You're listening to the I Pray with the Gospel Sunday Reflection on the St. Jose Maria Institute podcast.

In the name of the Father and of the, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

Ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father, and Lord.

My guardian angel, intercede for me.

The 30th Sunday in ordinary time.

A reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18.

Two men went up into the temple to pray.

One, a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I am not like the other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax

collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast saying,

God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to the house justified, rather than the

other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Poor man!

This is what we mean by the expression,

Holier than thou.

This Pharisee, haughty and proud, self-sufficient,

and self-satisfied, was presenting before God his decorations, his many merits. How ridiculous.

He seems to think that God, like a teacher, is satisfied if you do your homework. He seems to think that he could buy heaven with his works. It seems that he was convinced that he deserved heaven. Pride, conceit,

contempt, critical thoughts, but especially lack of love for God and others are sins. He was a sinner,

...