Repentance And Gratitude

Si tibi indulgentia Domini adcommodat, unde restituas quod amiseras, iterato beneficio gratus esto, necdum ampliato. Maius enim restituere quam dare, quoniam miserius est perdidisse quam omnino non accepisse. Verum non statim succidendus ac subruendus est animus desperatione, si secundae quis paenitentiae debitor fuerit. Pigeat sane peccare rursus, sed rursus paenitere non pigeat; pudeat iterum periclitari, sed iterum liberari neminem pudeat: iterandae valitudinis iteranda medicina est. Gratus in dominum extiteris, si quod tibi denuo offert, non recusaveris. Offendisti sed reconciliari adhuc potes: habes cui satisfacias et quidem volentem.  Id si dubitas, evolve quae spiritus ecclesiis dicat: desertam dilectionem Ephesiis inputat, stuprum et idolothytorum esum Thyatirenis exprobat, Sardos non plenorum operum incusat, Pergamenos docentes perversa reprehendit, Laudicenos divitiis fidentes obiurgat: et tamen omnes ad paenitentiam commonet, sub comminationibus quidem. Non comminaretur autem non paenitenti, si non ignosceret paenitenti, dubium, si non et alibi hanc clementiae suae profusionem demonstrasset: Non, ait, qui ceciderit, resurget et qui aversatus fuerit, convertetur? Ille est scilicet, ille qui misericordiam mavult quam sacrificia. Laetantur caeli et qui illic angeli paenitentia hominis; heus tu peccator, bono animo sis: vides ubi de tuo gaudeatur! Quid illa similitudinum dominicarum argumenta nobis volunt? Quod mulier dragmam perdit et requirit et repperit, amicas ad gaudium invitat, nonne restituti peccatoris exemplum est? Errat et una pastori ovicula, sed grex una carior non erat; una illa conquiritur, una pro omnibus desideratur, et tamen invenitur et humeris pastoris ipsius refertur: multum enim errando laboraverat. Illum etiam mitissimum patrem non tacebo qui prodigum filium revocat et post inopiam paenitentem libens suscipit, inmolans vitulum praeopimum convivio gaudium suum exornat: quidni? Filium enim invenerat quem amiserat, cariorem senserat quem lucri fecerat. Quis ille nobis intellegendus pater? Deus scilicet: tam pater nemo, tam pius nemo. Is ergo te filium suum, etsi acceptum ab eo prodegeris, etsi nudus redieris, recipiet quia redisti magisque de regressu tuo quam de alterius sobrietate laetabitur, sed si paeniteas ex animo, si famem tuam cum saturitate mercennariorum paternorum conpares, si porcos inmundum relinquas pecus, si patrem repetas vel offensum Deliqui dicens, pater, nec dignus ego iam vocari tuus. Tantum relevat confessio delictum quantum dissimulatio exaggerat; confessio enim satisfactionis consilium est, dissimulatio contumaciae.  Tertullianus, De Paenitentia, Caput VI-VII Source:  Migne PL 1.1241c-1243a

If the Lord's indulgence grants to you the means of restoring what you had lost, be thankful for the benefit renewed, not to say amplified. For to restore is greater than to give, as much as to have lost is more wretched than never to have received at all. Truly let not the spirit be immediately cut down and undermined by despair, if any incur the debt of second repentance. Certainly let it displease to sin again, but let it not to repent again; let it displease to imperil one's self again, but let it not shame anyone to be set free again; repeated sickness demands repeated medicine. You will show your gratitude to the Lord if what He offers to you again you do not refuse. You have offended, but you can yet be reconciled. You have Him whom you may satisfy and He is willing. If you doubt this, consider 'what the Spirit says to the churches.' He imputes to the Ephesians forsaken love; 1 reproaches the Thyatirenes with fornication and eating of things sacrificed to idols; 2 accuses the Sardians of works not full; 3 reproves the Pergamenes for teaching perverse things; 4 rebukes the Laodiceans for trusting in wealth; 5 and yet gives them all general warnings to repentance, under threat, it is true, but He would not threaten the unrepentant if He did not forgive the repentant, which would be doubtful if He had not elsewhere demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Does He not say, 'He who has fallen shall rise again, and he who has been turned away shall be turned back?' 6 He it is, indeed, who would have mercy rather than sacrifices. 7 The heavens and the angels who are there rejoice at man's repentance. 8 Listen, sinner, and be encouraged. See where there is joy concerning you. What is it that the Lord's parables wish to persuade us? A woman has lost a drachma, and she seeks it and she finds it, and she invites her female friends to share her joy; is this not an example of a restored sinner? 9 One little ewe of the shepherd strays but the flock was not more dear than the one; that one is most diligently sought; that one is longed for instead of all, and when she is found, she is carried back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself, for she had exerted herself much in her straying. 10 That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home and willingly receives him repentant after his poverty, slaying his best fatted calf and adorning his joy with a banquet. Why not? He found the son he had lost, he had felt him dearer who he had regained. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely; no one is so truly a Father, no one so pious. He, then, will receive you back, His own son, even if you have wasted what you received from Him, even if you return naked, receiving you because have returned, and He will delight more over your return than over the sensible conduct of other, but only if you truly repent, if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's hired servants, if you leave behind the pigs, the unclean herd, if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, 'I have sinned, nor am I now worthy to be called yours.' 11 As much as confession relieves sin, so much dissimulation increases it; for confession is counseled by the wish to make satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy. Tertullian, from On  Repentance, Chapter 6-7 1 Apoc 2.4 2 Apoc 2.20 3 Apoc 3.2 4 Apoc 2. 14-15 5 Apoc 3.17 6 Jerem 8.4 7 Hosea 6.6 8 Lk 15.7 9 Lk 15.8-10 10 Lk 15.3-7 11 Lk 15.11-32

A Woman Unspared

Λοιδορήσασα Μαριὰμ τὸν Μεωσέα, ἐλεπρώθη, ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς γενομένη ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας καθίσασα. Τοῦτο δὲ γέγονε πρὸς φόβον τοῦ λαοῦ. Εἰ γὰρ τῆς ἀδελφῆς οὐκ ἐφείσατο, οὐδὲ ἑτέρου Ὠριγένης, Εἰς Τους Ἀριθμους, Κεφ ΙΒ'  Source: Migne PG 17.21a

Because she abused Moses Mariam was afflicted with leprosy and placed outside the camp for seven days. 1 And this was done that the people fear. For if a sister would not be spared, nor would another. Origen, On Numbers, Chapter 12 1 Numb 12.1-15

Harmful Physicians

Ὑμεῖς δὲ ἐστε ἰατροὶ ἄδικοι, καὶ ἰαταὶ κακῶν πάντες. Ἄδικος δὲ ἰατρός ἐστι, κατὰ τὸ πρόχειρον, ὁ ἄλλα βοηθήματα παρὰ τὰ συμφέροντα προσάγων τοῖς κάμνουσι· διττῶς δὲ τοῦτο γίνεται, ἤ ἐξ ἀπειρίας τοῦ ἰατροῦ, ἤ ἐκ κακοηθείας. Οὗτοι δὲ οἱ ἐλεγχόμενοι, ἐξ ἀμαθίας μὰλλον ἤ ἐκ κακουργίας, ἔλεγον τῷ Ἰὼβ, ὅτι δι' ἁμαρτήματα πάσχεις, οἰόμενοι παρακλήσεως προσάγειν λόγους. Ἄδικοι οὖν κατὰ τὸ ἀγνοεῖν τὴν αἰτίαν. Τὸ δὲ, Ἰαταὶ κακῶν πάντες, εἴη ἄν λέγων, κατὰ τῶν οἰομένων μεγάλα περὶ ἑαυτῶν, ὡς δυναμένων ἰάσασθαι τὰ περιστατικῶς ἑτέροις συμβαίνοντα. Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Εκλογαι Εἰς Τον Ιὠβ, Κεφ ΙΓ' Source: Migne PG 39.1148c-d

You are harmful physicians, and all practitioners of evil... 1 The physician is wicked who for aid to the afflicted brings things which do not benefit. And this may come about in two ways, either due to the physician's lack of skill, or by his inclination to evil. The first of these who are reproved are more ignorant than malicious, those who tell Job that he suffers because of sin, and think these words will be comforting. Thus they were harmful because they were ignorant of the cause. But as for 'and all practitioners of evil,' it may be he speaks of those who have such great thoughts about themselves that they think that they are capable of healing the blows that have come upon others. Didymus the Blind, On Job, Chapter 13 1 Job 13.4

Sin And Correction

Beatus homo qui corripitur a Domino. Prima virtus est, ne pepetrari debeant, vitare peccata; secunda autem, saltem perpetrata corrigere. Sed plerumque culpas non solum imminentes minime vitamus, verum etiam nec commissas agnoscimus. Et peccatorum mens tanto altius tenebrescit, quanto nec damnum sua ceacitatis intelligit. Unde fit plerumque divine muneris largitate, ut culpam poena subsequatur, et flagella oculos delinquentis aperiant, quos inter vitia securitas caecabat. Torpens quippe animus percussione tangitur, ut exitetur; quatenus qui statum suae rectitudinis securus perdidit, afflictus consideret quo jacet. Hinc itaque ipsa asperitas correptionis origo fit luminis. Unde et per Paulum dicitur: Omne quod arguitur, a lumine manifestatur, argumentum enim salutis est vis doloris. Hinc est enim quod Salomon ait: Curatio cessare faciet peccata maxima. Hinc iterum dicit: Quem enim diligit Dominus, castigat: flagellat autem omnem filium quem recipit. Hinc voce angelica Dominus ad Joannem loquitur, dicens: Ego quos amo, redarguo et castigo. Hinc Paulus ait: Omnis autem disciplina in praesenti quidem non videtur esse gaudii, sed moeroris; postea autem fructum pacatissimum exercitatis per eam reddit justitiae. Quamvis ergo convenire simul nequeant dolor et beatitudo, recte tamen nunc dicitur, Beatus homo qui corripitur a Domino; quia per hoc, quod peccator dolore correptionis permitur, quandoque ad beatitudinem, quae sine interventu est doloris, eruditur. Sequitur:  'Increpationem ergo Domini ne reprobes.' Quisquis pro culpa percutitur, sed in querela suae percussionis elevatur, increpationem Domini reprobat, quia hanc injuste se perpeti accusat. Qui autem non pro purgatione criminis, sed pro fortitudinis probatione feruntur, cum causas suae percussionis inquirunt, nequaquam increptionem Domini reprobare dicendi sunt, quia in semetipsis satagunt invenire quod nesciunt. Unde et beatus Job ad libertatis verba inter percussionis verbera erumpens, tanto de se rectius judicia ferientis interrogat, quanto in semetipso verius causas passionis ignorat. Eliphaz itaque, quia hunc percussum non probationis examine, sed purgationis aestimavit, dum libere inter flagella loqueretur, reprobasse Dei increpationem credidit. Quem apte etiam haereticorum tenere speciem diximus, qui omne quod sancta Ecclesia recte agitur, apud judicium suum semper ad vitium tortitudinis inflectunt. Quia vero bona intentione ad loquendum ducitur, sed non curat discernere cui loquatur, adhuc supernae dispensationis moderamina praeicando subjungit, dicens: Qui ipse vulnerat, et medetur; percutit, et manus ejus sanabunt. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Moralia, sive Expositio in Job,  Liber VI Caput XXIII-XXIV  751b-752b Source: Migne PL 75.751b-752b

Blessed the man whom the Lord corrects. 1  The highest virtue is to avoid sins, that they should not be committed, and second to it is at least to correct what has been committed. But for the most part we not only hardly ever avoid sins that threaten but we do not even know them when they have been committed. And the mind of sinners is darkened so deeply, as much as they do not see the injury of their own blindness. Hence it happens that very often, by the largess of the Divine gift, that punishment follows upon fault, and blows open the eyes of the one who errs, who among errors had been secure in blindness. For the torpid soul is touched with a blow, that it be stimulated, that he who has lost, by his security, the state of uprightness, being afflicted may consider why he is thrown down. Thus the very sharpness of the correction becomes the source of light. So it is said by Paul: 'But all things that are proved are made manifest by the light' 2; for proof of salvation is in the force of the pain. Hence Solomon says, 'For healing will make grave sins cease.' 3 And again he says, 'For whom the Lord loves He corrects, He chastises the son whom he receives.' 4 Hence by the voice of the angel the Lord speaks to John, saying, 'Those whom I love, I rebuke and chasten.' 5 Hence Paul says, 'No discipline in the present seems to be joyful, but grievous, yet after it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness for those who are thus exercised ' 6  Although, therefore, grief and happiness can never meet together, yet it is rightly said here, 'Blessed is the man whom the Lord corrects.'  1 For by this, that the sinner is pressed with the pain of correction, he is sometimes educated to blessedness, which knows no interruption of suffering. It follows:   'Therefore do not reprove the chastening of the Lord.' 1   Whoever is struck for a fault and is lifted up to complaining against the blow, 'reproves the chastening of the Lord.' For he accuses Him, that He has done this to him unjustly. Yet they who are struck not for the cleansing of sin but for the testing of their fortitude, when they enquire about the causes of the blow, must by no means be said to reprove the correction of the Lord, for their aim is to discover in themselves what they do not know. Hence blessed Job, breaking out into the voice of liberty, amid the blows of his suffering, the more rightly questions the judgments of Him who brings this on him, the more he is truly ignorant of the causes of his suffering in himself. Thus Eliphaz, as much as he judged that Job was visited not with the trial of testing but of cleansing, when he spoke with freedom amidst the stripes, he thought that he reproved the correction of the Lord. And aptly we have said that this one bears the likeness of heretics, in that whatever is done rightly by the Holy Church is always by their own judgment bent to some fault of crookedness. But since it is with a good intention that Job is led to speak, yet he cares not to discriminate to whom he is speaking, he yet further adds and proclaims the dispensations of the supernal governance, saying,'For He wounds and He heals, He strikes and His hands restore.' 7 Saint Gregory the Great, Moralia, or Commentary on Job, Bk 6 Chaps 23-24 1 Job 5.17 2 Ephes 6.13 3 Eccle 10.4 4 Hebr 12.6 5 Apoc 3.19 6 Heb. 12.11 7 Job 5.18

Prostitutes And Heretics

Μὴ πρόσεχε φαύλῃ γυναικί μέλι γὰρ ἀποστάζει ἀπὸ χειλέων γυναικὸς πόρνης ἣ πρὸς καιρὸν λιπαίνει σὸν φάρυγγα...  Στωμυλεύονται γὰρ αἴτε πρόδηλοι πόρναι, καὶ αἰ τῶν ἑτεροδόξων διδασκαλίαι, ἀπατῶσαι διὰ τῆς χρηστολογίας τὰς τῶν ἀκάκων καρδίας· μεγίστη οὖν ἀσφάλεια τὸ μὴ ἀλῶναι τὴν ἀρχήν· ἀλόντα γὰρ, δὺσκολον διαφυγεῖν. Ὠριγένης, Ἐκλογαὶ Εἰς Παροιμίας  Source: Migne PG 17.173a

Give no heed to a deceitful woman, for honey drips from the lips of a public courtesan, or at the appropriate time she anoints your throat with oil...1 For as the public courtesans chatter, so are the teachers of heresy, who by golden speech deceive the hearts of the guileless. Of great importance then it is that one is not caught at the beginning, for once one is made a captive, it is difficult to escape. Origen, On Proverbs, Fragment 1 Prov 5.3 LXX

A Prostitute Transformed

Ῥαὰβ πλατυσμὸς ἑρμηνεύεται, ἡ γὰρ τὸ πρῶτον πόρνη, νῦν δὲ σώφρων Ἐκκλησία διὰ τῆς πίστεως πλατύνεται ταῖς θεωρίαις, καὶ τοῖς θείοις νοήμασιν. Διὰ τοῦτο Κορινθίοις γράφει ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος· Μὴ στενοχωρεῖσθε· μᾶλλον δὲ πλατύνθητε, καθάπερ οὖν ἡ ἐμη καρία πεπλάτυται.  Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΝΓ' Πλουτινῳ Ὑπατικῳ  Source: Migne PG 79.105d

Rahab translated means broadening, for she who was first a prostitute is now the prudent Church, by faith being broadened with insight, and even with Divine understanding. On account of this the great Apostle writes to the Corinthians: Do not grieve, rather be broadened, as even my heart has been broadened. 1 Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 53,To Plutinos The Consul 1 cf 2 Cor 6.11-13

Trial By Prostitute

Ἄλλοτε πάλιν παριόντος τοῦ Ἐφραὶμ, ἐξ ὑποβολῆς τινος ἔρχεται μία ἑταιρὶς κολακεύειν αὐτὸν εἰς αἰσχρὰν μίξιν, εἰ δὲ μὴ, κἂν εἰς ἀγανάκτησιν κινῆσαι αὐτὸν, ὅτι οὐδέποτε τις εἶδεν αὐτὸν ὀργιζόμενον. Καὶ λέγει πρὸς αὐτήν· Ἀκολούθει μοι· πλησιάσας δὲ τόπῳ πολυοχλουμένῳ, εἶπεν αὐτῇ· Ἐν τῷ τοπῳ τούτῳ δεῦρο καθὼς ἠθέλνσας. Ἐκείνη δὲ θεασαμένη τὸν ὄχλον, λέγει αὐτῷ· Πῶς δυνάμεθα τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, τοσούτου ὄχλου ἑστῶτος, καὶ οὐκ αἰσχυνόμεθα; Ὁ δὲ λέγει πρὸς αὐτήν· Εἰ ἀνθρώπους αἰσχυνόμεθα, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὀφείλομεν αἰσχύνεσθαι τὸν Θεὸν, τὸν τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ σκότους ἐλέγχοντα. Ἡ δὲ ἐντραπεῖσα ἀπῆλθεν ἄπρακτος. Ἄποφθέγματα των Αγίων Γερόντων, Παλλάδιος Ελενουπόλεως Source: Migne PG 65.168c-d

Another time, when Ephrem was travelling, a prostitute tried by flattery to lead him to shameful intercourse, and if not that, at least to move him to anger, for no one had ever seen him angry. He said to her, 'Follow me,' and when they had reached a place where there were many people, he said to her, 'In this place, come, do what you wish.' But she, seeing the crowd, said to him, 'How can we do this in the presence of such a crowd and not be ashamed?' He said to her, 'If we are ashamed before men, how much more should we be before God, who knows what is hidden in darkness?' And abashed she went away without having achieved anything. Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Palladius of Galatia

Sin And Memory

Dixit ergo serpens mulieri: Quid, quia dixit Deus: Non edetis ab omni ligno paradisi? Et dixit mulier serpenti: A fructu ligni quod est in paradiso edemus: de fructu autem ligni, quod est in medio paradisi, dixit Deus: Non edetis ex eo, neque tangetis illud, ne moriamini.  Ideo prius interrogavit serpens, et respondit hoc mulier, ut praevaricatio esset inexcusabilis, neque ullo modo dici posset, id quod praeceperat Deus oblitam fuisse mulierem. Quamquam et oblivio praecepti, maxime unius et tam necessarii, ad maximam culpam damnabilis neglegentiae pertineret: verumtamen evidentior eius transgressio est, cum memoria retinetur, et tamquam in illo Deus assistens praesensque contemnitur. Unde necessarium fuit, cum in Psalmo diceretur: Et memoria retinentibus mandata eius, addere, ut faciant ea  Multi enim retinent memoria, ut contemnant ea, praevaricationis maiore peccato, ubi oblivionis nulla est excusatio. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, De Genesi Ad Litteram, Liber XI, Caput XXX  Source: Migne PL 34.445

Therefore the serpent said to the woman: 'Why did God say that you are not to eat from the tree of paradise?' And the woman said: 'From the fruit of the tree that is in paradise we may eat, from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of paradise God said: 'You shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' 1  Thus first the serpent questions and then the woman answers, that error be without excuse, nor may it be able to be said that the woman had forgotten what God had commanded. Though whoever is forgetful of a command, especially one so singular and necessary, has attached themselves to grave fault by damnable negligence, more evident is that transgression when the memory remembers, as with one who with God near and present yet will scorn Him. Whence it was necessary in the Psalm that says, 'And being mindful for the holding of His commands, to add, 'That they do them.' 2 For with these things held in the memory, when they are spurned, there is greater sin of fault, where there is no excuse of forgetfulness. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from On Genesis To The Letter, Book 11, Chap 30 1 Gen 3.1-3 2 Ps 102.18

Fasting And Orthodoxy

Οὐδὲν ὀνίνησι νηστεία τοὺς ὑγιέσι μὴ προσέχοντας ὅροις· ὅσῳ γὰρ τοῦ σώματος ἡ ψυχὴ προτερεύει, τοσοῦτον πολιτείας δόγματα προκρίνεται εὐσεβείας.  Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΣΜΔ', Ἡρμινῳ Κομητι Source: Migne PG 78.332b

Fasting is to no profit at all if one does not take care to keep oneself within healthy limits; for as much as the soul is superior to the body, so holy doctrine is superior to the state of life. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 244, to Count Herminos

Silence And Fasting

Εἶπεν ὁ ἀββᾶς Δουλᾶς· Ἐὰν ὁ ἐχθρὸς  βιάζηται ἡμᾶς καταλιπεῖν τὴν ἡσυχιαν, μὴ ἀκούσωμεν αὐτοῦ· οὐδὲν γὰρ ὅμοιον αὐτῆς, καὶ τῆς ἀσιτίας. Συγκρίνεται εἰς συμμαχίαν κατ' αὐτοῦ· ὀξυδορκίαν γὰρ παρέχουσι τοῖς ἔνδον ὅμμασιν. Ἀποφθέγματα Ἅγίων Γερόντων, Παλλαδιος Source: Migne PG 65.161b-c

Father Doulas said, 'If the enemy presses on us to abandon silence, let us not listen to him, for nothing is equal to it but fasting. These two join together to fight against him, for they sharpen the inner vision. Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Palladius of Galatia

Fasting, Reason And Peace

Τῆς σαρκὸς τὸ σκίρτημα, καὶ τὴν αἰσχρὰν ἔφεσιν, τῷ τῆς νηστείας ἱμάντι μαστίξαντες, καὶ τῷ λόγῳ πείσωμεν ἡσυχάζειν. Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΡΞΗ' , Σωφρονι Τριβουνῳ Source: Migne PG 79.149b

The unruly flesh and shameful appetites are beaten down with the whip of fasting, and thus in possession of reason we may enter into peace. Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 168, to Sophron the Tribune

Fasting, Mercy And Prayer

Cum autem jejunatis, nolite fieri sicut hypocritae tristes; exterminant enim facies suas, ut appareant hominibus jejunantes.    Omnium malorum prima et fortiora sunt tria mala: id est, gula, avaritia, et vana gloria. Adversus quae Dominus tentationis suscipiens bellum, pugnavit pro nobis. Contra gulam in eremo, conrtra avaritiam super  monetem, contra vanam gloriam super templum. Item omnium bonorum prima et fortiora sunt tria bona, eleemosyna, oratio, et jejunium. Et vide quomodo adversus tria mala inventa sunt tria bona, id est, eleemosyna contra avaritiam, jejunium contra gulam, oratio contra vanam gloriam. Dic nobis, Ecce jejunium contra gulam venit, quia contrarium est jejunium gulae: et eleemosyna contra avaritiam convenit, quia avaritia congregat, eleemosyna autem dispergit: oratio quomodo convenit contra gloriam vanam? Audi. Omnia mala, quae sunt in mundo, habent contraria bona, per quae superentur: utputa, fornicatio castitatem, superbia humilitatem, iracundia mansuetudinem. Et nullum est malum, quod non habeat contrarium bonum, per quod superetur, dempta vana gloria. Ideo quanta vis bona feceris, volens compescere vanam gloriam, tanto magis excitas eam: et causa est ista, quia omne malum ex malo nascitur, sola autem vana gloria de bono procedit: ideo non exstinguitur per bonum, sed magis nutritur. Denique inter homines peccatores tentatio vanae gloriae non habet locum.  Fornicarius enim, aut raptor, quomodo tentetur in vana gloria, qui non habet unde glorietur? Illi autem tentationem vanae gloriae patiuntur, qui tale aliquid faciunt, unde glorientur. Ergo nullum remedium potest esse contra vanam gloriam, nisi oratio sola: et haec ipsa vanitatem generat, nisi caute prospexeris, si forte bene oraveris. Altera de eleemosyna, et jejunio, et oratione diviso in lege scripta est: Non entres ante conspectum Dei tui vacuus. Vacuus autem intrat ante Deum, qui veniens ad orationem, nullam eleemosynam facit. Non solum in Veteri Testamento, sed etiam in Novo praeciptiur, ut per singulas septimanas unusquisque Christianus aliquid gazophylacium mittat, ad orationem venturus, sicut ait Apostolus: Unusquisque vestrum singula sabbata quod illi placuerit apud se reponat, ut non, cum venero, tunc collectae fiant. Item dicit Salomon: Ante orationem praepara animam tuam. Ille praeparat animam suam ante orationem, qui faciens eleemosynam venit ad orationem. Sicut enim oleum accendit lumen lucernae, ita et bona opera excitant fidem cordis, et dant confidentiam animae apud Deum orandi. Ergo eleemosyna praeparatio est orationis. Item jejunium est adjuotorium orationis, quia oratio sine jejunio gracilis est, et infirma. Nam oratio illa est fortis, quae fit in spiritu humili et corde tribulato, sicut et Propheta dicit: Sacrificum Deo spiritus contribulatus, cor contritum et humiliatem Deus non despicit. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XV Source:  Migne PG 56.715-716

When you fast do not be like the mournful hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they appear before men to be fasting... 1 Of all evils the primary and most powerful are three: that is, gluttony, avarice and vainglory. Against which the Lord, taking up the battle of temptation, fought for us. Against gluttony in the desert, against avarice on the mount, against vain glory on the temple. 2 Similarly of all goods the primary and most powerful are three: mercy and prayer and fasting. And observe how three goods are found against the three evils, that is, mercy against avarice, fasting against gluttony, prayer against vain glory. Say to us, 'Behold fasting comes against gluttony because fasting is the opposite of gluttony, and mercy comes against avarice because where avarice hoards mercy disperses; but prayer, how does it come against vain glory?' Hear. All evils which are in the world have their opposing good by which they are conquered, that is, fornication by chastity, pride by humility, wrath by meekness. And there is no evil that does not have its opponent by which it is conquered, except vain glory. Therefore, however much good you wish to do, and in that wishing to suppress vainglory, so much the more do you excite it. And for this reason, that every evil from evil is born, apart from vainglory which proceeds from good and therefore is not extinguished by good but rather nourished by it. Whence among sinful men the temptation of vainglory does not have a place. For the fornicator or the thief, how is he is tested in vainglory, who does not have anything to glory in? By these the trial of vainglory is suffered: they who do something in which they might glory. Therefore no remedy is possible against vainglory unless prayer, and yet this itself may generate vanity unless we watch over it closely, if perhaps we would pray well. It is also written in the law concerning almsgiving and fasting and prayer: Do not enter before the face of your God empty. 3 For he enters before the face of God empty who comes to prayer and has no mercy. Not only in the Old Testament but in the New it is commanded that each sabbath every Christian must put something in the treasury and come to prayer, as the Apostle says: 'Each one of you on your Sabbaths should place something aside as pleases him, that when I come there be no need of a collection.' 4 And Solomon says the same: 'Before prayer prepare your soul.' 5 And he prepares his soul before prayer who having given alms comes to prayer. For it is like the oil of the lamp kindled for light, thus even good works arouse the faith of the soul and they give it confidence in prayer to God. Therefore almsgiving is a preparation for prayer. Likewise fasting is a help to prayer because prayer without fasting is fragile and weak. That prayer is strong which is performed by in humility of spirit and with a troubled heart, as even the Prophet says, 'A sacrifice to God is a spirit distressed and a heart contrite and humble God does not despise.' 6 Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from The Fifteenth Homily 1 Mt 6.16 2 Mt 4.1-11 Lk 4.1-13  3 Exod 23.15 4 1 Cor 16.2 5 Sirach 18.23 6 Ps 50.19

Eradicating Sin

Ἀπόστρεψον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου καὶ πάσας τὰς ἀνομίας μου ἐξάλειψον. ̓Εξαλείφονται δὲ ἁμαρτίαι ἀπὸ τῆς μετουσίας τῶν ἀρετῶν· ὡς γὰρ ἡ ἐπιστήμη εἰς ψυχὴν ἐλθοῦσα ἐξαλείφει καὶ ἀφανίζει τὴν α γνοιαν, οὕτω παρουσίᾳ ἀρετῆς τελείας ἐξαλείφεται ἁμαρτία πᾶσα. Δυδυμος του Αλεξανδρεως, Εἰς Ψαλμους, Ψαλμος Ν' Source: Migne PG 39.1397d

'Turn your face from my sins and all my errors eradicate.' 1 Sin is eradicated by the possession of virtue, just as knowledge entering the mind eradicates and cleanses one of ignorance. Thus every sin is eradicated when perfected virtue is present. Didymus the Blind, Commentary on the Psalms, from Psalm 50 1 Ps 50.11

Preaching And Judgement

Vos estis, dicente Veritate, lux totius Britanniae, sal terrae, civitas super montem posita, lucerna super candelabrum elevata. Item beato principe apostolorum attestante: Vos estis genus electum, regale sacedotium. Per vestrae vero praedicationis instantiam nos erimus, quod in eadem sequitur Epistola: Gens sancta, populus acquisitionis: quatenus per vis virtus annuntietur illius, qui nos omnes de tenebris vocavit in admirabile lumen suum. Qui aliquando non populus Dei, nunc autem populus Dei. Patres itaque nostri, Deo dispensante, licet pagani, hanc patriam bellica virtute primum possederunt. Quam grande igitur opprobrium est ut nos Christiani perdamus quod illi pagani acquisiverunt? Hoc dico propter flagellum quod nuper accidit partibus insulae nostrae, quae prope trecentis quinquaginta annis a parentibus inhabitata est nostris. Legitur in libro Gildi Brettonum sapientissimi, quod iidem ipsi Brettones propter rapinas et avaritiam principum, propter iniquitatem et injustitiam judicum, propter desidiam et pigritiam praedictionis episcoporum, propter luxuriam et malos mores populi, patriam perdiderunt. Caveamus haec eadem nostris temporibus vitia inolescere, quatenus benedictio divina nobis patriam conservet in prosperitate bona, quam nobis in sua misericordia perdonare dignat est. Ut hoc ipsum omnipotentis Dei largissima efficiat pietas, vos qui clavem regni coelestis cum Apostolis, ligandi solvendique potestatem accepistis a Christo aperite assiduis praedicationibus portas coeli populi Dei, et nolite tacere, ne populi peccata vobis imputentur. Requirit enim a vobis animas Deus, quas ad regendum accepistis. Ex subjectorum salute vestra multiplicatur remuneratio. Alcuinus, Epistola X, Ad Aethelhard Archiepiscopum Source: Migne PL 100.154c-155b

You are, says the Truth, the light of all Britain, the salt of the earth, a city set on a mount, a lamp hung on a lamp stand. 1 And the same thing the blessed prince of the Apostles testifies, 'You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood.' And by the urging of your preaching we shall be what follows in the same letter: 'A holy people, a people acquired,' as much as by you virtue is announced to us, 'who all were called from the darkness into His wonderful light. Who once were not a people of God but now are indeed a people of God.' 1 Our fathers, by the dispensation of God, although pagan, gained possession of this land by force of war. How grave then will be our disgrace if we Christians lose what pagans acquired? I say this on account of the tribulations which have fallen on parts of our island, 3 which have been inhabited by our parents for around three hundred and fifty years. We read in the book of Gildas, the wisest of the Britons, 4 that those same Britons lost their country on account of the rapine and avarice of princes and the iniquity and injustice of judges and idleness and indolence of the preaching of bishops, and the luxury and the wicked behaviour of the people. Let us then admonish the vices that grow in our own times, since it is the Divine blessing given to us that preserves us in the prosperity of good things, which to us in His mercy He deigns to give. That this holy largess of almighty God be effective, you who with the Apostles have received from Christ the key of the heavenly kingdom and the power of binding and losing, open with assiduous preaching the gates of heaven to the people of God, and do not be silent, nor let the people attribute faults to you. God requires souls from you, the rule of which you have received. By the salvation of your subjects your reward will be measured. Alcuin of York, from Letter 10, To the Archbishop Aethelhard 1 Mt 5.13-15 2 1 Pet 2.9-10 3 The Danish invasions 4 De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae

Chastising A King

Quid tu quoque, ut Propheta ait, catule leonine, Aureli Canine, agis? Nonne eodem quo supra dictus, si non exiiabiliore parricidiorum forniactionum adulteriorumque caeno uelut quibusdam marinis irruentibus tibi voraris feraliter undis? Nonne pacem patriae mortiferum ceu serpentem odiens civiliaque bella et crebras iniuste praedas sitiens animae tuae caelestis portas pacis ac refrigerii praecludis? Relictus, quaeso, iam solus ac si arbor in medio campo arescens recordare patrum fratrumque tuorum supervacuam fantasiam, iuvenilem inmaturamque mortem. Num centennis tu ob religiosa merita uel coaevus Mathuselae exceptus paene omni prole servarberis? Nequaquam. Sed nisi citius, ut psalmista ait, conversus fueris ad Dominum, ensem in te vibrabit in brevi suum rex ille qui per prophetam ego inquit occidam et ego vivere faciam; percutiam et ego sanabo, et non est qui de manu mea possit eruere. quam ob rem excutere de faetido pulvere tuo et convertere ad eum toto corde, qui creavit te, ut cum exarserit in brevi ira eius, beatus sis sperans in eum, sin alias, aeternae te manebunt poenae conterendum saeva continue et nequaquam absumendum tartari fauce. Sanctus Gildas Sapiens, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae Source:  Migne PL 69.350

You also, lion whelp, 1 as the Prophet says, what are you doing, Aurelius Caninus? Are you not as ruined as those we have spoken of above, if not more so, with the filth of parricides, fornications and adulteries, like waves of the sea crashing wildly over you? Have you not, hating your country's peace, as if it were some deadly serpent, or by your unjust thirsting for civil wars and abundant spoil, closed the gates of heavenly peace and rest on your soul? Forsaken and alone now, like a withered tree in the middle of a field, remember, I bid you, the empty dreams of your fathers and brothers and their early and untimely deaths. Will you, by pious merit, a rare exception among all your stock, survive for a hundred years, or equal the age of Methuselah? By no means. But unless, as the Psalmist says, you are very swiftly converted to the Lord, in brief time that King will soon brandish His sword against you, 2 who says by the Prophet: 'I will kill and I will give life; I shall wound and I shall heal, and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand.' 3 Thus shake your filthy dust from yourself, 4 and with your whole heart turn to Him who created you, so that when His anger quickly blazes forth, you may be blessed in your hope in Him, 5 otherwise eternal punishment awaits you, you who shall be always tormented, never consumed, in the fell abyss of hell. Saint Gildas The Wise, from On The Destruction and Ruin of Britain 1 Ps 16.12 2 Ps 7.13 3 Deut 32.39 4 Isa 52.2 5 Ps 2.12