Early Church Fathers, Sunday, December 9, 2012, St. Irenaeus of Lyons

“Error, indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than truth itself.”

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, November 25, 2012

“As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence, we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.”

Pope St. Gregory the Great

 

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, November 18, 2012

“Let the mouth also fast from disgraceful speeches and railings. For what does it profit if we abstain from fish and fowl and yet bite and devour our brothers and sisters? The evil speaker eats the flesh of his brother and bites the body of his neighbor. ” 

― John Chrysostom

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, November 4, 2012, St. Augustine

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.


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The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, October 21, 2012, St Cyril of Alexandria

"Christ said indicating (the bread and wine): 'This is My Body,' and "This is My Blood," in order that you might not judge what you see to be a mere figure. The offerings, by the hidden power of God Almighty, are changed into Christ's Body and Blood, and by receiving these we come to share in the life-giving and sanctifying efficacy of Christ." 

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, October 7, 2012, St John Chrysostom

English: John Chrysostom (Georgian miniature, 11th century) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"I know my own soul, how feeble and puny it is: I know the magnitude of this ministry, and the great difficulty of the work; for more stormy billows vex the soul of the priest than the gales which disturb the sea."
John Chrysostom

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 12, 2012 Tertullian

Tertullian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 12, 2012 Tertullian

I

t is necessary to obey those who are the presbyters in the Church, those who, as we have shown, have succession from the Apostles; those who have received, with the succession of the episcopate, the sure charism of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father. But the rest, who have no part in the primitive succession and assemble wheresoever they will, must be held in suspicion.

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, August 5, 2012 St Irenaeus

He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood) from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receive the Word of God and become the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported) how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life — flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord and is in fact a member of him? (Against Heresies 5:2 [A.D. 189]).

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, July 15, 2012 St Cyprian

Saint Cyprian http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Cyprian.htm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Peter speaks there, on whom the Church was to be built, teaching and showing in the name of the Church, that although a rebellious and arrogant multitude of those who will not hear or obey may depart, yet the Church does not depart from Christ; and they are the Church who are a people united to the priest, and the flock which adheres to its pastor. Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop; and if any one be not with the bishop, that he is not in the Church, and that those flatter themselves in vain who creep in, not having peace with God’s priests, and think that they communicate secretly with some; while the Church which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another (Letters 66 [A.D. 253]).

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, July 8, 2012, St Ignatius of Antioch

St Ignatius of Antioch (Photo credit: jimforest)

Follow your bishop, every one of you, as obediently as Jesus Christ followed the Father. Obey your clergy too as you would the apostles; give your deacons the same reverence that you would to a command of God. Make sure that no step affecting the Church is ever taken by anyone without the bishop’s sanction. The sole Eucharist you should consider valid is one that is celebrated by the bishop himself, or by some person authorized by him. Where the bishop is to be seen, there let all his people be; just as, wherever Jesus Christ is present, there is the Catholic Church. Letter to the Smyrneans

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, June 3, 2012 Pope Siricius I

Pope Siricius (Photo credit: Wikipedia) You had good reason to be horrified at the thought that another birth might issue from the same virginal womb from which Christ was born according to the Flesh. For the Lord Jesus would never have chosen to be born of a virgin if he had ever judged that she would be so incontinent as to contaminate with the seed of human intercourse the birthplace of the Lord's body, chat court of the eternal King (Letter to Bishop Anysius [A.D. 392]).

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, May 27, 2012



child Jesus with the virgin Mary, with the Holy Spirit (represented as a dove) and God the Father, with child john the Baptist and saint Elizabeth on the right (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What, then, is our doctrine? The Lord, in delivering the saving Faith to those who become disciples of the word, joins with the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit also; and we affirm that the union of that which has once been joined is continual; for it is not joined in one thing, and separated in others. But the power of the Spirit, being included with the Father and the Son in the life-giving power, by which our nature is transferred from the corruptible life to immortality, and in many other cases also, as in the conception of “Good,” and “Holy,” and “Eternal,” “Wise,” “Righteous,” “Chief,” “Mighty,” and in fact everywhere, has an inseparable association with them in all the attributes ascribed in a sense of special excellence. And so we consider that it is right to think that that which is joined to the Father and the Son in such sublime and exalted conceptions is not separated from them in any.^[1]

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^[1] Gregory of Nyssa. (1893). On the Holy Trinity, and of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit H. A. Wilson, Trans.). In P. Schaff & H. Wace (Eds.), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Volume V: Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (P. Schaff & H. Wace, Ed.) (327). New York: Christian Literature Company.

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, May 13, 2012, St Cyprian of Carthage

St Cyprian (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)

It seemed fitting, dearest brother, after examining each case separately, to admit after a time those who had received certificates; and those who sacrificed should be received at death, because among the dead there is no confession of sin, nor is it possible to force anyone to repentance if the fruit of repentance be taken away. If the battle come suddenly, he will be found ready for it, having been strengthened by us. And indeed, if illness press hard upon him before the battle, he will depart with the comfort of peace and of being in communion. St Cyprian of Carthage, Letter of Cyprian to Antonianus

Early Church Fathers, Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012, St Ignatius of Antioch

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)He underwent all these sufferings for us, so that we might be saved; and He truly suffered, just as He truly raised Himself, not as some unbelievers contend, when they say that His passion was merely in appearance. It is they who exist only in appearance; and as their notion, so shall it happen to them: they will be bodiless and ghost-like shapes. I know and believe that He was in the flesh even after the resurrection.  And when He came to those with Peter He said to them: “Here, now, touch Me, and see that I am not a bodiless ghost.” Immediately they touched Him and, because of the merging of His flesh and spirit, they believed. For the same reason they despised death, and in fact were proven superior to death.  After His resurrection He ate and drank with them as a being of flesh, although He was united in spirit to the Father.  St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, April 1, 2012, St Cyprian of Carthage

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[Christ’sl every act, even from His first coming, is marked by an accompanying patience. From the first moment when He descended from the sublimity of heaven to earthly things. The Son of God did not disdain to put on the flesh of man; nor, although not Himself a sinner to bear the sins of others. He put aside His immortality for a time, and allowed Himself to become mortal, so that, although innocent. He might be slain for the salvation of the guilty. St Cyprian of Carthage, The Advantage of Patience.

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, March 11 2012, St Clement of Alexandria

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"But faith, which the Greeks disparage and regard as useless and barbarous, is a voluntary preconception, the assent of piety; “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of those things which are’ not seen,” according to the divine Apostle. “For by it most especially did the men of old have testimony borne to them; and without faith it is impossible to be pleasing to God.  Others, however have defined faith as an intellectual assent to a thing unseen, since certainly the proof of a thing unknown is manifest assent. … He, then, that believes Scriptures with firm judgment, receives, in the voice of God, who gave the Scriptures, an unquestionable proof. Nor by proof does faith become more firm. Blessed, therefore. are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

St Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, March 4 2012, Eusebius

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While [Ignatius of Antioch] was making the journey through Asia under the strictest military guard, he strengthened the diocese in each city where he stayed by spoken sermons and exhortations, and he especially exhorted them above all to be on their guard against the heresies which then for the first time were prevalent and he urged them to hold fast to the tradition of the Apostles to which he thought it necessary, for securities sake, to give form by written testimony (Ecclesiastical History, 3:36 [A.D. 325]).

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, February 19, 2012, Origen

Image via Wikipedia (Note:  Below is a replace for the original for today, which was incomplete.)

If a man departs this life with lighter faults, he is condemned to fire which burns away the lighter materials, and prepares the soul for the kingdom of God, where nothing defiled may enter. For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones (I Cor., 3); but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God; or on account of these hindrances would you remain without and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones? Neither is this just. It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God to those who can comprehend heavenly things is called a cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works. (Patres Groeci. XIII, col. 445, 448 [A.D. 185-232]).

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, January 8, 2012 - Abercius

Image via WikipediaIf a man departs this life with lighter faults, he is condemned to fire which burns away the lighter materials, and prepares the soul for the kingdom of God, where nothing defiled may enter. For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones (I Cor., 3); but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God; or on account of these hindrances would you remain without and receive no reward for your gold and silver and precious stones? Neither is this just. It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God to those who can comprehend heavenly things is called a cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works. (Patres Groeci. XIII, col. 445, 448 [A.D. 185-232]).  Abercius

Early Church Fathers, Sunday, January 1, 2012, St Jerome

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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 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 contradict; - 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 these matters… (On the Holy Spirit 27 [A.D. 375]).  Jerome