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| In new interview, Abp. Viganò discusses ‘failure’ of Vatican II, Novus Ordo Mass |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-16-2021, 06:42 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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It is interesting to anyone familiar with the words and writings of Archbishop Lefebvre (see here and here, as examples) how the conclusions of these two prelates surveying this spiritual battlefield are nearly identical. All emphasis mine.
In new interview, Abp. Viganò discusses ‘failure’ of Vatican II, Novus Ordo Mass
The next Pope will have to restore all the liturgical books and banish from Catholic churches their unseemly parody, in whose realization notorious modernists and heretics collaborated.
June 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Viganò has given a new interview, this time to Abbé Claude Barthe, a French expert of the liturgy and a great supporter of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum allowing the traditional Latin Mass to flourish in the Church. The interview dwells on liturgical questions, the Second Vatican Council, as well as the Society of St. Pius X.
Abbé Barthe, who authored numerous books on the traditional liturgy of the Church, had a year ago entered into a supportive, public discussion with Archbishop Viganò after the latter had started publicly to criticize the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath. This new interview is a sort of a follow-up of that discussion, and these two clergymen also differ on some points. As Abbé Barthe puts it, Viganò “agreed to answer our questions on the theme of the new liturgy and in a rather astonishing way (astonishing even to ourselves as he goes after a process of the 'reform of the reform', a process which we support).” Barthe adds that he is “very glad to offer our readers this interview, as we believe it serves the debate and promotes reflection.” He presents the interview in the journal Res Novae in French, Italian, and English.
The English translation of this new interview has been made by Diane Montagna for Arouca Press. Arouca Press is soon going to publish a book edited by me with Archbishop Viganò's criticisms of the Council, the liturgical reform, as well as the message of Fatima. The book will also include the responses of other clergymen and laymen to his criticisms of the Council.
As our readers will see, Archbishop Viganò once more finds strong words of criticism of the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965) as well as the Novus Ordo Mass (promulgated in 1969). He states that “we must be very clear that the Second Vatican Council was conceived as a revolutionary event.” He goes on to say that “if Vatican II was a revolutionary act, both in the way it was conducted and in the documents it promulgated, it is logical and legitimate to think that its liturgy is also affected by this ideological approach.”
When commenting on Pope Benedict XVI's attempts at restoring the traditional liturgy (which was effectively suppressed after 1969) and the movement referred to above by Abbé Barthe as the “reform of the reform”, Viganò concludes that these attempts were defective:
Quote:I believe that behind these attempts, which seem to be motivated by pious intentions, lies a fact that none of these prelates [Pope Benedict and Cardinal Robert Sarah] dare confess: the failure of the Council and even more so of its liturgy. Returning to the ancient rite and definitively archiving the squalor of the Novus Ordo would require great humility, because those who would like to save it from shipwreck today were yesterday among the most enthusiastic supporters of the liturgical reform, and of Vatican II with it.
That is to say, Archbishop Viganò rejects the idea of the “reform of the reform” (further making changes to existing rites), but rather proposes a return to the old liturgy and its faith.
In another field of the liturgical debate, the archbishop also adds new comments, that is to say about the first grave changes of the liturgy made under Pope Pius XII by Annibale Bugnini: the change of the rite of Holy Week in 1955.Quote: “Archbishop Annibale Bugnini,” Viganò writes, “was one of the collaborators in the drafting of the Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae instauratus promulgated during the pontificate of Pius XII. The serious deformations of the new Missal are in nuce [essentially] contained in the rite of Holy Week, demonstrating that the demolition plan had already begun.”
Last, but not least, the Italian prelate also comments on the situation of the Society of St. Pius X with regard to its relationship with the Vatican. Unlike with the Franciscans of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who had been more and more inclined to embrace the traditional liturgy and whose order has been essentially destroyed by Pope Francis, the SSPX still has a certain institutional independence from the Vatican. For Viganò, this seems to be a positive thing in light of the current papacy:
Quote:With regard to the Society of St. Pius X, we are witnessing a more subtle maneuver: Bergoglio maintains “good neighborly” relations, and while recognizing certain prerogatives of its Superiors — thus demonstrating that he considers them living members of the Church — on the other hand he may want to barter their complete canonical regularization for an acceptance of the “conciliar magisterium.” It is clear that this is an insidious trap: once an agreement is signed with the Holy See, the independence which the Society enjoys in virtue of its position of not being completely regular would be lost, and with it, its economic independence. Let us not forget that the Society has assets and resources that guarantee sustenance and security for its members. At a time when the Vatican is experiencing a serious financial crisis, those assets are certainly enticing to many, as we have seen in other cases, starting with the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and the persecution of Father Mannelli.
Full interview with Archbishop Viganò
Father Claude Barthe: Your Excellency, you have sometimes spoken of “revolutionary actions” in connection with the creation of the new liturgy after the Second Vatican Council. Could you clarify your thoughts on this matter?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: First of all, we must be very clear that the Second Vatican Council was conceived as a revolutionary event. Obviously, I am not referring to the good intentions of those who collaborated in the drafting of the preparatory schemas. I am talking instead about the innovators who rejected those schemas together with the condemnation of Communism that the Council should have pronounced, as a large part of the world’s episcopate desired. Now, if Vatican II was a revolutionary act, both in the way it was conducted and in the documents it promulgated, it is logical and legitimate to think that its liturgy is also affected by this ideological approach, especially if we bear in mind that it is the chief means by which the faithful and clergy are catechized. It is no coincidence that Luther and the other Protestant and Anglican heretics used the liturgy as their main method to spread their errors among the faithful.
Having said that, our legitimate suspicion is also confirmed when we consider who the architects of that liturgy were: prelates often suspected of belonging to Freemasonry who were notoriously progressive and who, with the Liturgical Movement of the 1920s and 1930s, had already begun to suggest more than questionable ideas and spread practices that were influenced by archaeologism, which was later condemned by Pius XII in the encyclical Mediator Dei. The versus populum altar was not an invention of Vatican II but of the liturgists who made it practically obligatory at the Council, after having introduced it decades earlier as an exception under the pretext of a supposed return to antiquity. The same can be said for the so-called “Gothic chasuble” in the forms that preceded the Council, especially in France. It became a sort of poncho that was passed off after the Council as a recovery of the original form but was, in fact, a historical and liturgical forgery. By these examples, I wish to highlight that well before Vatican II there were revolutionary forces infiltrating the Church that were ready to make definitive those innovations that were introduced ad experimentum and had become the practice, especially in countries historically less inclined to adapt to romanitas.
Once we understand that the liturgy is the expression of a specific doctrinal approach — which with the Novus Ordo also became ideological — and that the liturgists who conceived it were imbued with this approach, we must analyze the conciliar corpus liturgicum to find confirmation of its revolutionary nature. Beyond the texts and ceremonial rubrics, what makes the reformed rite unequivocally revolutionary is that it was made malleable to the celebrant and the community, on the basis of an adaptability completely unknown to the Roman mens liturgica. The arbitrariness of the innovations is an integral part of the reformed liturgy, whose liturgical books — beginning with Paul VI’s Missale Romanum — are thought of as a rough draft, a canvas at the mercy of more or less talented actors seeking public acclaim. The applause of the faithful, introduced albeit abusively with the Novus Ordo, is the expression of a consensus that is an essential part of a rite that has become a spectacle. On the other hand, in ancient societies theater has always had a liturgical connotation, and it is significant that the conciliar church wanted to exhume this pagan vision by inverting it, that is, by giving a theatrical connotation to the liturgical rite.
Anyone who thinks that the Editio typica in Latin corresponds to the rite that should have been celebrated after the Council sins in naivety as well as in ignorance: nothing in that liturgical book was really intended for daily use by priests, beginning with the pitiful graphic layout, which was clearly neglected precisely because of the awareness that practically no one would ever celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin. The same papal ceremonies in which the Missale Romanum of Paul VI was used derogated from the rubrics by introducing readings in the vernacular, ceremonies not foreseen, and roles reserved to clerics carried out by laymen and even women. This, in my view, confirms the revolutionary soul of the Council and of the rite inspired by it.
Father Claude Barthe: The liturgical reform, which began in 1964 and produced a new missal in 1969, may seem more radical than its programmatic document, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. Do you think that Archbishop Bugnini’s Consilium betrayed Vatican II, as some say, or that it developed it, as others suggest?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: Archbishop Annibale Bugnini was one of the collaborators in the drafting of the Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae instauratus promulgated during the pontificate of Pius XII. The serious deformations of the new Missal are in nuce [essentially] contained in the rite of Holy Week, demonstrating that the demolition plan had already begun. There is therefore no betrayal of the Council, so much so that none of its architects ever considered the liturgical reform inconsistent with the mens of Sacrosanctum Concilium. A careful study of the genesis of the Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae instauratus allows us to understand that the innovators’ demands were only partially accepted but were re-proposed with Montini’s Novus Ordo.
However, it must be clearly said that, unlike all the other Ecumenical Councils, this Council deliberately used its authority to sanction a systematic betrayal of faith and morals, pursued through pastoral, disciplinary and liturgical means. The transitional Missals between the 1962 rubrics and the 1970 Editio typica, and the one that immediately followed — the Editio typica altera of 1975 — show how the process was carried out in small steps, accustoming clergy and faithful to the provisional nature of the rite, to continuous innovation, and to the progressive loss of many elements that initially made the Novus Ordo closer to the last Missale Romanum of John XXIII. I am thinking, for example, of the recitation submissa voce of the Roman Canon in Latin, with its sacrificial Offertory and the Veni Sanctificator, which in the course of adaptation led to the recitation of the Roman Canon aloud, with its Talmudic Offertory and the suppression of the invocation of the Holy Spirit.
Those who prepared the conciliar documents to have them approved by the Council Fathers acted with the same malice that the drafters of the liturgical reform adopted, knowing that they would interpret ambiguous texts in a Catholic way, while those who were to disseminate and utilize them would interpret them in every sense except that.
In fact, this concept is confirmed in everyday practice. Have you ever seen a priest who celebrates the Novus Ordo with the altar facing East, entirely in Latin, wearing the fiddleback (Roman) chasuble and distributing Communion at the Communion rail, without this arousing the ire of his Ordinary and confreres, even though, strictly speaking, this way of celebrating would be perfectly legitimate? Those who have tried — certainly in good faith — have been treated worse than those who habitually celebrate the Tridentine Mass. This demonstrates that the continuity hoped for in the Council’s hermeneutic does not exist, and that the break with the pre-conciliar Church is the norm to which one must conform, to the satisfaction of conservatives.
Lastly, I would like to point out that this awareness of the doctrinal incompatibility of the ancient rite with the ideology of Vatican II is claimed by self-styled theologians and progressive intellectuals, for whom the “Extraordinary Form” of the rite can be tolerated as long as the entire theological framework that it implies is not adopted. This is why the liturgy of the Summorum Pontificum communities is tolerated, provided that in preaching and catechesis one is careful not to criticize Vatican II or the new Mass.
Father Claude Barthe: Among the criticisms often made of the new Ordo Missæ, which do you consider to be the most important?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: The most well-founded criticism lies in having wanted to invent a liturgy for one’s own use and consumption, abandoning the bi-millennial rite that began with the Apostles and harmoniously developed through the centuries. The reformed liturgy — as any competent scholar knows — is the result of an ideological compromise between the Catholic lex orandi and the heretical demands of Protestants and Lutherans. Since the Church’s faith is expressed in public worship, it was essential that the liturgy adapt to the new way of believing, weakening or denying those truths that were considered “uncomfortable” for the pursuit of ecumenical dialogue.
A reform that simply wanted to prune certain rites that modern sensibilities could no longer understand could easily have avoided the slavish repetition of what Luther did at the time of the pseudo-reformation and Cranmer did after the Anglican schism: the mere fact of having adopted the innovations with which the heretics rejected certain points of Catholic dogma is an unquestionable demonstration of the Pastors’ subordination to the consensus of those outside the Church, to the detriment of the flock the Lord entrusted to them. Imagine what one of the martyrs of Calvinism, or of the fury of King James, would have thought in seeing popes, cardinals and bishops using a table in place of the altar that cost them their lives; and what respect a heretic might have for the hated Roman Babylon, which is all caught up in awkwardly mimicking what the “reformers” had done four centuries earlier, although perhaps in a more dignified manner. Let us not forget that Luther’s liturgical heresies were conveyed by Bach chorales, while the celebrations of the conciliar Church are accompanied by compositions of unprecedented ugliness. The liturgical breakdown has revealed a doctrinal breakdown, humiliating the Holy Church out of a mere eagerness to please the mentality of the world.
Father Claude Barthe: How can we explain the failure of Benedict XVI, Cardinal Sarah, and others who have advocated a gradual “liturgical revival” by (e.g.) celebrating the Mass towards the Lord, reintroducing the Offertory prayers, and distributing Holy Communion on the tongue?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: If a Vatican official were to give orders to decorate the Sala Nervi in the Paul VI Audience Hall with stucco and frescoes, replacing the hideous sculpture of the Resurrection with a baroque perspective, he would be considered an eccentric, especially when St Peter’s Basilica is just a stone’s throw away. The same thing applies, in my opinion, to attempts to make the reformed liturgy presentable by means of objectively useless window-dressing: what is the point of celebrating the Novus Ordo towards the East, changing the Offertory and distributing Communion on the tongue, when the Tridentine Mass has always provided for this?
This “liturgical revival” starts from the same erroneous presuppositions that animated the conciliar reform: modifying the liturgy at will, now distorting the venerable ancient rite to modernize it, now dressing up the reformed rite to make it look like what it is not and does not want to be. In the first case, we would be forcing a queen to wear clogs and dress in rags, in the second we would have the commoner wearing a royal tiara over ruffled hair or sitting on a throne in a straw hat.
I believe that behind these attempts, which seem to be motivated by pious intentions, lies a fact that none of these prelates dare confess: the failure of the Council and even more so of its liturgy. Returning to the ancient rite and definitively archiving the squalor of the Novus Ordo would require great humility, because those who would like to save it from shipwreck today were yesterday among the most enthusiastic supporters of the liturgical reform, and of Vatican II with it.
I ask myself: if Paul VI had no problem recklessly abolishing the Tridentine liturgy between one day and the next, replacing it with cobbled-together excerpts from the [Anglican] Book of Common Prayer, and imposing this new rite despite the protests of clergy and laity, why exactly should we today use any more consideration in restoring the ancient Roman Rite to its place of honor, by prohibiting the celebration of the Novus Ordo? Why such delicacy of mind today, and such ruthless iconoclastic fury yesterday? And why this cosmetic surgery, if not to hold together the last conciliatory frill by giving it the appearance of what it did not intend to be?
The next Pope will have to restore all the liturgical books previous to the conciliar reform and banish from Catholic churches its unseemly parody, in whose realization notorious modernists and heretics collaborated.
Father Claude Barthe: In a 2013 interview with the Jesuit magazines, Pope Francis cited the liturgical reform as an exemplary fruit of the Council (“Vatican II was a reinterpretation of the Gospel in the light of contemporary culture”), and yet Bergoglio does favors for the Society of St Pius X. Is he interested in the liturgical question?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: I do not believe that Bergoglio has any interest in the liturgy tout court, and a fortiori in the Tridentine liturgy, which is as alien to him and disliked as anything remotely reminiscent of Catholicism. His approach is political: he tolerates the Ecclesia Dei communities because they keep the conservatives out of the parishes, and at the same time he maintains control over them, forcing them to limit their dissent solely to the liturgical level, while ensuring their fidelity to the conciliar ideology.
With regard to the Society of St. Pius X, we are witnessing a more subtle maneuver: Bergoglio maintains “good neighborly” relations, and while recognizing certain prerogatives of its Superiors — thus demonstrating that he considers them living members of the Church — on the other hand he may want to barter their complete canonical regularization for an acceptance of the “conciliar magisterium.” [See Bishop Fellay's Doctrinal Declaration, which effectively accepts Vatican II, the New Mass, the New Code of Canon Law, etc. - in essence, the SSPX has already done this, it just hasn't been formally accepted or approved. - The Catacombs] It is clear that this is an insidious trap: once an agreement is signed with the Holy See, the independence which the Society enjoys in virtue of its position of not being completely regular would be lost, and with it, its economic independence. Let us not forget that the Society has assets and resources that guarantee sustenance and security for its members. At a time when the Vatican is experiencing a serious financial crisis, those assets are certainly enticing to many, as we have seen in other cases, starting with the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and the persecution of Father Mannelli.
Father Claude Barthe: Do you think that the protective status (dependence on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and not on the Congregation for Religious) desired by Joseph Ratzinger before and after his accession to the papacy for societies of apostolic life which practice the traditional Mass is in danger today?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: The canonical position of the Ecclesia Dei communities has always been at risk. Their survival is linked to their at least implicit acceptance of the conciliar doctrine and liturgical reform. [This is also what Archbishop Lefebvre and the old SSPX consistently taught- see here, here, here, and here. - The Catacombs] Those who do not conform, by criticizing Vatican II or refusing to celebrate or attend the reformed rite, ipso facto put themselves in a position of being expelled. The superiors of these societies of apostolic life themselves end up being the overseers of their clerics, who are strongly advised to refrain from criticism and to give tangible signs of alignment from time to time, for example, by taking part in celebrations in the “Ordinary Form.” Paradoxically, a diocesan parish priest has greater freedom of speech in doctrinal matters than a member of one of these institutes.
It should be said that, according to the mindset of those in power in the Vatican today, the liturgical eccentricities of some communities, far from encouraging the rediscovery of the traditional rite, give it an elitist aspect and confine it to the “small ancient world” to which the proponents of the Bergoglian church have every interest in relegating it. Making the celebration of the Catholic Mass “normal”—according to the dictates of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum — without “liturgical reservations” and dedicated spaces, would give the impression that it is really possible for any faithful to attend Mass without any other title of belonging than being a Catholic. On the contrary, this Kafkaesque bureaucratic castle forces all conservatives into an enclosure, obliging them to follow the rules of confinement and to demand nothing more than what the sovereign grace deigns to grant them, almost always with the ill-concealed opposition of the diocesan bishop. [See Fr. Hewko's similar words here from 2014. - The Catacombs]
Bergoglio’s actions are now clearly exposed: his latest encyclical theorizes about heterodox doctrines and a scandalous subservience to the dominant ideology, which is profoundly anti-Catholic and anti-human. From this perspective, questions about the liturgical sensitivity of this or that institute seem to me frankly negligible: not because the liturgy is not important, but because once one is willing to remain silent on the doctrinal front, the complex ceremonies of the Pontifical end up being reduced to a manifestation of aestheticism that poses no real danger to the magic circle of Santa Marta.
Father Claude Barthe: Do the ban on individual Masses in St. Peter’s, the three-day inspection of the Congregation for Divine Worship by Archbishop Maniago, and the fact that the Constitution on the reform of the Curia, Prædicate Evangelium, is said to strengthen the powers of oversight for the Congregation for Divine Worship, give rise to fears of a new virulence of the reform? Or does Francis have little interest in this liturgical problem?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: The ban on celebrating private Masses in St. Peter’s, despite the choral protest of many faithful and some prelates against a real abuse by the Secretariat of State, continues in force and is as an unprecedented scandal. It is a trial balloon to test the ground and study the reactions of prelates, clergy and laity who, for the moment, are limited to the mere, very composed and in some cases embarrassing verbal lamentation. As I have already had occasion to state, I believe that this ban is nothing more than an attempt to give legal semblance to a practice that is now consolidated and universal, which also confirms the doctrinal error that underlies it; namely, the primacy of the community dimension of the “Eucharist” understood as a convivial banquet, to the detriment of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated privately. But here we are touching on Vatican II, which none of the Cardinals who spoke out on the ban on Masses in St. Peter’s dares to question in the slightest, even though it is clearly at the origin of the Secretariat of State’s illegitimate prohibition.
As far as the supervisory powers of the Congregation for Divine Worship are concerned, in themselves they could also be considered in a positive sense, since liturgical matters are strictly within the competence of the Holy See. However, we would be sinning in naivety and lack of foresight if we did not take into account the fact that any norm promulgated by the innovators will be used by them to obtain unconfessed aims, often opposite to those stated.
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| Biden Administration Asks Americans to Report ‘Potentially’ Radicalized Friends and Family |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-16-2021, 05:46 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Biden Administration Asks Americans to Report ‘Potentially’ Radicalized Friends and Family
![[Image: GettyImages-1233463531-e1623782716860-640x480.jpg]](https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/06/GettyImages-1233463531-e1623782716860-640x480.jpg)
US President Joe Biden attends a EU - US summit at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on June 15, 2021.
Breitbart | 15 Jun 20210
President Joe Biden’s administration announced their plans to create ways for Americans to report radicalized friends and family to the government, in an effort to fight domestic terrorism.
In a conversation with reporters, one senior administration official explained the importance of stopping politically fueled violence before it started.
“We will work to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs,” the official said.
The official cited the Department of Homeland Security’s “If you see something say something” campaign to help stop radical Islamic terror as a domestic possibility.
“This involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence,” the official said.
Biden began his presidency with a stark warning in his inauguration speech about the “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.” On June 1, Biden described the threat from “white supremacy” as the “most lethal threat to the homeland today.”
The Biden administration said it would also work with large technology companies on “increased information sharing” to help combat radicalization.
“Any particular tech company often knows its own platform very well,” the official noted. “But the government sees things — actually, threats of violence — across platforms. They see the relationship between online recruitment, radicalization, and violence in the physical world.”
The Department of Homeland Security also plans to deploy “digital literacy” and “digital fitness” programs to help combat “malicious content online that bad actors deliberately try to disseminate.”
The official reassured reporters that the administration’s new strategies would remain “laser-focused” on stopping violent acts.
“This is a strategy that is agnostic as to political ideology or off the spectrum,” the official said. “What matters is when individuals take their political or other grievances and turn that — unacceptably, unlawfully — into violent action.”
The official added the Biden administration was taking the threat of domestic terrorism seriously and would redirect the focus of intelligence agencies on internal threats.
“We are investing many agencies of the government and resourcing them appropriately and asking our citizens to participate,” the official said. “Because, ultimately, this is really about homeland security being a responsibility of each citizen of our country to help us achieve.”
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| Homeschool Curriculum |
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Posted by: Ruthy - 06-15-2021, 10:35 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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It is that time of year, when you are looking for your homeschool curriculum for the upcoming school year. I would like to recommend Angelic Doctor Academy. It is a traditional homeschool academy, that is owned by a traditional catholic in our area. In the 25 years that I have been homeschooling, the history book and exercise book from ADA was the best book I have ever used. Looking at the biology book sample, it looks like it will be a great book also. ADA also offers grading and other subjects. Here is the website: Angelic Doctor Academy
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| St. John Chrysostom: Sermon on Alms |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-15-2021, 09:44 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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SERMON ON ALMS
SERMON ON ALMS BY SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347–407 A.D.) DELIVERED AT ANTIOCH AFTER PASSING THROUGH THE
MARKET-PLACE IN THE WINTER-TIME, AND SEEING THE PAUPERS AND BEGGARS LYING THERE NEGLECTED
Chapter I
I have come hither to-day to undertake a righteous mission among you, a mission profitable and suitable for you. By no others than the poor who dwell in this city of yours have I been appointed the spokesman. I have been sent not by word of mouth, nor by vote of the citizens, nor by a decree of the senate, but by a most grievous and piteous spectacle.
For as I was hastening to preach before this congregation, I passed through the market-place and the alleys, and I saw many lying in the midst of the crossings, some lacking hands and feet, some without eyes, some filled with ulcers and running sores and exposing as much as possible those parts which because of the suppuration should have been covered. And I thought I would be most inhuman if I did not appeal to your charity in their behalf, especially since, in addition to the reasons I have just given, I am constrained thereto by the season of the year. For although it is always fitting to preach about alms (seeing that we in our dealings with other men are wanting in the great mercy of our Lord and Creator) yet at this season especially it is meet so to speak, when the cold is so urgent.
In the summer the pleasant weather is a great comfort to the poor; for they can even walk around naked with impunity, the rays of the sun taking the place of clothing, and can safely sleep on the bare pavement and spend the night under the open sky. And they do not require shoes, nor wine to drink, nor rich food. The fountains of water suffice for them. Sufficient are the cheaper vegetables, or a few parched beans; for at this season of the year food is easy to procure.
The season has another advantage for them which is no less important—the opportunity to obtain work. Those who build houses, those who plough the earth, and those who sail the sea, all have great need of their services. For just as the wealthy have lands, houses, and other sources of income; so the poor have their strength and the proceeds of the labor of their hands. Nothing else is theirs.
In summer then they have some relief; but in winter they must wage a great war on every hand, doubly besieged, hunger gnawing their vitals within and cold congealing their flesh without and giving it the semblance of death. Because of this they require more abundant food and thicker clothing, and also a roof, blankets, shoes, and many other things. And this is much harder for them because they have no opportunity to work; since the season of the year does not permit.
Wherefore, seeing that they are in want of more things and those the necessities of life, and seeing that they have no opportunity to work (no one employing these wretched men, no one calling them to labor), come, let us in place of employers hold out compassionate hands to them, and on this mission let us take as our companion Paul, the true patron and protector of the poor. For he more than anyone else concerns himself with this question. For this reason, when he divided the disciples with Peter, he did not divide the care of the poor; but when he had said, “They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship: that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision,” he added, “Only that we should be mindful of the poor: which same thing also I was careful to do.” (Gal. 2:9–10). In fact, throughout his epistles he preaches about these things, and you will not find a single letter of his without an admonition of this kind. For he knew, he knew with certainty of how great moment this question is; and therefore, as if he were placing an exquisite dome upon a building, so to his other admonitions and counsels he adds his teaching in regard to charity.
This is what he does, indeed, in this very place when, having spoken of the resurrection and after finishing everything else, he ends his sermon with these words: “Now concerning the collections for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so do ye also. Upon the first day of the week … everyone of you …” (1 Cor. 16:1–2).
Note the apostle’s skill, at what an opportune moment he brings in this admonition. For after he had reminded them of that terrible judgment and tribunal which is to come, and of that glory in which they who have lived righteously will be clothed, and of the life everlasting, only then does he begin to speak of these other things; that the hearer, sustained by hope and made a readier listener, may receive them more eagerly, now moved by the fear of instant judgment, now rejoicing in the contemplation of the blessings in store for him. For he who can philosophize on the resurrection and translate himself completely into that future life, will count the present as naught—wealth, possessions, gold, silver, rich clothing, amusements, a lavish table, and everything of that sort; and he who considers these things as naught will more easily take upon himself the protection of the poor. And so Paul introduced his exhortation on alms after he had beautifully prepared their minds by means of that philosophy of the resurrection.
He did not say, “Now concerning the collections for beggars” or “for the poor”, but “for the saints”; instructing his hearers to honor the poor—that is, of course, if they were devout—and to spurn the rich if they despised virtue. For he calls the Emperor himself impious and wicked, if he is an enemy of God; and the poor, saints, when they are upright and virtuous. Indeed, he calls Nero the mystery of iniquity, saying, “For the mystery of iniquity already worketh” (2 Thess. 2:7); while on the other hand those who were without food and who lived by begging their bread, he pronounces saints. But at the same time, somewhat obscurely, he teaches his hearers that they should not be puffed up in spirit and exalted by an admonition like this, as if they were dispensing bounty to a lower and baser order of beings, but that they should understand and feel that their greatest honor is to share the hardships of the poor.
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| St. Alphonsus Liguori: How to Pray at All Times |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-15-2021, 08:02 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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HOW TO PRAY AT ALL TIMES
This beautiful little work was first published in 1753. It is therefore one of the earliest works of St. Alphonsus. The Saint entitled it: 'A method of conversing continually and lovingly with God; and to the title he added a note to say that it had been translated from the French, but that he had ' augmented it with holy thoughts, affections and practices. It was surely the Saint's humility that made him thus minimise his part in the composition of the book, for as a matter of fact he entirely recast the little French treatise and made it all his own. His biographer, Father Berthe, could write of it: 'In this golden little book are to be found the most familiar thoughts of the holy author. (Life Vol. I. P. 575).
It will be easily seen that the treatise has a twofold message. St. Alphonsus, like the Divine Redeemer before him, always puts the thought of God's justice, and the fear of punishment, before those who are obstinate in sin. But, following again the Redeemer's example, the saintly Doctor preaches in burning words the truth that every soul wishing to serve God may go to Him with perfect, unwavering confidence. To such souls God shows infinite tenderness and love. This message of confidence to men of goodwill, is the first lesson which the Saint teaches, with convincing force, in the following pages. The second lesson is deduced from the first : those who wish to serve God should speak to Him frequently, confidingly, lovingly.
Be it remembered that this treatise is from the pen of a Doctor of the Church : every sentence of it bears the impress of his authority. A new translation of it is now given to the public in the hope that it will continue its mission of mercy, and lead men, in ever increasing numbers, to speak frequently and lovingly to God.
How to Pray at all Times
'Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of Man.' - St. Luke (21-34).
CHAPTER I - GOD WISHES US TO SPEAK TO HIM WITH CONFIDENCE AND FAMILIARITY.
What is man that Thou shouldst magnify him: or why dost Thou set Thy Heart upon him? (Job, 7-17). Such was the astonished cry of Job when he considered the marvellous condescension of God in loving man and in longing to be loved by him. Hence, it is a mistake to think that great confidence and familiarity in treating with God is a want of reverence towards His infinite Majesty. You should, indeed, devout reader, worship Him in all humility and prostrate yourself before Him ; especially when you call to mind the ingratitude and sin of which, in the past, you may have been guilty. Yet this should not hinder you from treating Him with the most tender confidence and love. He is infinite majesty ; but, at the same time, He is infinite love and goodness. In God you possess the most exalted and supreme Lord; but also a Friend who loves you with the greatest possible love. He is not offended-on the contrary He is pleased-when you treat Him with that confidence, freedom and tenderness with which a child treats its mother. Hear how He invites us to go to Him and even promises to welcome us with His caresses: You shall be carried at the breasts and upon the knees they shall caress you. As one whom the mother caressseth, so will I comfort you (Isa., 66-12). As a mother delights to place her child upon her knees, there to feed or fondle it : so is our merciful God pleased to treat souls whom He loves, who have given themselves wholly to Him, and placed all their hopes in His goodness.
Bear well in mind that you have neither friend, nor brother, nor father, nor mother, nor spouse, nor lover, who loves you more than God. Divine grace is that great treasure whereby we, vile creatures and poor servants, become the dear friends of our Creator Himself : For she is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use become the friends of God (Wis., 7-14). In order to fill our hearts with confidence, He emptied Himself, as St. Paul says (Phil., 2-7), abasing Himself to our level and conversing familiarly with us: He conversed with men (Bar. 3-38). He went so far as to become an infant, to become poor, to die publicly on a cross; He went so far as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread in order to become our constant Companion and to unite Himself intimately to us: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him (John, 6-57). In a word, He loves you as though He had no one else to love but you alone. You, too, should love Him alone, and all others for His sake. Of Him you may say, and, indeed, you should say: My Beloved to me and I to Him (Cant., 2-16). My God has given Himself all to me, and I give myself all to Him; He has chosen me for His beloved, and I choose Him, of all others, for my only love: My Beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands (Cant., 5-10).
Say, then, to Him, often:
Quote:O my Lord! wherefore dost Thou love me thus? What good thing dost Thou see in me? Hast Thou forgotten the injuries I have done Thee? But since Thou hast treated me so lovingly, and, instead of casting me into hell, hast granted me so many favours, whom can I desire to love from this day forward but Thee, my God, my all? Ah, most gracious God, if in time past I have offended Thee, it is not so much the punishment I have deserved that now grieves me, as the displeasure I have given Thee, who art worthy of infinite love. But Thou knowest not how to despise a heart that repents and humbles itself: A contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Ps. 50-19). Ah, now, indeed, neither in this life nor in the other do I desire any but Thee alone: What have I in heaven? and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth! Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever (Ps. 72-25). Thou alone art and shalt be forever the only Lord of my heart, of my will; Thou my only good, my heaven, my hope, my love, my all: ' The God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever.
The more to strengthen your confidence in God, often call to mind His loving treatment of you, and the gracious means He has used to help you to overcome your faults and to detach you from the things of this world, in order to draw you to His holy love. Fear, therefore, to have too little confidence in treating with God, now that you are determined to love Him and to please Him by every means in your power. The mercy which He has shown you is a most sure pledge of His love for you. God is displeased with a want of confidence on the part of souls who sincerely love Him, and whom He loves. If, then, you desire to please His merciful Heart, converse with Him henceforward with the greatest possible confidence and tenderness.
I have graven thee in My hands; thy walls are always before My eyes (Isa., 49-16). In these words, God says to you in effect: Beloved soul, why are you timid or distrustful? I have written you in My hands so as never to forget to do you good. Are you afraid of your enemies? Know that the care of your defence is always before Me, so that I cannot lose sight of it. This is the thought which made David rejoice, as he cried out to God: Thou hast crowned us as with a shield of Thy good will (Ps. 5-13). Who, Lord, can ever harm us if Thou dost surround us with Thy goodness and love?
Let the thought of the gift of our Divine Lord be the greatest motive of your hope: God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son (John, 3-16). How can we ever fear, as the Apostle asks, that God would refuse us any good gift, seeing that He has deigned to give us His own Son? He delivered Him up for us all; how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things? (Rom., 8-32).
My delights are to be with the children of men (Prov., 8-31). If one may so express it-the paradise of God is the heart of man. Does God love you? Love Him in return. His delights are to be with you; let yours be to be with Him-to pass all your lifetime with Him, in whose company you hope to spend a blissful eternity. Accustom yourself to speak to Him alone, familiarly, with confidence and love, as to the dearest friend you have, the Friend who loves you most.
CHAPTER II - IT IS EASY AND AGREEABLE TO CONVERSE WITH GOD.
If, as has been already said, it is a great mistake to speak to God with diffidence-to appear before Him as a timid slave, trembling with alarm before his prince -it would be a still greater mistake to think that conversing with God is wearisome and unpleasant. No-on the contrary her conversation hath no bitterness nor her company any tediousness (Wis., 8-16). Ask those souls who love Him with a true love, and they will tell you that in the sorrows of their life their sweetest and truest consolation is to converse lovingly with God.
Now, you are not required to apply your mind so constantly to prayer as to forget your ordinary work and recreation. 'Praying always means that, without neglecting your ordinary occupations, you treat God as you treat the friends who love you and whom you love. God is ever near you, even within you: In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 18-28). He who would speak to God has no door to open; God is pleased when you speak to Him without reserve. Tell Him of your business, your plans, your griefs, your fears-of all that concerns you. Above all, do so (as I have already said) with confidence and entire freedom. For God is not wont to speak to the soul which does not speak to Him; in fact, being unaccustomed to speak to God, the soul would scarcely understand Him when He spoke. This is what the Lord complains of, in these words: Our sister is little: what shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to? (Cant., 8-8). Our sister is but a child in My love; what shall we do to speak to her if she under-stands not? It is the will of God that we remember His surpassing power and His rigorous justice if we despise His grace; but, on the contrary, He wishes that we should treat Him as a most affectionate friend if we love Him, and that we should speak to Him confidingly and without restraint.
It is true that God ought to be worshipped always with the greatest reverence; however, when He deigns to make you feel His presence and when He makes known His desire that you should speak to Him as to the Friend who loves you better than any other friend, then you should open your heart to Him with the greatest liberty and confidence. She preventeth them that covet her, so that she first showeth herself unto them (Wisdom, 6-16). If you only desire His love, He will take the first step, without waiting for you to come to Him, and He will present Himself to you with all the graces and remedies of which you stand in need. He only waits for you to speak to Him, to show that He is near you, ready to hear and to comfort you: And His ears are unto our prayers (Ps. 33-16).
By reason of His immensity, God is present everywhere; but there are two places where He dwells in a particular manner. One is in the highest heavens, where He is present by that glory which He communicates to the blessed; the other is on earth-within the humble soul that loves Him: His name is holy who dwelleth in the high and holy place, and with a contrite and humble spirit (Isa., 57-15). * Our God, then, dwells in the heights of heaven, and yet He does not disdain to occupy Himself with His servants day and night in their homes or in their monastic cells. There He bestows on them His divine consolations, the least one of which surpasses all the delights that the world offers, and which He alone does not desire who has never tasted their sweetness: Oh, taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Ps. 33-9).
Friends in the world have generally certain days on which they meet and converse; on other days they are apart; but between God and you, if you wish, there need never be one hour of separation: Thou shalt rest, and thy sleep shall be sweet: the Lord will be at thy side (Prov. 3-24).
You may sleep, but God will place Himself at your side and watch over you continually: I will rest with Him and He will be a comfort in my cares and grief (Cfr. Wis. 8-9,16). When you take your rest He does not leave your bedside. He remains there, always thinking of you, that when you awake in the night He may speak to you by His inspirations, and receive from you in return some act of love, of oblation, of thanksgiving. Thus, He desires to continue even in the hours of the night His sweet and gracious converse with you. Sometimes also He will speak to you while you sleep, and make you hear His voice, so that in waking you may put in practice what He has spoken: I will speak to Him in a dream (Num. 12-6).
He is there also in the morning, to hear from you some word of affection, of confidence; to be the depository of your first thoughts, and of all the actions which you promise to perform that day to please Him; of all the griefs, too, which you offer to endure willingly for His glory and love. But as He fails not to present Himself to you at the moment of your waking, do not fail, on your part to give Him immediately a look of love, and to rejoice when your God announces to you the glad tidings that He is not far from you (as once He may have been by reason of your sins); but that He loves you, and would be beloved by you; and at that same moment He gives you the gracious precept, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart (Deut., 6-5).
*Elsewhere St. Alphonsus has of course written on the third special dwelling of God with men -the sacramental presence of our Lord in the holy Eucharist. In fact in the earlier editions of the saint's works the present treatise was always published with the Visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
CHAPTER III - ON WHAT, AND HOW, WE SHOULD CONVERSE WITH GOD.
I. IN GENERAL
Never, then, forget His sweet presence, as do the greater part of men. Speak to Him as often as you can, for He does not grow weary of this nor disdain it, as do the lords of the earth. If you love Him, you will not be at a loss what to say to Him. Tell Him all that occurs to you about yourself and your affairs, as you would tell it to a dear friend. Do not look upon Him as a haughty monarch who will converse only with the great and on great matters. He, your God, is pleased to lower Himself to you, and to hear you communicate to Him your smallest and most ordinary concerns. He loves you as much-He has as much care for you-as if He had no one else to think of but you. He is as completely devoted to your interests as though the only end of His providence was to help you, of His almighty power to aid you, of His mercy and goodness to take pity on you, to do you good and to win by His kindness your confidence and love. Manifest to Him, then, freely your whole state of mind and pray to Him to enlighten you that you may perfectly accomplish His holy will. Let all your desires and aims be directed to learn His good pleasure and to do what is agreeable to His divine Heart: Commit thy way to the Lord; and desire of Him to direct thy ways and that all thy counsels may abide in Him (Ps. 36-5 and Tob. 4-20).
Say not: Why disclose all my wants to God, since He already sees and knows them better than I do? Yes, He knows them; but He acts as if He did not know the needs about which you do not speak to Him and for which you do not seek His aid. Our Saviour knew that Lazarus was dead, and yet He acted as if He did not know until Magdalen told Him of it; it was then that He comforted her by bringing her brother back to life.
2. PRAY IN YOUR TRIALS
When you are afflicted with sickness, persecution, temptation, or any other trouble, turn at once to God and ask His help. It is enough for you to lay your affliction before Him-to go to Him and say: Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress (Lam. 1-20). He will not fail to comfort you, or at least to give you strength to suffer the trial with patience, and in this case it will prove a greater good than if He had freed you altogether from it. Tell Him of all the things that make you fear, or make you .sad, and say to Him: My God, in Thee are all my hopes. I offer this cross to Thee. I resign myself to Thy will. Take pity on me and either deliver me from my trial or give me strength to endure it. He will remember immediately the promise which He made in the Gospel, of consoling and comforting all those who have recourse to Him in tribulation: Come to Me all you that labour and are burdened and I will refresh you (Mat. II-28).
He will not be displeased if you seek comfort from your friends in the hour of trial; but He wishes you to have recourse principally to Him. At least, therefore, when you have had recourse to creatures and they have not been able to console your heart, go to your Creator and say to Him: Lord, men have only words; they cannot afford me consolation. I no longer desire to be consoled by them. Thou alone art my hope; Thou alone my only love. By Thee alone do I desire to be comforted and the consolation I ask for is to do on this occasion what is most pleasing to Thee. Behold, I am ready to endure this trial for the whole of my life, and for all eternity, if such be Thy will. Only help me.
Do not be afraid of offending Him if you sometimes gently complain, saying: Why, Lord, has Thou retired afar off? (Ps. 9-1). Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee, and that I desire nothing but Thy love. Have pity on me and help me. Do not abandon me.
If desolation should continue for a long time and grievously afflict you, unite your voice to the voice of your afflicted Jesus and say: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? (Mat. 28-46). Let the thought humble you that having offended God you do not deserve His consolations. At the same time, remember that He permits every thing for your good, and do not lose confidence: All things work together unto good to them that love God (Rom. 8-28). Say with courage, even when you feel most troubled and disconsolate: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Ps. 26-1). Lord, Thou wilt guide me, Thou wilt save me; In Thee do I trust. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded (Ecclus 2-11). Reflect that God loves you more than you can love yourself. Why, then, should you be afraid? David brought comfort to his heart saying: The Lord is careful for me (Ps. 39-18). Let such be your sentiments, too, when you pray; and speak in this manner to God: Lord, I cast myself into Thy arms; and I desire to think only of loving and pleasing Thee. Behold me ready to do what Thou askest of me. Thou dost not only will my good, but Thou art 'careful for it. To Thee, then, I leave the care of my salvation. In Thee I rest, and will rest for evermore, since Thou wiliest that in Thee I should place all my hopes: In peace, in the self-same I will sleep and I will rest; for Thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope (Ps. 4-9).
Think of the Lord in goodness (Wis. I-I). In these words the inspired writer exhorts us to have more confidence in the divine mercy than dread of the divine justice. For ,God is incomparably more inclined to bestow favours upon us than to chastise us, as St. James says: Mercy exalteth itself above judgment (2-13). For this reason, St. Peter exhorts us in all our fears-whether for our temporal or eternal interests-to abandon ourselves entirely to the goodness of God, who has the interests of our salvation at heart: Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you (I Pet. 5-7). The royal prophet, David, has the same message of hope when he gives to God the beautiful title of our God and the God who is willing to save us: Our God is the God of salvation (Ps. 39-18). This means, as Bellarmine explains it, that it is the will of God, not to condemn, but to save all. He threatens with His displeasure those who despise Him; but He promises mercy to those who fear Him: in the words of the canticle of our Blessed Lady: His mercy is from generation to generation to them that fear Him.
I place before you, devout reader, all these passages from the sacred scriptures, so that if you are ever troubled by the doubt as to whether you will be saved or no-whether you are of the number of the predestined or no-you may take courage at the thought that you know from God's Word that He desires to save you, if only you are resolved to serve and love Him as He asks of you.
3. PRAY IN YOUR JOYS
When you receive some pleasant news, do not act like some unfaithful and thankless souls who have recourse to God in time of trouble, but forget and forsake Him when things go well with them. Show Him the fidelity that you would show to a sincere friend who rejoices in your happiness. Go at once and tell Him of your joy, and praise Him and give Him thanks, acknowledging your good fortune as a gift from His hands. Rejoice in the fact that you owe your happiness to Him, and place all your joy and comfort in Him: I will rejoice in the Lord (Hab. 3-18), and I will joy in God my Jesus (Ps. 12-6). Say to Him: My Jesus, I bless, and will ever bless Thee, for granting me so many favours, when I deserved at Thy hands not favours, but chastisements for the affronts I have offered Thee. Say to him, with the sacred Spouse: All fruits, the new and the old, my Beloved, I have kept for Thee (Cant. 7-13).,' Lord, I give Thee thanks; I keep in memory Thy many acts of kindness, past and present, to render Thee praise and glory for them forever.
But if you love your God, you ought to rejoice more in His blessedness than in your own. He who has a dear friend sometimes takes more delight in that friend's good fortune than if it had been his own. Comfort yourself, then, in the knowledge that God is infinitely happy. Often say to him: My beloved Lord, I rejoice more in Thy blessedness than in any happiness of my own, for I love Thee more than I love myself.
4. PRAY AFTER A FAULT
Another mark of confidence highly pleasing to our most loving God is this: that when you have committed any fault, you are not ashamed to go at once to Him and seek His pardon. Consider that God is so willing to pardon sinners that He laments their perdition, when they depart far from Him and live dead to His grace. Therefore, does he lovingly call them, saying: Why will you die, O house of Israel? Return ye, and live (Ezek. 18-31). He promises to receive a soul that has forsaken Him, if only it returns to His arms: Turn to Me . . . and I will turn to you (Zach. 1-3). Would that sinners only knew how mercifully our Saviour awaits them in order to pardon them: The Lord waiteth that He may have mercy upon you (Isa. 30-18). Would that sinners realised the desire on the part of God, not, indeed, to chastise them, but to see them converted and to embrace and press them to His Heart: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live (Ezek. 33-11). He has even still more consoling words: Come and accuse Me, saith the Lord; if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1-18). In other words, He says: Sinners, repent of having offended Me and then come to Me. If I do not pardon you, accuse Me of being unfaithful to My promises; but, no, I will keep My word. If you come to Me and repent, though your soul be dyed deep crimson with crime, by My grace it shall be made white as snow. Almighty God promises even to forget the sinner's wrong-doing if only he repents: I will not remember all his iniquities (Ezek. 18-22). As soon, then, as you fall into any fault, raise your eyes to God, make an act of love, and humbly confessing your fault, place unwavering confidence in God, saying to Him: Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick (John 11-3). The heart which Thou lovest is sick-is wounded. Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee (Ps. 40-5). Thou seekest penitent sinners Behold one at Thy feet, seeking Thee. The evil is committed-what must I do? Thou wilt not have me lose confidence; even after the sin which I have committed, Thou desirest my good, and I again love thee. Yes, my God I love Thee with all my heart. I am sorry for my sin, and will never more offend Thee. Thou art a God, sweet, and mild, and plenteous in mercy (Ps. 85-5); pardon me. Let me hear from Thee what Thou didst say to Magdalen: Thy sins are forgiven thee (Luke 7-48); and give me strength for the future to be faithful to Thee.
Then, in order not to be discouraged, cast your eyes upon Jesus Christ crucified; offer to the Eternal Father his merits, and confidently hope for pardon; since to pardon you he spared not his own Son. Say to him with confidence: Look on the face of thy Christ (Ps. 83-10); my God, have regard to Thy Son who has died for me and for His sake grant me pardon.
Attend, especially, devout soul, to what is commonly taught by masters of the spiritual life, who recommend you to have recourse immediately to God after you have fallen, although you should repeat the fall a hundred times in the day. Having done this, do not be disturbed. If you remain discouraged and troubled because of the fault committed, you will scarcely speak to God; your confidence will grow less your desire to love God will grow cold and you will make little or no advance in the way of the Lord. On the other hand, by having immediate recourse to God, asking His pardon and promising amendment for the future, your very faults will help you to advance in divine love. Between friends who sincerely love one another it sometimes happens that when one offends the other and then humbles himself and asks pardon, their friendship becomes stronger than ever. Do you act in like manner with regard to God: let your faults only strengthen the bonds of love which unite you to Him.
5. PRAY IN YOUR DOUBTS
Whenever you are in doubt about anything -whether it regards yourself or others-act like good friends do who always consult one another in their difficulties. Show the same mark of confidence to God; consult Him; ask Him to enlighten you, that you may decide on what is most pleasing to Him: Put Thou words in my mouth and strengthen the resolution in my heart (Jud. 9-18). Lord, make known to me what Thou wouldst have me do, to answer, and I will obey Thee: Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth (i Kings 3-10).
6. PRAY FOR YOUR NEIGHBOUR
Recommend to God with confidence not only your own needs but also the needs of others. How pleasing to Him it will be if you sometimes forget yourself and speak to Him of His own glory, of the miseries of others, especially those who mourn in sorrow; of the souls in purgatory, His spouses, who long to behold Him in Heaven; and of poor sinners who live deprived of His grace. Pray to Him for sinners thus:
Lord, Thou art all goodness and worthy of an infinite love: how, then, canst Thou endure in the world so many souls on whom Thou hast lavished Thy favours, and who yet have no desire to know Thee, who have no desire to love Thee, who even offend and despise Thee? Ah, my most amiable God, make Thyself known-make Thyself loved. Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. May Thy name be adored and loved by all men. May Thy love reign in all hearts. Do not let me depart from Thee without granting me some grace for the unhappy souls for whom I pray.
7. SPEAK TO GOD OF HEAVEN
It is said that souls who in this life have but little longing for heaven are punished in purgatory with a peculiar pain, called the pain of languor. This surely is only just; because to have but little longing for heaven is to set little value on the happiness of that eternal kingdom which our Lord opened to us by His death. Remember, then, frequently to think of, and long for heaven. Say to God that your life seems an endless span, so great is your desire to go to Him, to see Him face to face, and to love Him. Long to be set free from your exile, from this world of sin, from the danger of losing divine grace, that you may arrive at that land of love where your heart will be given wholly to God. Say to Him over and over again: Lord, as long as I live on this earth I am in danger of forsaking Thee and of losing Thy love. When shall I leave this life, wherein I am forever offending Thee? When shall I go to love Thee with all my soul and unite myself to Thee without any danger of losing Thee again?
St. Teresa was ever sighing for heaven in this manner. She used to rejoice when she heard the clock strike, because another hour of life and of the danger of losing God, had passed. She so earnestly desired to die that she might see God, that she was dying with the desire to die. This was the subject of the loving poem which she composed: 'I die because I do not die.
CHAPTER IV - HOW GOD ANSWERS THE SOUL.
In a word, if you wish to please the loving Heart of God, endeavour to speak to Him as often as you can, and with the fullest confidence that He will answer and speak to you in return. When you withdraw yourself from conversation with creatures to speak to God alone, He will not speak in a voice that strikes the ear, but in a voice that reaches the heart: I will lead her into the wilderness and I will speak to her heart (Osee, 2-14). He will speak by inspiration, by interior light, by manifestations of His goodness, by a tenderness which touches the heart, by assurance of pardon, by a feeling of peace, by the hope of heaven, by intimate happiness, by the sweetness of His grace, by loving and tender embraces of the soul-in a word, He will speak in a voice easily understood by those whom He loves and who have given their hearts to Him.
CHAPTER V - THE PRACTICE OF PRAYING CONSTANTLY.
To conclude this treatise, I will recall briefly what has been said in the preceding pages, and I will suggest a practice by which you may render all your daily actions pleasing to God.
When you awake in the morning, let your first thought be to raise up your mind to God, to offer to His honour whatever you may have to do or suffer during the day, and to beseech Him to assist you with His holy grace. Then perform your other morning devotions, making acts of love and of gratitude, and praying and resolving to spend the day as if it were to be the last of your life.
Father Saint-Jure recommends you to make a compact every morning with God, that every time you make a certain sign, such as placing your hand upon your heart, or raising your eyes to heaven or to the crucifix, or the like, you intend thereby to make an act of love, of desire to see God loved by all, of oblation of yourself, and other acts of the same kind. When you have made these acts, place your soul in the wound of the side of Jesus and under the mantle of Mary, and beg of the Eternal Father, for the love of Jesus and Mary, to protect you during the day. Then, before all things else, be sure to make your meditation, or mental prayer, at least for half an hour. Meditate especially on the sufferings and contempt which Jesus endured in His Passion. This is the subject dearest to fervent souls, and the one best calculated to set hearts aflame with divine love. If you desire to make progress in the spiritual life there are three devotions which must be particularly dear to you: Devotion to the Passion of our Lord, to the Most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In all your meditations repeat again and again acts of contrition, of the love of God and of oblation of yourself. The venerable Father Charles Caraffa, founder of the Congregation of Pious Workers, says that one fervent act of love made thus in the morning is sufficient to maintain the soul in fervour throughout the whole day.
Perform your more important acts of devotion with great care, such as going to confession, receiving Holy Communion, reciting the divine office, and other similar duties. Whenever you are going to begin some external occupation, like study or work, or the duty of your state in life, do not forget to offer it to God, praying His assistance to enable you to perform it well. Afterwards follow the example of St. Catharine of Siena and retire often to the cell of your heart in order to unite yourself to God. In a word, whatever you do, do it with God and for Him. When you leave your room, or go out of the house-and when you return-say a Hail Mary, and thus recommend yourself to the Blessed Virgin. At your meals, whether you find them pleasant to your taste, or not to your liking, offer all to God. On rising from table, say, as grace, some little prayer like this: Lord, how good Thou art to one who has offended Thee! During the day give some time to spiritual reading; and make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament and to our Lady. In the evening say the Rosary, examine your conscience, make acts of faith, hope, charity and contrition; promise to serve God more fervently and to receive the holy sacraments during life and at death, and form the intention of gaining all the indulgences within your power. When you go tp bed, reflect that you have deserved to lie in the fire of hell; then, with a crucifix in your arms, compose yourself to sleep, saying: In peace, in the self-same I will sleep and I will rest (Ps. 4-9).
(Here, in passing, I would remind the reader of indulgences which are attached to various acts of devotion; and also I would remind him of the desirability of renewing each morning the intention of gaining all the indulgences possible during the day. For reciting the acts of faith, hope and charity there is an indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines each day. If they are recited daily for a month, a plenary indulgence may be gained on the condition of going to confession and Communion and of praying for the intentions of the Church; this indulgence may be applied to the souls in purgatory or to oneself at the hour of death.
In like manner, form the intention of gaining also all the indulgences granted for saying the Rosary on beads properly blessed, the Angelus three times a day, the Litany of our Blessed Lady, the Salve Regina, the Ave Maria, and the Gloria Patri; for saying, ' Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God'; as also for saying, 'Blessed and praised every moment be the Most Holy and Divine Sacrament'; for reciting the prayer Anima Christi, etc.; for bowing the head at the Gloria Patri and at the Most Holy Names of Jesus and Mary; as also for hearing Mass; for making half an hour's mental prayer-for this there is a partial indulgence, and also, if the meditation is made daily, a plenary indulgence on the usual conditions of confession, Communion and praying for the intentions of the Church; for genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament *; for kissing the cross.)
In order to keep yourself recollected and united to God as far as the imperfections of human nature permit. Endeavour, by means of what you see and hear, to raise your mind to God and to recall the things of eternity, For instance, when you see running water, reflect that your life is rushing on in like manner and taking you nearer to death. When you see a lamp going out for want of oil, reflect that thus your life will one day flicker out and be extinguished. When you see graves or the bodies of the dead, think of what will happen to yourself one day. When you see worldly people rejoicing in their wealth or distinction, have pity on their folly, and say to yourself: For me God is sufficient: Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we in the name of the Lord (Ps. 19-8). Let them glory if they wish in vanity. Be it mine to glory only in the grace of God and in His holy love. When you see monuments erected to the dead, or take part in the funeral ceremonies of the great ones of this world, ask yourself the question: If their souls are lost, what will all this pomp avail them? When you look out over the ocean and see it now calm and tranquil and now lashed to fury by the winds, consider the difference there is between a soul in sin and a soul in the state of grace. When you see a tree that is withered, reflect on the fact that a soul without God is fit for nothing but to be cast into the fire. If you ever happen to see one who has been guilty of some great crime, trembling with shame and fear in the presence of his judge, or his father, or of his Bishop, consider what the terror of the sinner will be in the presence of Jesus Christ, his judge. When thunder crashes through the . heavens, and you grow alarmed, reflect how those miserable souls that are damned tremble as they hear continually in hell the thunders of the divine wrath. If you ever see one who has been condemned to suffer a painful death, and who says, ' Is there, then, no longer any means of my escaping death? consider what will be the despair of a soul when it is condemned to hell, as it says: ' Is there, then, no longer any means of escaping from eternal ruin?
When you behold beautiful scenes in the country or along the sea coast, or when you look at flowers or fruit, and are pleased by the sight or the perfume, say: For me God has created these lovely things in this world, that I may love Him. What delights has He not prepared for me in heaven? Seeing fair plains and beautiful hills, St. Teresa used to say that they reproached her with her ingratitude to God. The Abbot de Rance, founder of La Trappe, declared that the beauty of creation around him obliged him to love God. St. Augustine had the same thought: ' The heavens and the earth and all Thy works cry out to me to love Thee. There is a story told of a certain holy man, that in passing through the fields he would strike with a little stick the flowers and plants which he found on his way, saying, ' Be silent; do not reproach me any longer for my ingratitude to God. I have understood you; be silent; say no more. When St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi held in her hand any beautiful fruit or flower, she used to feel herself glowing with divine love, saying to herself, 'Behold, my God has thought from eternity of creating this fruit, this flower, in order to give it to me as a token of the love which He bears towards me.
When you see rivers or streams, reflect that as their waters run towards the sea, and never remain still, so ought you ever tend towards God, who is your only good. When you happen to be in some vehicle drawn by horses' say: 'See what labour these innocent animals go through for my service; and how much pains do I myself take in order to serve and please my God? When you see a little dog, which for a miserable morsel of bread is faithful to its master, reflect how much greater reason you have to be faithful to God, who has created and preserved you, and heaps upon you so many blessings. When you hear the birds sing, say: 'Hearken, O my soul, to the praise which these little creatures are giving to their Creator; and what are you doing? Then do you also praise him with acts of love. On the other hand, when you hear the cock crow, recall to your memory that there once was a time when you also, like Peter, denied your God; and renew your tears and your contrition. If you see the house or the locality in which you fell into some sin, turn to God and say in your heart: The sins of my youth and my ignorance; remember not, O Lord (Ps. 24-7).
When you see valleys fertilised by waters that descend on them from the heights of the mountains, consider that grace in a similar manner leaves those who are proud, to flow into hearts that are humble. When you see a church beautifully adorned, consider the beauty of a soul in grace, which is truly the temple of God. When you look upon the sea, consider the greatness and immensity of God. When you see fire, or candles lighted on the altar say: 'For how many years ought I to have been burning in hell? But since Thou, O Lord, has not yet condemned me to that place of woe, grant that my heart may now burn with Thy holy love, even as this fuel or these candles. When you behold the heavens and the stars, say with St. Andrew of Avellino: 'My feet will one day tread upon those stars.
Recall also frequently the mysteries of our Saviour's love; and when you see straw or a manger or a rocky cave, remember the Infant Jesus and the stable at Bethlehem. When, you see a hammer, or a saw, or a plane, or an axe, recall how Jesus laboured like any ordinary young working man in the cottage at Nazareth. If you see cords, thorns, nails, or beams of wood, think of the sorrows and death of the Most Holy Redeemer. When St. Francis of Assisi happened to see a lamb he shed tears, as he exclaimed: 'My Lord like a lamb was led to die for me. When you look at an altar, a chalice, or a chasuble, recall to mind the great love which Jesus has shown us in giving Himself to us in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Following the example of St. Teresa, often offer yourself to God during the day, and say: ' Behold me, O Lord, ready to do what Thou wilt. Make known to me Thy holy will; I am eager to do all that Thou askest of me.
As the hours go by, make repeated acts of divine love, for-to quote St. Teresa again-these acts of love are the fuel by which divine love is kept burning within the heart. One day, when the Venerable Sister Seraphine of Capri happened to see the convent mule, the thought occurred to her that the poor animal could not love God. She expressed her compassion in these words: 'Poor brute you can neither know nor love God. Then a wonderful thing happened-tears welled into the animal's eyes and forthwith began to flow abundantly. Do you imitate the saintly sister's example. When you see, creatures incapable of knowing or loving God, use the intelligence that He has given you to repeat many acts of love.
If anything painful or disagreeable happens to you, immediately offer to God what you have to suffer, and unite your will to His. Accustom yourself to repeat in every trial: It is the will of God; it is my will also. Acts of resignation are the acts of love dearest to the Heart of God.
When you have to arrive at some decision, or to give some important advice, ask God's help before you do so. Repeat as often as you reasonably can during the day: Incline unto mine aid, O God, as St. Rose of Lima was accustomed to do. To obtain this help of God turn frequently to the crucifix or to the picture of our Blessed Lady (which, of course, you will have in your room) and do not fail to invoke frequently the names of Jesus and Mary, especially in time of temptation. God, being infinitely kind, has the greatest desire to communicate His graces to us. The Venerable Father Alphonsus Alvarez saw our Lord, on one occasion, with His hands filled with graces, going about seeking souls to whom He might dispense them. But He will have us ask Him for them: Ask and you shall receive; otherwise He will withdraw His hands. He will, on the contrary, stretch them out to us and willingly open them to us if we invoke Him. Who ever had recourse to God, asks Ecclesiasticus, and God despised him by refusing to hear him? Who hath called upon Him, and He despised him? (2-11). David declares that God shows not only mercy, but great mercy, to those who invoke Him: For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild; and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee (Ps. 85-5).
How good and kind God is to those who lovingly seek Him! The Lord is good to the soul that seeks Him (Lam. 3-25). He is found even by those who do not seek Him: I was found by them that did not seek Me (Rom. 10-I2); with far greater willingness He will anticipate those who seek Him in order to serve and love Him.
I conclude with a thought from St. Teresa. It is this: The souls of the just should do on earth, through a spirit of love, what the Blessed do in heaven. In heaven the saints occupy themselves only with God; all their thoughts are for His glory; all their pleasure is to love Him. Do you act in the same way. During your life on earth let God be your only happiness, the only object of your affections, the only end of all your actions and desires, until you arrive at that eternal Kingdom, where your love will be consummated and made perfect, and your desires will be completely fulfilled and satisfied.
APPENDIX
Method of MENTAL PRAYER or Meditation According to St. Alphonsus.
I. PREPARATION
A recollected life and regular Spiritual Reading are the best remote preparation.
For the immediate preparation, make three short but fervent acts:
(1) An Act of Adoration of God present to the soul.
Example: O my God, I believe Thou art really here present; I bow down and adore Thee. Thou art so good, I am so sinful; Thou art so great, I am only nothingness; etc.
(2) An Act of Sorrow for Sin:
Example: O my God, I am heartily sorry for all my sins of thought, word, deed, and omission, and by the help of Thy holy grace I will never sin again.
(3) A Petition for Light and Strength:
Example: O my God, give me light to see Thy holy Will, give me grace to do Thy Will. O Wisdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, direct me in all my ways. O Love of the Sacred Heart, consume me in Thy fire.
Add a Hail Mary to the Blessed Virgin and an ejaculation to St. Joseph, your Patron Saints and Angel Guardian.
II. BODY OF THE PRAYER
Use the mind in thinking on some subject as much as is necessary in order to pray fervently. But do not imagine that very much is necessary in order to pray. Do not wait for a great fire to burn up in your soul, but cherish any little spark you may feel.
To help your mind, read a text of Scripture or a short Meditation out of a book. St. Teresa used a book in her Meditations for seventeen years.
Meditate for a few minutes on any thought that has struck you; that is, think for a short time on what it means, what lessons it teaches you, and ask yourself: What have I done about this hitherto? What shall I now do? But remember, you think only in order that you may pray.
The great benefit of Mental Prayer consists less in meditation or thinking than in acts, prayers and resolutions, which are the fruits of Meditation. The thinking is the needle which draws after it the golden thread of acts, prayers and resolutions. The thread is more important than the needle. The chief part of the time of Meditation should, then, be spent in making
(1.) Acts and Affections.
Examples. -Acts of Humility: 'My God, I am nothing in Thy sight. Act of Thanksgiving: 'My God, I thank Thee for Thy goodness. Act of Love: ' My God, I love Thee with my whole heart. I wish to please Thee in all things. I will only what Thou wiliest. I love Thee because Thou art infinitely good. Do with me and mine all that pleases Thee, because it is Thy will. Acts of love and of contrition are golden chains binding us to God. St. Thomas says: ' Every act of love merits eternal life. Make then many simple but fervent acts of love and sorrow.
(2.) Prayers of Petition.
In mental prayer, it is extremely useful, and, perhaps better than all else, to make many earnest petitions for the graces you want. Always ask, above all, for (a) the perfect forgiveness of all past sin; (b) the perfect love of God; and © the grace of a holy death. 'At first, said Father Paul Segneri, S.J., 'I used to employ my time of prayer in reflections and affections, but God opened my eyes, and then I gave myself to petitions, and if I have any good, it comes from this practice.
(3). Resolutions.
'The progress of a soul, says St. Teresa, ' does not consist in thinking much of God, but in loving Him, and this love is gained by resolving to do much for Him. Make one practical resolution that you mean to keep during the day.
III. CONCLUSION
Three short fervent acts:
(1) Thank God for the light He has given you.
(2) Renew your resolution to abstain from some fault or to do some good thing, during the day.
(3) Ask the Eternal Father, for the love of Jesus and Mary, to help you to keep it. At the end of meditation, always pray for poor sinners and for the souls in Purgatory.
N.B.-The acts and prayers of petition should occupy the most of the time. Thus, in a half-hour's prayer, give three minutes to the preparation: think for five minutes and then pray. |
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| June 15th – Sts Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-15-2021, 07:45 AM - Forum: June
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June 15 – Sts Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, Martyrs
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsanctoral.com%2Fen%2Fsa...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsanctoral.com%2Fen%2Fsaints%2Fimages%2Fsaints_vitus_modestus_and_crescentia.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
One of the titles of this divine Spirit who is reigning so specially over this portion of the cycle is the Witness of the Word. Thus was He announced to the world by the Man God himself, when about to quit it in order to return to his Father, after having on his part rendered his own great testimony to Sovereign Truth. Formed by the Holy Ghost on the type of Jesus Christ, the Faithful too are witnesses, whose mission is to trample upon lying error, the enemy of God, by expressing the Truth not in words only, but in deeds. There is a testimony, however, that is not given unto all to render this is the Testimony of blood; the martyrs hold this privilege, this is the special stand granted to them in the ceaseless battle ever being waged betwixt Truth and falsehood, and this battle is the sum total of all history. Hence martyrs come crowding on the brilliant heavens of holy Church at this season. In a few days, the Church will be all thrilling with gladness at the birth of Saint John the Baptist, that man great beyond all men, and whose greatness specially consists in that he was sent by God to be a witness to give testimony of the light. We shall then meditate at leisure upon these thoughts for which we seem to be prepared, by the ever swelling groups of joyous martyrs who cross our path as it were to announce the near approach of the Friend of the Bridegroom.
Today we have Vitus, accompanied by his faithful foster-parents Modestus and Crescentia. He is but a child, yet he comes teaching us the price of baptism and the fidelity we owe to our Father in heaven despite all else beside. Great is his glory both on earth and in heaven; the demons who used to tremble before him in life still continue their dread of him. His name remains ineffaceably inscribed on the memory of the Christian people, just as that of a Saint Elmo or Erasmus, among their most potent “helpers” in daily needs. Saint Vitus, or more commonly St. Guy, is invoked to deliver those who are attacked by that lamentable sickness which is named from him, as also to neutralize bad effects from the bite of a mad dog; and his beneficence is evinced even to the dumb brutes also. He is likewise implored in cases of lethargy or unduly prolonged sleep; for this reason, the cock is his distinctive attribute in Christian art, as well as because recourse is usually had to this saint when one wants to awake at some particular hour.
Let us now turn to what the Liturgy relates of our today’s Saints:
Quote:Vitus while yet a child was baptized, unknown to his father. When his father found this out, he used his best endeavors to dissuade his son from the Christian religion, but as he found him persistent in it, he handed him over to Valerian, the Judge, to be whipped. But as he still remained as unshaken as before, he was given back to his father. But while his father was turning over in his mind to what severe discipline to subject him, Vitus, being warned by an angel, fled to another country, in company with Modestus and Crescentia, who had brought him up. There he gained great praise for holiness, so that his fame reached Diocletian. This emperor, therefore, sent for him to deliver his own child that was vexed by a devil. Vitus delivered him; but when the emperor found that with all his gifts, he would not bring to worship the gods, he had the ingratitude to cast him, as well as Modestus and Crescentia, into prison, binding them with fetters.
But when they were found, in the prison, more faithful than ever to their confession, the emperor commanded them to be thrown into a great vessel full of burning resin and pitch and melted lead. Therein they, like the three Hebrew Children in the fiery furnace, sang praise to God; and upon that they were dragged out and cast to a lion; but he only lay down before them and licked their feet. Then the emperor, being filled with fury, more especially because he saw that the multitude that looked on were stirred up by the miracle, commanded Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia to be stretched upon a block and their limbs crushed so that their bones were broken. While they were dying, there came thunderings, and lightnings and earthquakes, so that the temples of the gods fell down, and many men were killed. Their remains were gathered up by a noble lady named Florentia who, embalming them with spices, honorably buried them.
You have won the battle, glorious Martyrs! the struggle was not long, but it gained for you an eternal crown! You have purchased unto yourselves, O Modestus and Crescentia, the everlasting gratitude of your God himself, for unto him ye faithfully gave back the precious charge committed to your keeping, in the person of that dear child who became your very own, through faith and baptism. And thou too, noble boy, who didst prefer thy Father in heaven to thine earthly parent, who may tell the caressing tenderness lavished upon thee eternally by Him whom before men thou didst so unflinchingly own to be thy true Father? Even here below he is pleased to load thee with striking marks of his munificence; for to thee he confides, on a large scale, the exercise of his merciful power. Because of that holy liberty which reigned in thy soul, from reason’s earliest dawn, whereby thy body was subjected to thy soul’s control, thou dost now hold over fallen nature a marvelous power. Unhappy sufferers whose distorted limbs are worked violently at the caprice of a cruel malady, and are no longer mastered by the will; or, on the other hand, those who are rendered powerless and no longer free to act, by reason of resistless sleep, all these recover at thy feet that perfect harmony of soul and body, that needful docility of the material to the spiritual, whereby man may freely attend to the duties incumbent on him, whether as regards God or his neighbor. Vouchsafe to be ever more and more lavish in the granting of these favors, which are the precious gifts specially at thy disposal, for the good of suffering mankind, and for the greater glory of thy God who hath given thee an eternal crown. We implore thee, in the words of the Church and by thy merits, that God may destroy in us that pride which spoils the equilibrium of man himself and makes him deviate from his path. May it be granted us to have a thorough contempt of evil, for thus is restored to man liberty in love: “Not to be proud-minded, but to make progress in thy sight by pleasing humility; that despising what is evil, it may exercise with free charity the things which are right.”
![[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.traditionalcatholicp...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.traditionalcatholicpriest.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fvitus_modestus_crescentia.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1) |
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| Satire: 10 Most Devastating Impacts Of Homeschooling Your Kids |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-14-2021, 05:13 PM - Forum: Against the Children
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10 Most Devastating Impacts Of Homeschooling Your Kids
So-- you wanna homeschool your kid, huh? Well, it might not all be as great as you think. Read on for a list of reasons homeschooling may completely ruin your kid.
1. Homeschooling makes your children much more likely to grow up to become cisgender: Is that what you want, Mom and Dad? Another cis-normative oppressor making trans people feel unsafe?
2. If you homeschool, your child will miss out on up-to-date works of literature written by trans people of color: Do you really want them to settle for outdated works like The Bible, Shakespeare, or The Tuttle Twins?
3. Homeschool proms are really awkward: Don't make your poor kid go through that, for goodness sake.
4. Homeschooled girls will never experience the magic of sharing a locker room with a 6'4" trans woman named Larry: Don't let your kids miss out on this important life experience.
5. Homeschooled kids usually grow up to be really polite: This is not a very useful character quality for social revolutionaries.
6. If kids don't sit through 8 hours of soul-crushing zoom calls in public school, how will they ever be prepared for a soul-crushing corporate job?: Your children are destined to be good little corporate worker bees. You NEED to prepare them.
7. They will miss out on delicious school lunches: Square pizza and ultra-pasteurized skim milk from a cardboard box? Scrumptious!
8. Denim skirts cause chafing: Just inhumane.
9. They might finish their curriculum early and have more time to be radicalized on YouTube by Jordan Peterson videos: Jordan Peterson is a dangerous cult leader who may radicalize your child into making their bed. Not good!
10. Children may learn that human beings have inherent value as made in God's image: Children who learn that their dignity comes from God and not race, class, or gender identity are not very useful for revolutionary Marxist social change-- er, we mean, a meaningful movement towards greater equity.
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| US Senate passes bill to give billions of dollars in funding for human-animal hybrid experiments |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-14-2021, 12:27 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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US Senate passes bill to give billions of dollars in funding for human-animal hybrid experiments
'We shouldn’t need to clarify in law that creating animal-human hybrids or "chimeras" is ethically unthinkable,
but sadly the need for that very clear distinction has arrived,' said Senator James Lankford.
WASHINGTON, D.C. June 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Senate has passed a bill which will allocate billions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with some of the funds expected to go toward a disturbing form of research whereby tissue from aborted babies is spliced with animal cells to create mixed-species organisms called “chimeras.”
Introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), also called the “Endless Frontier Act,” was passed by the Senate in a 68-32 vote June 9.
Supposed to address growing Chinese technological competition by increasing investment in American innovation in science and technology to the tune of $250 billion, the bill had been hotly debated on the Senate floor for weeks, with over 600 amendments being proposed before last week’s vote.
Although the measure passed with significant bipartisan support, it had drawn fire from Senate Republicans concerned about the possible ethical implications of some of the bill’s intended spending.
One of their concerns had to do with the bill’s proposed funding for the National Institutes of Health, which has long considered lifting its moratorium on conducting chimeric experiments pending new guidelines from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).
In response to concern that the NIH will shortly lift its stay on the unethical research, Senators Mike Braun, Steve Daines, and James Lankford proposed an amendment to the bill which would criminalize the creation of animal-human hybrid organisms.
“We shouldn’t need to clarify in law that creating animal-human hybrids or ‘chimeras’ is ethically unthinkable, but sadly the need for that very clear distinction has arrived,” said Senator Lankford (R-OK), who recently observed the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by giving a 20-minute biology lesson on the Senate floor demonstrating the personhood of unborn babies to pro-abortion Democrats.
“In trying to compete with China, we shouldn’t become like them,” Senator Daines (R-MT) warned. “It’s critical that we draw a bright line against unethical forms of research that fail to recognize the distinct value of humans over animals.”
The NIH’s chimeric research plans had been stymied by a 2019 Trump Administration policy which had shut down the acquisition of human fetal tissue from elective abortions for research and instituted an ethics board to review any such research at labs and universities.
But in April 2021 the NIH announced it was reversing the policy, permitting the acquisition of new fetal tissue from abortions for research and abolishing the ethics board requirement.
Just a month later the ISSCR put out its much-anticipated new guidelines which explicitly allow and provide guidance for chimera research. The NIH is expected to adopt the new guidelines.
To date the NIH has not lifted its moratorium, and it does not directly fund chimera research. However private chimeric research is actively underway in American universities, producing a number of disturbing results. In May 2020 a mouse embryo composed of 96% animal cells and 4% human cells was created by researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In April 2021 researchers with the Salk Institute in California injected 25 induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS cells) from humans into macaque monkey embryos in a grotesque Frankenstein-like chimeric experiment resulting in the creation of human-monkey embryos.
“Currently the National Institutes of Health does not do this research and we need to keep it that way,” Sen. Lankford said, “Researchers who are attempting these horrific once-science-fiction experiments should focus on valuing the dignity of human life, not trying to genetically merge and manipulate humans and animals.”
But despite the best efforts of Senators Braun, Daines, and Lankford, their proposed amendment, which had been endorsed by a bevy of pro-life organizations including the Family Research Council, March for Life Action, National Right to Life, and the US Council of Catholic Bishops, was struck down in a 49-48 vote.
Without the amendment that would have criminalized dystopian chimera research, “The Endless Frontier Act,” which is now on its way to the House of Representatives, will grant billions of dollars to the NIH while leaving the door wide open to morally repugnant research which exploits the bodies of aborted babies at tax-payer expense.
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| St. Basil the Great: De Spiritu Sancto |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-14-2021, 10:01 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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St. Basil the Great - De Spiritu Sancto
Chapter 1
Prefatory remarks on the need of exact investigation of the most minute portions of theology.
1. Your desire for information, my right well-beloved and most deeply respected brother Amphilochius, I highly commend, and not less your industrious energy. I have been exceedingly delighted at the care and watchfulness shown in the expression of your opinion that of all the terms concerning God in every mode of speech, not one ought to be left without exact investigation. You have turned to good account your reading of the exhortation of the Lord, Every one that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, Luke 11:10 and by your diligence in asking might, I ween, stir even the most reluctant to give you a share of what they possess. And this in you yet further moves my admiration, that you do not, according to the manners of the most part of the men of our time, propose your questions by way of mere test, but with the honest desire to arrive at the actual truth. There is no lack in these days of captious listeners and questioners; but to find a character desirous of information, and seeking the truth as a remedy for ignorance, is very difficult. Just as in the hunter's snare, or in the soldier's ambush, the trick is generally ingeniously concealed, so it is with the inquiries of the majority of the questioners who advance arguments, not so much with the view of getting any good out of them, as in order that, in the event of their failing to elicit answers which chime in with their own desires, they may seem to have fair ground for controversy.
2. If To the fool on his asking for wisdom, wisdom shall be reckoned, at how high a price shall we value the wise hearer who is quoted by the Prophet in the same verse with the admirable counsellor? It is right, I ween, to hold him worthy of all approbation, and to urge him on to further progress, sharing his enthusiasm, and in all things toiling at his side as he presses onwards to perfection. To count the terms used in theology as of primary importance, and to endeavour to trace out the hidden meaning in every phrase and in every syllable, is a characteristic wanting in those who are idle in the pursuit of true religion, but distinguishing all who get knowledge of the mark of our calling; Philippians 3:14 for what is set before us is, so far as is possible with human nature, to be made like God. Now without knowledge there can be no making like; and knowledge is not got without lessons. The beginning of teaching is speech, and syllables and words are parts of speech. It follows then that to investigate syllables is not to shoot wide of the mark, nor, because the questions raised are what might seem to some insignificant, are they on that account to be held unworthy of heed. Truth is always a quarry hard to hunt, and therefore we must look everywhere for its tracks. The acquisition of true religion is just like that of crafts; both grow bit by bit; apprentices must despise nothing. If a man despise the first elements as small and insignificant, he will never reach the perfection of wisdom.
Yea and Nay are but two syllables, yet there is often involved in these little words at once the best of all good things, Truth, and that beyond which wickedness cannot go, a Lie. But why mention Yea and Nay? Before now, a martyr bearing witness for Christ has been judged to have paid in full the claim of true religion by merely nodding his head. If, then, this be so, what term in theology is so small but that the effect of its weight in the scales according as it be rightly or wrongly used is not great? Of the law we are told not one jot nor one tittle shall pass away; Matthew 5:18 how then could it be safe for us to leave even the least unnoticed? The very points which you yourself have sought to have thoroughly sifted by us are at the same time both small and great. Their use is the matter of a moment, and perhaps they are therefore made of small account; but, when we reckon the force of their meaning, they are great. They may be likened to the mustard plant which, though it be the least of shrub-seeds, yet when properly cultivated and the forces latent in its germs unfolded, rises to its own sufficient height.
If any one laughs when he sees our subtlety, to use the Psalmist's words, about syllables, let him know that he reaps laughter's fruitless fruit; and let us, neither giving in to men's reproaches, nor yet vanquished by their disparagement, continue our investigation. So far, indeed, am I from feeling ashamed of these things because they are small, that, even if I could attain to ever so minute a fraction of their dignity, I should both congratulate myself on having won high honour, and should tell my brother and fellow-investigator that no small gain had accrued to him therefrom.
While, then, I am aware that the controversy contained in little words is a very great one, in hope of the prize I do not shrink from toil, with the conviction that the discussion will both prove profitable to myself, and that my hearers will be rewarded with no small benefit. Wherefore now with the help, if I may so say, of the Holy Spirit Himself, I will approach the exposition of the subject, and, if you will, that I may be put in the way of the discussion, I will for a moment revert to the origin of the question before us.
3. Lately when praying with the people, and using the full doxology to God the Father in both forms, at one time with the Son together with the Holy Ghost, and at another through the Son in the Holy Ghost, I was attacked by some of those present on the ground that I was introducing novel and at the same time mutually contradictory terms. You, however, chiefly with the view of benefiting them, or, if they are wholly incurable, for the security of such as may fall in with them, have expressed the opinion that some clear instruction ought to be published concerning the force underlying the syllables employed. I will therefore write as concisely as possible, in the endeavour to lay down some admitted principle for the discussion.
Chapter 2
The origin of the heretics' close observation of syllables.
4. The petty exactitude of these men about syllables and words is not, as might be supposed, simple and straightforward; nor is the mischief to which it tends a small one. There is involved a deep and covert design against true religion. Their pertinacious contention is to show that the mention of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is unlike, as though they will thence find it easy to demonstrate that there is a variation in nature. They have an old sophism, invented by Aetius, the champion of this heresy, in one of whose Letters there is a passage to the effect that things naturally unlike are expressed in unlike terms, and, conversely, that things expressed in unlike terms are naturally unlike. In proof of this statement he drags in the words of the Apostle, One God and Father of whom are all things,...and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things. 1 Corinthians 8:6 Whatever, then, he goes on, is the relation of these terms to one another, such will be the relation of the natures indicated by them; and as the term 'of whom' is unlike the term 'by whom,' so is the Father unlike the Son. On this heresy depends the idle subtlety of these men about the phrases in question. They accordingly assign to God the Father, as though it were His distinctive portion and lot, the phrase of Whom; to God the Son they confine the phrase by Whom; to the Holy Spirit that of in Whom, and say that this use of the syllables is never in terchanged, in order that, as I have already said, the variation of language may indicate the variation of nature. Verily it is sufficiently obvious that in their quibbling about the words they are endeavouring to maintain the force of their impious argument.
By the term of whom they wish to indicate the Creator; by the term through whom, the subordinate agent or instrument; by the term in whom, or in which, they mean to show the time or place. The object of all this is that the Creator of the universe may be regarded as of no higher dignity than an instrument, and that the Holy Spirit may appear to be adding to existing things nothing more than the contribution derived from place or time.
Chapter 3
The systematic discussion of syllables is derived from heathen philosophy.
5. They have, however, been led into this error by their close study of heathen writers, who have respectively applied the terms of whom and through whom to things which are by nature distinct. These writers suppose that by the term of whom or of which the matter is indicated, while the term through whom or through which represents the instrument, or, generally speaking, subordinate agency. Or rather — for there seems no reason why we should not take up their whole argument, and briefly expose at once its incompatibility with the truth and its inconsistency with their own teaching — the students of vain philosophy, while expounding the manifold nature of cause and distinguishing its peculiar significations, define some causes as principal, some as cooperative or con-causal, while others are of the character of sine qua non, or indispensable.
For every one of these they have a distinct and peculiar use of terms, so that the maker is indicated in a different way from the instrument. For the maker they think the proper expression is by whom, maintaining that the bench is produced by the carpenter; and for the instrument through which, in that it is produced through or by means of adze and gimlet and the rest. Similarly they appropriate of which to the material, in that the thing made is of wood, while according to which shows the design, or pattern put before the craftsman. For he either first makes a mental sketch, and so brings his fancy to bear upon what he is about, or else he looks at a pattern previously put before him, and arranges his work accordingly. The phrase on account of which they wish to be confined to the end or purpose, the bench, as they say, being produced for, or on account of, the use of man. In which is supposed to indicate time and place. When was it produced? In this time. And where? In this place. And though place and time contribute nothing to what is being produced, yet without these the production of anything is impossible, for efficient agents must have both place and time. It is these careful distinctions, derived from unpractical philosophy and vain delusion, which our opponents have first studied and admired, and then transferred to the simple and unsophisticated doctrine of the Spirit, to the belittling of God the Word, and the setting at naught of the Divine Spirit. Even the phrase set apart by non-Christian writers for the case of lifeless instruments or of manual service of the meanest kind, I mean the expression through or by means of which, they do not shrink from transferring to the Lord of all, and Christians feel no shame in applying to the Creator of the universe language belonging to a hammer or a saw.
Chapter 4
That there is no distinction in the scriptural use of these syllables.
6. We acknowledge that the word of truth has in many places made use of these expressions; yet we absolutely deny that the freedom of the Spirit is in bondage to the pettiness of Paganism. On the contrary, we maintain that Scripture varies its expressions as occasion requires, according to the circumstances of the case. For instance, the phrase of which does not always and absolutely, as they suppose, indicate the material, but it is more in accordance with the usage of Scripture to apply this term in the case of the Supreme Cause, as in the words One God, of whom are all things, 1 Corinthians 8:6 and again, All things of God. 1 Corinthians 11:12 The word of truth has, however, frequently used this term in the case of the material, as when it says You shall make an ark of incorruptible wood; and You shall make the candlestick of pure gold; Exodus 25:31 and The first man is of the earth, earthy; 1 Corinthians 15:47 and You are formed out of clay as I am. But these men, to the end, as we have already remarked, that they may establish the difference of nature, have laid down the law that this phrase befits the Father alone. This distinction they have originally derived from heathen authorities, but here they have shown no faithful accuracy of limitation. To the Son they have in conformity with the teaching of their masters given the title of instrument, and to the Spirit that of place, for they say in the Spirit, and through the Son. But when they apply of whom to God they no longer follow heathen example, but go over, as they say, to apostolic usage, as it is said, But of him are you in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1:30 and All things of God. 1 Corinthians 11:12 What, then, is the result of this systematic discussion? There is one nature of Cause; another of Instrument; another of Place. So the Son is by nature distinct from the Father, as the tool from the craftsman; and the Spirit is distinct in so far as place or time is distinguished from the nature of tools or from that of them that handle them.
Chapter 5
That through whom is said also in the case of the Father, and of whom in the case of the Son and of the Spirit.
7. After thus describing the outcome of our adversaries' arguments, we shall now proceed to show, as we have proposed, that the Father does not first take of whom and then abandon through whom to the Son; and that there is no truth in these men's ruling that the Son refuses to admit the Holy Spirit to a share in of whom or in through whom, according to the limitation of their new-fangled allotment of phrases. There is one God and Father of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things. 1 Corinthians 8:6
Yes; but these are the words of a writer not laying down a rule, but carefully distinguishing the hypostases.
The object of the apostle in thus writing was not to introduce the diversity of nature, but to exhibit the notion of Father and of Son as unconfounded. That the phrases are not opposed to one another and do not, like squadrons in war marshalled one against another, bring the natures to which they are applied into mutual conflict, is perfectly plain from the passage in question. The blessed Paul brings both phrases to bear upon one and the same subject, in the words of him and through him and to him are all things. Romans 11:36 That this plainly refers to the Lord will be admitted even by a reader paying but small attention to the meaning of the words. The apostle has just quoted from the prophecy of Isaiah, Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor, and then goes on, For of him and from him and to him are all things. That the prophet is speaking about God the Word, the Maker of all creation, may be learned from what immediately precedes: Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor has taught him? Isaiah 40:12-13 Now the word who in this passage does not mean absolute impossibility, but rarity, as in the passage Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? and What man is he that desires life? and Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? So is it in the passage in question, Who has directed [lxx., known] the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor has known him? For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things. John 5:20 This is He who holds the earth, and has grasped it with His hand, who brought all things to order and adornment, who poised the hills in their places, and measured the waters, and gave to all things in the universe their proper rank, who encompasses the whole of heaven with but a small portion of His power, which, in a figure, the prophet calls a span. Well then did the apostle add Of him and through him and to him are all things. Romans 11:38 For of Him, to all things that are, comes the cause of their being, according to the will of God the Father. Through Him all things have their continuance and constitution, for He created all things, and metes out to each severally what is necessary for its health and preservation. Wherefore to Him all things are turned, looking with irresistible longing and unspeakable affection to the author Acts 3:15 and maintainer of their life, as it is written The eyes of all wait upon you, and again, These wait all upon you, and You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
8. But if our adversaries oppose this our interpretation, what argument will save them from being caught in their own trap?
For if they will not grant that the three expressions of him and through him and to him are spoken of the Lord, they cannot but be applied to God the Father. Then without question their rule will fall through, for we find not only of whom, but also through whom applied to the Father. And if this latter phrase indicates nothing derogatory, why in the world should it be confined, as though conveying the sense of inferiority, to the Son? If it always and everywhere implies ministry, let them tell us to what superior the God of glory and Father of the Christ is subordinate.
They are thus overthrown by their own selves, while our position will be on both sides made sure. Suppose it proved that the passage refers to the Son, of whom will be found applicable to the Son. Suppose on the other hand it be insisted that the prophet's words relate to God, then it will be granted that through whom is properly used of God, and both phrases have equal value, in that both are used with equal force of God. Under either alternative both terms, being employed of one and the same Person, will be shown to be equivalent. But let us revert to our subject.
9. In his Epistle to the Ephesians the apostle says, But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body. Ephesians 4:15-16
And again in the Epistle to the Colossians, to them that have not the knowledge of the Only Begotten, there is mention of him that holds the head, that is, Christ, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered increases with the increase of God. Colossians 2:19 And that Christ is the head of the Church we have learned in another passage, when the apostle says gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, Ephesians 1:22 and of his fullness have all we received. John 1:16 And the Lord Himself says He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. 1 John 16:15 In a word, the diligent reader will perceive that of whom is used in diverse manners. For instance, the Lord says, I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. Similarly we have frequently observed of whom used of the Spirit. He that sows to the spirit, it is said, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:8 John too writes, Hereby we know that he abides in us by (ἐ κ) the spirit which he has given us. 1 John 3:24 That which is conceived in her, says the angel, is of the Holy Ghost, Matthew 1:20 and the Lord says that which is born of the spirit is spirit. John 3:6 Such then is the case so far.
10. It must now be pointed out that the phrase through whom is admitted by Scripture in the case of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost alike. It would indeed be tedious to bring forward evidence of this in the case of the Son, not only because it is perfectly well known, but because this very point is made by our opponents. We now show that through whom is used also in the case of the Father. God is faithful, it is said, by whom (δι᾿ οὖ) you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, 1 Corinthians 1:9 and Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by (διά) the will of God; and again, Wherefore you are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. And like as Christ was raised up from the dead by (διά) the glory of God the Father. Isaiah, moreover, says, Woe unto them that make deep counsel and not through the Lord; and many proofs of the use of this phrase in the case of the Spirit might be adduced. God has revealed him to us, it is said, by (διά) the spirit; 1 Corinthians 2:10 and in another place, That good thing which was committed unto you keep by (διά) the Holy Ghost; 2 Timothy 1:14 and again, To one is given by (διά) the spirit the word of wisdom. 1 Corinthians 12:8
11. In the same manner it may also be said of the word in, that Scripture admits its use in the case of God the Father. In the Old Testament it is said through (ἐ ν) God we shall do valiantly, and, My praise shall be continually of (ἐ ν) you; and again, In your name will I rejoice. In Paul we read, In God who created all things, Ephesians 3:9 and, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father; 2 Thessalonians 1:1 and if now at length I might have a prosperous journey by (ἐ ν) the will of God to come to you; Romans 1:10 and, You make your boast of God. Romans 2:17 Instances are indeed too numerous to reckon; but what we want is not so much to exhibit an abundance of evidence as to prove that the conclusions of our opponents are unsound. I shall, therefore, omit any proof of this usage in the case of our Lord and of the Holy Ghost, in that it is notorious. But I cannot forbear to remark that the wise hearer will find sufficient proof of the proposition before him by following the method of contraries. For if the difference of language indicates, as we are told, that the nature has been changed, then let identity of language compel our adversaries to confess with shame that the essence is unchanged.
12. And it is not only in the case of the theology that the use of the terms varies, but whenever one of the terms takes the meaning of the other we find them frequently transferred from the one subject to the other. As, for instance, Adam says, I have gotten a man through God, meaning to say the same as from God; and in another passage Moses commanded . . . Israel through the word of the Lord, and, again, Is not the interpretation through God? Joseph, discoursing about dreams to the prisoners, instead of saying from God says plainly through God. Inversely Paul uses the term from whom instead of through whom, when he says made from a woman (A.V., of instead of through a woman). Galatians 4:4 And this he has plainly distinguished in another passage, where he says that it is proper to a woman to be made of the man, and to a man to be made through the woman, in the words For as the woman is from [A.V., of] the man, even so is the man also through [A.V., by] the woman. 1 Corinthians 11:12 Nevertheless in the passage in question the apostle, while illustrating the variety of usage, at the same time corrects obiter the error of those who supposed that the body of the Lord was a spiritual body, and, to show that the God-bearing flesh was formed out of the com mon lump of human nature, gave precedence to the more emphatic preposition.
The phrase through a woman would be likely to give rise to the suspicion of mere transit in the generation, while the phrase of the woman would satisfactorily indicate that the nature was shared by the mother and the offspring. The apostle was in no wise contradicting himself, but he showed that the words can without difficulty be interchanged. Since, therefore, the term from whom is transferred to the identical subjects in the case of which through whom is decided to be properly used, with what consistency can these phrases be invariably distinguished one from the other, in order that fault may be falsely found with true religion?
Chapter 6
Issue joined with those who assert that the Son is not with the Father, but after the Father. Also concerning the equal glory.
13. Our opponents, while they thus artfully and perversely encounter our argument, cannot even have recourse to the plea of ignorance. It is obvious that they are annoyed with us for completing the doxology to the Only Begotten together with the Father, and for not separating the Holy Spirit from the Son. On this account they style us innovators, revolutionizers, phrase-coiners, and every other possible name of insult. But so far am I from being irritated at their abuse, that, were it not for the fact that their loss causes me heaviness and continual sorrow, I could almost have said that I was grateful to them for the blasphemy, as though they were agents for providing me with blessing. For blessed are you, it is said, when men shall revile you for my sake. Matthew 5:11 The grounds of their indignation are these: The Son, according to them, is not together with the Father, but after the Father. Hence it follows that glory should be ascribed to the Father through him, but not with him; inasmuch as with him expresses equality of dignity, while through him denotes subordination. They further assert that the Spirit is not to be ranked along with the Father and the Son, but under the Son and the Father; not coordinated, but subordinated; not connumerated, but subnumerated.
With technical terminology of this kind they pervert the simplicity and artlessness of the faith, and thus by their ingenuity, suffering no one else to remain in ignorance, they cut off from themselves the plea that ignorance might demand.
14. Let us first ask them this question: In what sense do they say that the Son is after the Father; later in time, or in order, or in dignity? But in time no one is so devoid of sense as to assert that the Maker of the ages holds a second place, when no interval intervenes in the natural conjunction of the Father with the Son. And indeed so far as our conception of human relations goes, it is impossible to think of the Son as being later than the Father, not only from the fact that Father and Son are mutually conceived of in accordance with the relationship subsisting between them, but because posteriority in time is predicated of subjects separated by a less interval from the present, and priority of subjects farther off. For instance, what happened in Noah's time is prior to what happened to the men of Sodom, inasmuch as Noah is more remote from our own day; and, again, the events of the history of the men of Sodom are posterior, because they seem in a sense to approach nearer to our own day. But, in addition to its being a breach of true religion, is it not really the extremest folly to measure the existence of the life which transcends all time and all the ages by its distance from the present? Is it not as though God the Father could be compared with, and be made superior to, God the Son, who exists before the ages, precisely in the same way in which things liable to beginning and corruption are described as prior to one another?
The superior remoteness of the Father is really inconceivable, in that thought and intelligence are wholly impotent to go beyond the generation of the Lord; and St. John has admirably confined the conception within circumscribed boundaries by two words, In the beginning was the Word. For thought cannot travel outside was, nor imagination beyond beginning. Let your thought travel ever so far backward you cannot get beyond the was, and however you may strain and strive to see what is beyond the Son, you will find it impossible to get further than the beginning. True religion, therefore, thus teaches us to think of the Son together with the Father.
15. If they really conceive of a kind of degradation of the Son in relation to the Father, as though He were in a lower place, so that the Father sits above, and the Son is thrust off to the next seat below, let them confess what they mean. We shall have no more to say. A plain statement of the view will at once expose its absurdity. They who refuse to allow that the Father pervades all things do not so much as maintain the logical sequence of thought in their argument. The faith of the sound is that God fills all things; Ephesians 4:10 but they who divide their up and down between the Father and the Son do not remember even the word of the Prophet: If I climb up into heaven you are there; if I go down to hell you are there also. Now, to omit all proof of the ignorance of those who predicate place of incorporeal things, what excuse can be found for their attack upon Scripture, shameless as their antagonism is, in the passages Sit on my right hand and Sat down on the right hand of the majesty of God? The expression right hand does not, as they contend, indicate the lower place, but equality of relation; it is not understood physically, in which case there might be something sinister about God, but Scripture puts before us the magnificence of the dignity of the Son by the use of dignified language indicating the seat of honour. It is left then for our opponents to allege that this expression signifies inferiority of rank. Let them learn that Christ is the power of God and wisdom of God, 1 Corinthians 1:24 and that He is the image of the invisible God Colossians 1:15 and brightness of his glory, Hebrews 1:3 and that Him has God the Father sealed, John 6:27 by engraving Himself on Him.
Now are we to call these passages, and others like them, throughout the whole of Holy Scripture, proofs of humiliation, or rather public proclamations of the majesty of the Only Begotten, and of the equality of His glory with the Father? We ask them to listen to the Lord Himself, distinctly setting forth the equal dignity of His glory with the Father, in His words, He that has seen me has seen the Father; John 14:9 and again, When the Son comes in the glory of his Father; Mark 8:38 that they should honour the Son even as they honour the Father; John 5:23 and, We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father; John 1:14 and the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father. Of all these passages they take no account, and then assign to the Son the place set apart for His foes. A father's bosom is a fit and becoming seat for a son, but the place of the footstool is for them that have to be forced to fall.
We have only touched cursorily on these proofs, because our object is to pass on to other points. You at your leisure can put together the items of the evidence, and then contemplate the height of the glory and the preeminence of the power of the Only Begotten. However, to the well-disposed hearer, even these are not insignificant, unless the terms right hand and bosom be accepted in a physical and derogatory sense, so as at once to circumscribe God in local limits, and invent form, mould, and bodily position, all of which are totally distinct from the idea of the absolute, the infinite, and the incorporeal. There is moreover the fact that what is derogatory in the idea of it is the same in the case both of the Father and the Son; so that whoever repeats these arguments does not take away the dignity of the Son, but does incur the charge of blaspheming the Father; for whatever audacity a man be guilty of against the Son he cannot but transfer to the Father. If he assigns to the Father the upper place by way of precedence, and asserts that the only begotten Son sits below, he will find that to the creature of his imagination attach all the consequent conditions of body. And if these are the imaginations of drunken delusion and phrensied insanity, can it be consistent with true religion for men taught by the Lord himself that He that honours not the Son honours not the Father John 5:23 to refuse to worship and glorify with the Father him who in nature, in glory, and in dignity is conjoined with him? What shall we say? What just defense shall we have in the day of the awful universal judgment of all-creation, if, when the Lord clearly announces that He will come in the glory of his Father; Matthew 16:27 when Stephen beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of God; Acts 7:55 when Paul testified in the spirit concerning Christ that he is at the right hand of God; Romans 8:34 when the Father says, Sit on my right hand; when the Holy Spirit bears witness that he has sat down on the right hand of the majesty Hebrews 8:1 of God; we attempt to degrade him who shares the honour and the throne, from his condition of equality, to a lower state? Standing and sitting, I apprehend, indicate the fixity and entire stability of the nature, as Baruch, when he wishes to exhibit the immutability and immobility of the Divine mode of existence, says, For you sit for ever and we perish utterly. Moreover, the place on the right hand indicates in my judgment equality of honour. Rash, then, is the attempt to deprive the Son of participation in the doxology, as though worthy only to be ranked in a lower place of honour.
Chapter 7
Against those who assert that it is not proper for with whom to be said of the Son, and that the proper phrase is through whom.
16. But their contention is that to use the phrase with him is altogether strange and unusual, while through him is at once most familiar in Holy Scripture, and very common in the language of the brotherhood. What is our answer to this? We say, Blessed are the ears that have not heard you and the hearts that have been kept from the wounds of your words. To you, on the other hand, who are lovers of Christ, I say that the Church recognizes both uses, and deprecates neither as subversive of the other. For whenever we are contemplating the majesty of the nature of the Only Begotten, and the excellence of His dignity, we bear witness that the glory is with the Father; while on the other hand, whenever we bethink us of His bestowal on us of good gifts, and of our access to, and admission into, the household of God, we confess that this grace is effected for us through Him and by Him.
It follows that the one phrase with whom is the proper one to be used in the ascription of glory, while the other, through whom, is specially appropriate in giving of thanks. It is also quite untrue to allege that the phrase with whom is unfamiliar in the usage of the devout. All those whose soundness of character leads them to hold the dignity of antiquity to be more honourable than mere new-fangled novelty, and who have preserved the tradition of their fathers unadulterated, alike in town and in country, have employed this phrase. It is, on the contrary, they who are surfeited with the familiar and the customary, and arrogantly assail the old as stale, who welcome innovation, just as in dress your lovers of display always prefer some utter novelty to what is generally worn. So you may even still see that the language of country folk preserves the ancient fashion, while of these, our cunning experts in logomachy, the language bears the brand of the new philosophy.
What our fathers said, the same say we, that the glory of the Father and of the Son is common; wherefore we offer the doxology to the Father with the Son. But we do not rest only on the fact that such is the tradition of the Fathers; for they too followed the sense of Scripture, and started from the evidence which, a few sentences back, I deduced from Scripture and laid before you. For the brightness is always thought of with the glory, the image with the archetype, 2 Corinthians 4:4 and the Son always and everywhere together with the Father; nor does even the close connection of the names, much less the nature of the things, admit of separation.
Chapter 8
In how many ways Through whom is used; and in what sense with whom is more suitable. Explanation of how the Son receives a commandment, and how He is sent.
17. When, then, the apostle thanks God through Jesus Christ, Romans 1:8 and again says that through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations, Romans 1:5 or through Him have access unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoice, Romans 5:2 he sets forth the boons conferred on us by the Son, at one time making the grace of the good gifts pass through from the Father to us, and at another bringing us to the Father through Himself. For by saying through whom we have received grace and apostleship, Romans 1:5 he declares the supply of the good gifts to proceed from that source; and again in saying through whom we have had access, Romans 5:2 he sets forth our acceptance and being made of the household of God through Christ. Is then the confession of the grace wrought by Him to usward a detraction from His glory? Is it not truer to say that the recital of His benefits is a proper argument for glorifying Him? It is on this account that we have not found Scripture describing the Lord to us by one name, nor even by such terms alone as are indicative of His godhead and majesty. At one time it uses terms descriptive of His nature, for it recognises the name which is above every name, Philippians 2:9 the name of Son, and speaks of true Son, and only begotten God, and Power of God, and Wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1:24 and Word. Then again, on account of the various manners wherein grace is given to us, which, because of the riches of His goodness, according to his manifold Ephesians 3:10 wisdom, he bestows on them that need, Scripture designates Him by innumerable other titles, calling Him Shepherd, King, Physician, Bridegroom, Way, Door, Fountain, Bread, Axe, and Rock. And these titles do not set forth His nature, but, as I have remarked, the variety of the effectual working which, out of His tender-heartedness to His own creation, according to the peculiar necessity of each, He bestows upon them that need. Them that have fled for refuge to His ruling care, and through patient endurance have mended their wayward ways, He calls sheep, and confesses Himself to be, to them that hear His voice and refuse to give heed to strange teaching, a shepherd. For my sheep, He says, hear my voice. To them that have now reached a higher stage and stand in need of righteous royalty, He is a King. And in that, through the straight way of His commandments, He leads men to good actions, and again because He safely shuts in all who through faith in Him betake themselves for shelter to the blessing of the higher wisdom, He is a Door.
So He says, By me if any man enter in, he shall go in and out and shall find pastare. John 10:9 Again, because to the faithful He is a defense strong, unshaken, and harder to break than any bulwark, He is a Rock. Among these titles, it is when He is styled Door, or Way, that the phrase through Him is very appropriate and plain. As, however, God and Son, He is glorified with and together with the Father, in that at, the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11 Wherefore we use both terms, expressing by the one His own proper dignity, and by the other His grace to usward.
18. For through Him comes every succour to our souls, and it is in accordance with each kind of care that an appropriate title has been devised. So when He presents to Himself the blameless soul, not having spot or wrinkle, Ephesians 5:29 like a pure maiden, He is called Bridegroom, but whenever He receives one in sore plight from the devil's evil strokes, healing it in the heavy infirmity of its sins, He is named Physician. And shall this His care for us degrade to meanness our thoughts of Him? Or, on the contrary, shall it smite us with amazement at once at the mighty power and love to man of the Saviour, in that He both endured to suffer with us in our infirmities, and was able to come down to our weakness? For not heaven and earth and the great seas, not the creatures that live in the water and on dry land, not plants, and stars, and air, and seasons, not the vast variety in the order of the universe, so well sets forth the excellency of His might as that God, being incomprehensible, should have been able, impassibly, through flesh, to have come into close conflict with death, to the end that by His own suffering He might give us the boon of freedom from suffering. The apostle, it is true, says, In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:37 But in a phrase of this kind there is no suggestion of any lowly and subordinate ministry, but rather of the succour rendered in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10 For He Himself has bound the strong man and spoiled his goods, that is, us men, whom our enemy had abused in every evil activity, and made vessels meet for the Master's use 2 Timothy 2:21 us who have been perfected for every work through the making ready of that part of us which is in our own control. Thus we have had our approach to the Father through Him, being translated from the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Colossians 1:12-13 We must not, however, regard the œconomy through the Son as a compulsory and subordinate ministration resulting from the low estate of a slave, but rather the voluntary solicitude working effectually for His own creation in goodness and in pity, according to the will of God the Father. For we shall be consistent with true religion if in all that was and is from time to time perfected by Him, we both bear witness to the perfection of His power, and in no case put it asunder from the Father's will. For instance, whenever the Lord is called the Way, we are carried on to a higher meaning, and not to that which is derived from the vulgar sense of the word. We understand by Way that advance to perfection which is made stage by stage, and in regular order, through the works of righteousness and the illumination of knowledge; ever longing after what is before, and reaching forth unto those things which remain, until we shall have reached the blessed end, the knowledge of God, which the Lord through Himself bestows on them that have trusted in Him. For our Lord is an essentially good Way, where erring and straying are unknown, to that which is essentially good, to the Father. For no one, He says, comes to the Father but [by A.V.] through me. John 14:6 Such is our way up to God through the Son.
19. It will follow that we should next in order point out the character of the provision of blessings bestowed on us by the Father through him. Inasmuch as all created nature, both this visible world and all that is conceived of in the mind, cannot hold together without the care and providence of God, the Creator Word, the Only begotten God, apportioning His succour according to the measure of the needs of each, distributes mercies various and manifold on account of the many kinds and characters of the recipients of His bounty, but appropriate to the necessities of individual requirements. Those that are confined in the darkness of ignorance He enlightens: for this reason He is true Light. John 1:9 Portioning requital in accordance with the desert of deeds, He judges: for this reason He is righteous Judge. 2 Timothy 4:8 For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. John 5:22 Those that have lapsed from the lofty height of life into sin He raises from their fall: for this reason He is Resurrection. John 11:25 Effectually working by the touch of His power and the will of His goodness He does all things. He shepherds; He enlightens; He nourishes; He heals; He guides; He raises up; He calls into being things that were not; He upholds what has been created. Thus the good things that come from God reach us through the Son, who works in each case with greater speed than speech can utter. For not lightnings, not light's course in air, is so swift; not eyes' sharp turn, not the movements of our very thought. Nay, by the divine energy is each one of these in speed further surpassed than is the slowest of all living creatures outdone in motion by birds, or even winds, or the rush of the heavenly bodies: or, not to mention these, by our very thought itself. For what extent of time is needed by Him who upholds all things by the word of His power, Hebrews 1:3 and works not by bodily agency, nor requires the help of hands to form and fashion, but holds in obedient following and unforced consent the nature of all things that are? So as Judith says, You have thought, and what things you determined were ready at hand. On the other hand, and lest we should ever be drawn away by the greatness of the works wrought to imagine that the Lord is without beginning, what says the Self-Existent? I live through [by, A.V.] the Father, John 6:57 and the power of God; The Son has power [can, A.V.] to do nothing of himself. John 5:19 And the self-complete Wisdom? I received a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. John 12:49 Through all these words He is guiding us to the knowledge of the Father, and referring our wonder at all that is brought into existence to Him, to the end that through Him we may know the Father. For the Father is not regarded from the difference of the operations, by the exhibition of a separate and peculiar energy; for whatsoever things He sees the Father doing, these also does the Son likewise; John 5:19 but He enjoys our wonder at all that comes to pass out of the glory which comes to Him from the Only Begotten, rejoicing in the Doer Himself as well as in the greatness of the deeds, and exalted by all who acknowledge Him as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom [by whom, A.V.] are all things, and for whom are all things. Wherefore, says the Lord, All mine are yours, John 17:10 as though the sovereignty over created things were conferred on Him, and Yours are mine, as though the creating Cause came thence to Him. We are not to suppose that He used assistance in His action, or yet was entrusted with the ministry of each individual work by detailed commission, a condition distinctly menial and quite inadequate to the divine dignity. Rather was the Word full of His Father's excellences; He shines forth from the Father, and does all things according to the likeness of Him that begot Him. For if in essence He is without variation, so also is He without variation in power. And of those whose power is equal, the operation also is in all ways equal. And Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:24 And so all things are made through [by, A.V.] him, John 1:3 and all things were created through [by, A.V.] him and for him, Colossians 1:16 not in the discharge of any slavish service, but in the fulfilment of the Father's will as Creator.
20. When then He says, I have not spoken of myself, John 12:49 and again, As the Father said to me, so I speak, John 12:50 and The word which you hear is not mine, but [the Father's] which sent me, John 14:24 and in another place, As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do, John 14:31 it is not because He lacks deliberate purpose or power of initiation, nor yet because He has to wait for the preconcerted key-note, that he employs language of this kind. His object is to make it plain that His own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father. Do not then let us understand by what is called a commandment a peremptory mandate delivered by organs of speech, and giving orders to the Son, as to a subordinate, concerning what He ought to do. Let us rather, in a sense befitting the Godhead, perceive a transmission of will, like the reflexion of an object in a mirror, passing without note of time from Father to Son. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things, John 5:20 so that all things that the Father has belong to the Son, not gradually accruing to Him little by little, but with Him all together and at once. Among men, the workman who has been thoroughly taught his craft, and, through long training, has sure and established experience in it, is able, in accordance with the scientific methods which now he has in store, to work for the future by himself. And are we to suppose that the wisdom of God, the Maker of all creation, He who is eternally perfect, who is wise, without a teacher, the Power of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, needs piecemeal instruction to mark out the manner and measure of His operations? I presume that in the vanity of your calculations, you mean to open a school; you will make the one take His seat in the teacher's place, and the other stand by in a scholar's ignorance, gradually learning wisdom and advancing to perfection, by lessons given Him bit by bit. Hence, if you have sense to abide by what logically follows, you will find the Son being eternally taught, nor yet ever able to reach the end of perfection, inasmuch as the wisdom of the Father is infinite, and the end of the infinite is beyond apprehension. It results that whoever refuses to grant that the Son has all things from the beginning will never grant that He will reach perfection. But I am ashamed at the degraded conception to which, by the course of the argument, I have been brought down. Let us therefore revert to the loftier themes of our discussion.
21. He that has seen me has seen the Father; John 14:9 not the express image, nor yet the form, for the divine nature does not admit of combination; but the goodness of the will, which, being concurrent with the essence, is beheld as like and equal, or rather the same, in the Father as in the Son.
What then is meant by became subject? Philippians 2:8 What by delivered him up for us all? Romans 8:32 It is meant that the Son has it of the Father that He works in goodness on behalf of men. But you must hear too the words, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; Galatians 3:13 and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Give careful heed, too, to the words of the Lord, and note how, whenever He instructs us about His Father, He is in the habit of using terms of personal authority, saying, I will; be clean; Matthew 8:3 and Peace, be still; Mark 4:39 and But I say unto you; and Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you; Mark 9:25 and all other expressions of the same kind, in order that by these we may recognise our Master and Maker, and by the former may be taught the Father of our Master and Creator. Thus on all sides is demonstrated the true doctrine that the fact that the Father creates through the Son neither constitutes the creation of the Father imperfect nor exhibits the active energy of the Son as feeble, but indicates the unity of the will; so the expression through whom contains a confession of an antecedent Cause, and is not adopted in objection to the efficient Cause.
Chapter 9
Definitive conceptions about the Spirit which conform to the teaching of the Scriptures.
22. Let us now investigate what are our common conceptions concerning the Spirit, as well those which have been gathered by us from Holy Scripture concerning It as those which we have received from the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. First of all we ask, who on hearing the titles of the Spirit is not lifted up in soul, who does not raise his conception to the supreme nature? It is called Spirit of God, Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father, John 15:26 right Spirit, a leading Spirit. Its proper and peculiar title is Holy Spirit; which is a name specially appropriate to everything that is incorporeal, purely immaterial, and indivisible. So our Lord, when teaching the woman who thought God to be an object of local worship that the incorporeal is incomprehensible, said God is a spirit. John 4:24 On our hearing, then, of a spirit, it is impossible to form the idea of a nature circumscribed, subject to change and variation, or at all like the creature. We are compelled to advance in our conceptions to the highest, and to think of an intelligent essence, in power infinite, in magnitude unlimited, unmeasured by times or ages, generous of Its good gifts, to whom turn all things needing sanctification, after whom reach all things that live in virtue, as being watered by Its inspiration and helped on toward their natural and proper end; perfecting all other things, but Itself in nothing lacking; living not as needing restoration, but as Supplier of life; not growing by additions; but straightway full, self-established, omnipresent, origin of sanctification, light perceptible to the mind, supplying, as it were, through Itself, illumination to every faculty in the search for truth; by nature unapproachable, apprehended by reason of goodness, filling all things with Its power, but communicated only to the worthy; not shared in one measure, but distributing Its energy according to the proportion of faith; Romans 12:6 in essence simple, in powers various, wholly present in each and being wholly everywhere; impassively divided, shared without loss of ceasing to be entire, after the likeness of the sunbeam, whose kindly light falls on him who enjoys it as though it shone for him alone, yet illumines land and sea and mingles with the air. So, too, is the Spirit to every one who receives it, as though given to him alone, and yet It sends forth grace sufficient and full for all mankind, and is enjoyed by all who share It, according to the capacity, not of Its power, but of their nature.
23. Now the Spirit is not brought into intimate association with the soul by local approximation. How indeed could there be a corporeal approach to the incorporeal? This association results from the withdrawal of the passions which, coming afterwards gradually on the soul from its friendship to the flesh, have alienated it from its close relationship with God. Only then after a man is purified from the shame whose stain he took through his wickedness, and has come back again to his natural beauty, and as it were cleaning the Royal Image and restoring its ancient form, only thus is it possible for him to draw near to the Paraclete. And He, like the sun, will by the aid of your purified eye show you in Himself the image of the invisible, and in the blessed spectacle of the image you shall behold the unspeakable beauty of the archetype. Through His aid hearts are lifted up, the weak are held by the hand, and they who are advancing are brought to perfection. Shining upon those that are cleansed from every spot, He makes them spiritual by fellowship with Himself. Just as when a sunbeam falls on bright and transparent bodies, they themselves become brilliant too, and shed forth a fresh brightness from themselves, so souls wherein the Spirit dwells, illuminated by the Spirit, themselves become spiritual, and send forth their grace to others. Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, the being made God. Such, then, to instance a few out of many, are the conceptions concerning the Holy Spirit, which we have been taught to hold concerning His greatness, His dignity, and His operations, by the oracles of the Spirit themselves.
Chapter 10
Against those who say that it is not right to rank the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.
24. But we must proceed to attack our opponents, in the endeavour to confute those oppositions advanced against us which are derived from knowledge falsely so-called.
It is not permissible, they assert, for the Holy Spirit to be ranked with the Father and Son, on account of the difference of His nature and the inferiority of His dignity. Against them it is right to reply in the words of the apostles, We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29
For if our Lord, when enjoining the baptism of salvation, charged His disciples to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Matthew 28:19 not disdaining fellowship with Him, and these men allege that we must not rank Him with the Father and the Son, is it not clear that they openly withstand the commandment of God? If they deny that coordination of this kind is declaratory of any fellowship and conjunction, let them tell us why it behooves us to hold this opinion, and what more intimate mode of conjunction they have.
If the Lord did not indeed conjoin the Spirit with the Father and Himself in baptism, do not let them lay the blame of conjunction upon us, for we neither hold nor say anything different. If on the contrary the Spirit is there conjoined with the Father and the Son, and no one is so shameless as to say anything else, then let them not lay blame on us for following the words of Scripture.
25. But all the apparatus of war has been got ready against us; every intellectual missile is aimed at us; and now blasphemers' tongues shoot and hit and hit again, yet harder than Stephen of old was smitten by the killers of the Christ. And do not let them succeed in concealing the fact that, while an attack on us serves for a pretext for the war, the real aim of these proceedings is higher. It is against us, they say, that they are preparing their engines and their snares; against us that they are shouting to one another, according to each one's strength or cunning, to come on. But the object of attack is faith. The one aim of the whole band of opponents and enemies of sound doctrine 1 Timothy 1:10 is to shake down the foundation of the faith of Christ by levelling apostolic tradition with the ground, and utterly destroying it. So like the debtors — of course bona fide debtors — they clamour for written proof, and reject as worthless the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. But we will not slacken in our defense of the truth. We will not cowardly abandon the cause. The Lord has delivered to us as a necessary and saving doctrine that the Holy Spirit is to be ranked with the Father. Our opponents think differently, and see fit to divide and rend asunder, and relegate Him to the nature of a ministering spirit. Is it not then indisputable that they make their own blasphemy more authoritative than the law prescribed by the Lord? Come, then, set aside mere contention. Let us consider the points before us, as follows:
26. Whence is it that we are Christians? Through our faith, would be the universal answer. And in what way are we saved? Plainly because we were regenerate through the grace given in our baptism. How else could we be? And after recognising that this salvation is established through the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, shall we fling away that form of doctrine Romans 6:17 which we received? Would it not rather be ground for great groaning if we are found now further off from our salvation than when we first believed, and deny now what we then received? Whether a man have departed this life without baptism, or have received a baptism lacking in some of the requirements of the tradition, his loss is equal. And whoever does not always and everywhere keep to and hold fast as a sure protection the confession which we recorded at our first admission, when, being delivered from the idols, we came to the living God, 1 Thessalonians 1:9 constitutes himself a stranger from the promises Ephesians 2:12 of God, fighting against his own handwriting, which he put on record when he professed the faith. For if to me my baptism was the beginning of life, and that day of regeneration the first of days, it is plain that the utterance uttered in the grace of adoption was the most honourable of all. Can I then, perverted by these men's seductive words, abandon the tradition which guided me to the light, which bestowed on me the boon of the knowledge of God, whereby I, so long a foe by reason of sin, was made a child of God? But, for myself, I pray that with this confession I may depart hence to the Lord, and them I charge to preserve the faith secure until the day of Christ, and to keep the Spirit undivided from the Father and the Son, preserving, both in the confession of faith and in the doxology, the doctrine taught them at their baptism.
Chapter 11
That they who deny the Spirit are transgressors.
27. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Proverbs 23:29 For whom is distress and darkness? For whom eternal doom? Is it not for the transgressors? For them that deny the faith? And what is the proof of their denial? Is it not that they have set at naught their own confessions? And when and what did they confess? Belief in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Ghost, when they renounced the devil and his angels, and uttered those saving words. What fit title then for them has been discovered, for the children of light to use? Are they not addressed as transgressors, as having violated the covenant of their salvation? What am I to call the denial of God? What the denial of Christ? What but transgressions? And to him who denies the Spirit, what title do you wish me to apply? Must it not be the same, inasmuch as he has broken his covenant with God? And when the confession of faith in Him secures the blessing of true religion. and its denial subjects men to the doom of godlessness, is it not a fearful thing for them to set the confession at naught, not through fear of fire, or sword, or cross, or scourge, or wheel, or rack, but merely led astray by the sophistry and seductions of the pneumatomachi? I testify to every man who is confessing Christ and denying God, that Christ will profit him nothing; to every man that calls upon God but rejects the Son, that his faith is vain; to every man that sets aside the Spirit, that his faith in the Father and the Son will be useless, for he cannot even hold it without the presence of the Spirit. For he who does not believe the Spirit does not believe in the Son, and he who has not believed in the Son does not believe in the Father. For none can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, 1 Corinthians 12:3 and No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
Such an one has neither part nor lot in the true worship; for it is impossible to worship the Son, save by the Holy Ghost; impossible to call upon the Father, save by the Spirit of adoption.
Chapter 12
Against those who assert that the baptism in the name of the Father alone is sufficient.
28. Let no one be misled by the fact of the apostle's frequently omitting the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit when making mention of baptism, or on this account imagine that the invocation of the names is not observed. As many of you, he says, as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ; and again, As many of you as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. For the naming of Christ is the confession of the whole, showing forth as it does the God who gave, the Son who received, and the Spirit who is, the unction. So we have learned from Peter, in the Acts, of Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost; Acts 10:38 and in Isaiah, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; Isaiah 60:1 and the Psalmist, Therefore God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. Scripture, however, in the case of baptism, sometimes plainly mentions the Spirit alone.
For into one Spirit, it says, we were all baptized in one body. And in harmony with this are the passages: You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, Acts 1:5 and He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Luke 3:16 But no one on this account would be justified in calling that baptism a perfect baptism wherein only the name of the Spirit was invoked. For the tradition that has been given us by the quickening grace must remain for ever inviolate. He who redeemed our life from destruction gave us power of renewal, whereof the cause is ineffable and hidden in mystery, but bringing great salvation to our souls, so that to add or to take away anything involves manifestly a falling away from the life everlasting. If then in baptism the separation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son is perilous to the baptizer, and of no advantage to the baptized, how can the rending asunder of the Spirit from Father and from Son be safe for us? Faith and baptism are two kindred and inseparable ways of salvation: faith is perfected through baptism, baptism is established through faith, and both are completed by the same names. For as we believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, so are we also baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; first comes the confession, introducing us to salvation, and baptism follows, setting the seal upon our assent.
Chapter 13
Statement of the reason why in the writings of Paul the angels are associated with the Father and the Son.
29. It is, however, objected that other beings which are enumerated with the Father and the Son are certainly not always glorified together with them. The apostle, for instance, in his charge to Timothy, associates the angels with them in the words, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. 1 Timothy 5:21 We are not for alienating the angels from the rest of creation, and yet, it is argued, we do not allow of their being reckoned with the Father and the Son. To this I reply, although the argument, so obviously absurd is it, does not really deserve a reply, that possibly before a mild and gentle judge, and especially before One who by His leniency to those arraigned before Him demonstrates the unimpeachable equity of His decisions, one might be willing to offer as witness even a fellow-slave; but for a slave to be made free and called a son of God and quickened from death can only be brought about by Him who has acquired natural kinship with us, and has been changed from the rank of a slave. For how can we be made kin with God by one who is an alien? How can we be freed by one who is himself under the yoke of slavery? It follows that the mention of the Spirit and that of angels are not made under like conditions. The Spirit is called on as Lord of life, and the angels as allies of their fellow-slaves and faithful witnesses of the truth. It is customary for the saints to deliver the commandments of God in the presence of witnesses, as also the apostle himself says to Timothy, The things which you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men; 2 Timothy 2:2 and now he calls the angels to witness, for he knows that angels shall be present with the Lord when He shall come in the glory of His Father to judge the world in righteousness. For He says, Whoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God, but he that denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God; Luke 12:8-9 and Paul in another place says, When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his angels. 2 Thessalonians 1:7 Thus he already testifies before the angels, preparing good proofs for himself at the great tribunal.
30. And not only Paul, but generally all those to whom is committed any ministry of the word, never cease from testifying, but call heaven and earth to witness on the ground that now every deed that is done is done within them, and that in the examination of all the actions of life they will be present with the judged. So it is said, He shall call to the heavens above and to earth, that he may judge his people. And so Moses when about to deliver his oracles to the people says, I call heaven and earth to witness this day; Deuteronomy 4:26 and again in his song he says, Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth; Deuteronomy 32:1 and Isaiah, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; Isaiah 1:2 and Jeremiah describes astonishment in heaven at the tidings of the unholy deeds of the people: The heaven was astonished at this, and was horribly afraid, because my people committed two evils. And so the apostle, knowing the angels to be set over men as tutors and guardians, calls them to witness. Moreover, Joshua, the son of Nun, even set up a stone as witness of his words (already a heap somewhere had been called a witness by Jacob), Genesis 31:47 for he says, Behold this stone shall be a witness unto you this day to the end of days, when you lie to the Lord our God, perhaps believing that by God's power even the stones would speak to the conviction of the transgressors; or, if not, that at least each man's conscience would be wounded by the force of the reminder. In this manner they who have been entrusted with the stewardship of souls provide witnesses, whatever they may be, so as to produce them at some future day. But the Spirit is ranked together with God, not on account of the emergency of the moment, but on account of the natural fellowship; is not dragged in by us, but invited by the Lord.
Chapter 14
Objection that some were baptized unto Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon types.
31. But even if some are baptized unto the Spirit, it is not, it is urged, on this account right for the Spirit to be ranked with God. Some were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 1 Corinthians 10:2 And it is admitted that faith even before now has been put in men; for The people believed God and his servant Moses. Why then, it is asked, do we, on account of faith and of baptism, exalt and magnify the Holy Spirit so far above creation, when there is evidence that the same things have before now been said of men? What, then, shall we reply? Our answer is that the faith in the Spirit is the same as the faith in the Father and the Son; and in like manner, too, the baptism. But the faith in Moses and in the cloud is, as it were, in a shadow and type. The nature of the divine is very frequently represented by the rough and shadowy outlines of the types; but because divine things are prefigured by small and human things, it is obvious that we must not therefore conclude the divine nature to be small. The type is an exhibition of things expected, and gives an imitative anticipation of the future. So Adam was a type of Him that was to come. Romans 5:14 Typically, That rock was Christ; 1 Corinthians 10:4 and the water a type of the living power of the word; as He says, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. John 7:37 The manna is a type of the living bread that came down from heaven; John 6:49, 51 and the serpent on the standard, of the passion of salvation accomplished by means of the cross, wherefore they who even looked thereon were preserved. So in like manner, the history of the exodus of Israel is recorded to show forth those who are being saved through baptism. For the firstborn of the Israelites were preserved, like the bodies of the baptized, by the giving of grace to them that were marked with blood. For the blood of the sheep is a type of the blood of Christ; and the firstborn, a type of the first-formed. And inasmuch as the first-formed of necessity exists in us, and, in sequence of succession, is transmitted till the end, it follows that in Adam we all die, 1 Corinthians 15:22 and that death reigned Romans 5:17 until the fulfilling of the law and the coming of Christ. And the firstborn were preserved by God from being touched by the destroyer, to show that we who were made alive in Christ no longer die in Adam. The sea and the cloud for the time being led on through amazement to faith, but for the time to come they typically prefigured the grace to be. Who is wise and he shall understand these things? Hosea 14:9 — how the sea is typically a baptism bringing about the departure of Pharaoh, in like manner as this washing causes the departure of the tyranny of the devil. The sea slew the enemy in itself: and in baptism too dies our enmity towards God. From the sea the people came out unharmed: we too, as it were, alive from the dead, step up from the water saved by the grace of Him who called us. Ephesians 2:5 And the cloud is a shadow of the gift of the Spirit, who cools the flame of our passions by the mortification of our members. Colossians 3:5
32. What then? Because they were typically baptized unto Moses, is the grace of baptism therefore small? Were it so, and if we were in each case to prejudice the dignity of our privileges by comparing them with their types, not even one of these privileges could be reckoned great; then not the love of God, who gave His only begotten Son for our sins, would be great and extraordinary, because Abraham did not spare his own son; then even the passion of the Lord would not be glorious, because a sheep typified the offering instead of Isaac; then the descent into hell was not fearful, because Jonah had previously typified the death in three days and three nights. The same prejudicial comparison is made also in the case of baptism by all who judge of the reality by the shadow, and, comparing the typified with the type, attempt by means of Moses and the sea to disparage at once the whole dispensation of the Gospel. What remission of sins, what renewal of life, is there in the sea? What spiritual gift is there through Moses? What dying of sins is there? Those men did not die with Christ; wherefore they were not raised with Him. They did not bear the image of the heavenly; 1 Corinthians 15:49 they did bear about in the body the dying of Jesus; 2 Corinthians 4:10 they did not put off the old man; they did not put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him which created him. Colossians 3:9-10 Why then do you compare baptisms which have only the name in common, while the distinction between the things themselves is as great as might be that of dream and reality, that of shadow and figures with substantial existence?
33. But belief in Moses not only does not show our belief in the Spirit to be worthless, but, if we adopt our opponents' line of argument, it rather weakens our confession in the God of the universe. The people, it is written, believed the Lord and his servant Moses. Exodus 14:31 Moses then is joined with God, not with the Spirit; and he was a type not of the Spirit, but of Christ. For at that time in the ministry of the law, he by means of himself typified the Mediator between God and men. 1 Timothy 2:5 Moses, when mediating for the people in things pertaining to God, was not a minister of the Spirit; for the law was given, ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator, Galatians 3:19 namely Moses, in accordance with the summons of the people, Speak thou with us,...but let not God speak with us. Exodus 20:19 Thus faith in Moses is referred to the Lord, the Mediator between God and men, who said, Had ye believed Moses, you would have believed me. John 5:46 Is then our faith in the Lord a trifle, because it was signified beforehand through Moses? So then, even if men were baptized unto Moses, it does not follow that the grace given of the Spirit in baptism is small. I may point out, too, that it is usual in Scripture to say Moses and the law, as in the passage, They have Moses and the prophets. Luke 16:29 When therefore it is meant to speak of the baptism of the law, the words are, They were baptized unto Moses. 1 Corinthians 10:2 Why then do these calumniators of the truth, by means of the shadow and the types, endeavour to bring contempt and ridicule on the rejoicing of our hope, Hebrews 3:6 and the rich gift of our God and Saviour, who through regeneration renews our youth like the eagle's? Surely it is altogether childish, and like a babe who must needs be fed on milk, to be ignorant of the great mystery of our salvation; inasmuch as, in accordance with the gradual progress of our education, while being brought to perfection in our training for godliness, we were first taught elementary and easier lessons, suited to our intelligence, while the Dispenser of our lots was ever leading us up, by gradually accustoming us, like eyes brought up in the dark, to the great light of truth. For He spares our weakness, and in the depth of the riches Romans 11:33 of His wisdom, and the inscrutable judgments of His intelligence, used this gentle treatment, fitted for our needs, gradually accustoming us to see first the shadows of objects, and to look at the sun in water, to save us from dashing against the spectacle of pure unadulterated light, and being blinded. Just so the Law, having a shadow of things to come, and the typical teaching of the prophets, which is a dark utterance of the truth, have been devised means to train the eyes of the heart, in that hence the transition to the wisdom hidden in mystery 1 Corinthians 2:7 will be made easy. Enough so far concerning types; nor indeed would it be possible to linger longer on this topic, or the incidental discussion would become many times bulkier than the main argument.
Chapter 15
Reply to the suggested objection that we are baptized into water. Also concerning baptism.
34. What more? Verily, our opponents are well equipped with arguments. We are baptized, they urge, into water, and of course we shall not honour the water above all creation, or give it a share of the honour of the Father and of the Son. The arguments of these men are such as might be expected from angry disputants, leaving no means untried in their attack on him who has offended them, because their reason is clouded over by their feelings. We will not, however, shrink from the discussion even of these points. If we do not teach the ignorant, at least we shall not turn away before evil doers. But let us for a moment retrace our steps.
35. The dispensation of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the reason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern life described in the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives that old adoption. For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ, says, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11 How then are we made in the likeness of His death? Romans 6:4-5 In that we were buried with Him by baptism. What then is the manner of the burial? And what is the advantage resulting from the imitation? First of all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is impossible less a man be born again, according to the Lord's word; John 3:3 for the regeneration, as indeed the name shows, is a beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first. For just as in the case of runners who turn and take the second course, a kind of halt and pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction, so also in making a change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as mediator between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that comes after. How then do we achieve the descent into hell? By imitating, through baptism, the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are, as it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism. Colossians 2:11-12 And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filth that has grown on it from the carnal mind, as it is written, You shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. On this account we do not, as is the fashion of the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of salvation to be one. For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit is clear: the reason is because in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin, that it may never bear fruit unto death; on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit, and having our fruit in holiness; the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions, then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God. 1 Peter 3:21 So in training us for the life that follows on the resurrection the Lord sets out all the manner of life required by the Gospel, laying down for us the law of gentleness, of endurance of wrong, of freedom from the defilement that comes of the love of pleasure, and from covetousness, to the end that we may of set purpose win beforehand and achieve all that the life to come of its inherent nature possesses. If therefore any one in attempting a definition were to describe the gospel as a forecast of the life that follows on the resurrection, he would not seem to me to go beyond what is meet and right. Let us now return to our main topic.
36. Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all fullness of blessing, Romans 15:29 both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment. If such is the earnest, what the perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment? Furthermore, from this too may be apprehended the difference between the grace that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. I indeed, he says, baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Matthew 3:11 Here He calls the trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3:13 And again, The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. 1 Corinthians 3:13 And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death for Christ's sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood. Thus I write not to disparage the baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments of those who exalt themselves against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one another, and compare those which admit of no comparison.
Chapter 16
That the Holy Spirit is in every conception separable from the Father and the Son, alike in the creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgment to come.
37. Let us then revert to the point raised from the outset, that in all things the Holy Spirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of being parted from the Father and the Son. St. Paul, in the passage about the gift of tongues, writes to the Corinthians, If you all prophesy and there come in one that believes not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of the heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 If then God is known to be in the prophets by the prophesying that is acting according to the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, let our adversaries consider what kind of place they will attribute to the Holy Spirit. Let them say whether it is more proper to rank Him with God or to thrust Him forth to the place of the creature. Peter's words to Sapphira, How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? You have not lied unto men, but unto God, show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same; and thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. God works the differences of operations, and the Lord the diversities of administrations, but all the while the Holy Spirit is present too of His own will, dispensing distribution of the gifts according to each recipient's worth. For, it is said, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all. But all these, it is said, works that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. 1 Corinthians 12:11 It must not however be supposed because in this passage the apostle names in the first place the Spirit, in the second the Son, and in the third God the Father, that therefore their rank is reversed. The apostle has only started in accordance with our habits of thought; for when we receive gifts, the first that occurs to us is the distributer, next we think of the sender, and then we lift our thoughts to the fountain and cause of the boons.
38. Moreover, from the things created at the beginning may be learned the fellowship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son. The pure, intelligent, and supermundane powers are and are styled holy, because they have their holiness of the grace given by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly the mode of the creation of the heavenly powers is passed over in Silence, for the historian of the cosmogony has revealed to us only the creation of things perceptible by sense. But do thou, who hast power from the things that are seen to form an analogy of the unseen, glorify the Maker by whom all things were made, visible and invisible, principalities and powers, authorities, thrones, and dominions, and all other reasonable natures whom we cannot name. And in the creation bethink you first, I pray you, of the original cause of all things that are made, the Father; of the creative cause, the Son; of the perfecting cause, the Spirit; so that the ministering spirits subsist by the will of the Father, are brought into being by the operation of the Son, and perfected by the presence of the Spirit. Moreover, the perfection of angels is sanctification and continuance in it. And let no one imagine me either to affirm that there are three original hypostases or to allege the operation of the Son to be imperfect. For the first principle of existing things is One, creating through the Son and perfecting through the Spirit. The operation of the Father who works all in all is not imperfect, neither is the creating work of the Son incomplete if not perfected by the Spirit. The Father, who creates by His sole will, could not stand in any need of the Son, but nevertheless He wills through the Son; nor could the Son, who works according to the likeness of the Father, need co-operation, but the Son too wills to make perfect through the Spirit. For by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath [the Spirit] of His mouth. The Word then is not a mere significant impression on the air, borne by the organs of speech; nor is the Spirit of His mouth a vapour, emitted by the organs of respiration; but the Word is He who was with God in the beginning and was God, John 1:1 and the Spirit of the mouth of God is the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father. John 15:26 You are therefore to perceive three, the Lord who gives the order, the Word who creates, and the Spirit who confirms. And what other thing could confirmation be than the perfecting according to holiness? This perfecting expresses the confirmation's firmness, unchangeableness, and fixity in good. But there is no sanctification without the Spirit. The powers of the heavens are not holy by nature; were it so there would in this respect be no difference between them and the Holy Spirit. It is in proportion to their relative excellence that they have their meed of holiness from the Spirit. The branding-iron is conceived of together with the fire; and yet the material and the fire are distinct. Thus too in the case of the heavenly powers; their substance is, perhaps, an aerial spirit, or an immaterial fire, as it is written, Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire; wherefore they exist in space and become visible, and appear in their proper bodily form to them that are worthy. But their sanctification, being external to their substance, superinduces their perfection through the communion of the Spirit. They keep their rank by their abiding in the good and true, and while they retain their freedom of will, never fall away from their patient attendance on Him who is truly good. It results that, if by your argument you do away with the Spirit, the hosts of the angels are disbanded, the dominions of archangels are destroyed, all is thrown into confusion, and their life loses law, order, and distinctness. For how are angels to cry Glory to God in the highest Luke 2:14 without being empowered by the Spirit? For No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed; 1 Corinthians 12:3 as might be said by wicked and hostile spirits, whose fall establishes our statement of the freedom of the will of the invisible powers; being, as they are, in a condition of equipoise between virtue and vice, and on this account needing the succour of the Spirit. I indeed maintain that even Gabriel Luke 1:11 in no other way foretells events to come than by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, by reason of the fact that one of the boons distributed by the Spirit is prophecy. And whence did he who was ordained to announce the mysteries of the vision to the Man of Desires derive the wisdom whereby he was enabled to teach hidden things, if not from the Holy Spirit? The revelation of mysteries is indeed the peculiar function of the Spirit, as it is written, God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:10 And how could thrones, dominions, principalities and powers Colossians 1:16 live their blessed life, did they not behold the face of the Father which is in heaven? Matthew 18:10 But to behold it is impossible without the Spirit! Just as at night, if you withdraw the light from the house, the eyes fall blind and their faculties become inactive, and the worth of objects cannot be discerned, and gold is trodden on in ignorance as though it were iron, so in the order of the intellectual world it is impossible for the high life of Law to abide without the Spirit. For it so to abide were as likely as that an army should maintain its discipline in the absence of its commander, or a chorus its harmony without the guidance of the Coryphæus. How could the Seraphim cry Holy, Holy, Holy, Isaiah 6:3 were they not taught by the Spirit how often true religion requires them to lift their voice in this ascription of glory? Do all His angels and all His hosts praise God? It is through the co-operation of the Spirit. Do thousand thousand of angels stand before Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand ministering spirits? Daniel 7:10 They are blamelessly doing their proper work by the power of the Spirit. All the glorious and unspeakable harmony of the highest heavens both in the service of God, and in the mutual concord of the celestial powers, can therefore only be preserved by the direction of the Spirit. Thus with those beings who are not gradually perfected by increase and advance, but are perfect from the moment of the creation, there is in creation the presence of the Holy Spirit, who confers on them the grace that flows from Him for the completion and perfection of their essence.
39. But when we speak of the dispensations made for man by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who will gainsay their having been accomplished through the grace of the Spirit? Whether you wish to examine ancient evidence — the blessings of the patriarchs, the succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the valorous feats in war, the signs wrought through just men;— or on the other hand the things done in the dispensation of the coming of our Lord in the flesh — all is through the Spirit. In the first place He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with the very flesh of the Lord, according to that which is written, Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is John 1:33 my beloved Son; Matthew 3:17 and Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost. Acts 10:38 After this every operation was wrought with the co-operation of the Spirit. He was present when the Lord was being tempted by the devil; for, it is said, Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. Matthew 4:1 He was inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works; for, it is said, If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils. Matthew 12:28 And He did not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when renewing man, and, by breathing on the face of the disciples, restoring the grace, that came of the inbreathing of God, which man had lost, what did the Lord say? Receive the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain, they are retained. John 20:22-23 And is it not plain and incontestable that the ordering of the Church is effected through the Spirit? For He gave, it is said, in the church, first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues, 1 Corinthians 12:28 for this order is ordained in accordance with the division of the gifts that are of the Spirit.
40. Moreover by any one who carefully uses his reason it will be found that even at the moment of the expected appearance of the Lord from heaven the Holy Spirit will not, as some suppose, have no functions to discharge: on the contrary, even in the day of His revelation, in which the blessed and only potentate 1 Timothy 6:15 will judge the world in righteousness, Acts 17:31 the Holy Spirit will be present with Him. For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for them that are worthy, as not to know that the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more abundant and perfect measure in that day, when spiritual glory shall be distributed to each in proportion as he shall have nobly played the man? For among the glories of the saints are many mansions in the Father's house, that is differences of dignities: for as star differs from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:41-42 They, then, that were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, and preserve pure and undiminished the first fruits which they received of the Spirit, are they that shall hear the words well done thou good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Matthew 25:21 In like manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder, Matthew 24:51 — the cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit. The body is not divided, part being delivered to chastisement, and part let off; for when a whole has sinned it were like the old fables, and unworthy of a righteous judge, for only the half to suffer chastisement. Nor is the soul cut in two — that soul the whole of which possesses the sinful affection throughout, and works the wickedness in co-operation with the body. The cutting asunder, as I have observed, is the separation for aye of the soul from the Spirit. For now, although the Spirit does not suffer admixture with the unworthy, He nevertheless does seem in a manner to be present with them that have once been sealed, awaiting the salvation which follows on their conversion; but then He will be wholly cut off from the soul that has defiled His grace. For this reason In Hell there is none that makes confession; in death none that remembers God, because the succour of the Spirit is no longer present. How then is it possible to conceive that the judgment is accomplished without the Holy Spirit, wherein the word points out that He is Himself the prize Philippians 3:14 of the righteous, when instead of the earnest is given that which is perfect, and the first condemnation of sinners, when they are deprived of that which they seem to have? But the greatest proof of the conjunction of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is that He is said to have the same relation to God which the spirit in us has to each of us. For what man it is said, knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man but the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11
On this point I have said enough.
Chapter 17
Against those who say that the Holy Ghost is not to be numbered with, but numbered under, the Father and the Son. Wherein moreover there is a summary notice of the faith concerning right sub-numeration.
41. What, however, they call sub-numeration, and in what sense they use this word, cannot even be imagined without difficulty. It is well known that it was imported into our language from the wisdom of the world; but a point for our present consideration will be whether it has any immediate relation to the subject under discussion. Those who are adepts in vain investigations tell us that, while some nouns are common and of widely extended denotation, others are more specific, and that the force of some is more limited than that of others. Essence, for instance, is a common noun, predicable of all things both animate and inanimate; while animal is more specific, being predicated of fewer subjects than the former, though of more than those which are considered under it, as it embraces both rational and irrational nature. Again, human is more specific than animal, and man than human, and than man the individual Peter, Paul, or John. Do they then mean by sub-numeration the division of the common into its subordinate parts? But I should hesitate to believe they have reached such a pitch of infatuation as to assert that the God of the universe, like some common quality conceivable only by reason and without actual existence in any hypostasis, is divided into subordinate divisions, and that then this subdivision is called sub-numeration. This would hardly be said even by men melancholy mad, for, besides its impiety, they are establishing the very opposite argument to their own contention. For the subdivisions are of the same essence as that from which they have been divided. The very obviousness of the absurdity makes it difficult for us to find arguments to confute their unreasonableness; so that really their folly looks like an advantage to them; just as soft and yielding bodies offer no resistance, and therefore cannot be struck a stout blow. It is impossible to bring a vigorous confutation to bear on a palpable absurdity. The only course open to us is to pass by their abominable impiety in silence. Yet our love for the brethren and the importunity of our opponents makes silence impossible.
42. What is it that they maintain? Look at the terms of their imposture. We assert that connumeration is appropriate to subjects of equal dignity, and sub-numeration to those which vary in the direction of inferiority. Why, I rejoined, do you say this? I fail to understand your extraordinary wisdom. Do you mean that gold is numbered with gold, and that lead is unworthy of the connumeration, but, because of the cheapness of the material, is subnumerated to gold? And do you attribute so much importance to number as that it can either exalt the value of what is cheap, or destroy the dignity of what is valuable? Therefore, again, you will number gold under precious stones, and such precious stones as are smaller and without lustre under those which are larger and brighter in color. But what will not be said by men who spend their time in nothing else but either 'to tell or to hear some new thing'? Acts 17:21 Let these supporters of impiety be classed for the future with Stoics and Epicureans. What sub-numeration is even possible of things less valuable in relation to things very valuable? How is a brass obol to be numbered under a golden stater? Because, they reply, we do not speak of possessing two coins, but one and one. But which of these is subnumerated to the other? Each is similarly mentioned. If then you number each by itself, you cause an equality value by numbering them in the same way but, if you join them, you make their value one by numbering them one with the other. But if the sub-numeration belongs to the one which is numbered second, then it is in the power of the counter to begin by counting the brass coin. Let us, however, pass over the confutation of their ignorance, and turn our argument to the main topic.
43. Do you maintain that the Son is numbered under the Father, and the Spirit under the Son, or do you confine your sub-numeration to the Spirit alone? If, on the other hand, you apply this sub-numeration also to the Son, you revive what is the same impious doctrine, the unlikeness of the substance, the lowliness of rank, the coming into being in later time, and once for all, by this one term, you will plainly again set circling all the blasphemies against the Only-begotten. To controvert these blasphemies would be a longer task than my present purpose admits of; and I am the less bound to undertake it because the impiety has been refuted elsewhere to the best of my ability. If on the other hand they suppose the sub-numeration to benefit the Spirit alone, they must be taught that the Spirit is spoken of together with the Lord in precisely the same manner in which the Son is spoken of with the Father. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matthew 28:19 is delivered in like manner, and, according to the co-ordination of words delivered in baptism, the relation of the Spirit to the Son is the same as that of the Son to the Father. And if the Spirit is co-ordinate with the Son, and the Son with the Father, it is obvious that the Spirit is also co-ordinate with the Father. When then the names are ranked in one and the same co-ordinate series, what room is there for speaking on the one hand of connumeration, and on the other of sub-numeration? Nay, without exception, what thing ever lost its own nature by being numbered? Is it not the fact that things when numbered remain what they naturally and originally were, while number is adopted among us as a sign indicative of the plurality of subjects? For some bodies we count, some we measure, and some we weigh; those which are by nature continuous we apprehend by measure; to those which are divided we apply number (with the exception of those which on account of their fineness are measured); while heavy objects are distinguished by the inclination of the balance. It does not however follow that, because we have invented for our convenience symbols to help us to arrive at the knowledge of quantity, we have therefore changed the nature of the things signified. We do not speak of weighing under one another things which are weighed, even though one be gold and the other tin; nor yet do we measure under things that are measured; and so in the same way we will not number under things which are numbered. And if none of the rest of things admits of sub-numeration how can they allege that the Spirit ought to be subnumerated? Labouring as they do under heathen unsoundness, they imagine that things which are inferior, either by grade of rank or subjection of substance, ought to be subnumerated.
Chapter 18
In what manner in the confession of the three hypostases we preserve the pious dogma of the Monarchia. Wherein also is the refutation of them that allege that the Spirit is subnumerated.
44. In delivering the formula of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Matthew 28:19 our Lord did not connect the gift with number. He did not say into First, Second, and Third, nor yet into one, two, and three, but He gave us the boon of the knowledge of the faith which leads to salvation, by means of holy names. So that what saves us is our faith. Number has been devised as a symbol indicative of the quantity of objects. But these men, who bring ruin on themselves from every possible source, have turned even the capacity for counting against the faith. Nothing else undergoes any change in consequence of the addition of number, and yet these men in the case of the divine nature pay reverence to number, lest they should exceed the limits of the honour due to the Paraclete. But, O wisest sirs, let the unapproachable be altogether above and beyond number, as the ancient reverence of the Hebrews wrote the unutterable name of God in peculiar characters, thus endeavouring to set forth its infinite excellence. Count, if you must; but you must not by counting do damage to the faith. Either let the ineffable be honoured by silence; or let holy things be counted consistently with true religion. There is one God and Father, one Only-begotten, and one Holy Ghost. We proclaim each of the hypostases singly; and, when count we must, we do not let an ignorant arithmetic carry us away to the idea of a plurality of Gods.
45. For we do not count by way of addition, gradually making increase from unity to multitude, and saying one, two, and three — nor yet first, second, and third. For I, God, am the first, and I am the last. Isaiah 44:6 And hitherto we have never, even at the present time, heard of a second God. Worshipping as we do God of God, we both confess the distinction of the Persons, and at the same time abide by the Monarchy. We do not fritter away the theology in a divided plurality, because one Form, so to say, united in the invariableness of the Godhead, is beheld in God the Father, and in God the Only begotten. For the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son; since such as is the latter, such is the former, and such as is the former, such is the latter; and herein is the Unity. So that according to the distinction of Persons, both are one and one, and according to the community of Nature, one. How, then, if one and one, are there not two Gods? Because we speak of a king, and of the king's image, and not of two kings. The majesty is not cloven in two, nor the glory divided. The sovereignty and authority over us is one, and so the doxology ascribed by us is not plural but one; because the honour paid to the image passes on to the prototype. Now what in the one case the image is by reason of imitation, that in the other case the Son is by nature; and as in works of art the likeness is dependent on the form, so in the case of the divine and uncompounded nature the union consists in the communion of the Godhead. One, moreover, is the Holy Spirit, and we speak of Him singly, conjoined as He is to the one Father through the one Son, and through Himself completing the adorable and blessed Trinity. Of Him the intimate relationship to the Father and the Son is sufficiently declared by the fact of His not being ranked in the plurality of the creation, but being spoken of singly; for he is not one of many, but One. For as there is one Father and one Son, so is there one Holy Ghost. He is consequently as far removed from created Nature as reason requires the singular to be removed from compound and plural bodies; and He is in such wise united to the Father and to the Son as unit has affinity with unit.
46. And it is not from this source alone that our proofs of the natural communion are derived, but from the fact that He is moreover said to be of God; 2 Corinthians 1:12 not indeed in the sense in which all things are of God, but in the sense of proceeding out of God, not by generation, like the Son, but as Breath of His mouth. But in no way is the mouth a member, nor the Spirit breath that is dissolved; but the word mouth is used so far as it can be appropriate to God, and the Spirit is a Substance having life, gifted with supreme power of sanctification. Thus the close relation is made plain, while the mode of the ineffable existence is safeguarded. He is moreover styled 'Spirit of Christ,' as being by nature closely related to Him. Wherefore If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Romans 8:9 Hence He alone worthily glorifies the Lord, for, it is said, He shall glorify me, John 16:14 not as the creature, but as Spirit of truth, John 14:17 clearly showing forth the truth in Himself, and, as Spirit of wisdom, in His own greatness revealing Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:24 And as Paraclete He expresses in Himself the goodness of the Paraclete who sent Him, and in His own dignity manifests the majesty of Him from whom He proceeded. There is then on the one hand a natural glory, as light is the glory of the sun; and on the other a glory bestowed judicially and of free will ' ab extra' on them that are worthy. The latter is twofold. A son, it is said, honours his father, and a servant his master. Malachi 1:6 Of these two the one, the servile, is given by the creature; the other, which may be called the intimate, is fulfilled by the Spirit. For, as our Lord said of Himself, I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do; John 17:4 so of the Paraclete He says He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. John 16:14 And as the Son is glorified of the Father when He says I have both glorified it and will glorify it again, John 12:28 so is the Spirit glorified through His communion with both Father and Son, and through the testimony of the Only-begotten when He says All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Matthew 12:31
47. And when, by means of the power that enlightens us, we fix our eyes on the beauty of the image of the invisible God, and through the image are led up to the supreme beauty of the spectacle of the archetype, then, I ween, is with us inseparably the Spirit of knowledge, in Himself bestowing on them that love the vision of the truth the power of beholding the Image, not making the exhibition from without, but in Himself leading on to the full knowledge. No man knows the Father save the Son. And so no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 12:3 For it is not said through the Spirit, but by the Spirit, and God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, John 4:24 as it is written in your light shall we see light, namely by the illumination of the Spirit, the true light which lights every man that comes into the world. John 1:9 It results that in Himself He shows the glory of the Only begotten, and on true worshippers He in Himself bestows the knowledge of God. Thus the way of the knowledge of God lies from One Spirit through the One Son to the One Father, and conversely the natural Goodness and the inherent Holiness and the royal Dignity extend from the Father through the Only-begotten to the Spirit. Thus there is both acknowledgment of the hypostases and the true dogma of the Monarchy is not lost. They on the other hand who support their sub-numeration by talking of first and second and third ought to be informed that into the undefiled theology of Christians they are importing the polytheism of heathen error. No other result can be achieved by the fell device of sub-numeration than the confession of a first, a second, and a third God. For us is sufficient the order prescribed by the Lord. He who confuses this order will be no less guilty of transgressing the law than are the impious heathen.
Enough has been now said to prove, in contravention of their error, that the communion of Nature is in no wise dissolved by the manner of sub-numeration. Let us, however, make a concession to our contentious and feeble minded adversary, and grant that what is second to anything is spoken of in sub-numeration to it. Now let us see what follows. The first man it is said is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:47 Again that was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual. 1 Corinthians 15:46 If then the second is subnumerated to the first, and the subnumerated is inferior in dignity to that to which it was subnumerated, according to you the spiritual is inferior in honour to the natural, and the heavenly man to the earthy.
Chapter 19
Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified.
48. Be it so, it is rejoined, but glory is by no means so absolutely due to the Spirit as to require His exaltation by us in doxologies. Whence then could we get demonstrations of the dignity of the Spirit, passing all understanding, Philippians 4:7 if His communion with the Father and the Son were not reckoned by our opponents as good for testimony of His rank? It is, at all events, possible for us to arrive to a certain extent at intelligent apprehension of the sublimity of His nature and of His unapproachable power, by looking at the meaning of His title, and at the magnitude of His operations, and by His good gifts bestowed on us or rather on all creation. He is called Spirit, as God is a Spirit, John 4:24 and the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord. He is called holy, 1 John 1:20 as the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, for to the creature holiness was brought in from without, but to the Spirit holiness is the fulfilment of nature, and it is for this reason that He is described not as being sanctified, but as sanctifying. He is called good, as the Father is good, and He who was begotten of the Good is good, and to the Spirit His goodness is essence. He is called upright, as the Lord is upright, in that He is Himself truth, and is Himself Righteousness, 2 Corinthians 3:8-9 having no divergence nor leaning to one side or to the other, on account of the immutability of His substance. He is called Paraclete, like the Only begotten, as He Himself says, I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter. Thus names are borne by the Spirit in common with the Father and the Son, and He gets these titles from His natural and close relationship. From what other source could they be derived? Again He is called royal, Spirit of truth, and Spirit of wisdom. Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of God, it is said has made me, Job 33:4 and God filled Bezaleel with the divine Spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge. Such names as these are super-eminent and mighty, but they do not transcend His glory.
49. And His operations, what are they? For majesty ineffable, and for numbers innumerable. How shall we form a conception of what extends beyond the ages? What were His operations before that creation whereof we can conceive? How great the grace which He conferred on creation? What the power exercised by Him over the ages to come? He existed; He pre-existed; He co-existed with the Father and the Son before the ages. It follows that, even if you can conceive of anything beyond the ages, you will find the Spirit yet further above and beyond. And if you think of the creation, the powers of the heavens were established by the Spirit, the establishment being understood to refer to disability to fall away from good. For it is from the Spirit that the powers derive their close relationship to God, their inability to change to evil, and their continuance in blessedness. Is it Christ's advent? The Spirit is forerunner. Is there the incarnate presence? The Spirit is inseparable. Working of miracles, and gifts of healing are through the Holy Spirit. Demons were driven out by the Spirit of God. The devil was brought to naught by the presence of the Spirit. Remission of sins was by the gift of the Spirit, for you were washed, you were sanctified,...in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the holy Spirit of our God. There is close relationship with God through the Spirit, for God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6 The resurrection from the dead is effected by the operation of the Spirit, for You send forth your spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth. If here creation may be taken to mean the bringing of the departed to life again, how mighty is not the operation of the Spirit, Who is to us the dispenser of the life that follows on the resurrection, and attunes our souls to the spiritual life beyond? Or if here by creation is meant the change to a better condition of those who in this life have fallen into sin, (for it is so understood according to the usage of Scripture, as in the words of Paul if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Corinthians 5:17), the renewal which takes place in this life, and the transmutation from our earthly and sensuous life to the heavenly conversation which takes place in us through the Spirit, then our souls are exalted to the highest pitch of admiration. With these thoughts before us are we to be afraid of going beyond due bounds in the extravagance of the honour we pay? Shall we not rather fear lest, even though we seem to give Him the highest names which the thoughts of man can conceive or man's tongue utter, we let our thoughts about Him fall too low?
It is the Spirit which says, as the Lord says, Get you down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them. Acts 10:20 Are these the words of an inferior, or of one in dread? Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Acts 13:2 Does a slave speak thus? And Isaiah, The Lord God and His Spirit has sent me, and the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them. And pray do not again understand by this guidance some humble service, for the Word witnesses that it was the work of God —You led your people, it is said like a flock, and You that leads Joseph like a flock, and He led them on safely, so that they feared not. Thus when you hear that when the Comforter has come, He will put you in remembrance, and guide you into all truth, do not misrepresent the meaning.
50. But, it is said that He makes intercession for us. Romans 8:26-27 It follows then that, as the suppliant is inferior to the benefactor, so far is the Spirit inferior in dignity to God. But have you never heard concerning the Only-begotten that He is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? Romans 8:34 Do not, then, because the Spirit is in you — if indeed He is at all in you — nor yet because He teaches us who were blinded, and guides us to the choice of what profits us — do not for this reason allow yourself to be deprived of the right and holy opinion concerning Him. For to make the loving kindness of your benefactor a ground of ingratitude were indeed a very extravagance of unfairness. Grieve not the Holy Spirit; Ephesians 4:30 hear the words of Stephen, the first fruits of the martyrs, when he reproaches the people for their rebellion and disobedience; you do always, he says, resist the Holy Ghost; Acts 7:51 and again Isaiah, — They vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore He was turned to be their enemy; Isaiah 63:10 and in another passage, the house of Jacob angered the Spirit of the Lord. Are not these passages indicative of authoritative power? I leave it to the judgment of my readers to determine what opinions we ought to hold when we hear these passages; whether we are to regard the Spirit as an instrument, a subject, of equal rank with the creature, and a fellow servant of ourselves, or whether, on the contrary, to the ears of the pious the mere whisper of this blasphemy is not most grievous. Do you call the Spirit a servant? But, it is said, the servant knows not what his Lord does, John 15:15 and yet the Spirit knows the things of God, as the spirit of man that is in him. 1 Corinthians 2:11
Chapter 20
Against those who maintain that the Spirit is in the rank neither of a servant nor of a master, but in that of the free.
51. He is not a slave, it is said; not a master, but free. Oh the terrible insensibility, the pitiable audacity, of them that maintain this! Shall I rather lament in them their ignorance or their blasphemy? They try to insult the doctrines that concern the divine nature by comparing them with the human, and endeavour to apply to the ineffable nature of God that common custom of human life whereby the difference of degrees is variable, not perceiving that among men no one is a slave by nature. For men are either brought under a yoke of slavery by conquest, as when prisoners are taken in war; or they are enslaved on account of poverty, as the Egyptians were oppressed by Pharaoh; or, by a wise and mysterious dispensation, the worst children are by their fathers' order condemned to serve the wiser and the better; and this any righteous enquirer into the circumstances would declare to be not a sentence of condemnation but a benefit. For it is more profitable that the man who, through lack of intelligence, has no natural principle of rule within himself, should become the chattel of another, to the end that, being guided by the reason of his master, he may be like a chariot with a charioteer, or a boat with a steersman seated at the tiller. For this reason Jacob by his father's blessing became lord of Esau, Genesis 27:29 in order that the foolish son, who had not intelligence, his proper guardian, might, even though he wished it not, be benefited by his prudent brother. So Canaan shall be a servant unto his brethren Genesis 9:25 because, since his father Ham was unwise, he was uninstructed in virtue. In this world, then, it is thus that men are made slaves, but they who have escaped poverty or war, or do not require the tutelage of others, are free. It follows that even though one man be called master and another servant, nevertheless, both in view of our mutual equality of rank and as chattels of our Creator, we are all fellow slaves. But in that other world what can you bring out of bondage? For no sooner were they created than bondage was commenced. The heavenly bodies exercise no rule over one another, for they are unmoved by ambition, but all bow down to God, and render to Him alike the awe which is due to Him as Master and the glory which falls to Him as Creator. For a son honours his father and a servant his master, Malachi 1:6 and from all God asks one of these two things; for if I then be a Father where is my honour? And if I be a Master where is my fear? Malachi 1:6 Otherwise the life of all men, if it were not under the oversight of a master, would be most pitiable; as is the condition of the apostate powers who, because they stiffen their neck against God Almighty, fling off the reins of their bondage, — not that their natural constitution is different; but the cause is in their disobedient disposition to their Creator. Whom then do you call free? Him who has no King? Him who has neither power to rule another nor willingness to be ruled? Among all existent beings no such nature is to be found. To entertain such a conception of the Spirit is obvious blasphemy. If He is a creature of course He serves with all the rest, for all things, it is said are your servants, but if He is above Creation, then He shares in royalty.
Chapter 21
Proof from Scripture that the Spirit is called Lord.
52. But why get an unfair victory for our argument by fighting over these undignified questions, when it is within our power to prove that the excellence of the glory is beyond dispute by adducing more lofty considerations? If, indeed, we repeat what we have been taught by Scripture, every one of the Pneumatomachi will perhaps raise a loud and vehement outcry, stop their ears, pick up stones or anything else that comes to hand for a weapon, and charge against us. But our own security must not be regarded by us before the truth. We have learned from the Apostle, the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ for our tribulations. Who is the Lord that directs into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ for tribulations? Let those men answer us who are for making a slave of the Holy Spirit. For if the argument had been about God the Father, it would certainly have said, 'the Lord direct you into His own love,' or if about the Son, it would have added 'into His own patience.' Let them then seek what other Person there is who is worthy to be honoured with the title of Lord. And parallel with this is that other passage, and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do towards you; to the end He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 Now what Lord does he entreat to establish the hearts of the faithful at Thessalonica, unblamable in holiness before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord? Let those answer who place the Holy Ghost among the ministering spirits that are sent forth on service. They cannot. Wherefore let them hear yet another testimony which distinctly calls the Spirit Lord. The Lord, it is said, is that Spirit; and again even as from the Lord the Spirit. But to leave no ground for objection, I will quote the actual words of the Apostle;— For even unto this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ....Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit. Why does he speak thus? Because he who abides in the bare sense of the letter, and in it busies himself with the observances of the Law, has, as it were, got his own heart enveloped in the Jewish acceptance of the letter, like a veil; and this befalls him because of his ignorance that the bodily observance of the Law is done away by the presence of Christ, in that for the future the types are transferred to the reality. Lamps are made needless by the advent of the sun; and, on the appearance of the truth, the occupation of the Law is gone, and prophecy is hushed into silence. He, on the contrary, who has been empowered to look down into the depth of the meaning of the Law, and, after passing through the obscurity of the letter, as through a veil, to arrive within things unspeakable, is like Moses taking off the veil when he spoke with God. He, too, turns from the letter to the Spirit. So with the veil on the face of Moses corresponds the obscurity of the teaching of the Law, and spiritual contemplation with the turning to the Lord. He, then, who in the reading of the Law takes away the letter and turns to the Lord, — and the Lord is now called the Spirit — becomes moreover like Moses, who had his face glorified by the manifestation of God. For just as objects which lie near brilliant colors are themselves tinted by the brightness which is shed around, so is he who fixes his gaze firmly on the Spirit by the Spirit's glory somehow transfigured into greater splendour, having his heart lighted up, as it were, by some light streaming from the truth of the Spirit. And, this is being changed from the glory of the Spirit into His own glory, not in niggard degree, nor dimly and indistinctly, but as we might expect any one to be who is enlightened by the Spirit. Do you not, O man, fear the Apostle when he says You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 Could he ever have brooked to honour with the title of temple the quarters of a slave? How can he who calls Scripture God-inspired, 2 Timothy 3:16 because it was written through the inspiration of the Spirit, use the language of one who insults and belittles Him?
Chapter 22
Establishment of the natural communion of the Spirit from His being, equally with the Father and the Son, unapproachable in thought.
53. Moreover the surpassing excellence of the nature of the Spirit is to be learned not only from His having the same title as the Father and the Son, and sharing in their operations, but also from His being, like the Father and the Son, unapproachable in thought. For what our Lord says of the Father as being above and beyond human conception, and what He says of the Son, this same language He uses also of the Holy Ghost. O righteous Father, He says, the world has not known You, John 17:25 meaning here by the world not the complex whole compounded of heaven and earth, but this life of ours subject to death, and exposed to innumerable vicissitudes. And when discoursing of Himself He says, Yet a little while and the world sees me no more, but you see me; John 14:19 again in this passage, applying the word world to those who being bound down by this material and carnal life, and beholding the truth by material sight alone, were ordained, through their unbelief in the resurrection, to see our Lord no more with the eyes of the heart. And He said the same concerning the Spirit. The Spirit of truth, He says, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him, for He dwells with you. John 14:17 For the carnal man, who has never trained his mind to contemplation, but rather keeps it buried deep in lust of the flesh, as in mud, is powerless to look up to the spiritual light of the truth. And so the world, that is life enslaved by the affections of the flesh, can no more receive the grace of the Spirit than a weak eye the light of a sunbeam. But the Lord, who by His teaching bore witness to purity of life, gives to His disciples the power of now both beholding and contemplating the Spirit. For now, He says, You are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you, John 15:3 wherefore the world cannot receive Him, because it sees Him not,...but you know Him; for he dwells with you. John 14:17 And so says Isaiah;— He that spread forth the earth and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath unto the people upon it, and Spirit to them that trample on it ; for they that trample down earthly things and rise above them are borne witness to as worthy of the gift of the Holy Ghost. What then ought to be thought of Him whom the world cannot receive, and Whom saints alone can contemplate through pureness of heart? What kind of honours can be deemed adequate to Him?
Chapter 23
The glorifying of the enumeration of His attributes.
54. Now of the rest of the Powers each is believed to be in a circumscribed place. The angel who stood by Cornelius Acts 10:3 was not at one and the same moment with Philip; Acts 8:26 nor yet did the angel who spoke with Zacharias from the altar at the same time occupy his own post in heaven. But the Spirit is believed to have been operating at the same time in Habakkuk and in Daniel at Babylon, and to have been at the prison with Jeremiah, and with Ezekiel at the Chebar. Ezekiel 1:1 For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world, Wisdom 1:7 and whither shall I go from your spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your presence? And, in the words of the Prophet, For I am with you, says the Lord...and my spirit remains among you. Haggai 2:4-5 But what nature is it becoming to assign to Him who is omnipresent, and exists together with God? The nature which is all-embracing, or one which is confined to particular places, like that which our argument shows the nature of angels to be? No one would so say. Shall we not then highly exalt Him who is in His nature divine, in His greatness infinite, in His operations powerful, in the blessings He confers, good? Shall we not give Him glory? And I understand glory to mean nothing else than the enumeration of the wonders which are His own. It follows then that either we are forbidden by our antagonists even to mention the good things which flow to us from Him. or on the other hand that the mere recapitulation of His attributes is the fullest possible attribution of glory. For not even in the case of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Only begotten Son, are we capable of giving Them glory otherwise than by recounting, to the extent of our powers, all the wonders that belong to Them.
Chapter 24
Proof of the absurdity of the refusal to glorify the Spirit, from the comparison of things glorified in creation.
55. Furthermore man is crowned with glory and honour, and glory, honour and peace are laid up by promise to every man that works good. Romans 2:10 There is moreover a special and peculiar glory for Israelites to whom, it is said pertains the adoption and the glory...and the service, Romans 9:4 and the Psalmist speaks of a certain glory of his own, that my glory may sing praise to You ; and again Awake up my glory and according to the Apostle there is a certain glory of sun and moon and stars, and the ministration of condemnation is glorious. 2 Corinthians 3:9 While then so many things are glorified, do you wish the Spirit alone of all things to be unglorified? Yet the Apostle says the ministration of the Spirit is glorious. 2 Corinthians 3:8 How then can He Himself be unworthy of glory? How according to the Psalmist can the glory of the just man be great and according to you the glory of the Spirit none? How is there not a plain peril from such arguments of our bringing on ourselves the sin from which there is no escape? If the man who is being saved by works of righteousness glorifies even them that fear the Lord much less would he deprive the Spirit of the glory which is His due.
Grant, they say, that He is to be glorified, but not with the Father and the Son. But what reason is there in giving up the place appointed by the Lord for the Spirit, and inventing some other? What reason is there for robbing of His share of glory Him Who is everywhere associated with the Godhead; in the confession of the Faith, in the baptism of redemption, in the working of miracles, in the indwelling of the saints, in the graces bestowed on obedience? For there is not even one single gift which reaches creation without the Holy Ghost; when not even a single word can be spoken in defense of Christ except by them that are aided by the Spirit, as we have learned in the Gospels from our Lord and Saviour. Matthew 10:19-20 And I know not whether any one who has been partaker of the Holy Spirit will consent that we should overlook all this, forget His fellowship in all things, and tear the Spirit asunder from the Father and the Son. Where then are we to take Him and rank Him? With the creature? Yet all the creature is in bondage, but the Spirit makes free. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:17 Many arguments might be adduced to them that it is unseemly to coordinate the Holy Spirit with created nature, but for the present I will pass them by. Were I indeed to bring forward, in a manner befitting the dignity of the discussion, all the proofs always available on our side, and so overthrow the objections of our opponents, a lengthy dissertation would be required, and my readers might be worn out by my prolixity. I therefore propose to reserve this matter for a special treatise, and to apply myself to the points now more immediately before us.
56. Let us then examine the points one by one. He is good by nature, in the same way as the Father is good, and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodness by choosing the good. He knows The deep things of God; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 the creature receives the manifestation of ineffable things through the Spirit. He quickens together with God, who produces and preserves all things alive, and together with the Son, who gives life. He that raised up Christ from the dead, it is said, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwells in you; Romans 8:11 and again my sheep hear my voice,...and I give unto them eternal life; John 10:27-28 but the Spirit also, it is said, gives life, 2 Corinthians 3:6 and again the Spirit, it is said, is life, because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 And the Lord bears witness that it is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing. John 6:63 How then shall we alienate the Spirit from His quickening power, and make Him belong to lifeless nature? Who is so contentious, who is so utterly without the heavenly gift, and unfed by God's good words, who is so devoid of part and lot in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank Him with the creature?
57. Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, and that the gift is not reverenced with the same honour as that which is attributed to the giver. The Spirit is a gift of God, but a gift of life, for the law of the Spirit of life, it is said, has made us free; Romans 8:2 and a gift of power, for you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Acts 1:8 Is He on this account to be lightly esteemed? Did not God also bestow His Son as a free gift to mankind? He that spared not His own Son, it is said, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32 And in another place, that we might truly know the things that are freely given us of God, 1 Corinthians 2:12 in reference to the mystery of the Incarnation. It follows then that the maintainers of such arguments, in making the greatness of God's loving kindness an occasion of blasphemy, have really surpassed the ingratitude of the Jews. They find fault with the Spirit because He gives us freedom to call God our Father. For God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father, Galatians 4:6 that the voice of the Spirit may become the very voice of them that have received him.
Chapter 25
That Scripture uses the words in or by, ἐ ν , cf. note on p. 3, in place of with. Wherein also it is proved that the word and has the same force as with.
58. It is, however, asked by our opponents, how it is that Scripture nowhere describes the Spirit as glorified together with the Father and the Son, but carefully avoids the use of the expression with the Spirit, while it everywhere prefers to ascribe glory in Him as being the fitter phrase. I should, for my own part, deny that the word in [or by] implies lower dignity than the word with; I should maintain on the contrary that, rightly understood, it leads us up to the highest possible meaning. This is the case where, as we have observed, it often stands instead of with; as for instance, I will go into your house in burnt offerings, instead of with burnt offerings and he brought them forth also by silver and gold, that is to say with silver and gold and you go not forth in our armies instead of with our armies, and innumerable similar passages. In short I should very much like to learn from this newfangled philosophy what kind of glory the Apostle ascribed by the word in, according to the interpretation which our opponents proffer as derived from Scripture, for I have nowhere found the formula To You, O Father, be honour and glory, through Your only begotten Son, by [or in] the Holy Ghost,— a form which to our opponents comes, so to say, as naturally as the air they breathe. You may indeed find each of these clauses separately, but they will nowhere be able to show them to us arranged in this conjunction. If, then, they want exact conformity to what is written, let them give us exact references. If, on the other hand, they make concession to custom, they must not make us an exception to such a privilege.
59. As we find both expressions in use among the faithful, we use both; in the belief that full glory is equally given to the Spirit by both. The mouths, however, of revilers of the truth may best be stopped by the preposition which, while it has the same meaning as that of the Scriptures, is not so wieldy a weapon for our opponents, (indeed it is now an object of their attack) and is used instead of the conjunction and. For to say Paul and Silvanus and Timothy 1 Thessalonians 1:1 is precisely the same thing as to say Paul with Timothy and Silvanus; for the connection of the names is preserved by either mode of expression. The Lord says The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:19 If I say the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost shall I make, any difference in the sense? Of the connection of names by means of the conjunction and the instances are many. We read The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, 2 Corinthians 13:13 and again I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit. Romans 15:30 Now if we wish to use with instead of and, what difference shall we have made? I do not see; unless any one according to hard and fast grammatical rules might prefer the conjunction as copulative and making the union stronger, and reject the preposition as of inferior force. But if we had to defend ourselves on these points I do not suppose we should require a defense of many words. As it is, their argument is not about syllables nor yet about this or that sound of a word, but about things differing most widely in power and in truth. It is for this reason that, while the use of the syllables is really a matter of no importance whatever, our opponents are making the endeavour to authorise some syllables, and hunt out others from the Church. For my own part, although the usefulness of the word is obvious as soon as it is heard, I will nevertheless set forth the arguments which led our fathers to adopt the reasonable course of employing the preposition with. It does indeed equally well with the preposition and, confute the mischief of Sabellius; and it sets forth quite as well as and the distinction of the hypostases, as in the words I and my Father will come, and I and my Father are one. John 10:30 In addition to this the proof it contains of the eternal fellowship and uninterrupted conjunction is excellent. For to say that the Son is with the Father is to exhibit at once the distinction of the hypostases, and the inseparability of the fellowship. The same thing is observable even in mere human matters, for the conjunction and intimates that there is a common element in an action, while the preposition with declares in some sense as well the communion in action. As, for instance —Paul and Timothy sailed to Macedonia, but both Tychicus and Onesimus were sent to the Colossians. Hence we learn that they did the same thing. But suppose we are told that they sailed with, and were sent with? Then we are informed in addition that they carried out the action in company with one another. Thus while the word with upsets the error of Sabellius as no other word can, it routs also sinners who err in the very opposite direction; those, I mean, who separate the Son from the Father and the Spirit from the Son, by intervals of time.
60. As compared with in, there is this difference, that while with sets forth the mutual conjunction of the parties associated — as, for example, of those who sail with, or dwell with, or do anything else in common, in shows their relation to that matter in which they happen to be acting. For we no sooner hear the words sail in or dwell in than we form the idea of the boat or the house. Such is the distinction between these words in ordinary usage; and laborious investigation might discover further illustrations. I have no time to examine into the nature of the syllables. Since then it has been shown that with most clearly gives the sense of conjunction, let it be declared, if you will, to be under safe-conduct, and cease to wage your savage and truceless war against it. Nevertheless, though the word is naturally thus auspicious, yet if any one likes, in the ascription of praise, to couple the names by the syllable and, and to give glory, as we have taught in the Gospel, in the formula of baptism, Father and Son and Holy Ghost, Matthew 28:19 be it so: no one will make any objection. On these conditions, if you will, let us come to terms. But our foes would rather surrender their tongues than accept this word. It is this that rouses against us their implacable and truceless war. We must offer the ascription of glory to God, it is contended, in the Holy Ghost, and not and to the Holy Ghost, and they passionately cling to this word in, as though it lowered the Spirit. It will therefore be not unprofitable to speak at greater length about it; and I shall be astonished if they do not, when they have heard what we have to urge, reject the in as itself a traitor to their cause, and a deserter to the side of the glory of the Spirit.
Chapter 26
That the word in, in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit.
61. Now, short and simple as this utterance is, it appears to me, as I consider it, that its meanings are many and various. For of the senses in which in is used, we find that all help our conceptions of the Spirit. Form is said to be in Matter; Power to be in what is capable of it; Habit to be in him who is affected by it; and so on. Therefore, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit perfects rational beings, completing their excellence, He is analogous to Form. For he, who no longer lives after the flesh, Romans 8:12 but, being led by the Spirit of God, Romans 8:14 is called a Son of God, being conformed to the image of the Son of God, Romans 8:29 is described as spiritual. And as is the power of seeing in the healthy eye, so is the operation of the Spirit in the purified soul. Wherefore also Paul prays for the Ephesians that they may have their eyes enlightened by the Spirit of wisdom. Ephesians 1:17-18 And as the art in him who has acquired it, so is the grace of the Spirit in the recipient ever present, though not continuously in operation. For as the art is potentially in the artist, but only in operation when he is working in accordance with it, so also the Spirit is ever present with those that are worthy, but works, as need requires, in prophecies, or in healings, or in some other actual carrying into effect of His potential action. Furthermore as in our bodies is health, or heat, or, generally, their variable conditions, so, very frequently is the Spirit in the soul; since He does not abide with those who, on account of the instability of their will, easily reject the grace which they have received. An instance of this is seen in Saul, 1 Samuel 16:14 and the seventy elders of the children of Israel, except Eldad and Medad, with whom alone the Spirit appears to have remained, and, generally, any one similar to these in character. And like reason in the soul, which is at one time the thought in the heart, and at another speech uttered by the tongue, so is the Holy Spirit, as when He bears witness with our spirit, Romans 8:16 and when He cries in our hearts, Abba, Father, Galatians 6:4 or when He speaks on our behalf, as it is said, It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of our Father which speaks in you. Matthew 10:20 Again, the Spirit is conceived of, in relation to the distribution of gifts, as a whole in parts. For we all are members one of another, having gifts differing according to the grace that is given us. Romans 12:5-6 Wherefore the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you, 1 Corinthians 12:21 but all together complete the Body of Christ in the Unity of the Spirit, and render to one another the needful aid that comes of the gifts. But God has set the members in the body, every one of them, as it has pleased Him. But the members have the same care for one another, 1 Corinthians 12:25 according to the inborn spiritual communion of their sympathy. Wherefore, whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26 And as parts in the whole so are we individually in the Spirit, because we all were baptized in one body into one spirit.
62. It is an extraordinary statement, but it is none the less true, that the Spirit is frequently spoken of as the place of them that are being sanctified, and it will become evident that even by this figure the Spirit, so far from being degraded, is rather glorified. For words applicable to the body are, for the sake of clearness, frequently transferred in scripture to spiritual conceptions. Accordingly we find the Psalmist, even in reference to God, saying Be Thou to me a champion God and a strong place to save me and concerning the Spirit behold there is place by me, and stand upon a rock. Plainly meaning the place or contemplation in the Spirit wherein, after Moses had entered there, he was able to see God intelligibly manifested to him. This is the special and peculiar place of true worship; for it is said Take heed to yourself that thou offer not your burnt offerings in every place...but in the place the Lord your God shall choose. Deuteronomy 12:13-14 Now what is a spiritual burnt offering? The sacrifice of praise. And in what place do we offer it? In the Holy Spirit. Where have we learned this? From the Lord himself in the words The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This place Jacob saw and said The Lord is in this place. Genesis 28:16 It follows that the Spirit is verily the place of the saints and the saint is the proper place for the Spirit, offering himself as he does for the indwelling of God, and called God's Temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19 So Paul speaks in Christ, saying In the sight of God we speak in Christ, 2 Corinthians 2:17 and Christ in Paul, as he himself says Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. 2 Corinthians 13:3 So also in the Spirit he speaks mysteries, 1 Corinthians 14:2 and again the Spirit speaks in him. 1 Peter 1:11
63. In relation to the originate, then, the Spirit is said to be in them in various portions and in various manners, Hebrews 1:1 while in relation to the Father and the Son it is more consistent with true religion to assert Him not to be in but to be with. For the grace flowing from Him when He dwells in those that are worthy, and carries out His own operations, is well described as existing in those that are able to receive Him. On the other hand His essential existence before the ages, and His ceaseless abiding with Son and Father, cannot be contemplated without requiring titles expressive of eternal conjunction. For absolute and real co-existence is predicated in the case of things which are mutually inseparable. We say, for instance, that heat exists in the hot iron, but in the case of the actual fire it co-exists; and, similarly, that health exists in the body, but that life co-exists with the soul. It follows that wherever the fellowship is intimate, congenital, and inseparable, the word with is more expressive, suggesting, as it does, the idea of inseparable fellowship. Where on the other hand the grace flowing from the Spirit naturally comes and goes, it is properly and truly said to exist in, even if on account of the firmness of the recipients' disposition to good the grace abides with them continually. Thus whenever we have in mind the Spirit's proper rank, we contemplate Him as being with the Father and the Son, but when we think of the grace that flows from Him operating on those who participate in it, we say that the Spirit is in us. And the doxology which we offer in the Spirit is not an acknowledgment of His rank; it is rather a confession of our own weakness, while we show that we are not sufficient to glorify Him of ourselves, but our sufficiency is in the Holy Spirit. Enabled in, [or by,] Him we render thanks to our God for the benefits we have received, according to the measure of our purification from evil, as we receive one a larger and another a smaller share of the aid of the Spirit, that we may offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Hebrews 13:15 According to one use, then, it is thus that we offer our thanksgiving, as the true religion requires, in the Spirit; although it is not quite unobjectionable that any one should testify of himself the Spirit of God is in me, and I offer glory after being made wise through the grace that flows from Him. For to a Paul it is becoming to say I think also that I have the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 7:40 and again, that good thing which was committed to you keep by the Holy Ghost which dwells in us. 2 Timothy 1:14 And of Daniel it is fitting to say that the Holy Spirit of God is in him, and similarly of men who are like these in virtue.
64. Another sense may however be given to the phrase, that just as the Father is seen in the Son, so is the Son in the Spirit. The worship in the Spirit suggests the idea of the operation of our intelligence being carried on in the light, as may be learned from the words spoken to the woman of Samaria. Deceived as she was by the customs of her country into the belief that worship was local, our Lord, with the object of giving her better instruction, said that worship ought to be offered in Spirit and in Truth, John 4:24 plainly meaning by the Truth, Himself. As then we speak of the worship offered in the Image of God the Father as worship in the Son, so too do we speak of worship in the Spirit as showing in Himself the Godhead of the Lord. Wherefore even in our worship the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the Father and the Son. If you remain outside the Spirit you will not be able even to worship at all; and on your becoming in Him you will in no way be able to dissever Him from God — any more than you will divorce light from visible objects. For it is impossible to behold the Image of the invisible God except by the enlightenment of the Spirit, and impracticable for him to fix his gaze on the Image to dissever the light from the Image, because the cause of vision is of necessity seen at the same time as the visible objects. Thus fitly and consistently do we behold the Brightness of the glory of God by means of the illumination of the Spirit, and by means of the Express Image we are led up to Him of whom He is the Express Image and Seal, graven to the like.
Chapter 27
Of the origin of the word with, and what force it has. Also concerning the unwritten laws of the church.
65. The word in, say our opponents, is exactly appropriate to the Spirit, and sufficient for every thought concerning Him. Why then, they ask, have we introduced this new phrase, saying, with the Spirit instead of in the Holy Spirit, thus employing an expression which is quite unnecessary, and sanctioned by no usage in the churches? Now it has been asserted in the previous portion of this treatise that the word in has not been specially allotted to the Holy Spirit, but is common to the Father and the Son. It has also been, in my opinion, sufficiently demonstrated that, so far from detracting anything from the dignity of the Spirit, it leads all, but those whose thoughts are wholly perverted, to the sublimest height. It remains for me to trace the origin of the word with; to explain what force it has, and to show that it is in harmony with Scripture.
66. Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us in a mystery by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will gainsay — no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or, rather, should make our public definition a mere phrase and nothing more. For instance, to take the first and most general example, who is thence who has taught us in writing to sign with the sign of the cross those who have trusted in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? What writing has taught us to turn to the East at the prayer? Which of the saints has left us in writing the words of the invocation at the displaying of the bread of the Eucharist and the cup of blessing? For we are not, as is well known, content with what the apostle or the Gospel has recorded, but both in preface and conclusion we add other words as being of great importance to the validity of the ministry, and these we derive from unwritten teaching. Moreover we bless the water of baptism and the oil of the chrism, and besides this the catechumen who is being baptized. On what written authority do we do this? Is not our authority silent and mystical tradition? Nay, by what written word is the anointing of oil itself taught? And whence comes the custom of baptizing thrice? And as to the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive the renunciation of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and secret teaching which our fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of curious meddling and inquisitive investigation? Well had they learned the lesson that the awful dignity of the mysteries is best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are not even allowed to look at was hardly likely to be publicly paraded about in written documents. What was the meaning of the mighty Moses in not making all the parts of the tabernacle open to every one? The profane he stationed without the sacred barriers; the first courts he conceded to the purer; the Levites alone he judged worthy of being servants of the Deity; sacrifices and burnt offerings and the rest of the priestly functions he allotted to the priests; one chosen out of all he admitted to the shrine, and even this one not always but on only one day in the year, and of this one day a time was fixed for his entry so that he might gaze on the Holy of Holies amazed at the strangeness and novelty of the sight. Moses was wise enough to know that contempt stretches to the trite and to the obvious, while a keen interest is naturally associated with the unusual and the unfamiliar. In the same manner the Apostles and Fathers who laid down laws for the Church from the beginning thus guarded the awful dignity of the mysteries in secrecy and silence, for what is bruited abroad random among the common folk is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our tradition of unwritten precepts and practices, that the knowledge of our dogmas may not become neglected and contemned by the multitude through familiarity. Dogma and Kerugma are two distinct things; the former is observed in silence; the latter is proclaimed to all the world. One form of this silence is the obscurity employed in Scripture, which makes the meaning of dogmas difficult to be understood for the very advantage of the reader: Thus we all look to the East at our prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East. Genesis 2:8 We pray standing, on the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or standing again Grk. ἀ νάστασις) we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ, and are bound to seek those things which are above, Colossians 3:1 but because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect, wherefore, though it is the beginning of days, it is not called by Moses first, but one. For he says There was evening, and there was morning, one day, as though the same day often recurred. Now one and eighth are the same, in itself distinctly indicating that really one and eighth of which the Psalmist makes mention in certain titles of the Psalms, the state which follows after this present time, the day which knows no waning or eventide, and no successor, that age which ends not or grows old. Of necessity, then, the church teaches her own foster children to offer their prayers on that day standing, to the end that through continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our removal there. Moreover all Pentecost is a reminder of the resurrection expected in the age to come. For that one and first day, if seven times multiplied by seven, completes the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost; for, beginning at the first, Pentecost ends with the same, making fifty revolutions through the like intervening days. And so it is a likeness of eternity, beginning as it does and ending, as in a circling course, at the same point. On this day the rules of the church have educated us to prefer the upright attitude of prayer, for by their plain reminder they, as it were, make our mind to dwell no longer in the present but in the future. Moreover every time we fall upon our knees and rise from off them we show by the very deed that by our sin we fell down to earth, and by the loving kindness of our Creator were called back to heaven.
67. Time will fail me if I attempt to recount the unwritten mysteries of the Church. Of the rest I say nothing; but of the very confession of our faith in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what is the written source? If it be granted that, as we are baptized, so also under the obligation to believe, we make our confession in like terms as our baptism, in accordance with the tradition of our baptism and in conformity with the principles of true religion, let our opponents grant us too the right to be as consistent in our ascription of glory as in our confession of faith. If they deprecate our doxology on the ground that it lacks written authority, let them give us the written evidence for the confession of our faith and the other matters which we have enumerated. While the unwritten traditions are so many, and their bearing on the mystery of godliness 1 Timothy 3:16 is so important, can they refuse to allow us a single word which has come down to us from the Fathers;— which we found, derived from untutored custom, abiding in unperverted churches;— a word for which the arguments are strong, and which contributes in no small degree to the completeness of the force of the mystery?
68. The force of both expressions has now been explained. I will proceed to state once more wherein they agree and wherein they differ from one another — not that they are opposed in mutual antagonism, but that each contributes its own meaning to true religion. The preposition in states the truth rather relatively to ourselves; while with proclaims the fellowship of the Spirit with God. Wherefore we use both words, by the one expressing the dignity of the Spirit; by the other announcing the grace that is with us. Thus we ascribe glory to God both in the Spirit, and with the Spirit; and herein it is not our word that we use, but we follow the teaching of the Lord as we might a fixed rule, and transfer His word to things connected and closely related, and of which the conjunction in the mysteries is necessary. We have deemed ourselves under a necessary obligation to combine in our confession of the faith Him who is numbered with Them at Baptism, and we have treated the confession of the faith as the origin and parent of the doxology. What, then, is to be done? They must now instruct us either not to baptize as we have received, or not to believe as we were baptized, or not to ascribe glory as we have believed. Let any man prove if he can that the relation of sequence in these acts is not necessary and unbroken; or let any man deny if he can that innovation here must mean ruin everywhere. Yet they never stop dinning in our ears that the ascription of glory with the Holy Spirit is unauthorized and unscriptural and the like. We have stated that so far as the sense goes it is the same to say glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, and glory be to the Father and to the Son with the Holy Ghost. It is impossible for any one to reject or cancel the syllable and, which is derived from the very words of our Lord, and there is nothing to hinder the acceptance of its equivalent. What amount of difference and similarity there is between the two we have already shown. And our argument is confirmed by the fact that the Apostle uses either word indifferently — saying at one time in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God; 1 Corinthians 6:11 at another when you are gathered together, and my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 1 Corinthians 5:4 with no idea that it makes any difference to the connection of the names whether he use the conjunction or the preposition.
Chapter 28
That our opponents refuse to concede in the case of the Spirit the terms which Scripture uses in the case of men, as reigning together with Christ.
69. But let us see if we can bethink us of any defense of this usage of our fathers; for they who first originated the expression are more open to blame than we ourselves. Paul in his Letter to the Colossians says, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision...has He quickened together with Colossians 2:13 Christ. Did then God give to a whole people and to the Church the boon of the life with Christ, and yet the life with Christ does not belong to the Holy Spirit? But if this is impious even to think of, is it not rightly reverent so to make our confession, as They are by nature in close conjunction? Furthermore what boundless lack of sensibility does it not show in these men to confess that the Saints are with Christ, (if, as we know is the case, Paul, on becoming absent from the body, is present with the Lord, and, after departing, is with Christ ) and, so far as lies in their power, to refuse to allow to the Spirit to be with Christ even to the same extent as men? And Paul calls himself a labourer together with God 1 Corinthians 3:9 in the dispensation of the Gospel; will they bring an indictment for impiety against us, if we apply the term fellow-labourer to the Holy Spirit, through whom in every creature under heaven the Gospel brings forth fruit? The life of them that have trusted in the Lord is hidden, it would seem, with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall they themselves also appear with Him in glory; Colossians 3:3-4 and is the Spirit of life Himself, Who made us free from the law of sin, Romans 8:2 not with Christ, both in the secret and hidden life with Him, and in the manifestation of the glory which we expect to be manifested in the saints? We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17 and is the Spirit without part or lot in the fellowship of God and of His Christ? The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; and are we not to allow to the Spirit even that testimony of His fellowship with God which we have learned from the Lord? For the height of folly is reached if we through the faith in Christ which is in the Spirit hope that we shall be raised together with Him and sit together in heavenly places, whenever He shall change our vile body from the natural to the spiritual, and yet refuse to assign to the Spirit any share in the sitting together, or in the glory, or anything else which we have received from Him. Of all the boons of which, in accordance with the indefeasible grant of Him who has promised them, we have believed ourselves worthy, are we to allow none to the Holy Spirit, as though they were all above His dignity? It is yours according to your merit to be ever with the Lord, and you expect to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and to be ever with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 You declare the man who numbers and ranks the Spirit with the Father and the Son to be guilty of intolerable impiety. Can you really now deny that the Spirit is with Christ?
70. I am ashamed to add the rest. You expect to be glorified together with Christ; (if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together; Romans 8:17) but you do not glorify the Spirit of holiness Romans 1:4 together with Christ, as though He were not worthy to receive equal honour even with you. You hope to reign with 2 Timothy 2:12 Christ; but you do despite unto the Spirit of grace Hebrews 10:29 by assigning Him the rank of a slave and a subordinate. And I say this not to demonstrate that so much is due to the Spirit in the ascription of glory, but to prove the unfairness of those who will not ever give so much as this, and shrink from the fellowship of the Spirit with Son and Father as from impiety. Who could touch on these things without a sigh? Is it not so plain as to be within the perception even of a child that this present state of things preludes the threatened eclipse of the faith? The undeniable has become the uncertain. We profess belief in the Spirit, and then we quarrel with our own confessions. We are baptized, and begin to fight again. We call upon Him as the Prince of Life, and then despise Him as a slave like ourselves. We received Him with the Father and the Son, and we dishonour Him as a part of creation. Those who know not what they ought to pray for, Romans 8:26 even though they be induced to utter a word of the Spirit with awe, as though coming near His dignity, yet prune down all that exceeds the exact proportion of their speech. They ought rather to bewail their weakness, in that we are powerless to express in words our gratitude for the benefits which we are actually receiving; for He passes all understanding, Philippians 4:7 and convicts speech of its natural inability even to approach His dignity in the least degree; as it is written in the Book of Wisdom, Exalt Him as much as you can, for even yet will He far exceed; and when you exalt Him put forth all your strength, and be not weary, for you can never go far enough. Verily terrible is the account to be given for words of this kind by you who have heard from God who cannot lie that for blasphemy against the Holy Ghost there is no forgiveness. Luke 12:10
Chapter 29
Enumeration of the illustrious men in the Church who in their writings have used the word with.
71. In answer to the objection that the doxology in the form with the Spirit has no written authority, we maintain that if there is no other instance of that which is unwritten, then this must not be received. But if the greater number of our mysteries are admitted into our constitution without written authority, then, in company with the many others, let us receive this one. For I hold it apostolic to abide also by the unwritten traditions. I praise you, it is said, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you; 1 Corinthians 11:2 and Hold fast the traditions which you have been taught whether by word, or our Epistle. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 One of these traditions is the practice which is now before us, which they who ordained from the beginning, rooted firmly in the churches, delivering it to their successors, and its use through long custom advances pace by pace with time. If, as in a Court of Law, we were at a loss for documentary evidence, but were able to bring before you a large number of witnesses, would you not give your vote for our acquittal? I think so; for at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established. Deuteronomy 19:15 And if we could prove clearly to you that a long period of time was in our favour, should we not have seemed to you to urge with reason that this suit ought not to be brought into court against us? For ancient dogmas inspire a certain sense of awe, venerable as they are with a hoary antiquity. I will therefore give you a list of the supporters of the word (and the time too must be taken into account in relation to what passes unquestioned). For it did not originate with us. How could it? We, in comparison with the time during which this word has been in vogue, are, to use the words of Job, but of yesterday. Job 8:9 I myself, if I must speak of what concerns me individually, cherish this phrase as a legacy left me by my fathers. It was delivered to me by one who spent a long life in the service of God, and by him I was both baptized, and admitted to the ministry of the church. While examining, so far as I could, if any of the blessed men of old used the words to which objection is now made, I found many worthy of credit both on account of their early date, and also a characteristic in which they are unlike the men of today — because of the exactness of their knowledge. Of these some coupled the word in the doxology by the preposition, others by the conjunction, but were in no case supposed to be acting divergently — at least so far as the right sense of true religion is concerned.
72. There is the famous Irenæus, and Clement of Rome; Dionysius of Rome, and, strange to say, Dionysius of Alexandria, in his second Letter to his namesake, on Conviction and Defence, so concludes. I will give you his very words. Following all these, we, too, since we have received from the presbyters who were before us a form and rule, offering thanksgiving in the same terms with them, thus conclude our Letter to you. To God the Father and the Son our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Ghost, glory and might for ever and ever; amen. And no one can say that this passage has been altered. He would not have so persistently stated that he had received a form and rule if he had said in the Spirit. For of this phrase the use is abundant: it was the use of with which required defense. Dionysius moreover in the middle of his treatise thus writes in opposition to the Sabellians, If by the hypostases being three they say that they are divided, there are three, though they like it not. Else let them destroy the divine Trinity altogether. And again: most divine on this account after the Unity is the Trinity. Clement, in more primitive fashion, writes, God lives, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. And now let us hear how Irenæus, who lived near the times of the Apostles, mentions the Spirit in his work Against the Heresies. The Apostle rightly calls carnal them that are unbridled and carried away to their own desires, having no desire for the Holy Spirit, and in another passage Irenæus says, The Apostle exclaimed that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of the heavens lest we, being without share in the divine Spirit, fall short of the kingdom of the heavens. If any one thinks Eusebius of Palestine worthy of credit on account of his wide experience, I point further to the very words he uses in discussing questions concerning the polygamy of the ancients. Stirring up himself to his work, he writes invoking the holy God of the Prophets, the Author of light, through our Saviour Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit.
73. Origen, too, in many of his expositions of the Psalms, we find using the form of doxology with the Holy Ghost. The opinions which he held concerning the Spirit were not always and everywhere sound; nevertheless in many passages even he himself reverently recognises the force of established usage, and expresses himself concerning the Spirit in terms consistent with true religion. It is, if I am not mistaken, in the Sixth Book of his Commentary on the Gospel of St. John that he distinctly makes the Spirit an object of worship. His words are:— The washing or water is a symbol of the cleaning of the soul which is washed clean of all filth that comes of wickedness; but none the less is it also by itself, to him who yields himself to the God-head of the adorable Trinity, through the power of the invocations, the origin and source of blessings. And again, in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans the holy powers, he says are able to receive the Only-begotten, and the Godhead of the Holy Spirit. Thus I apprehend, the powerful influence of tradition frequently impels men to express themselves in terms contradictory to their own opinions. Moreover this form of the doxology was not unknown even to Africanus the historian. In the Fifth Book of his Epitome of the Times he says we who know the weight of those terms, and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, render thanks to the Father, who bestowed on us His own creatures, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world and our Lord, to whom be glory and majesty with the Holy Ghost, forever. The rest of the passages may perhaps be viewed with suspicion; or may really have been altered, and the fact of their having been tampered with will be difficult to detect because the difference consists in a single syllable. Those however which I have quoted at length are out of the reach of any dishonest manipulation, and can easily be verified from the actual works.
I will now adduce another piece of evidence which might perhaps seem insignificant, but because of its antiquity must in nowise be omitted by a defendant who is indicted on a charge of innovation. It seemed fitting to our fathers not to receive the gift of the light at eventide in silence, but, on its appearing, immediately to give thanks. Who was the author of these words of thanksgiving at the lighting of the lamps, we are not able to say. The people, however, utter the ancient form, and no one has ever reckoned guilty of impiety those who say We praise Father, Son, and God's Holy Spirit. And if any one knows the Hymn of Athenogenes, which, as he was hurrying on to his perfecting by fire, he left as a kind of farewell gift to his friends, he knows the mind of the martyrs as to the Spirit. On this head I shall say no more.
74. But where shall I rank the great Gregory, and the words uttered by him? Shall we not place among Apostles and Prophets a man who walked by the same Spirit as they; 2 Corinthians 12:18 who never through all his days diverged from the footprints of the saints; who maintained, as long as he lived, the exact principles of evangelical citizenship? I am sure that we shall do the truth a wrong if we refuse to number that soul with the people of God, shining as it did like a beacon in the Church of God; for by the fellow-working of the Spirit the power which he had over demons was tremendous, and so gifted was he with the grace of the word for obedience to the faith among...the nations, Romans 1:5 that, although only seventeen Christians were handed over to him, he brought the whole people alike in town and country through knowledge to God. He too by Christ's mighty name commanded even rivers to change their course, and caused a lake, which afforded a ground of quarrel to some covetous brethren, to dry up. Moreover his predictions of things to come were such as in no wise to fall short of those of the great prophets. To recount all his wonderful works in detail would be too long a task. By the superabundance of gifts, wrought in him by the Spirit in all power and in signs and in marvels, he was styled a second Moses by the very enemies of the Church. Thus in all that he through grace accomplished, alike by word and deed, a light seemed ever to be shining, token of the heavenly power from the unseen which followed him. To this day he is a great object of admiration to the people of his own neighbourhood, and his memory, established in the churches ever fresh and green, is not dulled by length of time. Thus not a practice, not a word, not a mystic rite has been added to the Church besides what he bequeathed to it. Hence truly on account of the antiquity of their institution many of their ceremonies appear to be defective. For his successors in the administration of the Churches could not endure to accept any subsequent discovery in addition to what had had his sanction. Now one of the institutions of Gregory is the very form of the doxology to which objection is now made, preserved by the Church on the authority of his tradition; a statement which may be verified without much trouble by any one who likes to make a short journey. That our Firmilian held this belief is testified by the writings which he has left. The contemporaries also of the illustrious Meletius say that he was of this opinion. But why quote ancient authorities? Now in the East are not the maintainers of true religion known chiefly by this one term, and separated from their adversaries as by a watchword? I have heard from a certain Mesopotamian, a man at once well skilled in the language and of unperverted opinions, that by the usage of his country it is impossible for any one, even though he may wish to do so, to express himself in any other way, and that they are compelled by the idiom of their mother tongue to offer the doxology by the syllable and, or, I should more accurately say, by their equivalent expressions. We Cappadocians, too, so speak in the dialect of our country, the Spirit having so early as the division of tongues foreseen the utility of the phrase. And what of the whole West, almost from Illyricum to the boundaries of our world? Does it not support this word?
75. How then can I be an innovator and creator of new terms, when I adduce as originators and champions of the word whole nations, cities, custom going back beyond the memory of man, men who were pillars of the church and conspicuous for all knowledge and spiritual power? For this cause this banded array of foes is set in motion against me, and town and village and remotest regions are full of my calumniators. Sad and painful are these things to them that seek for peace, but great is the reward of patience for sufferings endured for the Faith's sake. So besides these let sword flash, let axe be whetted, let fire burn fiercer than that of Babylon, let every instrument of torture be set in motion against me. To me nothing is more fearful than failure to fear the threats which the Lord has directed against them that blaspheme the Spirit. Kindly readers will find a satisfactory defense in what I have said, that I accept a phrase so dear and so familiar to the saints, and confirmed by usage so long, inasmuch as, from the day when the Gospel was first preached up to our own time, it is shown to have been admitted to all full rights within the churches, and, what is of greatest moment, to have been accepted as bearing a sense in accordance with holiness and true religion. But before the great tribunal what have I prepared to say in my defense? This; that I was in the first place led to the glory of the Spirit by the honour conferred by the Lord in associating Him with Himself and with His Father at baptism; Matthew 28:19 and secondly by the introduction of each of us to the knowledge of God by such an initiation; and above all by the fear of the threatened punishment shutting out the thought of all indignity and unworthy conception. But our opponents, what will they say? After showing neither reverence for the Lord's honour nor fear of His threats, what kind of defense will they have for their blasphemy? It is for them to make up their mind about their own action or even now to change it. For my own part I would pray most earnestly that the good God will make His peace rule in the hearts of all, so that these men who are swollen with pride and set in battle array against us may be calmed by the Spirit of meekness and of love; and that if they have become utterly savage, and are in an untamable state, He will grant to us at least to bear with long suffering all that we have to bear at their hands. In short to them that have in themselves the sentence of death, 2 Corinthians 1:9 it is not suffering for the sake of the Faith which is painful; what is hard to bear is to fail to fight its battle. The athlete does not so much complain of being wounded in the struggle as of not being able even to secure admission into the stadium. Or perhaps this was the time for silence spoken of by Solomon the wise. Ecclesiastes 3:7 For, when life is buffeted by so fierce a storm that all the intelligence of those who are instructed in the word is filled with the deceit of false reasoning and confounded, like an eye filled with dust, when men are stunned by strange and awful noises, when all the world is shaken and everything tottering to its fall, what profits it to cry, as I am really crying, to the wind?
Chapter 30
Exposition of the present state of the Churches.
76. To what then shall I liken our present condition? It may be compared, I think, to some naval battle which has arisen out of time old quarrels, and is fought by men who cherish a deadly hate against one another, of long experience in naval warfare, and eager for the fight. Look, I beg you, at the picture thus raised before your eyes. See the rival fleets rushing in dread array to the attack. With a burst of uncontrollable fury they engage and fight it out. Fancy, if you like, the ships driven to and fro by a raging tempest, while thick darkness falls from the clouds and blackens all the scenes so that watchwords are indistinguishable in the confusion, and all distinction between friend and foe is lost. To fill up the details of the imaginary picture, suppose the sea swollen with billows and whirled up from the deep, while a vehement torrent of rain pours down from the clouds and the terrible waves rise high. From every quarter of heaven the winds beat upon one point, where both the fleets are dashed one against the other. Of the combatants some are turning traitors; some are deserting in the very thick of the fight; some have at one and the same moment to urge on their boats, all beaten by the gale, and to advance against their assailants. Jealousy of authority and the lust of individual mastery splits the sailors into parties which deal mutual death to one another. Think, besides all this, of the confused and unmeaning roar sounding over all the sea, from howling winds, from crashing vessels, from boiling surf, from the yells of the combatants as they express their varying emotions in every kind of noise, so that not a word from admiral or pilot can be heard. The disorder and confusion is tremendous, for the extremity of misfortune, when life is despaired of, gives men license for every kind of wickedness. Suppose, too, that the men are all smitten with the incurable plague of mad love of glory, so that they do not cease from their struggle each to get the better of the other, while their ship is actually settling down into the deep.
77. Turn now I beg you from this figurative description to the unhappy reality. Did it not at one time appear that the Arian schism, after its separation into a sect opposed to the Church of God, stood itself alone in hostile array? But when the attitude of our foes against us was changed from one of long standing and bitter strife to one of open warfare, then, as is well known, the war was split up in more ways than I can tell into many subdivisions, so that all men were stirred to a state of inveterate hatred alike by common party spirit and individual suspicion. But what storm at sea was ever so fierce and wild as this tempest of the Churches? In it every landmark of the Fathers has been moved; every foundation, every bulwark of opinion has been shaken: everything buoyed up on the unsound is dashed about and shaken down. We attack one another. We are overthrown by one another. If our enemy is not the first to strike us, we are wounded by the comrade at our side. If a foeman is stricken and falls, his fellow soldier tramples him down. There is at least this bond of union between us that we hate our common foes, but no sooner have the enemy gone by than we find enemies in one another. And who could make a complete list of all the wrecks? Some have gone to the bottom on the attack of the enemy, some through the unsuspected treachery of their allies, some from the blundering of their own officers. We see, as it were, whole churches, crews and all, dashed and shattered upon the sunken reefs of disingenuous heresy, while others of the enemies of the Spirit of Salvation have seized the helm and made shipwreck of the faith. 1 Timothy 1:19 And then the disturbances wrought by the princes of the world 1 Corinthians 2:6 have caused the downfall of the people with a violence unmatched by that of hurricane or whirlwind. The luminaries of the world, which God set to give light to the souls of the people, have been driven from their homes, and a darkness verily gloomy and disheartening has settled on the Churches. The terror of universal ruin is already imminent, and yet their mutual rivalry is so unbounded as to blunt all sense of danger. Individual hatred is of more importance than the general and common warfare, for men by whom the immediate gratification of ambition is esteemed more highly than the rewards that await us in a time to come, prefer the glory of getting the better of their opponents to securing the common welfare of mankind. So all men alike, each as best he can, lift the hand of murder against one another. Harsh rises the cry of the combatants encountering one another in dispute; already all the Church is almost full of the inarticulate screams, the unintelligible noises, rising from the ceaseless agitations that divert the right rule of the doctrine of true religion, now in the direction of excess, now in that of defect. On the one hand are they who confound the Persons and are carried away into Judaism; on the other hand are they that, through the opposition of the natures, pass into heathenism. Between these opposite parties inspired Scripture is powerless to mediate; the traditions of the apostles cannot suggest terms of arbitration. Plain speaking is fatal to friendship, and disagreement in opinion all the ground that is wanted for a quarrel. No oaths of confederacy are so efficacious in keeping men true to sedition as their likeness in error. Every one is a theologue though he have his soul branded with more spots than can be counted. The result is that innovators find a plentiful supply of men ripe for faction, while self-appointed scions of the house of place-hunters reject the government of the Holy Spirit and divide the chief dignities of the Churches. The institutions of the Gospel have now everywhere been thrown into confusion by want of discipline; there is an indescribable pushing for the chief places while every self-advertiser tries to force himself into high office. The result of this lust for ordering is that our people are in a state of wild confusion for lack of being ordered; the exhortations of those in authority are rendered wholly purposeless and void, because there is not a man but, out of his ignorant impudence, thinks that it is just as much his duty to give orders to other people, as it is to obey any one else.
78. So, since no human voice is strong enough to be heard in such a disturbance, I reckon silence more profitable than speech, for if there is any truth in the words of the Preacher, The words of wise men are heard in quiet, Ecclesiastes 9:17 in the present condition of things any discussion of them must be anything but becoming. I am moreover restrained by the Prophet's saying, Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time, Amos 5:13 a time when some trip up their neighbours' heels, some stamp on a man when he is down, and others clap their hands with joy, but there is not one to feel for the fallen and hold out a helping hand, although according to the ancient law he is not uncondemned, who passes by even his enemy's beast of burden fallen under his load. Ezekiel 23:5 This is not the state of things now. Why not? The love of many has waxed cold; Matthew 24:12 brotherly concord is destroyed, the very name of unity is ignored, brotherly admonitions are heard no more, nowhere is there Christian pity, nowhere falls the tear of sympathy. Now there is no one to receive the weak in faith, Romans 14:1 but mutual hatred has blazed so high among fellow clansmen that they are more delighted at a neighbour's fall than at their own success. Just as in a plague, men of the most regular lives suffer from the same sickness as the rest, because they catch the disease by communication with the infected, so nowadays by the evil rivalry which possesses our souls we are carried away to an emulation in wickedness, and are all of us each as bad as the others. Hence merciless and sour sit the judges of the erring; unfeeling and hostile are the critics of the well disposed. And to such a depth is this evil rooted among us that we have become more brutish than the brutes; they do at least herd with their fellows, but our most savage warfare is with our own people.
79. For all these reasons I ought to have kept silence, but I was drawn in the other direction by love, which seeks not her own, 1 Corinthians 13:5 and desires to overcome every difficulty put in her way by time and circumstance. I was taught too by the children at Babylon, that, when there is no one to support the cause of true religion, we ought alone and all unaided to do our duty. They from out of the midst of the flame lifted up their voices in hymns and praise to God, reeking not of the host that set the truth at naught, but sufficient, three only that they were, with one another. Wherefore we too are undismayed at the cloud of our enemies, and, resting our hope on the aid of the Spirit, have, with all boldness, proclaimed the truth. Had I not so done, it would truly have been terrible that the blasphemers of the Spirit should so easily be emboldened in their attack upon true religion, and that we, with so mighty an ally and supporter at our side, should shrink from the service of that doctrine, which by the tradition of the Fathers has been preserved by an unbroken sequence of memory to our own day. A further powerful incentive to my undertaking was the warm fervour of your love unfeigned, and the seriousness and taciturnity of your disposition; a guarantee that you would not publish what I was about to say to all the world — not because it would not be worth making known, but to avoid casting pearls before swine. Matthew 7:6 My task is now done. If you find what I have said satisfactory, let this make an end to our discussion of these matters. If you think any point requires further elucidation, pray do not hesitate to pursue the investigation with all diligence, and to add to your information by putting any uncontroversial question. Either through me or through others the Lord will grant full explanation on matters which have yet to be made clear, according to the knowledge supplied to the worthy by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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| June 14th - St. Basil the Great |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-14-2021, 09:31 AM - Forum: June
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June 14 – St Basil the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
The Doctors who form the fourfold glory of the Greek Church complete their sacred number, on the cycle, this day. John Chrysostom was the first to greet us with his radiant light, during Christmastide; the glorious Pasch saw the rise of two resplendent luminaries, Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen; Basil the Great, having checked his effulgent blaze till now, illumines the reign of the Holy Ghost. He well deserves so distinguished a place, by reason of his eminent doctrine and brave combats, which prepared the way for the triumph of the divine Paraclete over the blasphemies of the impious sect of Macedonius, who used against the Third Person of the Consubstantial Trinity, the very same arguments invented by Arius against the Divinity of the Word. The Council of Constantinople, putting the finishing stroke to that of Nicæa, formulated the faith of the Churches, in Him who proceedeth from the Father, no less than doth the Word Himself, Who is adored and glorified conjointly with the Father and the Son. Basil was not there on the day of victory; prematurely exhausted by austerities and labors, he had been sleeping the sleep of peace for quite two years when this great definition was promulgated. But it was his teaching that inspired the assembled council; his word remains as the luminous expression of tradition, concerning the Holy Spirit, who is himself the divine loadstone attracting all in the vast universe that aspire after holiness, the potent breeze uplifting souls, the perfection of all things. Just as we hearkened to Gregory Nazianzen on his feast day, speaking magnificent truths concerning the great Paschal mystery, let us listen now to his illustrious friend (de Spiritu Sancto, Lib. ix, xxvi, xviii, xxi, xvi, & xxii) explaining that of the present season—Sanctification effected in souls.
Quote:“The union of the Holy Ghost and the soul is effected by the estrangement of the passions, which having crept in had separated her from God. Whoso, therefore, would disengage himself from the deformity that proceedeth from vice, and return to that beauteousness which he holds of his Creator, whoso would restore within himself the primitive features of that royal and divine original, such an one doth verily draw nigh unto the Paraclete. But then also, even as the sun, coming in contact with an unsullied eye, illumines it, so the Paraclete reveals to such an one the image of Him that cannot be seen; and in the blissful contemplation of this image, he perceiveth the ineffable beauty of the Principle, the Model of all. In this ascension of hearts, whereof the first tottering steps as well as the growing consummation are equally His work, the Holy Spirit rendereth them spiritual who are quit of all stain, by reason of that participation of Himself into which He initiates them. Bodies that are limpid and translucent, pierced by a brilliant ray, become resplendent and shed light all around them; thus also souls bearing the Holy Spirit within them are all luminous with Him, and becoming themselves spiritualized, shed grace all around. Hence, the superior understanding possessed by the elect, and their converse with heaven; hence, all fair gifts; hence, thine own resemblance to thy God; hence, O truth sublime! thou thyself art a god. … Wherefore it is, that properly and in very truth, by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, we contemplate the splendor of God’s glory; yea, it is by the character of resemblance which He has imprinted in our soul that we are raised up even unto the loftiness of Him whose similitude He, the divine Seal, beareth with Himself. … He, the Spirit of Wisdom revealeth unto us (not as it were outside, but within Himself) Christ, the Wisdom of God. The path of contemplation leads from the Holy Ghost, by the Son, unto the Father; concurrently, the goodness, holiness, and royal dignity of the Elect come from the Father by the Son to the Holy Ghost, whose temples they are; … and He filleth them with His own glory, illuminating their brow with a radiance, like to that of Moses, at the sight of God. … Thus likewise did He, in the case of our Lord’s Humanity; thus doth He unto the Seraphim who cannot cry their triple Sanctus, save in Him; so also unto all the choirs of Angels, whose concerts He regulates, whose sons He vibrates. … But the carnal man, who hath never exercised his soul in contemplation, holding her captive in the mud and mire of the senses, cannot lift his eyes unto Light supernal; the Holy Spirit belongs not to him.”
The action of the Paraclete surpasses the power of any creature; therefore, in thus drawing attention to the operation of the Spirit of Love, St. Basil is anxious to bring his adversaries to confess, of their own accord, the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, who can fail to recognize in this burning exposition of doctrine, not merely the invincible theologian, vindicating dogma; but furthermore, the experienced guide of souls, the sublime ascetic, deputed by God to bring down within reach of all marvels of holiness such as an Anthony or a Pachomius brought forth in the desert?
Even as the bee humming amidst the flowers avoids the thorn and knows how to eschew empoisoned sap, so Basil in his youthful days had hovered amidst the schools of Athens and of Constantinople, without sucking in aught of their poison. According to the advice he himself gave to youth, at a later date, in a celebrated discourse, his quick intelligence, unsullied by passions (too often found even in the most gifted), had succeeded in stealing from rhetoricians and poets all that could adorn as well as develop his mind, and discipline it for the struggle of life. The world smiled on the young orator, whose pure diction and persuasive eloquence recalled the palmy days of Greek literature; but the noblest gifts of glory earth could offer were far beneath the lofty ambition wherewith his soul was fired, in reading the holy Scriptures. Life’s struggle, in his eyes, seemed a combat for truth alone. In himself, first of all, must Divine Truth be victorious, by the defeat of nature and by the Holy Ghost’s triumphant creation of the new man. Therefore, heedless to know before God’s own time whether he might not be used in winning souls to God; never once suspecting how soon multitudes would indeed come pressing to receive the law of life from his lips, he turned his back upon all things and fled to the wilds of Pontus, there to be forgotten of men in his pursuit after holiness. Nor did the misery of those times cause him to fall into that error, so common nowadays, namely that of wishing to devote one’s self to others, before having first regulated one’s own soul. Such is not the true way of setting charity in order; such is not the conduct of the saints. No, it is thyself God wants of thee, before all things else; when thou art become His, in the full measure he intends, he himself will know how to bestow thee upon others, unless perchance he prefer for thy greater advantage to keep thee all to himself! But in any case, he is no lover of all that hurry to become useful, He does not bless these would-be utilitarians who are all eagerness, as it were, to push themselves into the service of his Providence. Anthony of Padua showed us this truth yesterday; and here we have it given to us a second time; mark it well: that which really tends to the extension of our Lord’s glory is not the amount of time given to the works. but the holiness of the worker.
According to a custom frequent in that century, owing to the fear entertained of exposing the grace of baptism to woeful shipwreck, Basil remained a simple catechumen until his youth had well nigh matured to manhood. Of the years that followed his baptism, thirteen were spent in the monastic life and nine in the episcopate. At the age of fifty, he died; but his work carried on under the impulse of the Holy Ghost, far from finishing with him, appeared more fruitful, and went on thus increasing during the course of succeeding ages.
While living the life of a humble monk on the banks of the Iris, whither his mother and sister had preceded him, his whole being was all intent on the “saving of his soul” from the judgment of God, and on “running generously in the way that leads to the eternal recompense.” Later on, others having begged him to form them also “unto the warfare of Christ, the King,” according to the simplicity of faith and the Scriptures, our saint would not have them embrace the life of solitaries, such isolation being not without danger for the many; but he preferred for them, one that would join to the blissful contemplation of the solitary, the rampart and completeness of community life, wherein charity and humility (160, etc.; 110, etc.) are exercised under the conduct of a head who, in his turn, deems himself but the servitor of all (Interrogatio xxx.). Moreover, he would admit none into his monasteries, without serious and prolonged trial, followed by a solemn engagement to persevere in this new life.
At the remembrance of what he had admired amongst the solitaries of Egypt and Syria, Basil compared himself and his disciples to children who would strive in a puny way to mimic strong men; or unto beginners sticking at the first difficulties of the rudiments, and scarce yet fairly started on the path of true piety. Yet the day would come when the ancient giants of the wilderness, and the hoary legislators of the desert, would see their heroic customs and their monastic codes cede the place of honor to the familiar conferences, to the unprepared answers given by Basil to his monks, in solution of their proposed difficulties, and to form them to the practice of the divine counsels. Ere long, the whole of the East ranged itself under his Rule; while in the West, Saint Benedict called him his Father. His order, like a fruitful nursery of holy monks and virgins, bishops, doctors and martyrs, has stocked heaven with saints. For a long time it served as a bulwark of the faith to Byzantium; and even in our own day has beheld, despite the schism, its faithful children sparing not to render, under the savage persecution of the Tsar of Russia, their testimony of blood and suffering to Holy Mother Church.
Worthily also have they herein paid a personal testimony, as it were, to their intrepid father; for Basil too was the grandson of martyrs, the son and brother of saints. Would that we might be allowed to devote a page to the praises of his illustrious grandmother Macrina the elder; who seems to have miraculously escaped from the hands of her executioners and from a seven years’ exile in the wild forests, on purpose to be instrumental in infusing into Basil’s young heart that faith firm and pure, which she had herself received from St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. Suffice it to say that towards the close of his life, the great Basil, Doctor of the Church and Patriarch of Monks, was proud to appeal to Macrina’s name as a guarantee for the orthodoxy of his faith, when once called in question.
Basil’s lifetime was cast in one of those periods exceptionally disastrous to the Church, when shipwrecks of faith are common, because darkness prevails to such an extent as to cast its shades even over the children of light; a period, in fact, when, as St. Jerome expresses it, “the astonished world waked up, to bewail itself Arian.” Bishops were faltering in essentials of true belief and in questions of loyalty to the successor of Peter; so that the bewildered flock scarce knew whose voice to follow; for many of their pastors, some through perfidy, and some through weakness, had subscribed at Rimini to the condemnation of the Faith of Nicæa. Basil himself was assuredly not one of them, not one of those blind watchmen: dumb dogs not able to bark. When but a simple lector, he had not hesitated to sound the horn of alarm, by openly separating himself from his bishop who had been caught in the meshes of the Arians; and now himself a bishop, he boldly showed that he was so indeed. For when entreated, for peace’s sake, to make some compromise with the Arians, vain was every supplication, every menace of confiscation, exile, or death. He used no measured terms in treating with the prefect Modestus, the tool of Valens; and when this vaunting official complained that none had ever dared to address him with such liberty, Basil intrepidly replied: “Perhaps thou never yet hadst to deal with a Bishop!”
Basil, whose great soul was incapable of suspecting duplicity in another, was entrapped by the guile of a false monk, a hypocritical bishop, one Eustathius of Sebaste, who, by apparent austerity of life and other counterfeits, long captivated the friendship of Basil. This unconscious error was permitted by God for the increase of his servant’s holiness; for it was destined to fill his declining days with utmost bitterness, and to draw down upon him the keenest trial possible to one of his mould, namely, that several, in consequence, began to doubt of his own sincerity of faith.
Basil appealed from the tongue of calumny to the judgment of his brother bishops; but yet he recoiled not from likewise justifying himself before the simple Faithful. For he knew that the richest Treasure of a Church is the pastor’s own surety of faith and his personal plenitude of doctrine. Athanasius, who had led the battles of the first half of that century and had conquered Arius, was no more: he had gone to join in the well-merited repose of eternity his brave companions, Eusebius of Vercelli and Hilary of Poitiers.
In the midst of the confusion that Valens’ persecution was then reproducing in the East, even holy men knew not how to weather the storm. Many such were to be seen adopting first the extreme measure of utter withdrawal, through mistaken excess of prudence; and then rushing into equally false steps of indiscreet zeal. Basil alone was of a build proportioned to the tempest. His noble heart, bruised in its most delicate feelings, had drunk the chalice to the dregs; but, strong in Him who prayed the prayer of agony in Gethsemani, the trial crushed him not. With wearied soul and with a body well-nigh exhausted by the jading effects of chronic infirmities, already in fact a dying man, he nevertheless nerved himself up against death, and bravely faced the surging waves. From this “ship in distress,” as he termed the Eastern Church, dashing against every rock amid the dense fog, his pressing cry of appeal reached the ears of the Western Church seated in peace in her unfailing light,—reached Rome, whence alone help could come, yet whose wise slowness, on one occasion, made him almost lose heart. While awaiting the intervention of Peter’s successor, Basil prudently repressed anything untimely zeal and, for the present, required of weak souls merely what was indispensable in matters of faith; just as under other circumstances, and with equal prudence, he had severely reproved his own brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, for suffering himself to be betrayed by simplicity into inconsiderate measures, motived indeed by love of peace.
Peace, yes, this is just what Basil desired as much as anybody: but the peace for which he would give his life could be only that true peace left to the Church by our Lord. What he so vigorously exacted on the grounds of faith proceeded solely from this very love of his for peace. And therefore, as he himself tells us, he absolutely refused to enter into communion with men of just medium, men who dread nothing so much as a clear, close-drawn expression of dogma; in his eyes, their captious formulæ and ungraspable shiftings were but the action of hypocrites, in whose company he would scorn to approach God’s altar. As to those merely misled,
Quote:“let the faith of our fathers be proposed to them with all tenderness and charity; if they will assent thereunto, let us receive them into our midst; in other cases, let us dwell with ourselves alone, regardless of numbers; and let us keep aloof from equivocating souls, who are not possessed of that simplicity without guile, indispensably required in the early days of the gospel, from all who would approach to the Faith. The believers, so it is written, had but one heart and one soul. Let those, therefore, who would reproach us for not desiring pacification, mark well who are the real authors of the disturbance, and so not point the question of reconciliation on our side any more.”
In another place, he thus continues, Quote:“To every specious argument that would seem to counsel silence on our part, we oppose this other, namely, that charity counts as nothing, either her own proper interests, or the difficulties of the times. Even though no man is willing to follow our example, what then? are we ourselves, just for that, to let duty alone? In the fiery furnace, the children of the Babylonish captivity chanted their canticle to the Lord, without making any reckoning of the multitude who set truth on one side: they were quite sufficient for one another, merely three as they were!”
He thus wrote to his monks, likewise pursued and vexed by a government that would fain not own itself a persecutor: “There are many honest men who, though they admit that you are not being treated without a shadow of justice, still will not grant that the sufferings you are enduring can quite deserve to be called confessing the faith; ah! it is by no means necessary to be a pagan in order to make martyrs! The enemies we have nowadays detest us no less than did the idolaters; if they would deceive the crowd as to the motive of their hatred, it is merely because they hope thereby to rob you of the glory that surrounded confessors in bygone days. Be convinced of it: before the face of the just Judge, your confession is every whit as real. So, take heart! under every stroke, renew yourselves in love; let your zeal gain strength every day, knowing that in you are to be preserved the last remains of godliness which the Lord, at His return, may find upon the earth. Trouble not yourselves about treacheries, nor whence they come: was it not the princes among God’s priests, the scribes and the ancients among his own, that plotted the snares wherein our divine Master suffered himself to be caught? Heed not what the crowd may think, for a breath is sufficient to sway the crowd to and fro, like the rippling wave. Even though only one were to be saved, as in the case of Lot out of Sodom, it would not be lawful for him to deviate from the path of rectitude, merely because he finds that he is the only one that is right. No; he must stand alone, unmoved, holding fast his hope on Jesus Christ.”
Basil himself, from his bed of sickness, set an example to all. But what was not the anguish of his soul, when he realized how scant correspondence his efforts received among the leading men in his own diocese! He sadly wondered at seeing such as these, and how their ambition was in no wise quenched by the lamentable state of the Churches; how they still could listen to nothing but their own puny jealous susceptibilities, when the vessel was actually foundering; and could bicker and quarrel about who should command the ship, when she was already sinking. Then there were others, and even those were to be found amongst the better sort, who would hold aloof, hoping to get themselves forgotten in the silence of their own inertia; quite ignoring that when general interests are at stake, egotistic estrangement from the scene of struggle can never save an individual, nor absolve him from the crime of treason. It is curious to hear our saint himself relating the story to his friend Eusebius of Samosata, the future martyr; how once Basi’s death was noised abroad, and consequently all the bishops hurried at once to Cæsarea to choose a successor. “But,” Basil continues, “as it pleased God that they should find me alive, I took this opportunity to speak to them weighty words. Yet vainly; for while in my presence, they feared me and promised everything; but scarce had they turned their backs, than they were just the same again.” In the meanwhile, persecution was pursuing its course, and sooner or later, the moment came for each in turn to choose between either downright heresy or banishment. Many, unfortunately, then consummated their apostasy; others, opening their eyes at last, took the road to exile, where they were able to meditate at leisure upon the advantages of their policy of “keeping quiet,” and “of keeping out of the struggle;” or better still, where they could repair their past weakness, by the heroism wherewith they would henceforth suffer for the faith.
Basil’s virtue held even his persecutors at bay, and God preserved him in such wondrous ways that at last he was almost the only one that remained at the head of his Church, although he had really exposed himself far more than anyone else to the brunt of every attack and to every peril. He profited hereby, to the benefit of his favored flock, upon whom he lavished the boon of highest teaching and wisest administration. This he did with such marvelous success that so much could scarcely have been attainable by another bishop in times of peace, when exclusive attention could be devoted to those employments. Cæsarea responded splendidly to his pastoral care. His word excited such avidity amongst all classes that the populace would hang upon his lips and await his arrival the live-long day, in the ever more and more closely thronged edifice. We learn this from his remarks. For instance, once, when his insatiable auditory would allow him no repose, in spite of his extreme fatigue, he tenderly compares himself to a worn-out mother who gives her babe the breast, not so much to feed it as to stay its cries. The mutual understanding of pastor and flock in these meetings is quite delicious! When the great orator would chance by inadvertence to leave some verse of Scripture unexplained, with all decorum, yet eagerly, would these sons of his by, signs and half suppressed mutterings, recall the attention of the venerable father to the passage of the text before him, from the explaining of which they were not going to let him off free. On such occasions, Basil would pour himself out in charming excuses for his mistake, and then give what was asked of him, but in such a way as to show he really was proud of his flock! When he was explaining, for example, the magnificence of the great ocean amongst other wonders of the works of the six days, he suddenly paused and, casting a glance of ineffable pleasure over the vast crowd closely pressing around his episcopal chair, he thus continued:
Quote:“If the sea is beauteous, and in God’s sight worthy of goodly praise, how far more beautiful is this immense assembly, whereof better than the waves that swell and roll and die away against the coast, the mingled voices of men, women, and children bear unto God our swelling prayer. O thou tranquil ocean, peaceful in thy mighty deep, because evil winds of heresy are impotent to rouse thy waves!”
Happy people, thus formed by Basil to the understanding of the Scriptures, especially of the Psalms, whereof he inspired the Faithful with so great love that it was quite the custom for all to repair at night to the house of God, there, in the solemn accents of alternate psalmody to pour out their souls in one united homage. Prayer in common was one of those fruits of his ministry which Basil (like a true monk) valued the most; the importance he attached to it has made him to be one of the principal Fathers of the Greek Liturgy.
Quote:“Talk not to me,” he cries put, “of private homes, of private assemblies: Adore the Lord in His Holy Court, saith the Psalmist; the adoration here called for is that which is paid not outside the church, but in the court the one only court of the Lord.”
Time and space would fail us were we to attempt to follow our saint through all the details of this grand family life which he so thoroughly lived with his whole people, and which formed his one consolation in the midst of his otherwise stormy career. It would behoove us to show how he made himself all to all, in gladness and in sorrow, with a simplicity which is so admirably blended in him with lofty greatness; how he would reply to the humblest consultations, just as though he had nothing more urgent on hand than to satisfy the demands of the least among his sons; how he would cry out against every touch of injustice offered to one of his flock, and cease not till full compensation was made; and finally, how, with the aid of his Faithful of Cæsarea rising up as one man to defend their bishop, he would oppose himself as a strong rampart to protect virgins and widows against the brutal oppression of men in power. Though himself poor and stripped of all things, since the day when about to enter the monastic state, he had distributed the whole of his rich paternal inheritance among the poor, he nevertheless found the secret of how to raise, in his episcopal city, an immense establishment, destined as an assured refuge for pilgrims and the poor, an asylum ever open and admirably organized to meet the requirements of every kind of suffering and the needs of all ages; or rather, a new city, built beside the great Cæsarea, and named by the gratitude of the people after its sainted founder. Ever ready for any combat, Basil intrepidly maintained his rights as exarch, which he possessed by reason of his See, over the eleven provinces composing the vast administrative division, known to the Romans by the generic name of the diocese of Pontus. Indefatigable in his zeal for the sacred canons, he both defended his clergy against all attempts aimed at their immunities, and reformed such abuses as had crept in during times less troubled than his own. Even in the very vortex of the storm, he knew how to bring back ecclesiastical discipline to the perfection of its best days.
At last the time came when the main interests of the faith, the perils of which seemed, up to this, to have suspended, in his worn-out body, the law of all flesh, now no longer demanded his presence so absolutely as before. On the Ninth of August 378, the arrow of the Goth exercised justice on Valens; soon afterwards, Gratian’s Edict recalled the exiled confessors, and Theodosius appeared in the East. On the First of January 379, Basil, at last set free, slept in the Lord.
The Greek Church celebrates the memory of this great Bishop on the day of his death, conjointly with the Circumcision of the Word made Flesh; a second time, on the Thirtieth of the same month of January, uniting therewith two other of her doctors, namely, Saints Gregory Nazianzen and John Chrysostom, bringing all the magnificence of her gorgeous Liturgy to give splendour to this grand solemnity of January 30th, illumined as it is by a “triple sun beaming glory concordantly to the Holy Trinity.” The Latin Church has chosen for her celebration of Saint Basil the day of his Ordination, namely, June 14th.
The following is the notice she gives of his holy life:
Quote:Basil, a noble Cappadocian, studied profane letters at Athens, in company with Gregory Nazianzen, to whom he was united in a warm and tender friendship. He afterwards studies things sacred in a monastery, where he quickly attained an eminent degree of excellence in doctrine and life, whereby he gained to himself the surname of “the Great.” He was called to Pontus to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and brought back into the way of salvation that country which before had been wandering astray from the rules of Christian discipline. He was shortly united as coadjutor to Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, for the instructing of that city, and afterwards became his successor in the See. One of his greatest labors was to maintain that the Son is Consubstantial to the Father; and when the Emperor Valens, moved to wrath against him, was minded to send him into exile, he was so vanquished by the miracles Basil worked, that he was forced to forego his intention.
For the chair upon which Valens sat down in order to sign the decree of Basil’s ejectment from the city, broke under him; and of the three pens which he took up, one after the other, to sign the edict of banishment, none would mark the ink; and when, nevertheless, persisting in his intent to write the impious order, the muscles as it were becoming relaxed, his whole right hand trembled violently. Valens was so frightened by these signs, that he tore the fatal document in two. During the night which was allowed to Basil to make up his mind, the wife of Valens was seized with excruciating intestine pains, and his only son was taken seriously ill. These things alarmed Valens so much, that he acknowledged his wickedness, and sent for Basil, during whose visit the child began to get better. However, when Valens sent for some heretics to see it, it presently died.
The abstinence and continence of Basil were truly wonderful. He was content to wear nothing but one single garment. In observance of fasting he was most earnest, and so instant in prayer, that he oftentimes passed the whole night therein. His virginity he kept always unsullied. He built monasteries wherein he so adapted the institution of monasticism, that he exquisitely united for the monks the advantages of solitude and of action. He was the author of many learned writings, and according to the testimony of Gregory Nazianzen, no one has ever composed more faithful and unctuous explanations of the Books of Holy Scripture. He died upon the Kalends of January; and as he had lived but by the spirit, there seemed to have remained naught to him of the body, save the skin and the bones.
To give thus a list of thine admirable works is in itself to sing thy praises, O mighty Pontiff! Would that nowadays thou hadst imitators; for history teaches us that Saints of a build like thine are those who cause an epoch to be really great and who save society. No matter how tried, how abandoned even, a people may apparently, be if only blessed with a ruler docile in all things, docile unto heroism, to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost ever abiding in holy Church, this people will assuredly weather the storm, and conquer at last; whereas, if the salt lose its savour, society necessarily falls away, without the need of any Julian or of any Valens to bring about its ruin. O Basil, do thou then obtain for this our waning society, leaders such as thou wert; may the astonishment of Modestus be justly renewed in these days of ours; let prefects, Valens successors, meet at the head of every church, a Bishop in the full sense of the term as used by thee; then will their astonishment be for us a signal of victory; for a Bishop is never vanquished, even should he be exiled or put to death!
While keeping up the pastors of the Church to the high standard of the state of perfection in which the sacred unction supposes them to be, lead the flock, likewise, to higher paths of sanctity, such as Christianity gives scope for. Not to monks alone is that word spoken; the kingdom of God is within you. Thou hast taught us that the kingdom of heaven, that beatitude that can be ours already, is the contemplation, accessible to us here below, of eternal realities, not indeed by clear and direct vision, but in that mirror whereof the Apostle speaks. How foolish is it to cultivate and feed in man naught but the senses that crave for the material alone, and to refuse to the spirit its own proper food and bent. Does not the spirit urge of its own nature towards intellectual regions, for the which it is created? If its flight be slow and heavy, the reason is that the senses, by prevailing, impede its ascent. Teach us, therefore, to furnish it more and more with increased faith and love, whereby it may become light and agile as the hart, to leap unto loftiest heights. Tell in our age, as thou didst formerly in thine, that forgotten truth, namely, how earnestness in maintaining an upright faith is no less necessary for this end than rectitude of life. Alas! how far have thy sons, for the greater part, forgotten that every true monk as well as every true Christian detests heresy, and all that savors thereof. Wherefore, dear Saint, bless all the more particularly those few whom such a continuity of trials has, as yet, failed to shake in their constancy; multiply conversions; hasten the happy day when the East, casting off the yoke of schism and Islamism, may resume her former glorious place in the one fold of the one Shepherd.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptized in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,”—such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
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| US judge upholds vaccine mandate by Texas hospital system |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-14-2021, 09:00 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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US judge upholds vaccine mandate by Texas hospital system, marking first federal ruling on whether jabs can be forced on employees
RT | 13 Jun, 2021
A Texas judge has dismissed a case filed by employees of the Houston Methodist hospital system over its policy on Covid-19 vaccinations, issuing the first federal ruling on whether employers can mandate inoculations.
US District Court Judge Lynn Hughes dismissed the lawsuit on Saturday, ruling that Houston Methodist had the legal right to force employees to be vaccinated – even though the jabs have only received emergency-use authorization, not full approval, from the FDA. He said the claim by the 117 employees who sued the hospital system that the inoculations were experimental and dangerous was both “false” and “irrelevant,” as Texas law protects workers from wrongful termination only if they are fired for refusing to commit an act that carries criminal penalties.
READ MORE: Govt ‘absolutely thinking’ about mandatory Covid jabs for health workers, UK vaccine minister saysGovt ‘absolutely thinking’ about mandatory Covid jabs for health workers, UK vaccine minister says
“We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service, and innovation,” Houston Methodist chief executive Marc Boom said in a statement.
Houston Methodist put 178 employees on unpaid leave last Monday because they had refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The workers are scheduled to be fired on June 21 if they still haven’t complied with the mandate. In a message to staff last week, Boom chided the recalcitrant staffers, saying, “Unfortunately, a small number of individuals have decided not to put their patients first.”
The plaintiffs had argued that, by forcing them to take a vaccine that hadn’t gone through the extensive clinical trials needed for full FDA approval, Houston Methodist was essentially requiring them to be “human guinea pigs” in a de facto drug trial. Hughes ruled that, as a private employer, the hospital system didn’t have to give employees the option of refusing vaccination, and he found that they weren’t being forced into a human experiment because Houston Methodist hadn’t applied or been certified to conduct clinical trials.
The judge also rebuked the plaintiffs for likening the allegedly forced medical experimentation imposed on them to Nazi experiments on human subjects during the Holocaust:
Quote:“Equating the injection requirements to medical experimentation in concentration camps is reprehensible. Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on victims that caused pain, mutilation, permanent disability and, in many cases, death.”
More than 5,000 Americans have died after receiving Covid-19 vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It’s not clear whether vaccines caused any of those deaths, the agency said, but recent reports suggest a “plausible causal relationship” between the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 jab and blood clots that have caused fatalities.
Hughes even rejected the plaintiffs’ claims that the threat of losing their jobs was coercion. The employees can “freely choose to accept or refuse a Covid-19 vaccine,” he said, and if they decline, they will “simply need to work somewhere else.”
Jared Woodfill, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told The Hill media outlet that the employees plan to appeal Saturday’s ruling. “This is just one battle in a larger war to protect the rights of employees to be free from being forced to participate in a vaccine trial as a condition of employment,” he said. “Ultimately, I believe Methodist Hospital will be held accountable for their conduct.”
The lead plaintiff in the case, registered nurse Jennifer Bridges, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the costs of the lawsuit. The campaign had raised more than $135,000 of its $500,000 goal at the time of writing. “We are simply asking for more time, proper research, and [for the vaccine to be] fully FDA-approved before injecting it into our bodies,” she said.
Hughes was appointed to the federal court bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. His rulings have been the second-most reversed among jurists who’ve had at least 100 decisions reviewed by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Nearly three in 10 of his rulings have been overturned on appeal, according to a February 2021 report by Reuters, citing Westlaw’s litigation analytics.
[Emphasis mine.]
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| Second Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima - June 13, 1917 |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-13-2021, 08:57 AM - Forum: Our Lady
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Excerpt from The Whole Truth About Fatima - Volume I - Chapter V
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY PIERCED WITH THORNS
(WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13)
I. THE EVENTS
THE FESTIVAL AT THE VILLAGE
«The 13th of June, feast of St. Anthony, was always a day of great festivities in our parish», Lucy relates. «My mother and my sisters, who knew how much I loved a festival, kept saying to me: “We’ll see if you’ll leave the festival just to go to the Cova da Iria, and talk to that Lady!”»252 Indeed the feast was one of the most solemn: was not the Saint at the same time national Patron of Portugal and Patron of the parish?253
In Fatima on that day, «Mass was sung in honour of the great patron, and there was also a sermon and a procession. Youths and girls, then as now, prepared for the festivities which the saint was expected to patronise. The bells rang and alms and food were distributed. Fathers of families drove ox-carts decorated with branches of trees, flowers, flags and bedspreads, carrying wife and children to the festival, where some 500 people would be rewarded with free meals. They passed round the church several times and then stopped in front of the veranda where the priest gave his blessing.»254
What an attraction for the children! But for our three seers the question did not even arise: it was all decided; since they had promised Our Lady, they would go to the Cova da Iria! Only the prohibition of their parents could have prevented them. But this order did not come, because the parish priest had counselled them, very wisely, to leave the children free to do as they wished.
Jacinta desired very much that her mother accompany her. «Oh, mother», she kept saying, «come with us tomorrow to see Our Lady!» But on the morning of the 13th, when the little child woke up, her older brother told her that their parents had already left, and would not be back until evening. Not knowing what to do, Ti Marto had found an escape. Not daring to go to the Cova da Iria, and to avoid taking part in the festival, he decided to go with his wife to Pedreira to buy some oxen. «When we get back», he told Olimpia, «this affair of the children will be finished with. What a business it is to be sure!»255
In haste our three shepherds led their flock to the Valinhos, for the grass was abundant there, and they could return more quickly to their house, in a little more than an hour. «On the day itself, nobody said a single word to me», writes Lucy. «Insofar as I was concerned, they acted as if they were saying, “Leave her alone, and we’ll soon see what she’ll do!”»256
After mature reflection, Maria Rosa had decided that if, in spite of the festival, the children were to go to the Cova da Iria, she would follow them, hide, and see what happened. If nothing extraordinary occurred and anyone attacked them, she would intervene, especially as the parents of the younger two had gone off for the day. True, she risked making a fool of herself. But too bad! «I’ll start for the church», she whispered to her eldest daughter, «and you stay here and tell me what happens.»257 This indeed was the wisest and most courageous solution.
No sooner had she gotten half-way to the church when she encountered five or six people from a neighbouring hamlet who asked to see «the children who had seen Our Lady». Then Maria Rosa lost her nerve: «There are more and more people going to the Cova da Iria», she told herself. «I won’t be able to get there without somebody seeing me. Somebody is sure to notice. These people look respectable. Well, we must see... and may God’s will be done. I shan’t leave here.»258 «The fear of being the laughing-stock of everybody was her weakness», Dom Jean-Nesmy justly comments.259 So she went off to the village for the festival.
Meanwhile Lucy also went in the direction of Fatima... But it was to lead a group of friends who with her made a solemn communion. She succeeded so well in this that more than a dozen children preferred to follow her rather than remain at the festival. Around eleven o’clock, with Jacinta and Francisco they arrived at the place of the apparitions.
THE WAIT AT THE COVA DA IRIA
Already several dozen persons were present, who had come from neighbouring hamlets for the most part, and some of them even from Torres Novas, more than sixty miles away. From the parish there was hardly anyone except Maria Carreira, a believer from the very beginning, whom we shall hear so much about later on. Father De Marchi, to whom she freely confided, quotes at length her recollections, which are always of the highest interest by their charming simplicity and their great precision.
«I had always been sick», she relates, «and seven years previous I had been given up on by the doctors. They gave me only a short time to live.» She had barely heard of the apparitions when she became interested in them, went to Aljustrel to interrogate the seers, was impressed with them, and believed the truth of what they had said. She also decided to be present on June 13 at the Cova da Iria.
«My husband showed me where the place in question was, and he added: “You want to go there? Don’t be a fool! Do you think you’ll see Her?” “I know very well I won’t see Her”, I answered. “But if somebody said that the King were going by, nobody would stay at home, everybody would go out looking for him. And they say that Our Lady is coming there, and we shall not make any effort to go see Her?”
«As I had made my decision, I would not have missed June 13 at the Cova da Iria for anything in the world. On the evening before I said to my children: “What if we don’t go to the festival of St. Anthony tomorrow but to the Cova da Iria instead?” “What for?” they answered. “No, we’d rather go to the festival.” Then I turned to my crippled boy, John. “Do you want to go to the festival or with me?” “With you, mother”, he said. So on the following day, before the others started for the festival, I came here with my John, who hobbled along on a stick.»260
As we shall see later on, there was nothing in this lady that savoured of fanaticism, or a perpetual quest of the miraculous... quite the contrary. A woman of heroic courage, and great common sense, it was her profound faith and her love for the Most Holy Virgin which, not without a special grace from God, made her sense almost immediately that there was an authentic supernatural fact, and later on verify it with her own eyes.
When Lucy had arrived, Maria Carreira hastened to ask her:
«“Which is the oak tree where Our Lady appeared?” “This one”, she said, putting her hand on it. It was a holm oak about a metre high, a nice strong sapling. It was very well shaped with regular branches.»261
And then, without any excitement or disturbance, they awaited the hour of the apparition. As it was very hot, the little seers and their companions moved back a little bit to be in the shade. They began to play.
«Those of us who had come a long way, continues Maria Carreira, began to eat lunch and to offer some to the children, who each accepted an orange, which, however, they didn’t eat. I can still see the three of them with the oranges in their hands. Then a girl from Boleiros began to read aloud from a book of prayers which she had brought.
«As I was ill and feeling weak and tired, I asked Lucy if she thought Our Lady would be long in coming. “She won’t be long now”, was her reply, and she watched for the signs of the arrival. We said the Rosary meanwhile and when the girl from Boleiros was beginning the Litany, Lucy interrupted, saying there would not be time.»262
Then, another witness relates, «Lucy got up, and arranged her shawl, the kerchief covering her head, as well as her other clothes, as if she were getting ready to go into church, and she turned towards the east, awaiting the vision.»263
«Suddenly she got up and called out: “Jacinta, Our Lady must be coming; there’s the lightning!” They all ran to the holm oak and we behind them. We knelt down on the rocks and stones. Lucy lifted up her hands as if she were praying and I heard her say: “Your Grace asked me to come here; please tell me what you want.”»264
There were now a good fifty people around the seers, grouped near the holm oak. Their word alone was responsible for the three or four thousand present on July 13... But now we must let Lucy speak. The account is taken from her fourth Memoir.
THE APPARITION: THE REVELATION OF THE IMMACULATE HEART
«June 13, 1917. As soon as Jacinta, Francisco and I had finished praying the Rosary with a number of other people who were present, we saw once more the flash reflecting the light which was approaching (which we called lightning). The next moment, Our Lady was there on the holm oak, exactly the same as in May.»
THE THREE REQUESTS OF OUR LADY.
— What does Your Grace want of me? I asked.
— I wish you to come here on the 13th of next month, to pray the Rosary each day, and to learn how to read. Later, I will tell you what I want.
I asked for the cure of a sick person.
— If he is converted, he will be healed during the year.
[«THE HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY HAVE DESIGNS OF MERCY ON YOU.»
— I would like to ask you to take us to Heaven.
— Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make Me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.265 To whoever embraces this devotion I promise salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne.266
— Am I to stay here alone? I asked, sadly.
— No, My daughter. Do you suffer a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.
THE VISION IN GOD. «As Our Lady spoke these last words, She opened Her hands and for the second time, She communicated to us the rays of that immense light. We saw ourselves in this light, as it were, immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which rose towards Heaven, and I in that which was poured out on the earth.»
THE GREAT REVELATION OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY. «In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns which pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity and seeking reparation.»]
THE LITTLE SECRET OF JUNE 13. «You know now, Your Excellency, what we referred to when we said that Our Lady had revealed a secret to us in June. At the time, Our Lady did not tell us to keep it secret, but we felt moved to do so by God.»267
THE MARVELLOUS SIGNS268
Around noon, everyone heard Lucy suddenly cry: «Here is the lightning!... Our Lady will arrive!» But only the three children had seen it.269 The others saw neither the lightning, nor Our Lady...
Manuel Gonçalves, a young peasant, thirty years old, from the hamlet of Montelo, was present. An intelligent man with great common sense, he would be interrogated at length, on October 11, 1917, by Canon Formigao. «When Lucy speaks to Our Lady», he explained, «she speaks loudly. I myself heard her in June because I was near her. Some people say that they heard the sound of the reply.»270
AN UNUSUAL MURMUR. Indeed, Maria Carreira and other witnesses relate that between the words of Lucy, they heard something like the murmur of a very fine, but unintelligible voice.271
Let us pay attention to the account of our peasant, Maria Carreira, who better than anyone else was able to observe and relate with precision what she had seen and heard: «Then (after Lucy had begun to speak to Our Lady), we began to hear something like the sound of a very faint voice; but we could not understand what it was saying; it was like the buzzing of a bee.»272 On July 13, Ti Marto also declared that he had perceived this slight noise which he was not able to describe very well.
«During the vision», another witness notes, «the branches of the tree were bent down all around it, as though the weight of Our Lady were really resting on it.»273
However, it was especially at the end of the apparition that the most astonishing signs took place, as if the Blessed Virgin, in Her goodness, had willed to give these good people who had come to see Her some reflections of the apparition, as a certain pledge of Her invisible presence in the midst of them.
«IT SOUNDED SOMEWHAT LIKE A ROCKET.» «When Our Lady left the tree», Maria Carreira relates, «it sounded somewhat like a rocket, a long way off, as it goes up. Lucy got up very quickly, and with her arm outstretched cried, “Look, there She goes! There She goes!”»274
«THE BRANCHES LEANED TOWARDS THE EAST.» «I noticed an astonishing fact», another witness relates. «We were in the month of June and the tree had all its boughs covered with little sprouts. Now at the end of the apparition, when Lucy announced that Our Lady was leaving in the direction of the east, all the branches of the tree picked up and leaned in the same direction, as if Our Lady, as She left, had let Her dress rest upon the boughs.»275
«A LITTLE CLOUD WENT UP TOWARDS THE EAST.» As for Maria Carreira, as she continues her account, she describes another phenomenon, as gracious as it is astonishing, which she noticed the moment Lucy declared: «Look! There She goes! There She goes!» It was «a little cloud... which went up gently in the direction of the east, until it finally disappeared completely. Certain people said: “I still see it; there it is...” until finally nobody claimed to see it. The little children remained silent, their eyes fixed on the same point in the sky, until finally Lucy declared: “There, now we can’t see Her any more. She has gone back into Heaven, the doors are shut!”»
«THE SHOOTS OF THE HOLM OAK... AS IF SOMEONE HAD STOOD UPON THEM.» «We then turned towards the miraculous tree and what was our admiration to see that the shoots at the top, which had been standing upright before, were now all bent towards the east, as if someone had stood upon them.»
AFTER THE APPARITION. «Then we began to pull off twigs and leaves from the top of the tree, but Lucy told us to take them from the bottom where Our Lady had not touched them... Somebody suggested that we should say the Rosary again before going home, but others who had come a long way said that we could say the Litany now and the Rosary on the way back to Fatima.
«After the Litany we all went back to Fatima with the children, praying as we went, and we arrived as the procession was just starting. People saw us arrive and asked us where we had come from. We replied, from the Cova da Iria, and that we were very glad to have come from there. Some of them were sorry at what they had missed, but it was too late then.»276
Thus the first fifty pilgrims of June 13, as they returned to their homes full of joy and fervour, spread the good news everywhere: Yes, it was true, Our Lady had appeared a second time at the Cova da Iria! And it was not finished, She would come on the 13th of each month until October! So well did they communicate their enthusiastic confidence that right during the harvest season, on July 13, instead of a few dozen there were thousands present for the rendezvous...
II. A FIRST SECRET: THE REVELATION OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
«What did the Lady say this time?» the three seers were unceasingly asked. Jacinta, lowering her head, contented herself simply to repeat: «We must recite the Rosary every day. Our Lady will come back on the 13th of each month until October. Then She will say who She is and what She wants.»
However the questions became more pressing, and guessing very quickly that the seers had not said everything, the people asked them: «Our Lady said nothing else to you?» And then, so as not to lie, they were constrained to give an answer. «Since this apparition», Lucy writes, «we began to say... “Yes, She said something, but it is a secret.” If we were asked why it was a secret, we would shrug our shoulders, and lowering our heads, we would say nothing.»277
Indeed, during the apparition Our Lady had revealed many things of the greatest importance. However, they could not reveal them because they were all closely linked together. Being interiorly moved to keep silence, this is why they decided to say nothing of the great Message and the graces received that day. All the more so because these graces were all related to the mysterious vision they had had when, for the second time, Our Lady opened Her hands and communicated to them the «reflection of the immense light» emanating from Her.
THE IMMACULATE HEART, PIERCED WITH THORNS
In this light, they felt «as if submerged in God». It was a sublime vision: through the rays coming forth from the hands of Mary, they saw themselves submerged in God... and in the great light of God, it was given to them to contemplate the secret of Mary, to see Her pierced Heart. «In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns which pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation.»278
Here we are at the very centre of the message of Fatima, at the heart of its Secret. This is why, to conform to the desire of Sister Lucy, we will devote a long chapter of our second volume to this revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.279 However, we can already relate the effect of the apparition in the soul of Francisco:
«He was very impressed by the reflection of light... At the time, he did not seem to understand what was happening, perhaps because it was not given to him to hear the accompanying words of Our Lady. For this reason, he asked later: “Why did Our Lady have a heart in Her hand, spreading out all over the world that great light which is God?”
«Sometimes he said: “These people are so happy just because you told them that Our Lady wants the Rosary said, and that you are to learn to read! How would they feel if they only knew what She showed to us in God, in Her Immaculate Heart, in that great light!”»280
The fruit of the vision for the three seers was an intimate knowledge and an ardent love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Lucy says that it was like an infused virtue which was granted to them that day:
«I think that, on that day, the main purpose of this light was to infuse within us a special knowledge and love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, just as on the two other occasions it was intended to do, as it seems to me, with regard to God and the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. From that day onwards our hearts were filled with a more ardent love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary.»281
Jacinta especially was overflowing with fervour: «From time to time she would say to me: “The Lady said that Her Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. Don’t you love that? Her Heart is so good! How I love it!”»282
THE GREAT DESIGN OF GOD FOR THE WORLD
For the first time, without insisting, but already in all clarity, Our Lady revealed to the children the great project of the Heart of Jesus for our century: «Jesus wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion, I promise salvation.» What marvellous, decisive words!
However the hour had not yet come when the great design of divine mercy was to be made known and the Will of God to be expressed openly to everybody. This was for the future, which in 1917 Our Lady wished only to prophesy and prepare for. For She had chosen Her instrument, Her messenger...
«THE HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY HAVE DESIGNS OF MERCY ON YOU»
These mysterious words, pronounced by the Angel in 1916 near the well, undoubtedly had not been understood by the three seers at the time. But with the passing of time, they came to be seen as a veiled announcement of what the Blessed Virgin, a year later, would come to reveal in all clarity: the designs of God over each of them and the broad outline of their future.
THE VOCATION OF JACINTA AND FRANCISCO. Since May 13, all three had but one and the same desire, which was energetically expressed by Francisco: «What I want is to go to Heaven!»283 But did they not already know they were going? They had received the promise, but this was not enough for them. What they desired now was to go to Heaven soon, without delay...284 Lucy quite ingenuously — but what perfection of soul it manifests! — requested it of Our Lady: «I would like to ask you to take us to Heaven.» And Our Lady answered: «Yes, Jacinta and Francisco, I will take them soon...» What an admirable response! It is the response of a sovereign: «I will take them soon.» Has not Her divine Son crowned Her as Queen and Gate of Heaven, Janua coeli, as the Litany says?
From then on their vocation is marked out. To be going to Heaven soon, what joy! But it was ; also a permanent stimulus in the pursuit of sanctity: there remained for them only a short time to repair for sins and console God, to pray and offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. Hence they would apply themselves to it with all the more ardour.
Lucy relates for us a few recollections of the time from June-July 1917:
«From time to time Francisco would say: “Our Lady told us that we would have much to suffer, but I don’t mind. I’ll suffer all that She wishes! What I want is to go to Heaven!”
«One day, when I showed how unhappy I was over the persecution now beginning both in my family and outside, Francisco tried to encourage me with these words: “Never mind! Didn’t Our Lady say that we would have much to suffer, to make reparation to Our Lord and to Her own Immaculate Heart for all the sins by which They are offended? They are so sad! If we can console Them with these sufferings, how happy we shall be!”285
«When Jacinta saw me in tears, she tried to console me, saying: “Don’t cry. Surely, these are the sacrifices which the Angel said that God was going to send us. That’s why you are suffering, so that you can make reparation to Him and convert sinners.”»286
«But you», Our Lady had told Lucy, «are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you, to make Me known and loved.»287 Lucy then expressed her sorrow, for which we can easily understand the reasons: the hardship of remaining on earth, of being alone, being without her dear companions, having to endure the lack of understanding and persecutions of those around her. «Shall I remain here all alone?» she asked with sorrow. And, as though the Most Holy Virgin had anticipated her question, She responded:288 «No, my child. Do you suffer a great deal? Do not be discouraged. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.»289
Then She opened Her hands. On May 13, right after announcing that God’s grace would comfort the seers, Our Lady had filled them with ineffable graces by the light issuing from Her hands. So also on June 13, the vision of the Immaculate Heart followed right after the promise that it would be Lucy’s refuge and the way that would lead her to God.
Here there is a moving resemblance to the works of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, who in one of his most beautiful canticles attributes to Mary words very similar to what Lucy heard: «She says to me in Her language, when I am in my struggles, Courage, my child, courage; I shall not abandon you.»290
A new cause for astonishment is that, in the same Light of God, the children were able to see the symbolic expression of their different vocations. After the vision, Francisco was very surprised: «You were with Our Lady», he said to Lucy, «in the light going down to the earth, while Jacinta and I were in the light going up to Heaven.» Lucy explained to him the meaning of this. The prophecy that she expressed by her own understanding is noteworthy, for it was fulfilled to the letter:
«“That is because you and Jacinta will soon go to Heaven”, I replied, “while I, with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, will remain for some time longer on earth.” “How many years longer will you stay here?” he asked. “I don’t know. Quite a lot.” “Was it Our Lady who said so?” “Yes, and I saw it in the light that She shone into our hearts.” Jacinta confirmed the very same thing, saying: “It is just like that! That’s exactly how I saw it too!”»291
«I WANT YOU... TO LEARN HOW TO READ»
These words of Our Lady, which Lucy made known immediately — they are found in the report of Father Ferreira —, were very astonishing for Maria Rosa: «What difference does it make to Our Lady whether you know how to read or not?»292
On October 11, when Canon Formigao asked Lucy if she was learning to read, she had to say no. «How then», he replied, «can you fulfil the order Our Lady gave you?» Lucy said nothing. She explains in her Memoirs:
«I kept silence so as not to have the blame put on my mother, who had not yet given me permission to go to school. At home they said that I wanted to learn to read out of vanity. Until then, almost no little girls learned to read; school was only for boys. It was only later on that a school for girls opened at Fatima.»293
In fact Our Lady was looking further ahead, for She was well aware that Her messenger could not learn to read right away. When She declared, «I want you... to learn how to read. Later I will tell you what I want», Our Lady was announcing the great apparitions of Pontevedra and Tuy in 1925 and 1929. The report of Father Ferreira expresses it in a more precise manner: «I want to ask you... to learn to read so I can tell you what I want.»294
Let us note in passing that we have here a typical example of the perfect concordance between “Fatima I” and “Fatima II” [see Part II of this book for an explanation of these terms]. In the message of June 13, the request to go to school (Fatima I) harmonizes perfectly with the announcement of the vocation of Lucy and her future mission (Fatima II); and this request cannot even be explained very well except in reference to that part of the dialogue which remained secret in 1917.
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| June 13th - St. Anthony of Padua |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-13-2021, 08:03 AM - Forum: June
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June 13 – St Anthony of Padua, Confessor
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“Rejoice thee, happy Padua, rich in thy priceless treasure!’ Anthony, in bequeathing thee his body, has done more for thy glory than the heroes who founded thee on so favored a site, or the doctors who have illustrated thy famous university!
The days of Charlemagne were past and gone: yet the work of Leo III still lived on, despite a thousand difficulties. The enemy, now at large, had sown cockle in the field of the divine householder; heresy was springing up here and there, while vice was growing apace in every direction. In many an heroic combat, the Popes, aided by the monastic Order, had succeeded in casting disorder out of the sanctuary itself: still the people, too long scandalized by venal pastors, were fast slipping away from the Church. Who could rally them once more? Who wrest from Satan a reconquest of the world? At this trying moment the Spirit of Pentecost, ever living, ever present in holy Church, raised up the sons of St Dominic and of St Francis. The brave soldiers of this new militia, organized to meet fresh necessities, threw themselves into the field, pursuing heresy into its most secret lurking holes, and thundering against vice in every shape and wheresoever found. In town or in country, they were everywhere to be seen confounding false teachers by the strong argument of miracle as well as of doctrine; mixing with the people, whom the sight of their heroic detachment easily won over to repentance. Crowds flocked to be enrolled in the Third Orders instituted by these two holy founders, to afford a secure refuge for the Christian life in the midst of the world.
The best known and most popular of all the sons of St. Francis is Anthony, whom we are celebrating this day. His life was short: at the age of thirty-five, he winged flight to heaven. But a span so limited allowed, nevertheless, of a considerable portion of time being directed by our Lord, to preparing this chosen servant for his destined ministry. The all-important thing in God’s esteem, where there is question of fitting apostolic men to become instruments of salvation to a greater number of souls, is not the length of time which they may devote to exterior works, but rather the degree of personal sanctification attained by them, and the thoroughness of their self-abandonment to the ways of divine Providence. As to Anthony, it may almost be said that, up to the last day of his life, Eternal Wisdom seemed to take pleasure in disconcerting all his thoughts and plans. Out of his twenty years of religious life, he passed ten amongst the Canons Regular, whither the divine call had invited him at the age of fifteen, in the full bloom of his innocence; and there, wholly captivated by the splendor of the Liturgy, occupied in the sweet study of the holy Scriptures and of the Fathers, blissfully lost in the silence of the cloister, his seraphic soul was ever being wafted to sublime heights, where (so it seemed) he was always to remain, held and hidden in the secret of God’s Face. When on a sudden, behold! the Divine Spirit urges him to seek the martyr’s crown: and presently, he is seen emerging from his beloved monastery, and following the Friars Minor to distant shores, where already some of their number had snatched the blood-stained palm. Not this, however, but the martyrdom of love, was to be his. Falling sick and reduced to impotence before his zeal could effect anything on the African soil, obedience recalled him to Spain, but instead of that, he was cast by a tempest on the Italian coast.
It happened that Saint Francis was just then convoking his entire family, for the third time, in general chapter. Anthony, unknown, lost in this vast assembly, beheld at its close each of the friars in turn receive his appointed destination, whereas to him not a thought was given. What a sight! The scion of the illustrious family de Bouillon and of the kings of the Asturias completely overlooked in the throng of holy Poverty’s sons! At the moment of departure, the Father Minister of the Bologna province, remarking the isolated condition of the young religious whom no one had received in charge, admitted him, out of charity, into his company. Accordingly, having reached the hermitage of Monte Paolo, Anthony was deputed to help in the kitchen and in sweeping the house, being supposed quite unfitted for anything else. Meanwhile, the Augustinian Canons, on the contrary, were bitterly lamenting the loss of one whose remarkable learning and sanctity, far more even than his nobility, had, up to this, been the glory of their Order.
The hour at last came, chosen by Providence, to manifest Anthony to the world; and immediately, as was said of Christ himself, the whole world went after him. Around the pulpits where this humble friar preached, there were wrought endless prodigies in the order of nature and of grace. At Rome he earned the surname of Ark of the Covenant; in France, that of Hammer of heretics. It would be impossible for us here to follow him throughout his luminous course; suffice it to say that France, as well as Italy, owes much to his zealous ministry.
St. Francis had yearned to be himself the bearer of the Gospel of peace through all the fair realm of France, then sorely ravaged by heresy; but in his stead, he sent thither Anthony, his well beloved son, and, as it were, his living portrait. What St. Dominic had been in the first crusade against the Albigenses, Anthony was in the second. At Toulouse was wrought that wondrous miracle of the famished mule turning aside from the proffered grain in order to prostrate in homage before the sacred Host. From the province of Berry, his burning word was heard thundering in various distant provinces; while Heaven lavished delicious favors on his soul, ever childlike amidst the marvelous victories achieved by him, and the intoxicating applause of an admiring crowd. Under the very eyes of his host, at a lonely house in Limousin, the Infant Jesus came to him radiant in beauty; and throwing himself into his arms, covered him with sweetest caresses, pressing the humble Friar to lavish the like on Him. One feast of the Assumption, Anthony was sad, because of a phrase then to be found in the Office seeming to throw a shade of discredit on the fact of Mary’s body being assumed into heaven together with her soul. Presently, the Mother of God herself came to console her devoted servant, in his lowly cell, assuring him of the truth of the doctrine of her glorious Assumption; and so left him, ravished with the sweet charms of her countenance and the melodious sound of her voice. Suddenly, as he was preaching at Montpellier, in a church of that city thronged with people, Anthony remembered that he had been appointed to chant the Alleluia at the conventual Mass in his own convent, and he had quite forgotten to get his place supplied. Deeply pained at this involuntary omission, he bent his head upon his breast: whilst standing thus motionless and silent in the pulpit, as though asleep, his brethren saw him enter their choir, sing his verse, and depart; at once his audience beheld him recover his animation, and continue his sermon with the same eloquence as before. In this same town of Montpellier, another well known incident occurred. When engaged in teaching a course of theology to his brethren, his commentary on the Psalms disappeared; but the thief was presently constrained, even by the fiend himself, to bring back the volume, the loss whereof had caused our saint so much regret. Such is commonly thought to be the origin of the popular devotion, whereby a special power of recovering lost things is ascribed to Saint Anthony. However this may be, it is certain that, from the very outset, this devotion rests on the testimony of startling miracles of this kind; and in our own day, constantly repeated favors of a similar nature still confirm the same.
The following is the abridgement of this beautiful life, as given in the liturgy.
Quote:Anthony was born at Lisbon, Portugal, of noble parents, who brought him up in the love of God. While he was still a youth, he joined the institute of the Canons Regular. But when the bodies of the five holy martyred Friars Minor, who had just suffered in Morocco for Christ’s sake, were brought to Coimbra. the desire to be himself a martyr enkindled his soul. and he therefore passed over to the Franciscan Order. Presently, still urged by the same yearning, he had wellnigh reached the land of the Saracens, when, falling sick on the road, he was enforced to turn back; but the ship, bound for Spain, was drifted towards Sicily.
From Sicily he came to Assisi, to attend the General Chapter of his Order. and thence withdrew himself to the Hermitage of Monte Paolo near Bologna, where he gave himself up for a long while to contemplation of the things of God, to fastings and to watchings. Being afterwards ordained priest and sent to preach the Gospel, his wisdom and eloquence drew on him such marked admiration of men, that the Sovereign Pontiff once, on hearing him preach, called him “The Ark of the Covenant.” Chiefly against heresies did he put forth the whole force of his vigor, whence he gained the name of “Perpetual hammer of heretics.”
He was the first of his Order who, on account of his excellent gift of teaching, publicly lectured at Bologna on the interpretation of Holy Scripture, and directed the studies of his brethren. Then, having traveled through many provinces, he came, one year before his death, to Padua, where he left some remarkable monuments of the sanctity of his life. At length, having undergone much toil for the glory of God, full of merits and conspicuous for miracles, he fell asleep in the Lord upon the Ides of June in the year of salvation one thousand two hundred and thirty-one. The Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory the Ninth, enrolled his name among those of Holy Confessors.
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Want of space obliges us to be very meager in the number we give of liturgical pieces; but we cannot omit here the Miraculous Responsory, as it is called, the composition whereof is attributed to Saint Bonaventure. It continues still to justify its name, in favor of those who recite it in the hour of need. In the Franciscan Breviary it is the eighth Responsory of the Office of Saint Anthony of Padua. At a very early date, this, together with the Nine Tuesdays in our Saint’s honor, became a very popular devotion and was fraught with immense fruits of grace.
Responsory
(called the “miraculous.”)
Se quæris miracula,
Mors, error, calamitas,
Dæmon, lepra fugiunt,
Ægri surgunt sani.
* Cedunt mare, vincula;
Membra, resque perditas
Petunt et accipiunt
Juvenes et cani.
If ye seek miracles,—lo! death, error, calamities, the demon and the leprosy, flee all away; the sick also arise healed. * Sea and chains give way; young and old alike, ask and receive again the use of members, as well as things lost.
℣. Pereunt pericula,
Cessat et necessitas:
Narrent hi qui sentiunt,
Dicant Paduani.
℣. Dangers vanish; necessity ceased: let those who have experienced such things relate these facts; let the Paduans repeat:
* Cedunt mare. Gloria Patri.* Cedunt mare.
* Sea, &c. Gloria, &c. * Sea, &c.
℣. Ora pro nobis, heate Antoni,
℣. Pray for us, O blessed Anthony,
℟. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
℟. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Oremus.
Let us pray.
Ecclesiam tuam, Deus, beati Antonii confessoris tui commemoratio votiva lætificet: ut spiritualibus semper muniatur auxiliis, et gaudiis perfrui mereatur æternis. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
May the votive solemnity of blessed Anthony, thy Confessor, give joy to thy Church, O God; that it may be ever defended by spiritual assistance, and deserve to possess eternal joys. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
O glorious Anthony, the simplicity of thine innocent soul made thee a docile instrument in the hand of the Spirit of Love. The Seraphic Doctor, Saint Bonaventure, hymning thy praises, takes for his first theme thy childlike spirit, and for his second thy wisdom which flowed therefrom. Wise indeed wast thou, 0 Anthony, for, from thy tenderest years, thou wast in earnest pursuit of divine Wisdom; and wishing to have her alone for thy portion, thou didst hasten to shelter thy love in some cloister, to hide thee in the secret of God’s face, the better to enjoy her chaste delights. Silence and obscurity in her sweet company was thine heart’s one ambition; and even here below her hands were pleased to adorn thee with incomparable splendor. She walked before thee; and blithely didst thou follow, for her own sake alone, without suspecting how all other good things were to become thine in her company. Happy a childlike spirit such as thine, to which are ever reserved the more lavish favors of eternal Wisdom! “But,” exclaims thy sainted panegyrist Bonaventure, “who is really a child nowadays? Humble littleness is no more; therefore love is no more. Naught is to be seen now but valleys bulging into hills, and hills swelling into mountains. What saith Holy Writ? When they were lifted up, thou hast cast them down. To such towering vaunters, God saith again: Behold I have made thee a small child; but exceedingly contemptible among the nations such infancy is. Wherefore will ye keep to this childishness, O men, making your days an endless series of inconstancy, boisterous and vain effort at garnering wretched chaff? Other is that infancy which is declared to be the greatest in the land of true greatness. Such was thine, O Anthony! and thereby wast thou wholly yielded up to Wisdom’s sacred influence.”
In return for thy loving submission to God our Father in heaven, the populace obeyed thee, and fiercest tyrants trembled at thy voice. Heresy alone dared once to disobey thee, dared to refuse to hearken to thy word: thereupon, the very fishes of the sea took up thy defense; for they came swimming in shoals, before the eyes of the whole city, to listen to thy preaching which heretics had scorned. Alas! error, having long ago recovered from the vigorous blows dealt by thee, is yet more emboldened in these days, claiming even sole right to speak. The offspring of Manes, whom, under the name of Albigenses, thou didst so successfully combat, would now, under the new appellation of Freemasonry, have all France at its beck; thy native Portugal beholds the same monster stalking in broad daylight almost up to the very Altar; and the whole world is being intoxicated by its poison. O thou who dost daily fly to the aid of thy devoted clients in their private necessities, thou whose power is the same in heaven as heretofore upon earth, succor the Church, aid God’s people, have pity upon society, now more universally and deeply menaced than ever. O thou Ark of the Covenant, bring back our generation, so terribly devoid of love and faith, to the serious study of sacred letters, wherein is so energizing a power. O thou Hammer of heretics, strike once more such blows as will make hell tremble and the heavenly powers thrill with joy.
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| Third Sunday after Pentecost/Sunday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-13-2021, 07:06 AM - Forum: Pentecost
- Replies (5)
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INSTRUCTION ON THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
From Fr. Leonard Goffine's Explanations of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holydays, and Festivals throughout the Ecclesiastical Year
36th edition, 1880
The Introit of the Mass the Church calls upon all to invoke our Lord: Look Thou upon me, and have mercy on
me, O Lord, for I am alone and poor. See my abjection and my labor, and forgive me all my sins, O my God. (Ps. xxiv.) To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. Glory &c.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. O God, the protector of them that hope in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: multiply Thy mercy upon us, that, guided and directed by Thee, we may so pass amid temporal goods as not to lose the eternal. Through &c.
EPISTLE. (i Pet. v. 6 — II.) Dearly beloved, Be you humbled under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation: casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you. Be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you and confirm you and establish you. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.
EXPLANATION. In this lesson St. Peter teaches that if we would be exalted we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. This necessary humility shows itself in us by giving ourselves and all our cares up to the providence of God who, as St. Augustine says, provides for one as for all. We should not fail, however, to be sober and circumspect, and not think ourselves secure from the lusts of the world. The devil like a lion seeking prey, desires the ruin of our souls, tormenting us by temptations and afflictions. By confidence in God's help we can and should resist him, especially when we consider that after the trials of this life the crown of glory will be our portion for all eternity.
Quote:ON DRUNKENNESS.
Be sober and watch. (i Peter, v. 8.)
SOBRIETY is the mother of vigilance; intemperance is the mother of sloth and of numberless other vices which
cast many souls into the jaws of the devil who, like a hungry lion, goes about day and night seeking for prey. Woe, therefore, to those who because of their drunkenness live, as it were, in constant night and in the perpetual sleep of sin! How will they feel when, suddenly awakened by death, they find themselves before the judgment seat of God burdened with innumerable sins of which they were unconscious, or which they wished not to know they were guilty! Who can number the sins committed in a state of intoxication, sins for which the drunkard cares nothing, for which he has no contrition, and has not confessed, because the light of reason is extinguished, his life is a senseless stupor, and he is therefore unconscious of his thoughts, words and actions.
But will the divine Judge find no sin in such persons? Will He permit the shameful deeds committed while intoxicated, the curses, blasphemies, sneers, detractions, outrages, and scandals to remain unpunished? He, who demands an account of every idle word, will He demand no account of the time so badly spent, of the money so uselessly squandered, families neglected, church service unattended, education of children omitted, and the other great sins committed? They will indeed excuse themselves, pleading that these sins were committed involuntarily, or as a joke, when they were intoxicated; that their intoxication was excusable, as they were not able to stand much; but will God be content with such excuses? Will they not add to their damnation? That they took more than they could bear of the intoxicating drink, deprived themselves of the use of reason, and thus voluntarily caused all the sins they committed while in that state, is what will be punished.
What then can they expect? Nothing- less than the fate of the rich man spoken of in the gospel, who on account of his debaucheries was buried in hell, where during all eternity his parched tongue was not cooled by one drop of water. (Luke xvi. 22.) Yes, this will be the place of those unconverted drunkards of whom St. Paul says that they will not possess the kingdom of God. (i Cor. vi. 10.) How rare and how difficult is the conversion of a drunkard, because with him as with the unchaste this habit becomes a second nature, and because he generally abuses the remedies: the holy Sacraments of Penance and the Altar.
This should certainly deter any one from the vice of drunkenness; but those who are not thus withheld, may consider the indecency, the disgrace, and the injury of this vice, for it ruins the body as well as the soul.
Is it not disgraceful that man endowed with reason, and created for heaven, should drown that reason in excessive drink, degrading his mind, his intellectual spirit, the image of God, rendering it like the brute animals, and even lower than the beasts. "Are not the drunkards far worse than the animals?" says St. Chrysostom. Yes, not only on account of their drunkenness, but far more so because of the shameful position of their body, their manners, their speech, their behavior. How disgracefully naked lay Noah, although he was intoxicated not through his own fault, exposed in his tent to the ridicule of the impudent Cham! (Gen. ix. 21.) Even the heathen Spartans considered the vice of drunkenness so disgraceful that they were in the habit of intoxicating a slave, and bringing him before their children that they might be disgusted with such a state.
Finally, that which should deter everybody from this vice, is its injuriousness. It ruins the body as well as the soul. By surfeiting many have perished, (Eccles. xxxvii. 34.) and it has ruined the health of many more. Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who fall into pits, who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups? (Prov. xxiii. 29. 30.) Daily observation confirms this truth of Scripture, and the miserable old age, accompanied by innumerable weaknesses and frailties, of one addicted to drink, is a sufficient testimony of the injuriousness of this vice.
GOSPEL. (Luke xv. 1 — 10.) At that time, The publicans and sinners drew nigh unto Jesus to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying: This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And he spoke to them this parable, saying: What man of you that hath an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety- nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders rejoicing: and coming home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance. Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she hath found it, call together her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found the groat, which I had lost? So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.
What moved the sinners to approach Jesus?
The goodness and benevolence with which He met the penitent sinners. Do you also humbly and trustingly approach Him, and you may rest assured that, even if you are the greatest of sinners, you will receive grace and
forgiveness.
What is Christ's meaning in the parable of the lost sheep and groat?
He expresses by this His desire for the salvation of the sinner, His joy and that of all heaven when a sinner
is converted. Moreover, He shows the Pharisees who in vain self-righteousness avoided all intercourse with acknowledged sinners, and who murmured at the goodness of Jesus, that the sinner , being truly unhappy , deserves our compassion rather than our anger.
Why do the angels rejoice more over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine just?
Because the places of the fallen angels are thus refilled; because the angels see how the good God rejoices; because they find their prayers for the conversion of sinners granted, as St. Bernard says: "The tears of the penitents are wine for the angels;" because, as St. Gregory says, "the true penitents are usually more zealous than the innocent."
ASPIRATION. I have erred like a sheep that has lost its way; but I thank Thee, O Jesus, my good Shepherd, that Thou hast so carefully sought me by Thy inspirations, admonitions, and warnings, and dost now bring me back to true penance, that I may be a joy to the angels. Amen.
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