{"id":7149,"date":"2021-07-18T11:14:04","date_gmt":"2021-07-18T01:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7149"},"modified":"2021-07-18T11:14:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-18T01:14:06","slug":"climbing-the-tower-of-virtue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/climbing-the-tower-of-virtue\/","title":{"rendered":"Climbing the Tower of Virtue"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Climbing the Tower of Virtue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Yacoub Magdy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Psalm 119:1-2, Matthew 18:1-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Church Fathers arranged the readings so that every Sunday Gospel is directed towards Jesus. The Gospel points to the Saint of the day for every other day of the week. The attached Psalm generally points to a specific verse of the Gospel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!<\/em><\/p>Psalm 119:1-2<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When we consider this verse with the topic of the Gospel, we see the disciples discussing who is the greatest among them. The culture of Jews stated that when they sat together, they would sit in order of importance. The one on the far left would be the least important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disciples thought they could take this custom and apply\nit to the Kingdom of Heaven. If this is how they would sit of earth, would they\nsit in the same way in heaven? Our Lord did not like this question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtue can be compared to the height of a tower. We look the\nheights of the tower and the greatest of virtue that we wish to attain.\nSometimes we forget the foundation of this tower. Christ\u2019s answer to the\ndisciples alludes to the foundation of virtue, upon which, nothing else can\nprosper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.<\/em><\/p>Matthew 18:2-4.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Be like children. The foundation of all virtue is found in\nhumbling ourselves as children. If you cannot be like a child, then there is no\nfoundation for virtues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the complete opposite of what the world teaches us. The\nfoundations that are built upon in the world are glory, knowledge and\nintelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord wants us to begin building by first being as\nchildren. How can we do this? Children accept anything that is put before them.\nChildren sit and when they are asked to move, they do not receive this with\ninsult, but do as they are told in obedience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I prefer to have little knowledge and moderate intelligence and have the innocence of a child, than to have great intelligence and great knowledge so that I feel that I may above others.<\/em><\/p>Thomas A. Kempis.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What is the foundation for a holy life? Every time I catch\nmyself with a desire to show off my knowledge or status, then I remember that this\nis the opposite of what our Lord teaches us. We do not ask for great talents\nfrom the Holy Spirit but the fruit of virtue that will bring us closer to\nChrist. Above all is the simplicity of children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my ordination, there were another three priests from\nAustralia with me. HH Pope Shenouda III thought it would be good for us to see\nthe monasteries. Some of those ordained with me had been born and raised in Australia\nand had not seen much of Egypt before. They did not know the culture of\nmonastic life. Pope Shenouda prepared six months of travel around the Egyptian\nmonasteries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr Fanous was one of the monks that was visited during this\ntime. They expected much wisdom and teaching that they would learn from him.\nThey took pens and papers and were prepared to hear from him. Instead, they\nspent a few hours with him, laughing and playing games. At the end of this, he\nsaid that he was busy and had to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spiritual life is for the simple. Spiritual life does\nnot need to complicated. It does not need great displays of intelligence. Simply,\nthe joy and innocence of children is key to the heart of our Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climbing the Tower of Virtue Adapted from a sermon by Fr Yacoub Magdy Psalm 119:1-2, Matthew 18:1-9 The Church Fathers arranged the readings so that every Sunday Gospel is directed towards Jesus. The Gospel points to the Saint of the day for every other day of the week. The attached Psalm generally points to a … Continue reading “Climbing the Tower of Virtue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7151,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149\/revisions\/7151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}