BENEDICT XVI: GENERAL AUDIENCE, JOHN CHRYSOSTOM AND THE GROWTH OF THE PERSON SINCE THE MOST TENDER AGE (2)

"Then, this is followed – went on the Pope as he went over the lessons of Saint John Chrysostom – by adolescence and youth" and finally by "getting engaged and getting married". To couples, Chrysostom shows the "virtue of temperance", and about marriage he highlights "the rich weave of tailor-made relationships". "Well-prepared couples – said the Pope – thus bar the way to divorce: everything happens with joy, and children can be educated to virtue. Then, when the first child is born, this is ‘like a bridge; the three become one, since the child binds the two parts together’, and the three form ‘a family, a small Church’". John Chrysostom – this year is the 16th centenary of his death (407-2007) – is one of the Fathers who have left the most written lessons: he left us – said the Pope – 17 treatises, over 700 sermons and 241 letters. "Every writing of his – said the Pope today – always aimed at developing in the devotees the practice of intelligence, so as to understand and translate into practice the moral and spiritual demands of faith".