Saint John Chrysostom quotes

When you are weary of praying, and do not receive, consider how often you have heard a poor man calling, and have not listened to him.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Men #Calling #Praying

The Eucharist is a fire that inflames us, that, like lions breathing fire, we may retire from the altar being made terrible to the devil.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Breathing #Fire #Devil

We pray not to inform God or instruct Him but to beseech Him closely, to be made intimate with Him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be reminded of our sins.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Prayer #Praying #Sin

Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Prayer #Mean #Joy

It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Prayer #Impossible #Aids

Since it is likely that, being men, they would sin every day, St. Paul consoles his hearers by saying 'renew yourselves' from day to day. This is what we do with houses: we keep constantly repairing them as they wear old. You should do the same thing to yourself. Have you sinned today? Have you made your soul old? Do not despair, do not despond, but renew your soul by repentance, and tears, and Confession, and by doing good things. And never cease doing this.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Faith #Men #House

A comprehended god is no god.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Atheist

When the Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels, who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Angel #Sanctuary #Victim

Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Prayer #Sadness #Worry

The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Animal #Bees #Labor

If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Summer #Winter #Garden

Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Mother #Prayer #Blessing

No matter how just your words may be, you ruin everything when you speak with anger.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Christian #Anger #May

The pains of hell are not the greatest part of hell; the loss of heaven is the weightiest woe of hell.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Pain #Loss #Heaven

As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Men #Envy #Christianity

In the Christian combat, not the striker, as in the Olympic contests, but he who is struck, wins the crown. This is the law in the celestial theatre, where the Angels are the spectators.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Christian #Anger #Angel

Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Poverty #Reason #Poor

It is better to err by excess of mercy than by excess of severity. . .Wilt thou become a Saint? Be severe to thyself but kind to others.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Anger #Saint #Excess

"He passed over his fall, and appointed him first of the Apostles; wherefore He said: ' 'Simon, Simon,' etc. (in Ps. cxxix. 2). God allowed him to fall, because He meant to make him ruler over the whole world, that, remembering his own fall, he might forgive those who should slip in the future. And that what I have said is no guess, listen to Christ Himself saying: 'Simon, Simon, etc.'"
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Forgiveness #Fall #Forgiving

God asks little, but He gives much.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Giving #Littles #Saint

You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Catholic #Done #Dresses

Abba Moses asked Abba Sylvanus, Can a person lay a new foundation every day? The old man replied, If you work hard, you can lay a new foundation every moment. Abba Pimen said, To throw yourself before God, not to measure your progress, to leave behind all self-will; these are the instruments for the work of the soul. The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Christian #Mother #Hard Work

We are commanded to have only one enemy, the devil. With him never be reconciled! But with a brother, never be at enmity in thy heart.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Brother #Heart #Enemy

For Christians above all men are forbidden to correct the stumblings of sinners by force...it is necessary to make a man better not by force but by persuasion. We neither have authority granted us by law to restrain sinners, nor, if it were, should we know how to use it, since God gives the crown to those who are kept from evil, not by force, but by choice.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Christian #Men #Evil

That is true plenty, not to have, but not to want riches.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Contentment #Plenty

An insult is either sustained or destroyed, not by the disposition of those who insult, but by the disposition of those who bear it.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Insult

It is a shame for a man to desire honor because of his noble progenitors, and not to deserve it by his own virtue.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Men #Honor #Desire

Such is friendship, that through it we love places and seasons; for as bright bodies emit rays to a distance, and flowers drop their sweet leaves on the ground around them, so friends impart favor even to the places where they dwell. With friends even poverty is pleasant. Words cannot express the joy which a friend imparts; they only can know who have experienced. A friend is dearer than the light of heaven, for it would be better for us that the sun were exhausted than that we should be without friends.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Friendship #Sweet #Distance

Every man is the painter and the sculptor of his own life.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Men #Painter

Intemperance is a hydra with a hundred heads. She never stalks abroad unaccompanied with impurity, anger, and the most infamous profligacies.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Infamous #Stalking

Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground; for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep her fruit till it be ripe.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Retirement #Tree #Thyself

Consider how august a privilege it is, when angels are present, and archangels throng around, when cherubim and seraphim encircle with their blaze the throne, that a mortal may approach with unrestrained confidence, and converse with heaven's dread Sovereign! O, what honor was ever conferred like this?
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#Prayer #Angel #Honor

The Jews were God's chosen people.
-- Saint John Chrysostom

#People #Jew #Chosen