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Alright, which one of you did this?

The strange, the extraordinary, thing is that we did not really die, nor were really buried or really crucified; nor did we really rise again: this was figurative and symbolic; yet our salvation was real. Christ's crucifixion was real, His burial was real, and His resurrection was real; and all these He has freely made ours, that by sharing His sufferings in a symbolic enactment we may really and truly gain salvation. Oh, too generous love! Christ received the nails in His immaculate hands and feet; Christ felt the pain: and on me without pain or labor, through the fellowship of His pain, He freely bestows salvation. - St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Lecture ii

#sacraments #Baptism #soteriology #Patristic

I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. - Mark 2 : 11-12

Wherever Jesus appears, there is salvation. If He sees a revenue officer .sitting in his office, He makes him an apostle and evangelist. Laid in the grave, He raises the dead to life. He bestows sight on the blind, hearing on the deaf. When, as now, He visits the public baths, it is not out of interest in the architecture, but to heal the sick. - St Cyril of Jerusalem, Homily on the Paralytic

#patristics #Bible #Soteriology

All youthfulness is vanity indeed

When reaching out after unruly pleasures,

But he who firmly manages its reins

Ever remains unconquered by the passions

And is made heir of the eternal life,

Instead of brief pleasure base and unclean.

Who waxes wanton cannot win the eternal;

As fire can never be with oil extinguished,

Neither can the wanton ever escape sin,

By which the fire is fed for all the unchaste. - Diogenes Akrites, Book V

But let no one who hears these things be astonished, when after this he sees the brother [Jacob] becoming a wanderer because he was afraid of [Esau]; and, [when he sees Jacob] being urged on to another place, let him not, when he attends to the beginning, think that the prediction fails.

For whenever the Master promises something, even if we see things coming about that are opposed to the promises in the beginning, let’s not be disturbed. For it is not as if he fails just before the end. But this happens so that, when in everything the righteous (οἱ δίκαιοι) are demonstrated more illustrious, it prepares us for the abundance of God’s power to be made clear.

And you will find this in the case of all the righteous (ἐφ’ ἑκάστου τῶν δικαίων), if you want to get to know all the histories with accuracy - St John Chrysostom, Homily on Genesis 53:5

#Patristics #Providence

When someone is exulting and happy he passes beyond words that can be spoken and understood, and bursts forth into a wordless cry of exultation. Such a person is clearly rejoicing vocally, but he is so full of intense joy that he is unable to explain what makes him happy. Notice that the same thing happens even to people who sing disreputable songs.

But our joyful shouting will not be like theirs, for we must be jubilant about our justification, whereas they shout about their iniquity; and therefore we shout in confession, they in confusion. - St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 99

#Patristics #Liturgy

My heart is stricken and dried up like grass, because I forgot to eat my bread. Eat it now, the bread you had forgotten.

But the true bread has come, he in whose body you can recall your forgetful condition, and cry to him now from your poverty, that you may receive his riches. Eat now, for you are within the body of him who said, I am the living bread which has come down from heaven (Jn 6:41). You had forgotten to eat your bread, but now that he has been crucified all the ends of the earth will be reminded and will turn to the Lord.

Let remembrance succeed forgetfulness, let the bread from heaven be our food that we may live, not the manna which the ancients ate, only to die. Let us eat the bread of which the gospel says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6). - St Augustine, Exposition I of Psalm 101

#Patristics #Eucharist #Soteriology