John Chrysostom: Consequences of Wicked Theatre

Is not the former place the source of ruined lives, broken marriages, squabbles and wrangles in homes? I mean, when you are dissipated with the spectacle there, and become more dissolute and lecherous and resistant to any self-control, on returning home and seeing your wife, it is altogether a more disagreeable prospect, no matter what she is like: aflame with the lust arising from the spectacles, and enthralled by that novel and beguiling experience, for your chaste and comely partner sharing your whole life you have only scorn and abuse, and inflict on her countless taunts, having nothing to reproach her with but ashamed to mention your problem and display the wound you came back home with. You concoct numberless pretexts, looking for irrational grounds for hostility, scorning everything at home while pining for that loathsome and filthy object of desire by which you have been smitten. With the deafening sound of that voice fixed in your soul, as well as the whore's appearance and gaze and movements, and every image of her, you find nothing at home a pleasure to look upon.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Homilies on David and Saul, Homily 3, in St. John Chrysostom, Old Testament Homilies, Volume 1, p. 41 (2003), Robert C. Hill translator.

John Chrysostom: Avoid Wicked Theatre

Hence I beg and implore you to cleanse yourself first by abasement and repentance and every other means from the sin of the spectacle in that place, and thus attend to the divine sayings. After all, this is no slight fault on our part; you could recognize this clearly even from parallels. If, for example, into your closet, where there are kept the owner's clothes rich and golden in material, a servant wore a garment all filthy and grubby, I ask you, surely you would not take kindly to the disrespect? And if someone poured dung and mire into a golden vase usually containing perfumes, would you not actually beat the one guilty of this? Then shall we take such care of closets and vessels and garments and perfumes while not regarding our soul to be more elevated than all these? And where the spiritual perfume is poured would we introduce devilish processions, satanic tales and ditties oozing impurity? Tell me, how would God take this? Actually there is not much difference between perfume and mire, masters' garments and slaves', as between spiritual grace and this evil activity. Are you not terrified, mortal that you are, to gaze with the same eyes both on the bed on the stage, where the loathsome rites of adultery are performed, and on this sacred table, where the awesome sacraments are enacted? to listen with the same ears both to shameful depravity and to Old and New Testament readings schooling you in the mysteries? to make the same heart recipient of both the baleful potions and the awesome and holy victim?

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Homilies on David and Saul, Homily 3, in St. John Chrysostom, Old Testament Homilies, Volume 1, pp. 40-41 (2003), Robert C. Hill translator.

John Chrysostom: People Read Themselves into Others

After all, how could the one who despite so many kindnesses was hostile [i.e. Saul] to the man who had done him no harm [i.e. David] come to believe that the wronged man had the wrongdoer in his hands and spared him? I mean, in most cases the general run of people form opinions about others on the basis of their own situation - for instance, the persistent drunkard would not readily believe that someone lives in sobriety, the patron of whores thinks those of spotless life are licentious, and likewise the one who purloins other people's property would not easily be convinced that there are people who even give away their possessions.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Homilies on David and Saul, Homily 2, in St. John Chrysostom, Old Testament Homilies, Volume 1, p. 33 (2003), Robert C. Hill translator.

John Chrysostom: Scriptural Cure for Passion

Let us not only write this on our minds but also repeatedly discuss it with one another in our get-togethers; let us constantly revive the memory of this story both with our wives and with the children. In fact, if you to talk about a king, see, there is a king here, if about soldiers, about a household, about political affairs, you will find a great abundance of these things in the Scriptures. These narratives bring the greatest benefit: it is impossible - impossible, I say - for a soul nourished on these stories ever to manage to fall victim to passion.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Homilies on David and Saul, Homily 1, in St. John Chrysostom, Old Testament Homilies, Volume 1, pp. 24-25 (2003), Robert C. Hill translator.

Gregory of Nyssa: Pillar and Ground of Truth is Timothy

Whenever the prophet looks to the tabernacle above, he sees the heavenly realities through these symbols. But if one should look at the tabernacle below (since in many places the Church also is called Christ by Paul), it would be well to regard the names "apostles, teachers, and prophets" as referring to those servants of the divine mystery whom Scripture also calls pillars of the Church. For it is not only Peter and John and James who are pillars of the Church, nor was only John the Baptist a burning light, but all those who themselves support the church and become lights through their own works are called "pillars" and "lights." You are the light of the world, says the Lord to the Apostles. And again the divine Apostle bids others to be pillars, saying Be steadfast and unmovable. And he made Timothy into an excellent pillar, when he made him (as he says in his own words) a pillar and ground of truth.

- Gregory of Nyssa (around A.D. 335 to around A.D. 395), The Life of Moses, Section 184, p. 101 (1978), Malherbe et al. editors

John Chrysostom: Let Your Heart Learn From Your Tongue

In your case, therefore, dearly beloved, imitate this man, and learn this lesson first, never to use scurrilous names of your foe, but respectful ones; should your mouth be in the habit of calling your aggressor by names that are respectful and betoken service, the soul on hearing this will learn from the tongue, become accustomed and undergo a change of heart towards him. The words themselves will be the best remedy for the heart's choler.

- John Chrysostom (around A.D. 347 to around A.D. 407), Old Testament Homilies, Volume 1, Homilies on David and Saul, Homily One, p. 24 (2003), Robert C. Hill translator.

Theodoret of Cyrus: Household Conspicuous in Piety is a Church

He compliments Philemon by calling him fellow worker, and he associates with him his partner as one who shares the faith; she would probably have opposed the letter's contents had she been passed over. Archippus had been entrusted with their instruction: he wrote about him to the Colossians, "Say to Archippus, Be careful to discharge the ministry you received in the Lord." He included him in the exhortation, and as well as these people the whole household, which he called a church, for being conspicuous for piety, so that even the servants, being dignified by the apostle's reference, should prove to be fellow workers in the exhortation.

- Theodoret of Cyrus (around A.D. 393 to around A.D. 457), Commentary on Philemon, in Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul, Volume 2, p. 261 (2001), Robert C. Hill translator.