Category: Patristic Homily

  • Patristic Prooftexts

    Patristic Prooftexts

    THE COVER IMAGE is one of my favourite books of all times, The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Fr Olivier Clement. I have owned three copies of it, I think. Maybe four. Until recently, I also had my original one: the cover was broken and almost every page was marked up. The writer, an Orthodox…

  • Never be Thrown Away

    From: Meditations and Devotions By Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman Section 3:2 God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His will to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He has…

  • Before Our Father

    A Patristic Homily on the Gospel Reading for today, Tuesday in the First Week of Lent, from the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas, using the words of Sts Augustine, John Cassian, John Chrysostom, and Pope Gregory the Great. Judaism has the teaching that God is the Father of us all. In the teaching of the…

  • Lo, Mercy is Feasting.

    A Patristic Homily for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday. From the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas, and the words of Sts Bede the Venerable, Cyril, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Theophylact. Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Luke and Mark, for the honor of the Evangelist, are silent as to his…

  • Why Not Fast?

    A Patristic Homily for the Friday after Ash Wednesday.From the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas, and the words of Sts John Chrysostom, Jerome, Rabanus, Augustine, Hillary. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples fast not?” This is arrogance – to take…

  • Take Up and Deny

    A Patristic Homily for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday.From the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas, and the words of Sts John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Bede the Venerable, Gregory the Great, and Theophylact, and also of Origen, the Teacher of the Fathers.If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up…

  • Do not Display Yourself

    For the Gospel for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18): A homily from the works of St John Chrysostom, Bishop. And when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Here we do well to sigh aloud, and to wail bitterly: for…