To: Kolokotronis
The fact is, as +John Chrysostomos teaches, the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops! With all due respect to John Chrysostom, that is something about which he could not have had any personal or supernatural knowledge.
125 posted on
11/29/2005 4:56:52 PM PST by
sinkspur
(Trust, but vilify.)
To: sinkspur
"With all due respect to John Chrysostom, that is something about which he could not have had any personal or supernatural knowledge."
Sure he did! He always maintained he was the chief among sinners! :)
If +John isn't good enough, how about this. In the late 6th esrly 7th century, a holy monastic named John Moschos, along with his understudy, Sophronius, made a trip around the littoral of the eastern Med visiting monasteries and collecting stories. At a monastery in Egypt he stayed with an abbot who told him how he had had two novices in his care. One was pious and holy and made good progress towards his vocation. The other was rebellious and disobedient but had a good heart. The abbot had to travel up to Jerusalem on some monastery business and left the two young novices behind. He was terribly worried about the rebellious novice and prayed for him many times a day while he was gone. When he returned to the monastery he found that the rebellious novice had died. The abbot locked himself in his cell and prayed fervently for the soul of the young novice, berating himself for not having been a better teacher and example for the young fellow. As he was praying he had a vision. In it the novice appeared, head only above the flames, in a river of fire! The abbot was stricken at the sight and begged the young man to forgive him for failing to pray harder for him. The novice replied that the abbot need have no concern on that account because God had heard the abbot's prayers and in His mercy had given the novice a bishop, upon whose shoulders he was at that very moment standing and on account of which his head was quite cool and comfortable.
182 posted on
11/29/2005 5:38:15 PM PST by
Kolokotronis
(Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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