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August 3
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Friday |
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August 16
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9th Week after Pentecost.
Tone 7.
Успенский пост. |
 Monastic rule: xerophagy (bread, uncooked fruits and vegetables).
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Sts. Isaac (383), and Dalmatus and Faustus (5th c.), ascetics of the Dalmatian Monastery, Constantinople. 
St. Anthony the Roman, abbot (Novgorod) (1147).
Protomartyr Rajden of Tsromi and Nikozi, Georgia (457). St. Cosmas, eunuch and hermit, of Palestine (6th c.).
Holy Myrrh-bearer Salome (1st c.). St. John, confessor and abbot, of Patalaria Monastery (8th-9th c.). St. Theoclita the Wonderworker, of Optimaton (ca. 842). Nine Kherkheulidze brothers, their mother and sister, and 9,000 others, who suffered on the field of Marabda, Georgia (1625).
Repose of Hieroschemamonk Ignatius of Harbin (1958).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Friday. [I Cor. 14:26-40; Matt. 21:12-14, 17-20]
My House shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Everyone knows that a church calls for reverence, for a collecting of thoughts, for deep thinking about God, and for standing in the presence of God, but who fulfils this? People go to church with a desire to pray, to stand in it for a while with warm fervour; but then thoughts begin to wander, and bargaining begins in one’s head even louder than that which the Lord found in the Jerusalem temple. Why is this so? Because the way one stands in church is a reflection of one’s entire life. As people live, so do they behave in church. A church influences and somewhat supports spiritual movements; but then the usual course of one’s spiritual constitution takes over. Therefore if you want your time in church to consist of worthily standing in the face of the Lord, prepare for this in your ordinary life; walk, as much as you can, in a prayerful frame of mind. This labour will bring you to the point that in church also you will stand reverently all the time. This reverence will inspire you to be reverent in your ordinary life as well. Thus you will walk ever higher and higher. Say, “O Lord, help” —and begin!
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