ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar 2016
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Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. Tone 5.
Fast-free period.

Совершается служба на шестьGreat-martyr Theodore Stratelates (“the General”) of Heraclea (319). Совершается служба на шестьProphet Zachariah (ca. 520 b.c.).

St. Sava II, archbishop of Serbia (1269). Sts. John and Basil, of the Kiev Caves. St. Lyubov of Ryazan, fool-for-Christ (1921).

Martyr Conitus of Alexandria (249). St. Agathangelus, bishop of Damascus (ca. 325). St. Macarius, bishop of Paphos on Cyprus (Gr. Cal).

Repose of Schema-abbot Theodore of Valaam (1937).

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

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (33rd). [II Tim. 3:10–15; Luke 18:10–14]

Yesterday the Gospel reading taught us persistence in prayer, and now it teaches humility, or a feeling of having no right to be heard. Do not assume that you have the right to be heard, but approach prayer as one unworthy of any attention, allowing yourself only the boldness needed to open your mouth and raise up your prayer to God, knowing the Lord’s boundless condescension toward us poor ones. Do not even allow the thought to come to your mind, “I did such and such—so give me such and such.” Consider whatever you might have done as your obligation. If you had not done it you would have been subject to punishment, and what you did is actually nothing deserving reward; you did not do anything special. That Pharisee enumerated his rights to be heard, and left the church with nothing. The harm is not that he had actually done as he said, for indeed he should have done it. The harm is that he presented it as something special; whereas, having done it he should have thought no more of it. Deliver us, O Lord, from this sin of the Pharisee! One rarely speaks as the Pharisee in words, but in the feelings of the heart, one is rarely unlike him. For why is it that people pray badly? It is because they feel as though they are just fine in the sight of God, even without praying.

Articles

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. On Prayer and Repentance

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Why didn't the publican choose some majestic and moving psalm by which to pour out his heart before God, but instead had recourse to such a brief prayer? Why did he repeat only it during the entire service?

Cyril of Alexandria: On the Publican and Pharisee

St. Cyril of Alexandria

For what profit is there in fasting twice in the week, if your so doing serve only as a pretext for ignorance and vanity, and make you supercilious and haughty, and selfish? You tithe your possessions, and make a boast thereof: but you in another way provoke God's anger, by condemning men generally on this account, and accusing others; and you are yourself puffed up, though not crowned by the divine decree for righteousness, but heap, on the contrary, praises upon yourself.

Sermon: Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee

Fr. Milan Medakovic

The simple message in this parable is about our attitude toward God. What is the manner in which we conduct our lives? We see how each of these men conducts his life through his prayer. We are taught how to pray through this parable.

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

Archpriest Andrew Phillips

Firstly, let us be clear as to whom this Gospel concerns. The word “publican” does not have the modern meaning of someone who keeps a pub: in older English it simply means a tax collector. As we recall from last Sunday's Gospel concerning another tax collector, Zacchaeus, tax-collectors among the Jews were the lowest of the low, thieves, corrupt to the core.
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