On the Priesthood: Saint John Chrysostom (Part II)
Saint John Chrysostom sees that the role of priests in the Mysteries (Sacraments) of Reconciliation/Confession, Baptism and Eucharist makes our salvation dependent upon them! "For if anyone will consider how great a thing it is for one, being a man, and compassed with flesh and blood, to be enabled to draw near to that blessed and pure nature, he will then clearly see that great honor the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to priests; since by their agency these rites are celebrated, and others nowise inferior to these both in respect of our dignity and our salvation.
On the Priesthood: Saint John Chrysostom
The priesthood is an institution of Christianity for which a man "of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom" (Acts 6:3) is ordained a priest and held the post of serving the Church. About this diakonia many of the early Church Holy Fathers wrote as well as how to live a priestly life. Saint John Chrysostom is the one of the main Church Holy Fathers who wrote about the sacred Priesthood. He wrote around six books which dealt with the Christian Priesthood.
Primacy and "Infallibility" of the Roman Pope
Orthodoxy is faith "in one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church".
The Orthodox Church, as "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), as a living organism, against which even "the gates of hell shall not prevail" (St. Matthew 16:18), and which has Christ Himself as its Head, abiding with it "always, even to the end of the age" (St. Matthew 28:20).
On the Veneration of the Holy Relics and Remains of the Saints (Part III)
"And they besought Him that they might touch if it were, but the border of His garment; and as many as touched Him were made whole" (St. Mark 6:56).
On the Veneration of the Holy Relics and Remains of the Saints (Part II)
Man was created for Incorruption
"God made not death: neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living" (Wisdom 1:13). "God created man for incorruption and made him to an image of His own eternity" (Wisdom 2:23). Corruption appeared after the fall. "Through the hatred of the devil death entered the world" (Wisdom 2:24). "Righteousness is immortal, but injustice causeth death" (Wisdom 1:15). "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
On the Veneration of the Holy Relics and Remains of the Saints
"Behold we count them happy which endure..." (James 5:11)
In the Apostolic Church, all the remains of the "friends of God," the righteous strugglers (1 Corinthians 9:25), were referred to as relics (lipsana) bones, heads, hair, hands, feet, and sometimes entire bodies, if there were preserved, through which the Lord God is glorified by mysterious wonders (miracles). The Protestant Lutherans and all sectarians reject the veneration of the holy remains of Christian strugglers, and, like the heretics of times past, laugh at this pious custom and scoff at Orthodox Christians who call upon the friends of God in their prayers to Him.