ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2023
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Сщмч. Феодор Александрийский Преподобный Савва Сторожевский Святой пророк Софония
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Old Style
December 3
Saturday
New Style
December 16
28th Week after Pentecost. Tone 2.
Nativity Fast.
Fish, wine and oil allowed.

Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомProphet Zephaniah (Sophonias) (635-605 b.c.). Совершается служба со славословиемSt. Sabbas, founder of Storozhev Monastery (Zvenigorod), disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh (1407).

St. Theodulus, eparch of Constantinople (440). St. John the Silent, bishop of Colonia and monk of St. Sabbas Monastery (558). Hieromartyr Theodore I, archbishop of Alexandria (609). St. George of Cernica and Caldarusani (1806).

New Hieromartyr Andrew Kosovsky, archpriest, of Feodosia (Crimea) (1920).

St. Birinus, bishop of Dorchester (ca. 649). St. Sola, Anglo-Saxon missionary priest under St. Boniface (Germany) (790-794). New Hieromartyr Gabriel, metropolitan of Ganos and Chora, at Prusa (1659). St. Hilarion (Grigorovich), bishop of Krutitsa (1759). New Monk-martyr Cosmas of St. Anne’s Skete, Mt. Athos (1760). New Martyr Angelus of Chios (1813).

Repose of King Magnus II of Sweden and Valaam (Gregory in schema) (1371) and Archimandrite Theophanes of Novoezersk Monastery (1832).

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

Saturday. [Eph. 1:16-23; Luke 12:32-40]

           Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. We must be ready at every hour—one does not know when the Lord will come, either for the Last Judgment, or to take you from here; they are the same for you. Death decides everything. After it comes the results of your life, you can be content with what you have sought to gain for all of eternity. If you sought what is good, your lot will be good; if you sought what is evil, then your lot will be evil. This is as true as it is true that you exist. All of this could be decided this moment—here at this very moment, as you read these lines, and then—the end to all: a seal will be set to your existence, which nobody can remove. This is something to think about! But one never ceases to be amazed at how little people think about it. What is this mystery wrought over us! We all know that death is around the corner, that it is impossible to escape it, but meanwhile almost nobody thinks about it—and it will come suddenly and seize us. Even then.… Even when a fatal disease seizes a person he still does not think that the end has come. Let psychologists decide this from a scientific aspect; from the moral aspect it is impossible not to see here an incomprehensible self-delusion, alien only to one who is heedful of himself.

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