Monachos.net is pleased to announce that, in partnership with Ancient Faith Radio, a new series of weekly internet broadcasts was launched on 1st December 2008. Called A Word From the Holy Fathers, after the section of the Monachos.net web site of the same name, this weekly 'podcast' offers a reflection on a specific writing from the Fathers of the Church, with a brief summary of its history, meaning and application for today.
You can listen to the audio trailer for the new series:
The broadcasts are made available here on Monachos.net, below, and also on AncientFaithRadio.com. As podcasts, they are also available through a number of outlets - the Apple iTunes music store (free podcasting area), Google feeds, and elsewhere. Internet broadcasts can be listened to on-line, or downloaded for listening as convenient in your iPod or other digital music player.
We hope these new Word From the Holy Fathers broadcasts will prove a useful addition to the work of this web site.
The Wonder of the Incarnation – St Gregory the Theologian
11 January 2010
In this fiftieth and final episode of the current series of A Word From the Holy Fathers, we examine a poignant reflection on ‘the wonder of the Incarnation’ by St Gregory of Nazianzus. The broadcast concludes with a small announcement about the conclusion of this series, and advance notice of its return with a new series in a month’s time.
Remembering the Mother of God: St Cyril on the Theotokos and the Incarnation
28 December 2009
In this season of Christ’s incarnate coming in the flesh, we take a moment to reflect, through the words of St Cyril of Alexandria, on the role of the Virgin Theotokos in the nativity of the true God, Jesus Christ.
St Nicholas Cabasilas on the Assurance of the True Body and Blood
14 December 2009
In every age there is the temptation to doubt the Mysteries of the Church—to question how it is that the faithful should remain secure in believing that Christ makes Himself truly present in Body and Blood at the Holy Table. In this week’s episode, we examine an extended text by Nicholas Cabasilas, on the substance of our faith in the Mystical Supper.
St John the Dwarf: A Life of All the Virtues
01 December 2009
What has a man whose obedience once caused a barren stick to blossom forth a tree in the desert, to tell us today about the life of virtue? Is it possible for man today to partake of all the virtues? In this week’s broadcast, we examine two sayings of Fr John the Short of Egypt on the accessibility of all the virtues through the foundation of the love of neighbour.
St John of the Ladder on Seeking a Suitable Way of Life
09 November 2009
St John of the Ladder, whom we normally read during Great Lent, is a Father who offers practical guidance to Christian life of every moment. In this week’s broadcast, we explore a series of passages from Step 1 of St John’s Ladder to Paradise, on the specific issue of the universal calling of the Christian life, coupled with the need for each person to seek out a suitable way of life for the spiritual struggle to be exercised.
‘Glory to God who has shown Himself to us!’—St Ephrem & St John on the Nativity
04 January 2010
In a broadcast for the Feast of the Nativity According to the Flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ, we reflect on two hymns of St Ephrem the Syrian, and a portion of a homily by St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, on the glory of the night of Christ’s full revelation.
The Coming of the Lord – St Leo the Great
21 December 2009
In this week's broadcast, we examine a sermon by St Leo of Rome, normally read in the season of Pascha, yet which sheds great light on the coming of the Lord and the pastoral message to be gleaned from the intense theological disputes about Christ’s natures that raged in the early Church.
Abba Poemen the Great: On Softening the Hardest of Hearts
07 December 2009
In this week’s broadcast, we examine three sayings by Abba Poemen (‘The Shepherd’) of Egypt, on the means by which the hardest heart can be softened by the Lord.
St John Chrysostom on the Charity of Fasting
23 November 2009
In this week’s broadcast, we offer a reflection on a selection of sayings of St John Chrysostom on the pastoral nature of fasting as an act of charity. In what sense does our fast minister to our neighbour?
St Cyprian on Cain, Abel and True Self-Sacrifice
02 November 2009
What are we to make of the Genesis account of Cain and Abel? In this broadcast of A Word From the Holy Fathers we examine a portion of St Cyprian of Carthage’s Treatise on the Lord’s Prayer that shows forth Abel as the first martyr, the example of true self-sacrifice. And it is a lesson with a practical aim: the quenching of anger and hatred, and the discovery of a life offered more wholly to God.
