Aphorisms from John Chrysostom
*** He who does not need someone else’s, but lives independently, is richer than everyone else.
(need, envy, wealth)
***
The time of trouble is not when we suffer evil, but when we do evil.
(sorrow, evil)
***
When you feed the poor, consider that you have fed yourself. This is the nature of this thing: what we give will return to us.
(charity)
***
How else do you dare to call yourself a father, having thus betrayed your son, ignoring his corruption with all his vices?
***
Even if our whole life was prosperous, we will be subjected to severe punishment if we do not care about saving our children. Children are not an accidental acquisition. We are responsible for their salvation.
(children)
***
Many people condemn me for attacking the rich, but why are they unfair to the poor? I do not blame the rich man, but the predator. You are rich? I'm not bothering you. But are you a robber? I condemn you. Both rich and poor are equally my children.
***
Often, many fathers do everything so that their son has a good horse, a magnificent house or an expensive estate, but they do not care at all about his having a good soul. This is what upsets the entire universe.
(upbringing)
***
If you hear that someone at a crossroads or at a market among the people is blaspheming the Lord Christ, come and stop him. If you have to beat him, do not turn away - hit him on the cheek, crush his lips, sanctify your hand with the blow.
***
A person's dignity does not lie in his origin. God did not create slavery, but gave man freedom.
(dignity, nobility, freedom, slavery)
***
A word can create as much as fear can destroy.
(word, fear)
***
Ordinary people can be bold more than once, but not everyone is able to do so at the right time.
***
Let us help those poor people who beg us for it, and even if they deceive us, we should not attach too much importance to it. For each of us deserves such mercy, forgiveness and kindness.
(mercy, charity)
***
Don't tell me it's impossible to curb youth. All vices come from our carelessness, because we do not teach our children piety from the very beginning and from an early age. We often allow them to go to shows, but we never force them to go to church.
(upbringing)
***
We are waging a war, but our war does not make the living dead, but makes the spiritually dead, mired in heresy, alive. I am not persecuting a heretic, but a heresy, not a sinner, but sin. No matter how much someone scolds me, I say from the bottom of my heart: “Peace, for the love of the Father is in me. The more I will love you, the less I am loved by you.”
(sin)
***
Nothing confuses the purity of mind, beauty, and wisdom more than causeless anger, carried around by a loud roar.
(anger)
***
Do you want to be shown mercy? Show mercy to your neighbor.
***
It is better to be in darkness than without a friend.
(Friend)
***
Better is bread with salt in peace and without sorrow, than many valuable dishes in sorrow and grief.
(sadness, grief)
***
We need to look not at making children rich in silver and gold and the like, but so that they are richer than everyone else in piety, wisdom and other virtues, so that they do not need much.
(wealth)
***
If fear were not a good thing, then neither fathers would assign overseers to their children, nor legislators would assign rulers to cities. Nothing destroys sin, and nothing promotes virtue to grow and flourish, as constant fear. Therefore, it is impossible for anyone who does not live in fear to be virtuous.
(fear)
1 | | Next | Last
St. John Chrysostom: about love for one's neighbor
The mother of all blessings and the perfecter of every virtue is love. The Apostle says that it is our debt, not temporary, like taxes or duties, but eternal. Do not owe anyone anything, he says, except mutual love (Rom. 13:8).
St.
John Chrysostom He wants this debt to never be paid, and although we always pay, not in full, but in such a way that we still remain in debt. Because it is the kind of debt that is continually paid but never paid. Having said how one should love, he also reveals the benefits of love, for he who loves another, he says, has fulfilled the law. You are obliged to love your brother because of your spiritual kinship with him, and not just because of kinship, but also because we are members of each other. If there is no love in us, then the entire composition of the body is dissolved. So love your brother. For if, by loving him, you gain benefit, because through this you fulfill the whole law, then you are obliged to love him as someone who has benefited from him. For the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet someone else’s, and all the others are contained in this word: love your neighbor as yourself (v. 9).
The Apostle did not say: they are supplemented, but they are contained, that is, this commandment briefly contains the entire composition of the commandments. For the beginning and end of virtue is love. She is both the root and the necessary condition, she is the pinnacle of virtue. And if love is the beginning and completeness, then what can equal it? However, the apostle demands not just love, but love to the highest degree; for he did not simply say: love your neighbor, but added: as yourself. And Christ said that love contains the law and prophecies (Matthew 22:40), and, having indicated two types of love, look what a high place he gave to love for one’s neighbor.
Having said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God... this is the first commandment, when he began to continue: the second, he did not limit himself to that, but added: similar to it: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. What can compare with such philanthropy, with such condescension? Although the distance between God and us is infinite, yet God places our mutual love for each other close to the love for Himself and calls one similar to the other. Why did he put almost equal measures for both loves and said about love for God: with all your heart and with all your soul, and about love for your neighbor: as yourself? And Paul says that if there is no love for one’s neighbor, then love for God is of little use.
When we love someone, we say about him: whoever loves him loves me. Christ expressed the same thing when he said to the teacher of the law: “one like her,” and to Peter: “If you love Me, feed My sheep” (John 21:17). Love does not harm one’s neighbor, the apostle continues to say; love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:10). You see that love has both perfections: like abstinence from evil - for it is said that love does not do evil; so is doing good - for it is said that it is the fulfillment of the law?
Love not only teaches us an abbreviated teaching of what we should do, but also makes it easier to fulfill moral laws. So, let us love one another, so that in this way we can express our love for the God who loves us. It happens to people that when you love someone, the other person who loves him takes up arms against you.
But God, on the contrary, demands that you love those like yourself with Him, and hates those who do not share His love with Him. Human love is filled with envy and jealousy, but God's love is free from all passions. Therefore, God wants someone to share love with Him. Love with Me, He says, then I will love you even more. These are the words of an infinitely loving one! If you, he says, love those loved by Me, then from this I see that you love Me sincerely.
From the 23rd Discourse on the Epistle to the Romans
LiveInternetLiveInternet
Friday, August 07, 2015 16:03 + to quote book
Saint John Chrysostom. The Archbishop of Constantinople, a theologian, is revered as one of the three Ecumenical saints and teachers, along with Saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian. Date and place of birth: 349, Antioch Date and place of death: September 14, 407 (58 years old), Pontic Comans, Pontus Good things happened - bless God and good things will remain! Bad things happen - bless God and the bad things will stop! Thank God for everything! If a person sincerely prays and does not receive what he asks for, it means the Lord is preparing for him more and better than he asks for. But how, you say, living in the world, amidst anxiety, can I be saved? What are you saying, man? Do you want me to briefly point out to you that it is not the place that saves, but the way of life and will? Adam in paradise, as if in a pier, was shipwrecked, and Lot, living among the Sodomites, as if in the sea, was saved. Job earned justification while he was in the pit, and Saul, while in the palace, lost both the local kingdom and the future. A wife is a haven and the most important cure for mental illness. If you keep this pier free from winds and waves, you will find great peace in it, but if you disturb and agitate it, then you are preparing for yourself the most dangerous shipwreck. A husband and wife should be like hands and eyes. When your hand hurts, your eyes cry. And when the eyes cry, the hands wipe the tears. A crafty man, of course, is more dangerous than a beast. The beast, having no reason, has no evil against man... and the evil man, having control of reason, uses it for his own purposes and, when he wants, with its help invents traps. The wicked usually always mock those who decide to leave wickedness and cling to virtue. Envy is worse than enmity. The enemy, when the reason for which the quarrel occurred is forgotten, stops the enmity; an envious person will never become a friend. Moreover, the former fights openly, and the latter – secretly; the former can often point out a sufficient reason for enmity, while the latter cannot point to anything other than his own madness and satanic disposition. Why are the earth and ashes proud (Sir. 10:9)? Why are you arrogant, man? Why are you boasting too much? What worldly fame and fortune do you hope for? Let us go, I ask you, to the tombs and see the sacraments performed there, we will see destroyed nature, corroded bones, rotten bodies. If you are wise, think, and if you are reasonable, tell me: who is the king and who is the commoner, who is the noble and who is the slave, who is wise and who is foolish?... Where is the beauty of youth, where is the attractive look, where are the pretty eyes, where is the beautiful nose, where are the rosy lips, where is the color on the cheeks, where is the shining forehead? Isn't everything dust? Isn't everything ashes? Isn't everything dirty? Isn't everything worms and stench? Isn't everything decaying? Having all this in mind and thinking about our last day, let us turn, brothers, while we have time, from our path along which we have wandered... *** https://www.inpearls.ru/author/15622
| Categories: | Aphorisms. Wise thoughts. My Messages |
Tags:
wise thoughts St. John Chrysostom quotes sayings
Cited 3 times Liked by: 4 users
Like share
0
Like
- 4
I liked the post - Quoted
- 0
Saved
- Add to quote book
- 0
Save to links
Liked4
0
Tell your wives you love them and show them that love
God's creation is woman. By your neglect you insult not her, but her Creator. What does she have? Didn't God give her everything? But don't glorify a beautiful woman, don't admire her. Admiration for one and contempt for the other shows a vicious person. Seek the beauty of the soul and imitate the Bridegroom of the Church in everything.
Physical beauty, in addition to arrogance, causes jealousy and often even unfounded suspicion. Is it enjoyable? For some time, yes, for a month or two, maximum for a year - no more.
Because after a while, due to habit, you no longer feel beauty, which, however, retains its arrogance. This does not happen to a woman who does not have external beauty, but has internal beauty. Naturally, the husband's pleasure and love do not decrease, because they come from the beauty of the soul, not the body.
Just as the Lord lovingly cares for the Church, that is, for all of us, because we are His children, His flesh and His bones - and this is well known to those who participate in the sacraments - so a man must lovingly care for his wife, because she was created from him, is part of his body.
John Chrysostom spoke about it this way: “Do you want your wife to obey you, as the Church obeys Christ? Take care of her yourself, as Christ takes care of the Church.”
“Therefore,” says the Bible, “a man will leave his father and mother to live with his wife, and they will become one flesh, one body.” Here is the third reason. In other words, this shows that after a man leaves his parents' home, he becomes attached to his wife.
From now on, the flesh, father and mother, creates the child born from their union. So, all three are one flesh, just as Christ and I are one flesh, one body.
So, the more you love yourself, the more you love your wife. Not only because man and woman have the same nature, but also for another important reason: for they are no longer two separate bodies, but one; man is the head and woman is the body.
From John Chrysostom: “The wife is a secondary power; This means that she should not demand equality <with her husband>, since she is under the head; and he “husband” should not arrogantly look at her as a subordinate, because she is his body, and if the head begins to neglect the body, then it itself will disappear. In return for obedience, she must bring love. ...The body gives arms, legs and all other members to the service of the head; and the head takes care of the body, devoting all his understanding to it. There is nothing better than such a marriage.”
What happens after the wedding? The guests have left? Are you left alone with your fiancee, your wife? She will listen to you and accept whatever you tell her. But she will accept it more willingly if you express your love to her abundantly, because nothing else contributes to the conviction of a person in our words as the understanding that we tell him this with love and tenderness.
And how will you show her your love? If you tell her, for example:
“I didn’t want to take another woman as my wife. I preferred you for your good character, modesty, meekness, wisdom.
I was fascinated by the strength of your soul. A prudent girl who lives a life of piety is worth as much as the entire universe. That's why I fell in love with you, I love you and put you above my life. So I pray to God and I do everything in my power so that we can be together in this life and in the Kingdom of Heaven.
For this life is short and temporary; but if we affirm that we have lived it, pleasing to God, we will remain with Christ for eternity in indescribable joy.”
What consolation did the Lord give us according to the words of St. John Chrysostom? “The birth of children has already become the greatest consolation for people when they became mortal. That is why the humane God, in order to immediately, at the very beginning, soften the severity of the punishment and take away the terrible appearance of death, granted the birth of children, revealing in it... the image of the Resurrection...”
“I put my love for you above all else” - these words are more valuable to your wives than all jewelry! Tell her that you love her without fear that one day she will become proud and take advantage of it.
Show that you enjoy being alone with her, that you prefer to stay home for her sake rather than hanging out with friends. Respect her more than your friends, even more than your children.
All for the love of her. If she does something good, praise her and admire her. If she is wrong, consult her and correct her with kindness.
If you arrange your marriage this way and treat your wife this way, you will be no worse than a monk.
