God asks three things of every baptized person:

 God asks three things of every baptized person:

From the soul, true faith;

 From the tongue, truth;

And from the body, moderation.

Saint Gregory   the Theologian

That is why we should be grateful to the Lord and thank Him.

                    

We should glorify Him and offer Him all the thanks our soul holds.

And this does good, because as Saint Paisios writes:

“the person who gives thanks, who glorifies God and lives in gratitude, drives the devil completely away.”

The devil cannot stand gratitude or doxology.

But when a person starts complaining, what happens?

They bring him closer.

One complaint brings another, one misfortune brings the next, one streak of bad luck follows another—and then try finding a way out.

That is why, my brothers, “we ought to give thanks.”

(Fr. Ananias Kousténis)

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

Luke l8: l0-l4

By His Eminence

Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes

It was very characteristic of our Lord Jesus Christ that in order to teach the Divine Truth, He used examples taken from the daily life of His times. In this way He was able to help those who believed in Him to apply the Divine Truth in their own lives.

In the Parable of today's Gospel, our Lord showed us two different types of men, who both went up to the Temple to pray. He also mentioned a very significant point, their different religious and social class. The first was a Pharisee and the second a Publican.

Now, amongst the Jews of the time, there were different religious parties. The most important of these were the Pharisees, who were strict observer of the Law of Moses; the Sadducees who believed that there is no resurrection; the Ninevees, who were dedicated to God, and the Essenes, who were ascetics.

The Pharasees boasted that they followed the Law of Moses literally. They wore special clothes and could always be easily recognised in a crowd of people. Το use the words of our Lord, "they do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honour at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the marketplace, and being called rabbi by men" (Matt. 23:5-7). They separated themselves from the rest of the people, believing themselves to be the just in the Eyes of God. The Publican on the other hand, belonged to a group who were hated and despised by rich and poor alike.

As we saw in last Sunday's sermon, the Publican’s job was to collect taxes. However they did not stop at collecting the tax that was legally due to the Roman Empire, but imposed heavy surcharges which went into their own pockets, and which were a crushing burden for the people to bear. But they were especially hated and despised not only for their corruption, but for the fact that they collaborated with the Romans.

Whatever we do to our neighbor, we will receive from God.

 

Whatever we do to our neighbor, we will receive from God. 

We will forgive,

He will forgive us,

we will love,

He will love us,

we will be merciful, He will be merciful to us.

We will not judge others,

God will not judge us.

 

What goes around comes around.

What we give,

we will receive.

 

We give a penny and receive kilos of gold from God.

That is why, when we know the way to salvation, salvation is easy.

When God Wills, Even the Devil Serves Him

There once was a poor woman who, no matter what good happened to her, would always look up to the sky and say,

“Glory be to God.”

She felt deeply grateful for everything.

Nearby lived a rich man. Every time he passed in front of the woman’s house, he would hear her say,

“Glory be to God. Thank you, Lord.”

At first he paid no attention, but after a while it began to irritate him.

“How can this woman, so poor, keep thanking God all the time?” he thought.

One day, as he passed by her house again and heard her say “Glory be to God” once more, he became so angry that he said to his servant:

“Go to the grocery store and fill two bags with food.

Take them to that woman, and when she asks who sent them, tell her that the devil sent them.”

And so the servant did.

The next day he went to the grocery store, filled two bags with food, and took them to the woman. He arrived at her house and knocked on the door.

When she came out and saw the two bags full of food, she exclaimed,

“Glory be to God! Thank you, Lord!”

The servant asked her impatiently:

“Don’t you want to know who sent you the food?”

“No, my child, it doesn’t matter,” she replied.

“When God wills it, even the devil serves Him.”

And taking the food, she went inside content and grateful.

The servant was astonished — and of course, so was his master.

“When God wills it, even the devil serves Him.”

The Lord God Almighty lives!