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June 25
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Monday |
New Style
July 8
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4th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 2.
Fast of the Holy Apostles. |
 Monastic rule: xerophagy (bread, uncooked fruits and vegetables).
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Virgin-martyr Febronia of Nisibis (ca. 304). 
Holy Prince Peter and Princess Febronia (tonsured David and Euphrosyne), wonderworkers of Murom (1228).
St. Dalmatus, founder of the Dormition Monastery in Siberia (1697). St. Cyprian, hieromonk of Svyatogorsk Monastery (1874).
New Hiero-confessor Nikon (Belyaev), hieromonk of Optina Monastery (1931).
Virgin-martyrs Libya, Leonis, and Eutropa, of Palermo in Sicily (ca. 305). Martyr Gallicanus the Patrician, in Egypt (362). St. Moluac of Lismore (Scotland) (592). Virgin-martyr Eurosia (Orosia), at Jaca (Spain) (714). St. Adalbert, hierodeacon (Neth.) (740). Sts. Dionysius (ca. 1389) and Dometius (1405-1410) of Dionysiou Monastery, Mt. Athos. New Monk-martyr Procopius of Varna and Mt. Athos, at Smyrna (1810). New Martyr George of Attalia, at Krene in Asia Minor (1823).
Repose of Metropolitan Theoleptus of Philadelphia (1322) and Hierodeacon Serapion of Glinsk Hermitage (1859).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Monday. [Rom. 9:18-33; Matt. 11:2-15]
The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. The kingdom suffereth violence—that is, it is attained with violence, with labour, force, and difficult spiritual struggles; therefore only those who lead a labor-filled ascetic life attain it. This is how comfort of every sort is renounced along the path to the kingdom. Pleasures of all types distance us from the kingdom; but these days we have concern only for pleasures, sometimes emotional, but more often fleshly: to eat, drink, have fun, make merry and luxuriate in everything. We have said to the kingdom, “I beg you to excuse me,” though there is a feast in the kingdom—a royal feast, one so sumptuous that we could not even conceive of it, because we do not have the taste for it. What there is considered sweet, to us is bitter; what there is pleasant, for us is repulsive, what there gladdens, for us is a burden—we have gone totally separate ways. And the kingdom, together with the violent who take it by force, withdraws from us. We are glad, even ready to drive them away more quickly, indeed we already have started talking about it; but the evil one does not manage to arrange this.
Articles
 Virginmartyr Febronia of Nisibis |
St Peter, Tonsured David, the Wonderworker of Murom |
St Febronia, Tonsured Euphrosyne, the Wonderworker of Murom |
Venerable Nikon of Optina |
