The Kiss of Peace
Greet one another with a holy kiss — peace exchanged in the assembly
The Kiss of Peace is a ritual greeting of peace — a kiss, embrace, or handshake — exchanged among the faithful during worship. Paul urges believers to greet one another with a holy kiss, and Justin Martyr's First Apology describes it in the early liturgy. The custom is kept across communions, though its placement differs: before the anaphora in Eastern rites, and near the Our Father in the Roman rite.
How it traveled
- Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His LifeAlexandria · c. 373 CEapplies
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · c. 386 CEexplains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the RomansConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEexplains
Key passages(19)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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Homilies on Second Corinthians · John Chrysostom
Homily XXX. 2 Cor. xiii. 10 For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not when present deal sharply, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for
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Chapter XVIII.—Of the Kiss of Peace. Another custom has now become prevalent. Such as are fasting withhold the kiss of peace, which is the seal of prayer, after prayer made with brethren. But when is
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But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hear
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Lecture XXIII. (On the Mysteries. V.) On the Sacred Liturgy and Communion This title is added by the Benedictine Editor. There is nothing corresponding to it in the Greek. 1 Pet. ii. 1 Wherefore
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Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
(The Bidding Prayer, etc., p. 485.) 1. Supplications. 2. Prayers, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. 3. Intercessions. 4. General Thanksgiving. The Kiss of Peace. 5. Anaphora. The Lord Jesus th
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Homilies on First Corinthians · John Chrysostom
[3.] Ver. 15. “Now I beseech you, brethren;—ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to minister unto the saints.” In the beginning too
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans · John Chrysostom
Hammond reads the name Junias, and supposes a man to be intended. It is impossible to determine with certainty whether ἐπισήμοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις (7) means that the persons referred to were themselv
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans · John Chrysostom
To cast out of them, by this salutation, all arguing that confused them, and all grounds for little pride; that neither the great might despise the little, nor the little grudge at the greater, but th
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom · John Chrysostom
See Bingham 13, 10, 8, quoting St. Chrys. Hom. in eos qui primum Pascha jejunant, P. vi. 383. Sav. “There is nothing like peace and harmony. Therefore our Father (the Bishop) mounts not up to this thr
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Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life · Athanasius of Alexandria
Thanks be to Divine Providence for those things which, at all times, it vouchsafes to us; for it has vouchsafed to us now to come to the season of the festival. Having, therefore, according to custom,
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Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose · Ambrose of Milan
Ps. li. [l.] 17. Ps. cxvi. [cxv.] 10. Ps. lxxi. [lxx.] 8. 15. And the same Scripture teaches you concerning the infusion of special grace, that he kisses Christ who receives the Spirit, where the h
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The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods · The Ecumenical Councils
Such is the new theory, which, even if rejected, at least is valuable in drawing attention to the great importance of the vigil-service in the Early Church, an importance still attaching to it in Russ
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Then, regarding the consecration, performed by supernatural power, the people are first of all excited to devotion in the "Preface," hence they are admonished "to lift up their hearts to the Lord," an
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Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life · Athanasius of Alexandria
3. And what does this mean my brethren? For it is right for us to investigate the saying of the prophet, and especially on account of heretics who have turned their mind against the law. By Moses then
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Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life · Athanasius of Alexandria
7. Oh! my dearly beloved, if we shall gain comfort from afflictions, if rest from labours, if health after sickness, if from death immortality, it is not right to be distressed by the temporal ills th
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Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose · Ambrose of Milan
23. If these acts looked like tyranny, that I had arms, but only in the Name of Christ, that I had the power of offering my own body. Why, I said, did he delay to strike, if he thought me a tyrant? Th
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Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life · Athanasius of Alexandria
Again, my brethren, is Easter come and gladness; again the Lord hath brought us to this season; so that when, according to custom, we have been nourished with His words, we may duly keep the feast. Le
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
22. Then after thou hast partaken of the Body of Christ, draw near also to the Cup of His Blood; not stretching forth thine hands, but bendingAmen κύπτων, not kneeling, but standing in a bowing postu
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