Martyr Julian of Tarsus in Cilicia (ca. 284-305). Uncovering of the relics of St. Maximus the Greek, of Russia (1996).
Hieromartyr Tertius (Terence) apostle of the Seventy, bishop of Iconium (1st c.). St. Julius, priest, of Novara, and his brother St. Julian, deacon (5th c.). Martyrs Archil II (744) and Luarsab II (1622), kings of Georgia. Martyr Theodore, right-believing prince of Starodub (1330).
New Hieroconfessor George (Lavrov), archimandrite, of Kaluga (1932). New Hieromartyr Nicholas Rozanov, archpriest, of Zvenigorod (1938). New Hieromartyr Jonah (Sankov), hieromonk, of Alpatievo (Moscow) (1938).
St. Cormac of the Sea, abbot, of Durrow Monastery (Ireland) (ca. 590). St. Raoul (Rudolph or Ralph), abbot, and archbishop of Bourges (Gaul) (866). Martyr Aphrodisius in Cilicia. New Martyr Nicetas of Nisyros, near Rhodes, at Chios (1732). Martyr Julian and his wife Basilissa, and with them Martyrs Celsius, his mother Marcianilla, Anastasius, the priest Anthony, seven brothers, and twenty prison guards, of Antinoe in Egypt (283- 305).
Repose of Schemamonk John “the Muscovite,” of Valaam (1933).
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.