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

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

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

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

#Anglican #Incarnation #Soteriology

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

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

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

#Patrisrics #Mariology

Your mother is a cause of wonder:

The Lord entered into her —and became a servant;

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

Thunder entered her —and made no sound;

there entered the Shepherd of all,

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

Your mother’s womb has reversed the roles:

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

the Exalted One entered her, but came forth meek;

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

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

the Provisioner of all entered and experienced hunger;

He who gives drink to all entered
and experienced thirst:

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

St Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on the Nativity 11

#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology #Mariology

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

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

#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology

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

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

#Patristics #Christology #Soteriology #Eucharist

Whichever of your riches I look upon, in unison they all cry out to me.

One after the other draws me to itself, and truly the spiritual riches of your treasury bewilder my poverty.

Who can tell of the treasures which are both in your possession and in ours?

Although they accompany you among the dead, yet their profits are traded among the living.

They take their leave of you and yet remain with you! Amazing! The treasures among the dead the living possess along with you.

Although you have your treasures, your sons and daughters have them too.You have both taken them and have left them.

It is a great wonder that, although you alone own the treasures, many own them with you.

They are with your body.On the height of Paradise, they are with the Son of your Lord.

The treasure of the righteous forefathers, while going in its entirety with each of them remained entirely with their sons.


-St Ephrem the Syrian, 3rd Madrāšâ On Abraham Qîdûnāyâ

#Patristics #Veneration_saints

Let us give thanks to God who clothed Himself in the names of the body's various parts:

Scriptures refers to His "ears" to teach us that He listens to us;

it speaks of His "eyes," to show that He sees us.

It was just the names of such things that He put on,

and-although in His true being there is no wrath or regret.yet He put on these names because of our weakness.

R: Blessed is He who has appeared to our human race under so many metaphors.

We should realize that, had He not put on the names of such things, it would not have been possible for Him to speak with us humans.

By means of what belongs to us did He draw close to us:

He clothed Himself in language, so that He might clothe us in His mode of life.

He asked for our form and put this on, and then, as a father with his children,

He spoke with our childish state.

-St Ephrem the Syrian, On Faith, Hymn 31

#Patristics #Soteriology

The Most High knew that Adam wanted to become a god,

so He sent His Son who put him on in order to grant him his desire. .

-St Ephrem the Syrian, Harp of the Spirit, no. 16

#Patristics #Soteriology

No one has yet discovered or ever shall discover what God is in his nature and essence. As for a discovery some time in the future, let those who have a mind to it research and speculate. The discovery will take place, so my reason tells me, when this God-like, divine thing, I mean our mind and reason, mingles with its kin, when the copy returns to the pattern it now longs after.

This seems to me to be the meaning of the great dictum that we shall, in time to come, “know even as we are known.” But for the present what reaches us is a scant emanation, as it were a small beam from a great light —which means that anyone who “knew” God or whose “knowledge” of him has been attested in the Bible, had a manifestly more brilliant knowledge than others not equally illuminated.

This superiority was reckoned knowledge in the full sense, not because it really was so, but by the contrast of relative strengths. - St Gregory Nazianzus, 2nd Theological Oration, 17

#Patristics #Divine_epistemology

The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works.

Let us look at it together for a moment. What reality has no cause?

Godhead—no one can talk of the “cause of God,” otherwise it would be prior to God.

But what is cause of the manhood, which God submitted to for us? Our salvation, of course, what else could it be?

The passage is now free of complication, seeing that we find there clearly both expressions “created” and “begets me.”

Whatever we come across with a causal implication we will attribute to the humanity; what is absolute and free of cause we will reckon to the Godhead.

"Created” has a causal implication, has it not?

The text in fact runs: “He created me as the beginning of his ways for his works.” “The works of his hands are truth and judgment,” and for the sake of these works he was anointed with deity—deity being the humanity’s anointing. - St Gregory Nazianzus, 4th Theological Oration, 2

#Patristics #Christology #Arianism