Lesson #4 in GHF Series: “Where Are You? – 7 Places Where You Meet With God”, From His Holiness Pope Tawadros II at the General Wednesday Meeting
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, delivered his weekly sermon on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, from the Church of St. Virgin Mary and St. Anba Bishoy at the St. Mark Cathedral in Abbassia, Egypt, during which several Church fathers attended.
The sermon was also broadcast across several Christian satellite channels and by Internet on the Church’s Media Center Internet channel, COC, on the World Wide Web. His Holiness Pope Tawadros II continued his contemplations on the Sundays of the Great Holy Fast (GHF), a series based on a question God asked Adam: “Where Are You?”
This sermon corresponds to the fourth Sunday of the GHF whose Gospel Reading comes from the 4th Chapter of the Gospel of our teacher John the evangelist, verses 7-26. The Samaritan Woman met Christ when she came to the well; this was her place of work, and so H.H. the Pope elaborated upon these verses and used the story of the Samaritan Woman to show how we also can encounter Christ at our places of work.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II offered several characteristics of a person who does their work in a way that is pleasing before God, and in this way are able to have an encounter with Christ at/through their work:
1-Doing your work with a good conscience – “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 Jn 3:22), also, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Col 3:23).
2- Going the extra mile and serving others in truth and with brotherly love – “So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind (a heart) to work” (Neh 4:6).
3- Exercising the virtue of patient-endurance – “By your patience possess your souls” (Lk 21:19).
4- When it comes to our work we face many tests, but the most important of them is honesty, faithfulness – “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (Jas 4:17).
His Holiness also indicated that a person’s job is capable of changing them, as we saw happen with the Samaritan Woman:
She became a truthful person and was freed from her troubles
She gained confidence in herself…
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