Wednesday, April 25, 2018

St. Ambrose: Penance, the Sacrament

“SINS are forgiven by the Hoy Ghost. . . . Men discharge a ministry for the remission of sins; they do not exercise any power of their own. For they forgive sins not in their own name but in that of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost. They ask, the Godhead gives; the service is man’s, the reward is of the Power on high.”

~St. Ambrose: On the Holy Spirit, 3, 137.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

St. Augustine: "It abhors equality with other men under Him"

“HOW much more powerfully do the laws of man's nature move him to hold fellowship and maintain peace with all men so far as in him lies, since even wicked men wage war to maintain the peace of their own circle, and wish that, if possible, all men belonged to them, that all men and things might serve but one head, and might, either through love or fear, yield themselves to peace with him! It is thus that pride in its perversity apes God. It abhors equality with other men under Him; but, instead of His rule, it seeks to impose a rule of its own upon its equals. It abhors, that is to say, the just peace of God, and loves its own unjust peace; but it cannot help loving peace of one kind or other. For there is no vice so clean contrary to nature that it obliterates even the faintest traces of nature.”

~St. Augustine: The City of God, Book 19, Chap. 12.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

St. Clement I: "There shall be a future resurrection"

"Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which He has rendered the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising Him from the dead. Let us contemplate, beloved, the resurrection which is at all times taking place. Day and night declare to us a resurrection. The night sinks to sleep, and the day arises; the day [again] departs, and the night comes on. Let us behold the fruits [of the earth], how the sowing of grain takes place. The sower (Lk 8:5) goes forth, and casts it into the ground, and the seed being thus scattered, though dry and naked when it fell upon the earth, is gradually dissolved. Then out of its dissolution the mighty power of the providence of the Lord raises it up again, and from one seed many arise and bring forth fruit."

~Pope St. Clement I: Letter to the Corinthians, Ch. 24

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"Resurrection" by Andrea da Firenze.
Fresco, A.D. 1366-67; Cappellone degli Spagnoli,
Santa Maria Novella, Florence.