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| Old Style
July 9
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Friday |
New Style
July 22
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5th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 3.
Fast Day. |
 Wine and oil allowed.
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Hieromartyr Pancratius, bishop of Taormina in Sicily (1st c.).
Hieromartyr Cyril, bishop of Gortyna on Crete (ca. 303). Monkmartyrs Patermuthius and Coprius, and Martyr Alexander the Soldier, of Egypt (361-363). Sts. Patermuthius and Coprius, ascetics, of Egypt (5th c.). St. Theodore, bishop of Edessa (9th c.). St. Euthymius the Enlightener of Karelia (1435). Hieromartyr Peter, priest, of Cherevkov (Vologda) (early 17th c.).
Hieromartyrs at Wurzburg: Killian, bishop in East Franconia and Thuringia, and his companions Hieromonk Colman and Hierodeacon Totman (689). St. Everild, abbess, of Northumbria (ca. 700). St. Theodosius, stylite, of Edessa (9th c.). St. Photius, founder of Akapniou Monastery in Thessalonica (10th c.). Sts. Dionysius the Rhetorician (1606) and Metrophanes (17th c.), of Little St. Anne’s Skete, Mt. Athos. New Hieromartyr Methodius, bishop of Lappa on Crete (1793). Uncovering of the relics of St. Gabriel, archimandrite of St. Elias Skete, Mt. Athos (1994).
Repose of Righteous Patermuphy of Valaam and St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra (ca. 1825), Hierodeacon Melchizedek of the Roslavl Forests (1840), and Priest Ilie Lacatusu of Romania (1983).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Friday. [Rom. 16:1-16; Matt. 13:4-9]
The parable about the sower depicts various relationships of souls toward the word of God. In the first group stand those who do not heed the word at all. They hear, but what is heard does not enter into their soul; it lies on its surface, like the seed by the wayside. The word does not fit in them because they have another way of thinking, other principles, other tastes. That is why it soon disappears from memory, is forgotten as if it was not heard at all. The second group is of those who hear the word willingly and receive it quickly, but do not want to bear any labour to fulfil it. Therefore, they delight in the word—especially its promises—until a sacrifice is required. As soon as the necessity arises to sacrifice something for faithfulness to the word, they betray it, renouncing both the word and its promises in order to cater to their attachments. The third group is of those who receive the word and begin to live according to it, but then give themselves over to many cares and sorrows of the world, to earthly concerns, which suppress all the good undertakings which had just formed under the influence of the word of God. The fourth group is of those who receive the word with full faith and resolve to live according to its requirements, with a readiness for all sacrifices and labour, and do not allow their heart to be tied to anything earthly. Sit and decide each of you, to which of these groups you belong.