When you see a poor man, do not pass by, but immediately consider what you would desire if you were that poor man. What would you not wish all to do for you?
VERS. 18. Little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
It does not even suffice to have offered service, but [this must be done] with liberality and not with sorrowful benevolence, but rather not only without sorrow, but with a cheerful and joyful mind.
CAP. IV.
VERS. 8. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.
And what sort of love does he mean? That which is sincere, and not that which terminates in words. It is certainly that which proceeds from the mind and will and experiences pity from a pure heart. For there is also a love among the wicked: thus thieves love thieves, and murderers love murderers. But this love is not from a good conscience, but from a bad one.
SUPPLEMENT TO THE LITURGY OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM.
(Goar, Rituale Græcorum, edit. Paris. 1647, p. 783.)
A Chrysostom’s prayer for those suffering from demons and every infirmity.
Let us pray to the Lord.
O eternal God, who hast delivered the race of mankind from the captivity of the devil, deliver thy servant from every operation of unclean spirits; command the wicked and unclean spirits and demons to depart from the soul and body of this thy servant, and not to remain or hide within him. May they be put to flight in thy holy name, and that of thine only-begotten Son, and of thy life-giving Spirit, from the creature of thy hands. That having been cleansed from every diabolical influence, he may live holily, justly, and godly, being accounted worthy of the immaculate mysteries of thine only-begotten Son and our God, with whom thou art blessed and glorified, together with thy most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Another prayer of the same.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Thou who rebukest all unclean spirits, and by the power of thy word didst cast out the legion, manifest thyself now through thine only-begotten Son upon this creature whom thou didst create in thine image, and deliver it from the one by whom it is oppressed; that having received mercy from thee, it may be cleansed and gathered into thy holy fold, and may be preserved as a living temple of the holy Spirit and of the divine and immaculate sacraments, by the grace and mercies and philanthropy of thine only-begotten Son, with whom thou art blessed, together with thy most holy and good and life-giving Spirit, D now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
A Another prayer of the same. Let us pray to the Lord. We call upon thee, Master, God Almighty, most high, without end, king of peace; we call upon thee who hast created heaven and earth. For from thee sprung up both the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who hast given to men to be obeyed by four-footed and irrational animals; for thou, Lord, hast subjected them. Stretch forth thy mighty hand and thine exalted and holy arm, and watching over it, look upon this thy creature. Send down upon it a peaceful angel, a mighty angel, a guardian of soul and body, who shall rebuke and B drive away from it every evil and unclean demon. For thou art the only Lord, most high, almighty, blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Another prayer of the same. Let us pray to the Lord. Divine and holy and great and tremendous and intolerable appellation and invocation of God, we approach and carry out for the sake of thy expulsion and rebuke, O apostate; therefore, for thy destruction, O devil, may the holy God, without beginning, fearful, invisible in essence, unthinkable in power, and incomprehensible in divinity, the King of glory and almighty Master, rebuke thee, O devil, who from nothing brought all things into existence by his word in good order, who walkest upon the wings of the winds. The Lord rebukes thee, O devil, he who calls up the water of the sea and pours it out upon the face of all the earth; Lord of hosts is his name. The Lord rebukes thee, O devil, he who is served and praised with fear by the countless heavenly fiery ranks, and who is worshipped and glorified with trembling by the multitude of angelic and archangelic choirs. The Lord rebukes thee, O devil, he who is honored by the powers standing in a circle around him, and by the most fearful six-winged and many-eyed Cherubim and Seraphim, who veil their own faces with C two wings because of his invisible and unsearchable divinity, and with two wings veil their own feet, so as not to be consumed D by his unspeakable glory and incomprehensible majesty, and with two wings fly and fill the heaven with their cry, saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord Sabaoth; the heaven and the earth are full of his glory." The Lord rebukes thee, O devil, he who descended from the paternal bosom, God the Word from heaven, and through the holy and worshipful birth from the Virgin, ineffably and immaculately incarnate, appeared in the
world to save it, and by his own authoritative power cast you down from heaven, and showed you to be utterly powerless. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who said to the sea: “Be silent, be still,” and at his command it was immediately calmed. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who with immaculate spittle made clay, and fashioned the missing limb for the man blind from birth, and granted him sight. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who by his word made the daughter of the synagogue leader live, and snatched the widow’s son from the jaws of death, and restored him whole and sound to his own mother. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who presented Lazarus, who had been dead four days, B from among the dead, uncorrupted as if he had not died, and spotless, to the amazement of the many. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who through the slap received in the face abolished the curse, and through the wound in his immaculate side extinguished the flaming sword guarding paradise. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who through the spitting upon his own venerable countenance wiped away every tear from every face. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who fixed the cross as a foundation and salvation for the world, but for a fall for you and all the angels under you. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who gave forth a voice upon his cross, and the veil of the temple was torn, and the rocks were rent, and the tombs were opened, and the dead from of old arose. The Lord rebukes you, O devil, who by death slew death, and by his rising granted life to men. C May the Lord rebuke you, O devil, who descended into Hades, and shook its monuments, and freed all the prisoners held within it, and recalled them to himself; whom the gatekeepers seeing, they shuddered, and in the anguish of Hades they fled and hid themselves. May the Lord rebuke you, O devil, Christ our God, who rose from the dead and granted his resurrection to all. May the Lord rebuke you, O devil, who ascended in glory into the heavens to his Father, and sits on the throne of glory at the right hand of the Majesty. May the Lord rebuke you, O devil, who shall come again with glory upon the clouds of heaven, with his holy angels, to judge the living and the dead. May the Lord rebuke you, O devil, who prepared for you the unquenchable fire, the undying worm, and the outer darkness for eternal punishment. May the Lord rebuke you, O devil, whom everything shudders before and trembles from the face of his power, for the wrath of his threat against you is unbearable. The Lord himself rebukes you, O devil, through his terrible name: D shudder, tremble, fear, depart, be destroyed, be driven away, you who fell from heaven, and with you all the evil spirits: any spirit of uncleanness, spirit of wickedness, spirit nocturnal and diurnal, meridional and vespertinal; spirit of midnight, spirit of phantasm, spirit of interception, whether terrestrial or aquatic, whether in groves, or in reeds, or in ravines, or in
crossroads, or in three-way intersections, in lakes, and in rivers, in houses, in courtyards, and in public baths, passing by and harming and altering the mind of man. Depart quickly from the creature of the Creator, Christ our God, and release the servant of God here present, from his mind, from his soul, from his heart, from his kidneys, from his senses, from all his limbs, for him to be healthy and whole, and free, acknowledging his own Master and the Creator, God of all, who gathers together those who have wandered and gives them the seal of salvation through the birth and renewal of holy baptism, to be deemed worthy of His immaculate and heavenly and awesome mysteries, and joined to His true flock, dwelling in a place of pasture, and nourished upon the water of rest, and guided pastorally and securely by the staff of the cross, for the remission of sins and unto life eternal. For unto Him is due all glory, honor, and worship, and majesty, together with His beginningless Father, and His all-holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit; now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. A And may he acknowledge the Creator of all, God, who calls back and gathers to Himself those who wander, and imparts to them the sign of salvation through the regeneration and renewal of holy baptism; and may he become worthy of His immaculate, heavenly, and tremendous mysteries, and be joined to His true sheepfold, nurtured in a place of refreshment, upon the waters of rest, and led securely like a sheep by the staff of the cross; for the remission of sins and eternal life. Since to Him belongs all glory, honor, and adoration, and majesty, with His Father who is without beginning, and His all-holy, and good, and life-giving Spirit: now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.