Comments on: Saint John Chrysostom and 21st Century Christians

By: Eliot Ryan

Eliot Ryan — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:58:33 +0000

In reply to cynthia curran. Cynthia: Of course, St. John was opposed to distractions, sin, and to everything that prevented people from devoting their time to God. All these are obstacles in peoples' spiritual growth into the light of divine love. Elder Paisios

Spiritual love is superior to the love between natural brothers and sisters because one relates to another through Christ and not a common mother. Those who possess this pure (noble) love are full of kindness, because they have Christ inside them and the Godhead is depicted on their faces. Naturally, it is impossible for Christ’s love to enter within us unless we separate our self from our love, offer it to God and His images, and give ourselves to others without wanting them to commit themselves to us.

Now, we live in times when temptation is just a mouse-click away. Distractions and time killer productions are always at hand in our homes through the television set. This is not everything ... games, all facets of the entertainment industry were lately blossoming to keep us "happy". And souls are "falling into hell like snowflakes fall in a snow-storm"...

By: cynthia curran

cynthia curran — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:24:54 +0000

What is interesting about the public baths about 200 years earlier Trajan had men and women at the public baths not at the same time to avoid some of the problems mention. However, outside of the public baths were brothels. Also, St John also opposed the horse races of the hippodrome. Now, many here would not think the horse races were that bad, but a lot of times charioteers and horses were killed. Also, the circus factions the whites, reds and greens and blues were work up in a fury from the races like the most violent soceer matches in the modern world. And the two biggest factions the greens and the blues had a small violent faction that had gang fights among each other and committed crimes. This proves that gang violent was nothing new and the was a century worst after St John’s death. Also, he opposed the semi-nude theatre of the Byzantine empire which the most famous actress over a century after St John’s death the empress Theodora came from. Naked threatre is not a invention of modern times. And St John lived in an area where girls as young as 9 years were kept in brothels, similar to some third world countries today.