Posted on 09/13/2005 8:28:15 AM PDT by Salvation
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And I still ask the prelates, why do you not marry? They all say 600 A.D. pope (I forgot). And I say, from the Old to the New Testament, priest should marry...< /rant>
5.56mm
From: 1 Timothy 3:1-13
Qualifications for Bishops
From: Luke 7:11-17
The Son of the Widow in Nain Restored to Life
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 St. John Chrysostom, Bishop, Doctor of the Church (Memorial) |
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The Life of Saint John Chrysostom
PASCHAL Homily of St John Chrysostom
The Golden Mouthed Preacher-St.John Chrysostom [Bishop,Doctor of Catholic and Orthodox Churches]
Recipes:
Prayers:
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September 13, 2005 St. John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor
St. John Chrysostom John Chrysostom was the son of a Latin father and a Greek mother; his mother, Anthusa, was widowed at the age of twenty, soon after his birth. Putting aside all thought of remarriage, Anthusa gave all of her attention to her son: she gave him the best classical education of the day, and enrolled him as a catechumen when he was eighteen. He came under the influence of Meletius, patriarch of Antioch, who sent him to the monastic school of Diodore, then baptized him and ordained him lector. At this time, St. John Chrysostom decided to take his future into his own hands and became a monk-hermit, living in a cave, studying the Scriptures, and putting himself under the discipline of an old hermit named Hesychius. However, his health broke under this austere regimen and he returned to Antioch, was ordained a priest, and began his remarkable career as a preacher. During the next twelve years, he electrified Antioch with his fiery sermons, filled with a knowledge and an eloquence that were astonishing. It was during this period that he received the nickname Chrysostom, or golden mouth, for his words seemed to be pure gold. In 397, when the see of Constantinople became vacant, the Emperor Arcadius appointed John patriarch, and since it was feared that he would refuse the honor, he was lured to Constantinople and consecrated bishop of the city in 398. John found himself in a nest of political intrigue, fraud, extravagance, and naked ambition. He curbed expenses, gave lavishly to the poor, built hospitals, reformed the clergy, and restored monastic discipline. But his program of reform made him enemies, in particular the Empress Eudoxia and the Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria. The city in turmoil, his life threatened, John was exiled by the emperor in the year 404. The papal envoys were imprisoned, and John defended by the pope and ordered restored to his see was sent further into exile, six hundred miles from Constantinople, across the Black Sea. Worn out and sick, he died of his hardships at Comana in Pontus. His last words were, "Glory to God for all things." Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens Patron: Constantinople; epilepsy; orators; preachers. Symbols: Beehive; chalice on Bible; white dove; scroll or book; pen and inkhorn; bishop's mitre. Things to Do:
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Amen!
September 13, 2005
St. John Chrysostom
(d. 407)
The ambiguity and intrigue surrounding John, the great preacher (his name means "golden-mouthed") from Antioch, are characteristic of the life of any great man in a capital city. Brought to Constantinople after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, John found himself the reluctant victim of an imperial ruse to make him bishop in the greatest city of the empire. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John began his episcopate under the cloud of imperial politics. If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours. His life-style at the imperial court was not appreciated by some courtiers. He offered a modest table to episcopal sycophants hanging around for imperial and ecclesiastical favors. John deplored the court protocol that accorded him precedence before the highest state officials. He would not be a kept man. His zeal led him to decisive action. Bishops who bribed their way into their office were deposed. Many of his sermons called for concrete steps to share wealth with the poor. The rich did not appreciate hearing from John that private property existed because of Adam's fall from grace any more than married men liked to hear that they were bound to marital fidelity just as much as their wives. When it came to justice and charity, John acknowledged no double standards. Aloof, energetic, outspoken, especially when he became excited in the pulpit, John was a sure target for criticism and personal trouble. He was accused of gorging himself secretly on rich wines and fine foods. His faithfulness as spiritual director to the rich widow, Olympia, provoked much gossip attempting to prove him a hypocrite where wealth and chastity were concerned. His action taken against unworthy bishops in Asia Minor was viewed by other ecclesiastics as a greedy, uncanonical extension of his authority. Two prominent personages who personally undertook to discredit John were Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, and Empress Eudoxia. Theophilus feared the growth in importance of the Bishop of Constantinople and took occasion to charge John with fostering heresy. Theophilus and other angered bishops were supported by Eudoxia. The empress resented his sermons contrasting gospel values with the excesses of imperial court life. Whether intended or not, sermons mentioning the lurid Jezebel and impious Herodias were associated with the empress, who finally did manage to have John exiled. He died in exile in 407. Quote:
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God, You are the strength of those who hope in You.
You gave Your Church St. John Chrysostom, Your Bishop,
who was endowed with great eloquence
and was able to withstand great sufferings.
May we learn from his teaching
and be inspired by the example of his patience.
Amen.
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Faith-sharing bump.
A lovely story, Jesus raising the widow's son. Jesus was giving her economic security, for without the earning power of a male relative, the widow could have starved to death.
Tuesday September 13, 2005 Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (1 Timothy 3:1-13) Gospel (St. Luke 7:11-17)
In the Gospel reading today, we see the mercy of Our Lord. He brings back to life this young man who had died, and we are told that he was the only son of a widow. In that time in Israel, a woman had no rights. She was dependent upon her husband completely to provide for her, and if the husband were to die, then it was incumbent upon her son to care for her. In this case, she had only one son and he had died, so this woman would have been literally reduced to begging. And so God in His mercy raises this young man from the dead and gives him back to his mother.
It is very interesting, then, to put that into the same context of His own self. Here He is, the only Son of a widowed mother, and while in His mercy His heart goes out to this woman from Naim, at the same time He would not spare His own self even for the sake of His own mother. And here we see the immense love that Our Lord has. Of course, first and foremost, He died for His mother. So rather than merely looking at it on the natural level and saying, Why would He not allow Himself to live for the sake of His mother, it is just the other way with Our Lord. He allowed Himself to die for the sake of His mother, as well, of course, for all of us. But more than for anybody else in the world, He sacrificed Himself for His own mother because, more than anyone in the world, she was the most deserving.
We have to then look at our own selves and see what it is that He has done. Instead of giving Himself back to His own mother in the way that He did with this young man, He gave Himself to His mother in the Eucharist. More than that, He gave His mother to us, and He gives Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament. In a way, that is even more profound, more intimate, and more loving than what He did in this miracle of raising this man from the dead. He Himself Who was resurrected from the dead has given Himself to us in a way that is beyond our wildest imagination.
And so the love that Our Lord has for us, that He is willing to die for us, and that in His risen form He now gives Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament, that He pours Himself out for us continuously, now we have to ask: In the light of such love what is our response? And what is it that we can do for Him? The only thing He desires is to be loved in return. That is all. He is not looking for anything extraordinary or heroic if He wants you to do something, He will make that clear but all that He is asking for is love, just to do for Him what He has done for us. That is all. He gives Himself to us entirely in the Eucharist and He asks that we would give ourselves entirely to Him. I think if we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that maybe, maybe on a good day, we open our hearts a little bit. But, for most of us, it is far from giving ourselves entirely to Him. He holds nothing back. How much do we hold back? He opens His heart to us completely. Are we doing the same for Him? Those are the kinds of things we have to look at. In the face of so great a love, how are we responding? Love needs to respond with love, and love needs to receive love in return. Our Lord does nothing for us except love. How are we responding to the love that we have received?
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Meditation Luke 7:11-17 Try to picture the opening of this story. A crowd of mourners is following the body of a young man in a funeral procession. Near the mans body walks a poor Jewish woman from an insignificant village in Galilee. She is his mother, and she is weeping because he is her only son and he has been taken from her in the prime of his life. At this moment she can feel nothing but sadness. Does this sound familiar? Although it didnt happen in exactly the same way, this scene has a lot in common with the burial of Jesus, another only son of a widow from Galilee. We know that Mary stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus died, and so she must have been there when they took his body down. We can only imagine the grief she must have felt as she held Jesus in her arms and remembered his horrible death on the cross. Her son, the most perfect son, was dead. The sorrow she felt must have been unbearable. Fortunately, the similarity between these two stories doesnt end there. Both take a radical plot twist when the son is miraculously raised from the dead. But why should we even bother making such a comparison? Because Luke wanted us to see both Jesus and ourselves in the figure of the widows son. Jesus is the first born from the dead (Colossians 1:18), who has come to raise us tooand not just in heaven but right here on earth! Luke tells us that Gods whole plan is to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke 1:79). Jesus came to bring us life, and life in abundance (John 10:10).Thats who he is! Everything he touches is made new. He can heal our sickness and disease, but more important than that, he can heal the attitudes and emotions that keep us from following him. As Marys example shows, its when we are at our weakest and most powerless that we are most ready to receive his compassion. Do we trust him enough to let him touch us, right where we are hurting? Lord, I want to bring you the coffins in my life. Please bring your healing to those areas that I have locked you out of for so long. I know that you will change me from glory to glory! 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Psalm 101:1-3,5-6 |
Lk 7:11-17 | ||
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11 | And it came to pass afterwards that he went into a city that is called Naim: and there went with him his disciples and a great multitude. | et factum est deinceps ibat in civitatem quae vocatur Naim et ibant cum illo discipuli eius et turba copiosa |
12 | And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother: and she was a widow. And a great multitude of the city was with her. | cum autem adpropinquaret portae civitatis et ecce defunctus efferebatur filius unicus matri suae et haec vidua erat et turba civitatis multa cum illa |
13 | Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, he said to her: Weep not. | quam cum vidisset Dominus misericordia motus super ea dixit illi noli flere |
14 | And he came near and touched the bier. And they that carried it stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. | et accessit et tetigit loculum hii autem qui portabant steterunt et ait adulescens tibi dico surge |
15 | And he that was dead sat up and begun to speak. And he gave him to his mother. | et resedit qui erat mortuus et coepit loqui et dedit illum matri suae |
16 | And there came a fear upon them all: and they glorified God saying: A great prophet is risen up among us: and, God hath visited his people. | accepit autem omnes timor et magnificabant Deum dicentes quia propheta magnus surrexit in nobis et quia Deus visitavit plebem suam |
17 | And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the country round about. | et exiit hic sermo in universam Iudaeam de eo et omnem circa regionem |
A dead Young man restor'd to Life by Christ
Figures de la Bible (1728)
Illustrated by Gerard Hoet (1648-1733), and others.
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