratus) and with him Martyrs Cyprian, Dionysius, Anectus, Paul, Crescens, and Dionysius (another), at Corinth (258).
Martyrs Codratus, Saturninus, and Rufinus, of Nicomedia (3rd c.). St. Anastasia the Patrician, of Alexandria (567-568). St. Paul of Taganrog (1879). St. Alexander (Badanin), priest, of Vologda (1913).
Martyrs Victorinus, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudius, Diodorus, Serapion, Papias, and others, at Corinth (251 or 258). St. Attalus, abbot, of Bobbio (626). St. George Arselaites, brother of St. John Climacus (650 or 651). St. John of Khakhuli, Georgia, called Chrysostom (10th c.-11th c.). New Martyr Michael of Agrapha, at Thessalonica (1544).
Commemoration of the desert-dwellers of the Roslavl Forests, near Bryansk.
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Wednesday.
When Moses and Aaron began to intercede before Pharaoh to let their people go, the answer to this was increased work for oppressed Israelites, to the point that they raised an outcry against their intercessors: ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh (Ex. 5:21). This is exactly what the soul of a repentant sinner experiences. When the fear of God and one’s conscience—the inner Moses and Aaron—begin to inspire a soul to finally rise up onto its feet and shake off the yoke of sinful slavery, joy passes through all of its members. But the enemy does not sleep; he heaps mountains of mental obstacles—thoughts that sin is insurmountable, and brings in fear from all sides—fear for one’s prosperity, for external relationships, for one’s influence, even for one’s life. It even happens that one stops having only just begun. Be inspired brother! The Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness (Is. 5:16). God is stronger than the enemy. Cry out to Him, and you will hear the same thing that Moses heard then: Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh (Ex. 6:1).
The enemy does not have power over a soul; he only can frighten it with illusory terrors. Do not give in, endure, go forward courageously, saying to yourself: I will not give in even unto death, and I will go bravely wherever the Lord calls me, with the spirit of repentance which now acts in me.