For numerous and of almost infinite number are the men, women and children who are distinct from one another and vastly different by birth and appearance, by nationality and language, by customs and age, by opinions and skills, by manners and habits, by pursuits and studies, and still again by reputation, fortune, characteristics and connections.
All are born into the Church and through it are reborn and recreated in the Spirit. To all in equal measures it gives and bestows one divine form and designation, to be Christ's and carry His name. In accordance with faith it gives to all a single, simple, whole and indivisible condition which does not allow us to bring to mind the existence of the myriads among them, even if they do exist, through the universal relationship and union of all things with it. - Maximus the Confessor, The Church's Mystagogy, Chapter 1#Patristics #Ecclesiology #Soteriology
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The invisible realities from the creation of the world have been perceived and are recognized through the things he has made, says the divine Apostle. And if we perceive what does not appear by means of what does, as the Scripture has it, then much more will visible things be understood by means of invisible by those who advance in spiritual contemplation.
Indeed, the symbolic contemplation of intelligible things by means of visible realities is spiritual knowledge and understanding of visible things through the visible. For it is necessary that things which manifest each other bear a mutual reflection in an altogether true and clear manner and keep their relationship intact. - Maximus the Confessor, The Church's Mystagogy, Chapter 2#Patristics #Symbology