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sode Fifteen in The Lives of the Saints – Second Series was uploaded to the Web last week. It celebrates the life of St. John Climacus, 7th C. abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, and includes many colorful illustrations on the author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent, one of the most important books of the early church in the realm of Christian Spirituality.
Not generally well-known in the Western Church tradition, The Ladder, is quite famous in the Eastern Church. The episode includes a reading of St. John’s text on the 30th step on the ladder. The illustration is a Russian Orthodox icon of unknown date.and which is in the public domain.
Watch Episode Fifteen Listen to the Podcast
As always, thank you for your interest and support. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!
I have uploaded two new videos this week. The first, Episode Ten, is Part Two of the celebration of the remarkable life of St. John Chrysostom, 4th-5th C. Bishop of Antioch, then Constantinople. Episode Ten includes a reading of the Seven Nocturne Prayers which caused so much distress among the Constantinople clergy called to return for evening worship instead of sumptuous dinners! In addition to the Nocturnes are four quotations from his writings.
Two new episodes in The Lives of the Saints (Second Series) were uploaded this week. Episode Nine celebrates the life and contributions to the Church Universal of St. Gregory Nazianzen, whose Feast Day is Jan. 25th. St. Gregory is also known by two other names: St. Gregory the Theologian and Gregory Nazianzus, which recognizes the name of his jurisdiction as Bishop in Asia Minor (now southeastern Turkey).
Episode Nine celebrates the life of the AIC’s patron saint, John Chrysostom, which literally means John the Golden Mouth. He was perhaps the most gifted pulpit orator of the Church in the first 1,000 years of Christianity. He left behind an enormous legacy of homilies on Genesis and the Psalms as well as the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, all the epistles of St. Paul, and St. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. He served the Church first at Antioch, the second See of the early Church, and later as the 12th Bishop of Constantinople, the last of the five early Sees of the Church. St. John was forced from office by Empress Eudoxia in 403 A.D. He returned briefly, owing to the strong public outcry against his expulsion, but was exiled a second and final time around 405 A.D. He died in exile in 407 A.D. HIs last words were: “Glory be to God for all things!” His remains, along with those of Gregory Nazainzen, were stolen in 1204 A.D. during the Fourth Crusade. For centuries, they remained in St. Peter’s Basilica (first the old one and then the current one). They were returned by Pope Benedict XVI in time for the Feast of St. Andrew in November 2006 A.D.
For Christmas Eve, a modern version of the evocative traditional English style of carols and lessons can be watched using the link below. It picks up where the Great “O” Antiphons ended with a series of prayers and responses for Christmas Eve:
One of the best programs the AIC has created is the series devoted to key theme words for each of the days from Christmas Day to Epiphany Eve. Below are the links for Dec. 25th through December 31st. Next week I will post the remaining links. The series has nothing whatsoever to do with the silly song of the same name.
Anglican Internet Church 