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Orthodox Calendar 2018
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Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. Tone 1.
No fast.

Совершается служба на шестьSt. Paul of Thebes, Egypt (341). Совершается служба на шестьSt. John Calabytes (“Hut-dweller”) of Constantinople, monks (5th c.).

Monk-martyr Pansophius of Alexandria (249-251). St. Prochorus, abbot, in the Vranski Desert on the river Pchinja in Bulgaria (10th c.). St. Gabriel, founder of Lesnovo Monastery, Serbia-Bulgaria (11th c.). St. Nectarius, archbishop of Tobolsk (1667).

St. Maximus, bishop of Nola (ca. 250). St. Salome of Udjarma, and St. Perozhavra of Sivnia, Georgia (4th c.). St. Ita of Killeedy, hermitess (570). St. Maurus, disciple of St. Benedict of Nursia (584).

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

Venerable Paul of Thebes

Settling into a mountain cave, Saint Paul dwelt there for ninety-one years, praying incessantly to God both day and night.

Venerable John Calabytes “the Hut-Dweller”

Saint John the Hut-Dweller was the son of rich and illustrious parents, and was born in Constantinople in the early fifth century. He received a fine education, and he mastered rhetoric and philosophy by the age of twelve.

Venerable Pansophius of Alexandria, the Martyr

The Monk Martyr Pansophius, was a son of the Alexandrian proconsul Nilus.

St. Prochorus the Abbot in the Vranski Desert on the river Pshina in Bulgaria

Saint Prochorus of Pshina pursued asceticism in the Bransk wilderness at the River Pshina, and he founded a monastery there.

Venerable Gabriel, Founder of Lesnov Monastery in Bulgaria

Saint Gabriel, founder of the Lesnov monastery near the city of Kratov. Receiving a large inheritance after the death of his parents, he rejected marriage and became a monk on a mountain at Lesnov.

Saints Salome of Ujarma and Perozhavra of Sivnia

Saints Salome of Ujarma and Perozhavra of Sivnia were the helpers and closest companions of Saint Nino, Enlightener of Georgia.

Venerable Ita of Limerick, “Foster-mother of the Irish Saints”

Dmitry Lapa

Saint Ita is the second most popular Irish woman saint after St. Brigid. She is venerated in Ireland by Orthodox and Catholic believers to this day.

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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