Today we celebrated the life of St John Chrysostom as Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of Luke (7: 1-10) which tells of the faith of the Centurion. After the Gospel, Fr Paul shares a little about St John’s life.

John was born in Antioch in the year 349. He was educated and then was ordained to the priesthood. He became a very fruitful and effective preacher. John was elected the Patriarch of Constantinople in 397. He incurred the displeasure of the Emperor twice and was twice forced to go into exile.  The second time was in Armenia, and at the time, it was decided to send him even further away, however, he died on that journey.

John gained the surname Chrysostom because of his eloquence. In Greek, ‘chysostom’ means ‘golden mouth’,

So, today, as we do in the tradition of our Church, Fr Paul says we pray, ‘John Chrysostom, pray for us’.

Before closing, Fr Paul also draws our attention to today’s Gospel because we hear words there that should be very familiar to us. Fr Paul says they help us understand when we received communion the words we say… if you recall, we say ‘Lord, I am not worthy to come under your roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed’.

Those are the words of the centurion in today’s Gospel that Fr Paul shared with us: ‘Sir, do not put yourself to trouble because I am not worthy to have you under my roof, but just say the word and my servant be cured,’ and Jesus was astonished at the faith of the centurion. That’s the origin of the words we used to prepare ourselves to receive communion.