Tue Mar 09, 2010
Independence
Thank You to the Delaware State Legislature for the Greek Independence Day Tribute
by
+ Rev. Dr. Gus George Christo, Protopresbyter
Dover, Delaware on March 22, 2007
Esteemed and most honorable ladies and gentlemen of the legislative body of our beloved State of Delaware, it is a high privilege to address you today. I thank you for granting me this opportunity. My thoughts are of deep gratitude and affection for the tribute that you have bestowed upon the Greek Orthodox Community of the State of Delaware in recognition of the March 25th Greek Independence Day celebration.
History has taught us that the road to freedom is not an easy one. The road that our Greek ancestors traveled to achieve their freedom spanned 368 years from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the Declaration for Independence in 1821. It is a tribute to the Hellenic spirit for attaining freedom from the Ottoman yoke. Americans such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison identified with the Greek struggle and assisted the effort toward a democratic government that would guarantee liberty and justice for all its citizens. For, Greece was the birthplace of democratic principles and the legacy of Greek Independence Day boldly testifies to the awesome power of faith and liberty.
But most especially, in the minds of the Hellenic Orthodox people, the glorious event of democracy that ensued from the 25th of March is intricately tied in with the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary which, too, is celebrated on March 25th. The feast commemorates the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virign Mary that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would become incarnate and enter into this world through her. We as Greek Americans and Greeks abroad ultimately owe the re-flourishing of democracy in our hearts and on our ancestral soil to the intercessions of our Lady. She is the driving force behind the strong cooperation and friendship between Greece and America and the successes of Greek Americans that have made these God-crowned United States of America stronger and have placed the arts and sciences on the cutting edge.
Bound by the common values of the United States and Greece: liberty, justice, peace, democracy, friendship, prosperity, security, patriotism, religious freedom, and a strong commitment to family and God, I stand before you today to accept this tribute.
Thank you and may God bless America.
[0] comments (12 views)
Thu Mar 04, 2010
The Relics of the Holy Martyrs
“According to St. John Chrysostom, the beneficial aspects of martyrdom, including the martyrs' continuing and aiding presence in the Church, are felt after the martyrs' death, through their holy relics. These relics become vehicles manifesting God's power and love towards mankind in several ways. In the one instance, they thwart the devil's attack upon Christians and endlessly wound the devil, as they remind him of Christ's saving death and resurrection, which were imitated by the holy martyrs. In another way, they impart great benefits to the Christians who venerate them, and seek the assistance of the martyrs to whom they belong. The benefits imparted include restoration of physical and mental health to the ill and preservation of the healthy; also, human beings are taught about Christ's Gospel, they are led towards virtue (or excellence), and are cleansed from the unclean spirits, which are exorcised; even the dead may be brought back to life. Finally, the relics of the martyrs are used as altars for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, and thus grant great benefits to the faithful throughout Salvation History (i.e., both in the Old and New Testaments), because they are imbued by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.”
[Martyrdom According to John Chrysostom: “To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain”, by the Rev. Dr. Gus G. Christo]
[0] comments (13 views)
Tue Mar 02, 2010
St. John Chrysostom’s Thoughts on Carrying our Cross Nobly
Let us bear all things thankfully, be it poverty, be it disease, be it anything else whatever: for He alone knows the things expedient for us…Are we in poverty? Let us give thanks. Are we in sickness? Let us give thanks. Are we falsely accused? Let us give thanks. When we suffer affliction, let us give thanks…Affliction is a great good. “Narrow is the way,” so that affliction thrusts us into the narrow way. He who is not pressed by affliction cannot enter. For he who afflicts himself in the narrow is he who also enjoys ease, but he that spreads himself out does not enter in and suffers from being, so to say, wedged in. See how Paul enters into this narrow way? He “keeps under” his body so as to be able to enter. Therefore, in all his afflictions, he continued giving thanks to God. Have you lost any property? This has lightened you of most of your wideness. Have you fallen from glory? This is another sort of wideness. Have you been falsely accused? Have the things said against you, of which you are not conscious, been believed [by others?] “Rejoice and leap for joy.” For “blessed are you,” [says the Lord], “when men reproach you and say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in Heaven.”
[0] comments (16 views)
The Placement of the Holy Relics of the Apostle James the Greater (Brother of Apostle John the Evangelist), Apostle Simon the Zealot, Apostle Mathias, Apostle Timothy, and St. George the Great Martyr and Trophy-bearer at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
[The following is taken from "The Consecration of a Greek Orthodox Church According to Eastern Orthodox Tradition, A Detailed Account and Explanation of the Ritual," by Gus George Christo, Texts and Studies in Religion, Volume 109, The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, 2005; pgs. 3-7.]
The Centrality of Relics in the Church
Christianity in its formative years was a persecuted religion. The primary notion of martyrdom, a martyrdom by death and a baptism in one’s own blood, clearly marked that era. The individuals who suffered martyrdom perfectly imitated Christ’s sacrifice and martyrdom upon the cross. There existed a direct connection between the cosmic redemptive and expiatory death of Christ and that of the martyrs. Therefore, it was a common practice during the early Christian centuries to erect Churches over the tombs of the martyrs so the bloodless sacrifice, the Holy Eucharist, could be celebrated and the everlasting Kingdom of God ushered and established sacramentally in time and space by the concrete presence of the very body and blood of the resurrected and glorified Son of God, who sits at the right hand of God the Father.
The holy scriptures are filled with examples of people, places and things that are consecrated to the service of God. For example, it is noteworthy to mention in Acts 5:16 of the healing power in the Apostle Peter’s shadow, and in Acts 19:11-12 of the restorative power of the handkerchiefs and aprons touched by the Apostle Paul. Indeed, Luke 8:40-48 describes an infirmed yet faithful woman who touched the hem of Christ’s garment and was healed. The Apostle and Evangelist John notes in the Book of Revelation (6:9) of his vision where he sees under the altar the souls of the saints who underwent martyrdom for the testimony of the gospel. Scriptural examples account for us how the early Church developed the sacred tradition of: securing holy relics under the altar, placing objects such as garments coming in contact with relics as objects of veneration, and processing with relics. A classic example of the procession of relics appears in the Book of Exodus (13:19) where Joseph’s bones were handled sacredly and became part of a four hundred year procession. Moses had vowed that Joseph’s bones would find their final resting place in the promised land.
The Church officially canonized the universal tradition of consecrating Churches with the holy relics of martyrs at the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in Nicea in 787 A.D. Legislation was drawn up making the consecration of Churches without relics heretical.
According to the theology of relics presented by St. John Chrysostom in his panegyric homilies, God takes the martyrs' souls and gives mankind their relics until the final resurrection of the dead. Hence, relics are treasures that contain innumerable goods for human beings to harvest. They are symbols of Christ's bodily and perfect resurrection from the dead, of the future age and of the unwaning day of the kingdom. They serve as means of transforming corrupt human nature into the image and likeness of Christ.
How does God sanctify saints' relics? The grace and holiness of the Spirit of God moves from the martyrs' souls to their bodies and then to their clothing. From their clothing it spreads to their shoes and, finally, it moves into the very shadows they cast, as evidenced by the shadow of St. Peter that raised a human corpse back to life once it passed over it.
The veneration of relics by the faithful stemmed from the martyrs' imitation of Christ's baptism in death, suffering and sacrifice, and their subsequent emigration into heaven, call to a better and more spiritual life, change from corruptibility to incorruptibility, and spiritual wedding to Christ the Master. Resulting from a martyrdom by death, or a baptism in blood, a martyr became a channel for the power of God and an intercessor between God and human beings. The martyr's holy relics served as the visible and concrete manifestation of all this to the early Church.
Holy relics, adorned with the stigmata of Christ, become vehicles revealing God's power and love toward mankind in several ways. Firstly, they thwart the devil's attack upon Christians and endlessly wound him, as they remind him of Christ's saving death and resurrection that the holy martyrs imitated. Secondly, the relics impart great benefits to the Christians who honor them at special shrines and seek the assistance of the martyrs to whom they belong. The benefits given include: God's compassion and forgiveness of any sin committed, restoration of physical and mental health to the ill and preservation of the healthy, great boldness before God, instruction about Christ's gospel, leadership towards virtue, and cleansing from the unclean spirits that are exorcised. Even the dead may be brought back to life. Thirdly, martyrs' relics function as altars for the celebration of the divine liturgy, and thus grant great benefits to the faithful throughout salvation history, because they are imbued with invisible power, dominion and the grace of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the power of the relics of the glorified saints in heaven is the nobility of the Christians and the crown of the Church. Therefore, unlike material treasures, relics are neither diminished nor dan¬gerous when divided. Since they are spiritual things, they increase in value when they are partitioned and multiply when they are divided. Finally, someone who has venerated a saint's relics is readily recognized by his countenance, form, gait, feeling of piety and devotion, by the collection of his thoughts, and by his humility. The movements of his body and the proclamation of his philosophy distinguish him as someone who paid such homage. Scripture proves this point when it remarks: "A man's attire, grinning laughter and gait show what he is" (Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach 19:30).
The locations where the relics of God's saints have been deposited are solely according to God's providence. God selects the location for the deposition of a saint's relics with the specific purpose of edifying the people with the truth and power of the gospel, which is clearly revealed by the saint's triumph over his executioners. At these locations or shrines God guides the pilgrim to exhibit the same zeal for the faith as the martyr who presently resides in heaven. The pilgrim's acceptance of this guidance gives God the opportunity to prepare a safe har¬bor for him and provide comfort for his misfortunes. The shrines become sites of refreshment and renewal as the pilgrim's con¬sciousness is unburdened and his perspective relating to his sal¬vation is recaptured and secured. The pilgrim then leaves the shrine as an "ensouled" and "spiritual shrine" because the saint and his achievements dwell within his thoughts and heart.
In the final analysis, central to the picture of a saint's martyrdom and holy relics is the life of Christ culminating in His martyrdom upon the cross and vindication through His resurrection. Around that center, we have as primary witnesses to this martyrdom apostles and saints, who not only believed in but actually fol¬lowed after Christ, and especially those who among them shared in His holy martyrdom. It is quite clear from this picture that the early Church understood the gospel culminating in the martyrdom and glorification of Christ in a most literal way, pro¬claiming it not only in word but in example and deed. Faith was not an assent to a set of ideas related to Christ, but a way of life, Christ's life. The model of a believer was the person who fol¬lowed Him to the cross and who became through his own mar¬tyrdom a witness to the glory of His resurrection. There is a crude realism to this picture of faith, particularly when one exam¬ines it in some of its details, most notably the detail connected with the holy relics of the Christian martyrs; but such a crudity indicates in the most indisputable manner that the Christian gospel is concerned with the entire man and not just with his mind or spirit. The dust of history is transformed into a witness that anticipates its renewal, which has already been com¬menced in the resurrection of Christ and in the glorification of His martyrs and saints who partake in it through their death. Martyrdom is integrally linked with Christianity because it is the most effective and decisive way of overcoming the existing powers of darkness, repre¬sented by sin and satan, and the most effective way of re-establishing the Kingdom of God in humanity and in the world at large.
The centrality of relics in the life of the Church is best seen during the time of the Christian Roman Emperors. Whenever the celebration of a martyr’s feast day occurred in the imperial city of Constantinople, the emperor would humble himself in the public’s view by putting off the imperial purple and all insignias of earthly sovereignty, he would dress in simple peasant clothes, enter the imperial Church and venerate the martyr’s relics. And once the emperors reposed, they left orders behind for their earthly remains to be interred next to those of the holy martyrs. It was the custom in Constantinople for the emperors to be buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles that housed the awesome relics of Christendom such as the true cross of Christ, the bones of the Twelve Apostles and of numerous martyrs, and the holy fathers of the Church. For this reason, St. John Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople once wrote:
"In Rome, the emperor, the consuls and the rulers make pilgrimages to the graves of the Fisherman and the Tent-maker. But in Constantinople, those who once wore the diadem are satisfied if they are buried, not even near the Apostles, but outside in the forecourt. So the emperors become doorkeepers for the Fishermen…These find themselves inside, like the lords, but those, as though they were servants, consider it a favor if they may find a place by the outer door." ["John Chrysostom and His Time, Volume Two, Constantinople: The Later Years," by Rev. Chrysostomus Baur, O.S.B. Translated by Sr. M. Gonzaga,. R.S.M., p. 460. Copyright 1988 by Bu>chervertriebsanstalt. ISBN 3-905238-11-X.]
Glory to God for all Things. Amen.
[Holy Relics freely offered to the Holy Trinity Community of Wilmington, Delaware by Fr. Gus George Christo, Ph.D.]
[0] comments (24 views)
Tue Feb 23, 2010
Holy Relics of Martyred Saints: Vehicles of God’s Superabundant Grace
O Lord our God, faithful in your words and truthful in your promises, you who have enabled by your grace, your holy martyrs to fight the good fight, to finish the race of godliness and to keep the true faith; all-holy Lord, respond in mercy to their prayers and look upon us, your unworthy servants in your grace and grant that we may share in their inheritance, that by imitating them, we also may receive the blessings which await them. Through the mercy and love for mankind of your only-begotten Son with whom you are blessed, together with your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
[From the Service of Consecration of an Orthodox Church]
[0] comments (29 views)
Tue Feb 16, 2010
Hesychios the Priest: On Personal Holiness
“Just as it is impossible to fight battles without weapons, or to swim a great sea with clothes on, or to live without breathing, so without humility and the constant prayer to Christ it is impossible to master the art of inward spiritual warfare or to set about it and pursue it skillfully.” [On Watchfulness and Holiness, 99]
“Prayer is a great blessing, and it embraces all blessings, for it purifies the heart, in which God is seen by the believer.” [Watchfulness, 62]
“The more the rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it. Similarly, Christ’s holy name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it.” [Watchfulness, 41]
[0] comments (33 views)
Tue Feb 09, 2010
A Prayer for the beginning of the Holy and Great Fast
“Thy grace has shown forth, Lord, the grace which illumines our soul.
This is the acceptable time! This is the time of repentance! Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light, that passing through the Fast as through a great sea we may reach the Resurrection on the Third Day of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of our souls.”
[Great Vespers on Cheese Fare Sunday Evening, Aposticha, Tone 4, of the Holy Orthodox Church]
[0] comments (37 views)
Tue Feb 02, 2010
St. John Chrysostom’s Timely Contribution by Fr. Gus George Christo
Chrysostom’s greatest and most timely contribution to the strengthening of our faith in God is his biblical teaching on the paschal mystery and our connection to its saving power through the Church, Christ Himself, the greatest of all mysteries. The blood and water that flowed from Christ’s side while suspended upon the Cross, representing the holy Eucharist and sacred Baptism respectively, are the cornerstones of our redemption and inclusion in the life of the Holy Trinity. “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe” (John 19:34-35).
There is no doubt that Chrysostom is an eminent witness to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and its sacrificial character. His statements to that effect are numerous, clear, positive and detailed. He would have this sacrament approached with awe and devotion and calls the Eucharist “a table of holy fear, an awe-inspiring and divine table, the frightful mysteries, the divine mysteries, the ineffable mysteries, the mysteries which demand reverence and trembling.” The consecrated wine is “the cup of holy awe, the awe-inspiring blood, and the precious blood.” Moreover, the Eucharist is “an awe-inspiring and terrible sacrifice, a fearful and holy sacrifice, the most awe-inspiring sacrifice.” Pointing to the altar, he says: “Christ lies there slain, His Body lies before us now. That which is in the Chalice is the same as what flowed from the side of Christ. What is the bread? The Body of Christ. Reflect, O man, what sacrificial flesh you take in your hand. To what table you will approach. Remember that you, though dust and ashes, do receive the Blood and the Body of Christ.”
The divine power of the Eucharist transfigures each human recipient into the very Church of God because it flowed down from the cross and from the Master’s immaculate side. The one Church is seen in the many and the many in the one. Chrysostom says:
Since the symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist flowed from His side, it was from His side that Christ fashioned the Church, as He had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from His side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after His own death. (Baptismal Catechesis 3)
By this sacred communication in Christ, the participant becomes the bride of Christ the Bridegroom. An intimate spiritual union beyond comprehension and admittance into the heavenly bridal chamber are achieved. Chrysostom states:
By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with His own blood those to whom He Himself has given life. (Baptismal Catechesis 3)
According to Chrysostom, the power of Christ’s blood was prefigured in the Old Testament by the smearing of blood on the lintel of the Jewish houses in order for the angel of death to pass over them. The holy father notes:
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguring in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors, he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ. (Baptismal Catechesis 3)
When the celebration of the Divine Liturgy occurs, “when [we] see the Lord immolated and lying upon the altar, and the priest bent over that sacrifice praying, and all the people empurpled by that precious blood,” the Church in heaven and on earth unites and is one and the same. “When the priest conducts the divine service, angels station themselves about him and in a choir they chant a hymn of praise in honor of the victim who is sacrificed.” Chrysostom assures:
Christ is present. The one [Christ] who prepared that table [long ago] is the very one who now prepares this table. For, it is not a man who makes the sacrificial gifts become the Body and Blood of Christ, but He that was crucified for us, Christ Himself. The priest stands there carrying out the action, but the power and the grace is of God [Homilies on the Treachery of Judas 1:6].
There is one Christ everywhere, complete both in this world and in the other. [There is] one Body. As then, though offered in many places, He is but one Body, so there is but one Sacrifice...We offer that now which was offered then; which is indeed inconsumable...We do not offer a different sacrifice as the high priest [of the Jews] formerly did, but always the same.
Believe that there takes place now the same banquet as that in which Christ sat at table, and that this banquet is in no way different from that. For, it is not true that this banquet is prepared by a man while that was prepared by Himself. Today as then it is the Lord who works and offers all. We assume the role of servants; it is He who blesses and transforms. It is not man who causes what is present to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but Christ Himself who was crucified for us. The priest is the representative when he pronounces those words, but the power and the grace are those of the Lord. “This is my Body,” he says. This word changes the things that lie before us; and as that sentence “increase and multiply,” once spoken, extends through all time and gives to our nature the power to reproduce itself; even so that saying “This is my Body,” once uttered, does at every table in the Churches from that time to the present day, and even till Christ’s coming, make the sacrifice complete.
He continues, saying:
You envy the opportunity of the woman who touched the vestments of Jesus, of the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears, of the women of Galilee who had the happiness of following Him in His pilgrimages, of the Apostles and disciples who conversed with Him familiarly, of the people of the time who listened to the words of grace and salvation which came forth from His lips. You call happy those who saw Him…But, come to the altar and you will see Him, you will touch Him, you will give to Him holy kisses, you will wash Him with your tears, you will carry Him within you like Mary Most Holy.
Indeed:
You see that same Body, not in a manger, but upon the altar; not carried in His Mother’s arms, but elevated in the priest’s hands. Let us, therefore, be roused, and tremble, and bring with us more devotion to the altar than those eastern kings did to the manger, where they adored their newborn Savior.
With affection Chrysostom adds:
Because of this Body I am no longer earth and ash, no longer a prisoner, but free. Because of this Body I hope for heaven, and I hope to receive the good things that are in heaven, immortal life, the lot of the angels, familiar conversation with Christ. This Body, scourged and crucified, has not been fetched by death…This is that Body which was blood-stained, which was pierced by a lance, and from which gushed forth those saving fountains, one of blood and the other of water, for all the world…This is the Body which He gave us, both to hold in reserve and to eat, which was appropriate to intense love. [Homilies on Corinthians 8, 1(2); 24, 2(3); 24, 2(4); 24, 4(7).]
Some of his expressions are yet stronger. He does not hesitate to declare:
Not only ought we to see the Lord, but we ought to take Him in our hands, eat Him, set our teeth upon His Flesh and most intimately unite ourselves with Him. What the Lord did not tolerate on the Cross [i.e., the breaking of His legs], He tolerates now in the sacrifice through the love of you. He permits Himself to be broken in pieces that all may be filled to satiety.
Because of Christ’s concrete presence in the Eucharist, Chrysostom requests all attendees to the Eucharistic celebration to be properly disposed and behaved. He says:
What are you doing, O man? When the priest says: “Let us lift up our mind and our hearts,” why do you not affirm and say: “We lift them up to the Lord?” You are not afraid? You are not ashamed of being found a liar at this terrible moment? Bless me, what a wonder! The Mystical Table is prepared, the Lamb of God is sacrificing Himself for you, the priest is struggling on your behalf, spiritual fire is gushing forth from the undefiled Table, the Cherubim are standing by and the Seraphim are flying, the six-winged creatures are covering their faces, all the bodiless powers together with the priest are interceding on your behalf, the spiritual fire is descending, the blood from the Immaculate Side is emptying into the vessel for your purification, and you are not afraid, you do not blush, and you are found a liar at that terrible moment? The week has 168 hours and God set aside for Himself one hour only, and you spend it in worldly and ridiculous affairs and in company? With what boldness do you later approach the Mysteries? ... Do not see it as bread, neither think that it is wine, for the body does not eliminate them in a toilet like other food. Neither say this nor think it! Just as a burning candle does not leave a trace and nothing remains of itself, likewise believe in this case that the Mysteries are spent inside the body together with its essence. For this reason while you approach, do not think that you partake of the Divine Body from a man; rather, believe that you partake of the Divine Body from the very seraphim with the fiery spoon that Isaiah saw; and when we partake of the Saving Blood, let us believe that our lips touch the very Divine and Immaculate Side. Therefore, for this reason my brethren, let us not be absent from the Churches, and inside them let us no longer occupy our time in conversations. Let us stand with fear and trembling, with our eyes lowered and the soul elevated, with silent sighs and loud shouts of the heart…I will not cease telling you these things until I see you become corrected. When we come to the Church, we must enter in accordance with God’s liking, having no malice in the soul, nor praying to our detriment when we say: “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). For this statement is terrible, and he who says it is exclaiming to God something like this: “I remitted; Master, you remit. I loosened; you loosen. I forgave; you forgive. If I retained, you retain. If I did not forgive my neighbor, then do not annul my sins. With the measure I used to measure, let me be measured as well.” [Homily 9 on Repentance]
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). From a brief sample of his writings, St. John Chrysostom reveals to us that, just as the Lord appeared to His Apostles in the Upper Room after His glorious Resurrection over 2,000 years ago and communicated them in the Mysteries of His Body and Blood, He concretely manifests Himself in the sacred Eucharist during every Divine Liturgy so we may commune in the very life of the Holy Trinity and sit with Him at the right hand of the Heavenly Power. Through His undefiled and incorrupt Humanity, we are redeemed and deified. According to Chrysostom, this is the unchanging faithfulness of Christ toward the members of His Church:
“Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For, my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever (John 6: 53-58).
Likewise, our faithfulness to God must also be unchanging in all circumstances, as Chrysostom explained at the end of his tenth homily on the Gospel of St. Matthew:
To this alone should we train ourselves: to bear all trials with courage, and not inquire as to the how or why of them. It is God’s affair alone to know when our sufferings will come to an end. It is our duty to bear with gratitude the affliction which God ordains for us...So let us put all discouragement aside, and give glory in all things to God, who directs all things for our best good.
His banner of life, “Glory to God for all things,” reveals that the faith and practice of a true Orthodox Christian must be “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
[0] comments (55 views)
Tue Jan 26, 2010
Give Glory to God for all Things
“To this alone should we train ourselves: to bear all trials with courage, and not inquire as to the how or why of them. It is God’s affair alone to know when our sufferings will come to an end. It is our duty to bear with gratitude the affliction which God ordains for us...So let us put all discouragement aside, and give glory in all things to God, who directs all things for our best good.”
[St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople]
[0] comments (48 views)
Wed Jan 20, 2010
‘Something to Sleep On’
“Just as it is impossible to fight battles without weapons, or to swim a great sea with clothes on, or to live without breathing, so without humility and constant prayer to Christ it is impossible to master the art of inward spiritual warfare or to set about it and pursue it skilfully.”
Hesychios the Priest: On Watchfulness and Holiness, 99
From http://www.monachos.net/content/patristics/studies-fathers/64-hesychios-the-priest-on-personal-holiness
[0] comments (45 views)
Just a Thought...
"A sound heart is life to the body, whereas envy is rottenness to the bones."
Proverbs 14:30 (NKJV)
[0] comments (39 views)
Tue Jan 19, 2010
St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan on Entry into the Church
“After this the Holy of Holies [a figurative name given to the baptistery] was opened to you, you entered the sanctuary of regeneration; recall what you were asked, and remember what you answered. You renounced the devil and his works, the world with its luxury and pleasures. That utterance of yours is preserved not in the tombs of the dead, but in the book of the living. You saw there the deacon, you saw the priest, you saw the chief priest [the bishop]. Consider not the bodily forms, but the grace of the Mysteries. You spoke in the presence of the angels, as it is written: ‘For the priest’s lips keep knowledge, and they seek the law at his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord Almighty’ [Malachi 2:7]. There is no place for deception nor for denial. He is an angel who proclaims the kingdom of Christ and eternal life. He is to be esteemed by you not according to his appearance, but according to his office. Consider what he delivered, reflect upon the rule of life he gave you, recognize his position.”
[0] comments (40 views)
| NEXT page |
