#john chrysostom

[julesofnature]

"Those whom we love and lose are no longer where they were before, but are now wherever we are.  ~John Chrysostom

[asmallorthodoxblog]

[...] let us punish the thoughts that persuade us to sin, let us pierce our conscience and call ourselves to account for what we have done.

For in this way we will be able both to make the burden of our sins light, and to enjoy great forgiveness, and to spend this life with joy, and to partake of the good things to come, through the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ [...]

-Saint John Chrysostom

[mariam-en-christo]

And it is good that even the humblest of families should enjoy a few luxuries, to bring pleasure to their lives. Yet when luxuries become normal we should be ashamed. When the decoration that we lavish on the house of God is also lavished on the houses of human beings, the pleasure which they afford turns to dust—and the sight of such private luxury is morally obscene. The test of a good society is that the great majority are engaged in the basic arts, and only a few in the arts of luxury. When large numbers are engaged in producing luxuries for the rich, that society has become corrupt.

—St. John Chrysostom

[dk-thrive]

Those whom we love and lose are no longer where they were before, but are now wherever we are. 

~John Chrysostom (347 to 407 AD), paraphrased in his 4th century works in "Homilies of First Thessalonians" and "Letter to a Young Widow"

[sicut-in-caelo-et-in-terra]

[iustuspeccator]

deeply fascinated by John Chrysostom and his context now. the challenges of Christianity in a pluralistic society with a competitive landscape for religious participation, competition between pop culture and religion for attention, rampant class inequality and conspicuous consumption. hmm. sounds familiar

of course we are still very much under a christian hegemony that John was not. he was on the ramp up to christendom and we're on the ramp down. something to look into.

it's also like 60 years after the Council of Nicaea but the canons from Nicaea that split Christianity from Judaism clearly hadn't yet permeated Christian community. Judaism and Christianity were still differentiating from each other in this time and place. interesting.

4th century Antioch...imagine...what a time

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

pic source: By Matea Vuković Slavic Rituals

* * * *

“Russian women near the Sharshenga River praying to trees.

Kozma Prazhsky in the Czech Chronicle (XII century) reported that the Slavs prayed to trees in sacred groves. A similar observation was made by the German chronicler Helmgold (XII century), who described the life and customs of the Polabian Slavs.

One of the veneration of trees among the Eastern Slavs, it is mentioned in the "Life of Constantine of Murom", and John Chrysostom spoke about the facts of the existence of special prayers to trees among the Slavic people.

This practice is well known even today in Christianity. People didn't throw away their praying rituals of the past... Gods or a God, no matter what you believe or how, are great. “. Ethnographic materials ML

Leila L'Abate 

[dyke-for-christ]

I'm writing this pretty late at night and when it's technically on the 14th. But I wanted to share something from one of the my favorite books on the saints. "The Radical Tradition: Revolutionary Saints in the Battle for Justice and Human Rights" is an short anthology of different authors writing about a few saints and edited by Gilbert Markus. It's about as old as I am and it's probably out of print, unfortunately. One of the saints the book talks about is John Chryostom.

Chryostom, "Golden Tongue," was a nickname of John that he earned by being a great preacher. He lived in the Eastern Roman Empire, Bzyantine, in Antioch. He could have been a wealthy orator in the still-pagan city, but he had himself baptized. He ehad been so gifted that a synod of bishops attempted to ordain him after his baptism. John escaped and hid himself. In 374, John left the city to dwell in the mountains as a monk. He lived an asetic life for a number of years that would prepare him for trials later in life. However, due to his health, John gave up his life of relative seclusion and returned to the city where he was ordained a deacon under Bishop Meletius.

John saw the lifestyles of the rich and how lowly the poor lived. He fruently called out this behavior and preached for the sake of the poor. John became an outspoken critic of the wealthy elite.

"Tell me, how is it that you are rich? From whom did you recieve your wealth? And he, whom did he recieve it from? From his grandfather, you say, from his father. By climbing this genealogical tree are you able to show the justice of this possession? Of course you cannot! Rather its beginning and root have necessarily come out of injustice. Do not say 'I am spending what is mine; I am enjoying what is mine.' In reality, it is not yours, but another's."

"Such wealth made a mockery of the prayers of the wealthy. How could they expect God to hear their prayers?" "When are you weary of praying and do not recieve, consider how often you have heard a poor man calling and have not listened to him...It is not for stretching out your hands [in prayer] that you will be heard. Stretch out your hands, not to heaven, but to the poor." (Markus, pg. 25)

John's words were harsh towards the poor, which ruffled a lot of feathers. It wasn't only his words that were radical. He used the church revenue to fund leper-hospitals, relieved the poor, and bought the freedom of slaves. John attacked the "violent" constrasts between rich women and poor women. Wealthy women could wear fine silk and linen, jewels, and veils. The only time wealthy women were naked was around their slaves with no shame. This wasn't a puritical rant against nudity itself, but how the view slaves simply weren't worthy of attention. Poor women with no other means of survival turned to performing or prostitution, which in those days were one and the same profession. John's criticisms against nudity were to do with "our shared bodliness and the equality beneath our finery or our rags" (Markus, pg 27).

John Chryostom was banished after Empress Eudoxia was convinced that he had been insulting her. When I think of John Chryostom, I can't help but draw parallels with the modern day. No doubt, he would be disgusted by how much money the wealthy hoard and how little is given to care for the poor. He didn't stop preaching and rallying against the wealthy elite's hypocrisy of praying to God but rarely stretching out their hands to the poor. He taught to look beyond the veneer and mask of wealth and see that a rich person was no better, no different, than someone who toiled for their bread.

Jean-Paul Laurens, "Saint John Chrysostom and Empress Eudoxia", 1893