“The Lord knew that vanity may spring from every good thing, and therefore bids us root out the bramble of vain-gloriousness which springs in the good soil, that it choke not the fruit of fasting. For though it cannot be that fasting should not be discovered in any one, yet is it better that fasting …
“Do not say this happened by chance, while this came to be of itself.’ In all that exists there is nothing disorderly, nothing indefinite, nothing without purpose, nothing by chance … How many hairs are on your head? God will not forget one of them. Do you see how nothing, even the smallest thing, escapes …
“People should not claim for themselves what they have not obtained as a result of their own effort. They need to explain it as the gift that they have received freely from God; otherwise He will withdraw such blessings from the ungrateful. The Baptist did not want that to happen to him for he wanted …
“Submit in complete obedience, in accordance with God’s will, as our fathers have, especially receiving counsel with faith and trust. Humility and purity, the fear of God and persevering attentively in God’s ways: these are the greatest of all the virtues, and they cause the soul to be luminous in God through these consummate achievements.” …
“Which mercy we find not indeed by our own seeking, but God from on high has appeared to us, as it follows; Whereby (i.e. by His tender mercy) the day-spring from on high (that is, Christ) has visited us, taking upon Him our flesh.” St John Chrysostom #HappyNewYear #NewBeginning #GodsMercy #Lightindarkness #Peace #Joy #NewYearsEve #BirthofStJohntheBaptist …
