Wisdom and Discernment

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One day Father Pishoy Kamel called the head servants for the Friday general prayer meeting. This prayer meeting was to pray together for all the services in St. Georges Church and he asked them, "What happened last Friday?"

The servant answered, "We noticed after the prayer meeting that oil was coming down from the icon of the crucifixion in the main altar."

So Father Pishoy said to him, "I want you to put a servant in front of every icon in the church and his job is to watch that icon from a short distance, and you will find a person coming pouring oil on the icon. Catch him and make it known to everyone in the church so that they now this is the work of the devil no other."

It happened when the servants were half way through the prayer meeting the following Friday that one of the servants charged with watching the icons spotted a person acting suspiciously before one of the icons. He then saw the person take oil from his pocket and spreading it on the icon of St. George. The servant raised his voice and caught the person and made it known to all those praying in the church.

It was important to expose these false signs lest the servants be caught up in vain glory or personal glorification in their services when there was much work yet to be done. But maybe the real question is how did Father Pishoy know?