A Spiritual Advice for the Beginning of the New Year
“Have you not heard Paul saying, “You keep days and months and seasons and years; I fear lest I have laboured in vain for you”? Otherwise it is of the most extreme folly that from one day, if it be fortunate, to expect this from the whole year; but it is not of folly alone, rather this is the judgment of diabolical activity, not to entrust the things of our life to our own haste and eagerness, but to cycles of the days.
On Going to Church
Faith in God and participation in the Divine Liturgy, especially in the Eucharistic Assembly, constitute two inseparable realities for every lively member of the Church. The true Christian cannot live without the Divine Liturgy. The Upper Rooms of the Mystical Supper and Pentecost, whose continuation are the parish churches, constitute the places of the presence of God and of the distribution of the divine charismas par excellence.
The Feast of Saint John Chrysostom at the Ecumenical Patriarchate
On Wednesday, November 13, 2013, His All-Holiness celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in commemoration and celebration of his saintly predecessor on the Archdiocesan Throne of Constantinople. In accordance with tradition, the relics and icon of St. John Chrysostom were placed before the patriarchal throne to symbolize the saint presiding over the service. The sacred relics of St. John were returned to the Phanar from Rome in 2004.
Charitable Works Abolish Death!
Do you see the power of the apostle, or rather of the Lord who acted through him? Do you see what a reward she received- even in this life- for her good works? Because tell me, what did she give to the widows that was as great a thing as they gave her? She gave them food and clothing, but they brought her back to life and helped her to be released from death. Or rather, not them, but our merciful Lord, because of the services she had rendered them.
Saint John Chrysostom: Second Instruction to Catechumens
I have come to ask first of all for some fruit in return for the words lately said out of brotherly love to you. For we do not speak in order that you should hear simply, but in order that you should remember what has been said, and may afford us evidence of this, by your works. Yea, rather, not us, but, God, who knows the secrets of the heart. On this account indeed instruction is so called, in order that even when we are absent, our discourse may instruct your hearts. And be not surprised if, after an interval of ten days only, we have come asking for fruit from the seed sown. For in one day it is possible at once to let the seed fall, and to accomplish the harvest.
About Blasphemy by Saint John Chrysostom
There is nothing worse than blasphemy! No sin can be compared with it. Nothing else enrages God so much, as for His name to be blasphemed. For this no one should either be negligent and be swayed himself, but neither should he be indifferent, if he hears his friend or his enemy blaspheming. This sin increases all the evils, disturbs and confuses our whole life and in the end prepares for us unending hell and unbearable punishment.
Saint John Chrysostom on the Sunday of the Blind Man
And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. Being full of love for man, and caring for our salvation, and desiring to stop the mouths of the foolish, He omits nothing of His own part, though there be none to give heed. And the Prophet knowing this says, That You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You are judged. Wherefore here, when they would not receive His sublime sayings, but said that He had a devil, and attempted to kill Him, He went forth from the Temple, and healed the blind, mitigating their rage by His absence, and by working the miracle softening their hardness and cruelty, and establishing His assertions.
The Translation of the Relics of Saint John Chrysostom
The memory of this illuminary of the Church is celebrated on November 13 and January 30 but, on this date, the Church celebrates the translation of his honorable relics from the Armenian village of Comana, where he died in exile, to Constantinople, where earlier he had governed the Church. Thirty years after his death, Patriarch […]
Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople
Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, one of the Three Hierarchs [January 30], was born at Antioch in about the year 347 into the family of a military commander. His father, Secundus, died soon after the birth of his son. His mother, Anthusa, widowed at twenty years of age, did not seek to remarry but […]
Letters of Saint John Chrysostom to Olympias
Letters to Olympias. 1. To my lady. The most reverend and divinely favored deaconess Olympias, I John, Bishop, send greeting in the Lord. 1. Come now let me relieve the wound of thy despondency, and disperse the thoughts which gather this cloud of care around thee. For what is it which upsets thy mind, and […]
