Mar 26, 2023
St Paul Naples Podcast
March 26, 2023
The Ladder of Divine Ascent or The Sunday of St. John Climacus
Saint Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church, Naples FI
Fr Paul Gigis, Parish Priest
https://stpaulnaples.orq
Today's reading is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
9:17-31
At that time, a man came to Jesus kneeling and saying: "Teacher, I
brought my son to
you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes
him down; and he
foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your
disciples to cast it out,
and they were not able." And he answered them, "O faithless
generation, how long am I
to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me."
And they brought
the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it
convulsed the boy, and he
fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And
Jesus asked his father,
"How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. And it
has often cast him
into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do
anything, have pity on
us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are
possible to him who
believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,
"I believe; help my
unbelief!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together,
he rebuked the
unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command
you, come out of
him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and
convulsing him terribly, it
came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said,
"He is dead." But
Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And
when he had entered
the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not
cast it out?" And he
said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but
prayer and fasting." They
went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not
have any one know
it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of
man will be delivered
into the hands of men, and they will kill him