Your Home as Church

What should a family do after church on Sunday?

St. John Chrysostom (407s)  advocated that every family make their home into a church where the scriptures continue to be discussed and where Christian education occurs.  The responsibility for the salvation of the members of one’s family – teaching them the scriptures, teaching them prayer, teaching them moral living, teaching them repentance and forgiveness, teaching them to be thankful, generous, merciful and kind – falls on the parents who must also teach by example.

“Let us take all this to heart, then, dearly beloved, and on returning home let us serve a double meal, one of food and the other of sacred reading; while the husband reads what has been said, let the wife learn and the children listen, and let not even servants be deprived of the chance to listen. Turn your house into a church; you are, in fact, even responsible for the salvation both of the children and of the servants.  Just as we are accountable for you, so too each of you is accountable for your servant, your wife, your child.”     (St. John Chrysostom, Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, pgs. 19-20)

One thought on “Your Home as Church

  1. Pingback: Don’t Be Novel or Creative. Just Be Faithful | Do the Word

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