ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2016
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Old Style
October 8
Friday
New Style
October 21
18th Week after Pentecost. Tone 8.
Fast Day.
Wine and oil allowed.

Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомSt. Pelagia the Penitent, of the Mount of Olives (457). St. Dositheus, founder of Verkhneostrov (Pskov) (1482). St. Tryphon, archimandrite, of Vyatka (1612). Synaxis of the Saints of Vyatka.

Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Antioch (303). St. Thais (Taisia) of Egypt (4th c.). St. Anthony, archbishop of Novgorod (1232).

New Hieromartyrs Demetrius (Dobroserdov), archbishop of Mozhaisk, Ambrose (Astakhov), archimandrite, of Aksinyino (Moscow), Pachomius (Turkevich), abbot, of Moscow, and John Khrenov, deacon, and with them Monkmartyr Barlaam, Nun-martyr Tatiana, and Martyrs Nicholas, Maria, and Nadezhda (1937). New Hieromartyr Jonah (Lazarev), bishop of Nevel (Pskov) (1937).

New Monk-martyr Ignatius of Bulgaria and Mt. Athos, at Constantinople (1814). Saint Triduana of Scotland (4th c. or 8th c.)

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Theophan the Recluse

Friday. [Phil. 3:8-19; Luke 7:31-35]

   Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? That is, unbelievers. If the Lord poses this question as if in perplexity, is it not even more proper for us to be perplexed by acts of unbelief? One might ask: how can people go against something that is obvious in every respect? And yet they do. The fact that Satan resists is not surprising—such is his name: the enemy of truth and goodness. He clearly sees that God exists, that God will judge him and condemn him, that death for him is already prepared, but is nevertheless defiant, and not for the sake of anything but evil, and consequently, for greater ruin to himself. Are not unbelievers being controlled by this spirit of fighting against God? At least according to the understanding we have about the soul and its operations, unbelief, given the obviousness of the foundations of faith, is as inexplicable as a sinner’s slavery to sin after he has clearly seen that sin is destroying him. And here is another contradiction! Only unbelievers and lovers of the passions deny the existence of Satan and unclean spirits. Those who should have stood up for them most of all totally renounce them. Does not this teaching come from them? Those who are of the darkness love the darkness, they teach people to say that they do not exist, and that moral life takes shape by itself, without their snares and deceit.

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