St. Mary Church issued the following announcement on Sept. 13.

 “Speaking truth to power” may have become just another cliché, but doing precisely that cost John “the Golden Mouth” (Chrysostom) his diocese and, after exile and a forced march, his health and life. “Renowned for eloquence, heroic in suffering” (Sacramentary), John’s scriptural insights still comfort and challenge. Mystical theologian, he bids Eastern Christians, whose principal Divine Liturgy bears his name, to lift up their hearts to “God ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever, always the same.” Model pastor, he warns Roman Catholics in the Liturgy of the Hours not to neglect God-in-the-flesh: “Would you honor Christ’s body? Do not scorn his nakedness, honoring him here in church with silken robes, while neglecting him cold and naked outside. What use to burden Christ’s altar with golden chalices, while Christ himself starves to death? What use dressing the altar with gold-woven cloths, while denying the shivering Christ the clothes he needs? Do not adorn the church while ignoring your needy brother: he is the most precious temple of all!” (Saturday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time).

—Peter Scagnelli, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.

Original source can be found here.