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| Old Style
April 8
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Friday |
New Style
April 21
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| Bright Week. Fast-free period. |  No fast.
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Blessing of Water. The Life-giving Spring of the Most Holy Theotokos. 
Holy Apostles of the Seventy: Herodion, Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon, Hermes, and those who suffered with them (1st c.).
Martyr Pausilipus of Thrace (ca. 117-138). St. Celestine, pope of Rome (432). St. Niphont, bishop of Novgorod (1156). St. Rufus the Recluse, of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
New Hieromartyr Sergius Rodakovsky, archpriest, of Tal (Belorussia) (1933).
Spanish Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (792).
Monk-martyrs Josiah and Joseph, of Mt. Kharasam, Persia (ca. 341). St. Philaret of Seminara, Calabria (ca. 1070). New Martyr John (Koulikas) (1564). New Martyr John Naukliros (“the Navigator”), on Kos (1699).
Repose of Helen Voronova, disciple of Elder Barsanuphius of Optina (1916).
Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse
Friday. [Acts 3:1–8; John 2:12–22]
There are certain individuals whom the holy fathers praise for their Christian lives, for they rose from the dead before the general resurrection. What is the secret of such a life? They mastered the characteristic features of a life according to the resurrection as they are shown in the word of God, and made them their own inner properties. The future life is devoid of all that is fleshly: there men neither marry, nor are women given in marriage, there they will not eat dead food, and they will receive a spiritual body. Thus, whoever lives estranged from all fleshly things receives in himself, or returns to himself, elements of the future life according to the resurrection. Reach the point that all fleshly things within you die, and you will be resurrected before the future resurrection. The apostle indicates the path to this when he says: Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). And he attests that through this path it is surely possible to attain what is awaited: he that soweth to the Spirit, he says, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (Gal. 6:8).
Articles
 Apostle Rodion of the SeventySaint Rodion, or Herodion (April 8), was a kinsman of the Apostle Paul (Romans 16:11), and left the bishop’s throne at Patras to go to Rome with the Apostle Peter. |
 Apostle Hermas of the SeventyThe Holy Apostle Hermas was a bishop in Philippopolis, Thrace. |
 Martyr Pausilippus of Heraclea in ThraceThe Holy Martyr Pausilippus suffered under the emperor Hadrian (117-138). |
 St. Celestine the Pope of RomeSaint Celestine, Pope of Rome, a zealous champion of Orthodoxy, lived during the reign of the holy Emperor Theodosius the Younger. |
 Venerable Rufus the Obedient of the Kiev Far CavesSaint Rufus the Obedient, Hermit of the Caves, lived at the Kiev Caves monastery during the fourteenth century. |