Imagine a voice resounding—Tully's, perhaps. Some book of Cicero is read, or a dialogue, one of his or one of Plato's, or of some other great writer. Uneducated folk hear it, people of limited understanding. Which of them is bold enough to aspire to such works?

These books are like crashing, turbulent waters. or at least like water flowing so dangerously that a timid animal dare not approach to drink. But when we hear. In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gn 1:1), is there anyone who is too shy to drink? Is there anyone who hears a psalm ring out, and says, "That is above my head"? Take the strains of our present psalm, for instance: they conceal mysteries, to be sure, but so sweet are they that even children delight to listen to them. The unskilled approach to drink, and being satisfied they burst out into psalmody. - St Augustine, Exposition 3 on Psalm 103

#Patristics #Scripture

The kings of the earth have arisen, and the rulers conspired together, against the Lord and against his Christ.

Let us burst their chains asunder and throw their yoke away from us

You, whoever you are, were once his enemy; you will find yourself under his feet, either adopted or subjugated. Which place will you have under the feet of the Lord your God?

The choice is yours, for you must have either grace or punishment.

Christ sits, then, at God's right hand until his enemies are thrust beneath his feet. This is happening; the process is going forward; it may be slow but it never ceases. Though the nations have raged and the peoples have devised futile schemes, though the kings of the earth have arisen and the rulers conspired together against the Lord and against his Christ, what will their raging, their scheming, or their conspiracies against Christ achieve?

Of course not. It will certainly be fulfilled, in spite of their raging and their futile schemes - St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 109

God therefore said He would destroy them, but Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach in His presence.

This does not mean that Moses stood in the breach in the sense of making a breach in God's anger." He stood amid the breaking, shattering plague that would have struck the people; that is to say, he stood there to draw it on himself and shield them with his own person, beseeching God, you are willing to forgive them this sin, forgive them; but if not, blot me out of your book (Ex 32:31-32).

This episode proves how powerful with God is the intercession of the saints. Moses was so certain of divine justice that he knew God could not blot him out, and thus he obtained mercy for others, that God might not blot out the people, as he could most justly have done. This was how Moses stood in the breach in his presence to avert God's anger, that he might not destroy them. - St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 105

#Patristics #Veneration_saints

For it is evident from where [the phrase] “having been chosen” and from where the choice are: because there were many myriads upon the earth, and Mary alone “found favor,” and in her he chose the holy flesh.

Because of this he was saying, “I am well pleased,” as David also says, from the person of the Apostles who have believed in the Lord and who indicate with joy to the nations his grace, because “he subjected the peoples for us and nations under our feet, <he chose for us his inheritance>, the beauty of Jacob, which he loved,” that is, the purity of his beauty, the beauty of all of Jacob, the flesh that was chosen from Mary through the Holy Spirit. - Epiphanius of Salamis, Anchoratus, 49.4-6

#Patristics #Incarnation #Christology #Mariology

The sum is that the bishop doth inspire Into this edifice an holy fire,
A living flame,
which never shall go out,
So long as they, which tend it, are devout.

why He thus took upon him the seed of Abraham, was, because He tooke upon Him, to deliver the seede of Abraham.

Deliver them He could not, except He destroyed death, and the Lord of death, the devil. Them, He could not destroy, unlesse He dyed: Dye He could not, except He were mortall: Mortall He could not be, except He tooke our nature on Him, that is, the seede of Abraham.

But, taking it, He became mortall, dyed, destroyed death, delivered us; was (Himselfe) apprehended, that we might be lett goe. - Lancelot Andrewes, Sermon 1, On the Nativity

#Anglican #Incarnation #Soteriology

The brightness which Moses put on was wrapped on him from without, whereas the river in which Christ was baptized put on Light from within; likewise did Mary’s body, in which He resided, gleam from within.

Just as Moses gleamed with the divine glory because he saw the splendour briefly,
how much more should the body wherein Christ resided gleam,
and the river wherein he was baptized?

St Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Church, no.36

#Patrisrics #Mariology

Your mother is a cause of wonder:

The Lord entered into her —and became a servant;

He who is the Word entered —and became silent within her;

Thunder entered her —and made no sound;

there entered the Shepherd of all,

and in her He became the Lamb, bleating as He comes forth.

Your mother’s womb has reversed the roles:

the Establisher of all entered in His richness, but came forth poor;

the Exalted One entered her, but came forth meek;

the Splendrous One entered her, but came forth having put on a lowly hue.

The Mighty One entered, and put on insecurity from her womb;

the Provisioner of all entered and experienced hunger;

He who gives drink to all entered
and experienced thirst:

naked and stripped there came forth from her He who clothes all!

St Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity 11

#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology #Mariology

The crucifiers assumed that our Lord had died, and that His signs had died with Him. But His signs were seen living through His disciples, so that the killers would recognize that the Lord of the signs was alive. First, the accusations of His killers that His disciples had stolen His corpse caused a tumult. Then later, His signs (performed) by His disciples caused a tumult.

The disciples, who were thought to have stolen a lifeless corpse, were found to be giving life to other corpses! But the unbelievers were quick to say that His disciples had stolen His body, so that (the unbelievers) would be caught in the humiliation which was about to be revealed. And the disciples, who (they claimed) stole a dead body from living guards, were found to be banishing death in the name of the One who was stolen, so that death would not steal the life of the living. - St Ephrem the Syrian, Homily on Our Lord, Section XIII

#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology

He spat on His fingers and put them in the deafmute's ears. And he made mud with his saliva, and applied it to the blind man's eyes, so we would know that, just as there was a deficiency in the pupils of that blind man from his mother's womb, so too, there was a deficiency in the ears of this deaf man.

So, with yeast from the body of the one who completes, the deficiency of our creation was filled up. It would not have been appropriate for our Lord to sever a part of His body to fill up the deficiency of other bodies. He filled up the deficiency of the deficient with something He was able to separate from Himself. Just as mortals consume Him by means of something edible, in the same way He filled up deficiency and gave life to mortality. So we should learn that the deficiency of the deficient was filled up from a body in which fullness resided. And life was given to mortals from a body in which life resided. - St Ephrem the Syrian, ibid. Section XI

#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology #Eucharist