A Father's Love

Pater diligit Filium, et omnia dedit in manu ejus. Addidit: Et omnia dedit in manus ejus, ut nosses et hic quam distincte dictum est: Pater diligit Filium. Quare? Ergo Pater non diligit Joannem? et tamen non omnia dedit in manu ejus; Pater non diligit Paulum? et tamen non omnia dedit in manu ejus. Pater diligit Filium: sed quomodo Pater Filium, non quomodo Dominus servum; quomodo Unicum, non quomodo adoptatum. Itaque omnia dedit in manu ejus. Quid est omnia? Ut tantus sit Filius, quantus est Pater. Alcuinus, Commentariorum in Joannem, Lib II Source: Migne PL 100.790a

The Father loves the Son, and He has given everything into His hand. 1 It is added, 'And He has given everything into His hand,' that you might know how distinctly is said that 'The Father loves the Son.' How? Does the Father then not love John? And yet He did not give everything into His hand. Does the Father not love Paul? And yet He did not give everything into his hand. 'The Father loves the Son.' But the way in which the Father loves the Son is not the way in which the Lord loves a servant; the way of the Only Son is not the way of the adopted son. Thus 'He gave everything into His hand.' And what does this 'everything' mean? That the Son has as much as the Father has. Alcuin of York, from The Commentary On The Gospel of Saint John, Book 2 1 Jn 3.35

Sons And The Son

Γέγραπται· Οὕτως ἠγάπησε τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν Υἱον αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν, ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Ποία ἀγάπης ὑπερβουλὴ, εἰ κοινὸν ἄνθρωπον χάριτι υἱοποιηθέντα ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἔδωκε; Πῶς δὲ καὶ Μονογενὴς, εἰ υἱοθεσίᾳ τετιμημένος, καὶ οὐ φύσει ὤν υἱὸς, τῆς Γραφῆς λεγούσης· Ἐγὼ εἶπα· Θεοί ἐστε, καὶ υἱοὶ Ὑψίστου πάντες; Καὶ Ὁσοι ἔλαβον αὐτὸν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα Θεοῦ γενέσθαι; Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ πολλῶν ὄντων θεῶν θέσει καὶ χάριτι, εἶς δέ ἐστιν ὁ φύσει Θεὸς, οὕτω καὶ πολλῶν υἱοθεσίᾳ τετιμημένων, εἶς ἐστιν ὁ φύσει Υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ μονογενῆς, ὄν ἔδεκεν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν. Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Δαμασκηνός, Κατὰ τῆς Αἱρεσεως Των Νεστοριανῶν Source: Migne PG 95.203b-c

It is written: 'God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him have eternal life.' 1 And how is this overflowing love, if for us he gave a common man by the adoption of grace as his son? How is he Only Begotten, if he has the honour of adoption but he is not by nature a son? As Scripture says, 'I said: You are gods, and sons of the most high.' 2 And: 'As many as received Him, He gave the power to become sons of God.' 3 But as there are many gods by the adoption of grace, one however is by nature the Son, He who is the Only Begotten given for us. Saint John of Damascus, Against the Nestorian Heretics.   1  Jn 3.61 2 Ps 81.6, Jn 10.34 3 Jn 1.12

Knowing Idols

Filiolo, custodite vos a simulacris. Qui verum Deum cognovistis, in quo vitam habetis aeternam, custodite vos a doctinis haereticorum, quae perpetuam ducunt ad mortem, quia, more illorum qui simulacara pro Deo faciunt, gloriam incorruptibilis Dei pravis dogmatibus in similitudinem corruptibilium rerum immutant. Custodite vos philargyria, quae est simulacrorum servitus. Observate, ne quas mundi illecebras Conditoris amori praeponatis. Nam et hoc inter simulacra reputabitur, quatenus solius veritatis curam studiumque habentes, in hujus visione mereamini sine fine laetari. Mundus enim transit, et concupiscentia ejus. Qui autem fecerit voluntatem Domini, manet in aeternum. Sanctus Beda, In I Epistolam Sancti Joannis Source: Migne PL 93 120c

Children, guard yourself from idols. 1   You who know the true God, in which you have eternal life, guard yourself from the teachings of heretics, which lead to eternal death, because in their own way their make idols in opposition to God, changing the incorruptible glory of God into a idol of corruptible things by their depraved teachings. Guard yourselves from the love of money, which is slavery to idols. Be watchful, lest you prefer some snare of the world to the love of God. For even this is reckoned among idols, just as much as having care and desire for the truth alone in His sight we merit endless joy. 'The world passes away, and the desire of it, but he who does the will of God remains in eternity.' 2 Saint Bede, from the Commentary On The First Letter of Saint John 1 1 Jn 5.21 2 1 Jn 2.17

Counsel For Youth

Μάθε σὺ ὁ μονάζων καὶ πιστὸς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἐργάτης, καὶ διδάχθητι εὐαγγελικὴν πολιτείαν, σώματος δουλαγωγίαν, φρόνημα ταπεινόν, ἐννοίας καθαρότητα, ὀργῆς ἀφανισμόν. ἀγγαρευόμενος, προστίθει διὰ τὸν Κύριον: ἀποστερούμενος, μὴ δικάζου: μισούμενος, ἀγάπα: διωκόμενος, ἀνέχου: βλασφημούμενος, παρακάλει. νεκρώθητι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, σταυρώθητι τῷ Θεῷ: ὅλην τὴν μέριμναν μετάθες ἐπὶ τὸν Κύριον, ἵνα εὑρεθῇς ὅπου ἀγγέλων μυριάδες, πρωτοτόκων πανηγύρεις, ἀποστόλων θρόνοι, προφητῶν προεδρίαι, σκῆπτρα πατριαρχῶν, μαρτύρων στέφανοι, δικαίων ἔπαινοι. ἐκείνοις σεαυτὸν τοῖς δικαίοις ἐπιθύμησον συναριθμηθῆναι, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν. αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ἀμήν. Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, Επιστολή ΜΓ', Νουθεσία πρὸς τοὺς νέους Source: Migne PG 32. 360b-c

Learn, you who live in solitude and are a faithful man and a practitioner of holiness, the teaching of the evangelic constitution: mastery of the body, humble thought, purity of mind, destruction of pride. Being pressed into service, add to it through the Lord: robbed, do not go to law; being hated, love; persecuted, endure; slandered, pray. Be dead to sin, be crucified to God. Cast all your care on the Lord, that you may be found where are tens of thousands of angels, assemblies of the first-born, thrones of Prophets, sceptres of Patriarchs, crowns of Martyrs, praises of righteous men. Desire to be numbered among these righteous ones, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Letter 43, Admonition to Young Men

Prayer And Safety

Dulcissimo filio vir fluctivagus salutem. Te abeunte tentavi saepius ad portum stabilitatis venire; sed rector rerum et dispensator animarum necdum concessit posse quod olim fecit velle. Adhuc ex radice cordis nascentes cogitationum ramusculos ventus tentationum flagellat, ut consolationis flores et refectionis fructus nutriri nequiverint. Toto nocte laborantes nihil cepimus, quia necdum in littore Jesus stetit, praecipiens in dexteram navigii rete mitti. Patrocinia sanctorum non obliviscere. Res ecclesiasticae pulchritudinis oculis occurrentes noli negligere ut acquiras. Nostra rusticitas avara est de talibus: vesta nobilitas larga est de omnibus. Memor esto poetici praesagii:  Si nihil attuleris, ibis, Homere, foras. Hoc de te tuoque itinere prophetatum esse, quis dubitat? Si Christum Sibylla, ejusque labores praedixit venturum, cur non Naso Homerum ejusque itinera praececinit? Paululum propter refectionem animi rhetorica lusi lepiditate. Sed ut iterum ad seriem rugosa fronte revertar, te vero unanimem deposcens amicum, te custodem animi obsecrans, ut consilium salutis animarum nostrarum, cum suffragiis sanctorum, apostolorum a Deo depreceris. Nam nos ambos, ut recognosco, quaedem necessitatis catena constringit, et libero cursu voluntatis castra intrare non permittit: nec est, qui compedes rumpere valeat, nisi qui inferni ferrea claustra contrivit, qui est via et vertias et vita. Via pergentibus per illum, veritas venientibus ad illum, vita manentibus in illo. Quid habeo plus scribere, quia omnia necessaria nosti? Juxta opportunitatem portantis semper dirige mihi litteras, ut sciam de prosperitate tua et itinere tuo, quando vel quo venias miserante Deo. Prospera cuncta, precor, faciat tibi Christus, Homere! Qui te conservet semper, ubique vale! Alcuinus, Epistola XXV, Ad Duclissimum Filium Homerum (Angilbertum) Source: Migne PL 100.180a-d

To a dear son, a man wandering amid the waves, greeting. With your departure I have very often tried to reach a secure port, but the director of things and the disposer of souls does not yet wish to concede to be possible what once He did. Though from the root of the heart the little branches of thoughts are born, the wind of trials so whips them that they are unable to bring forth the blooms of consolation and the fruit that restores. Though we work through the whole night we are not able to gain a thing because Jesus does not yet stand on the shore, commanding that the net be cast out from the right hand of the boat. 1 Do not forget the protection of the Saints. With racing eyes do not neglect the fair things of the Church, so that you might acquire them. Our narrow rusticity is on account of such things, your expansive nobility from all things. Be mindful of the poetic presage: If you bring nothing, Homer, you will go outside. 2 That this is prophetic concerning you and your way, who will doubt? If the Sybil foretold the coming works of Christ, why might not Ovid sing Homer and his way before his time? For the refreshment of my soul I have played a little with pleasant words, but returning again to the lines of a furrowed brow, I entreat you, friend of my soul, that you plead for a guard for your soul, that you pray for the counsel of the salvation of our souls, with the intercession of the Saints and the Apostles, from God. For both of us, I know, are constrained with a certain chain of necessity, and with the free step of the will we are not permitted to enter the camp, nor is there one who is able to break the fetters unless He who broke down the doors of hell, He who is the way and the truth and the life. 3 The way of the one who advances is through Him, the truth is to come to Him, life is to remain with Him. What more do I have to write, since you know what is needful? As far as opportunity allows always send me letters, that I might know how you flourish and your way, when or where you go according to the mercy of God. All prosperity, I pray, Christ make for you, O Homer! That He may preserve you always and everywhere, farewell. Alcuin of York, Letter 25, To a Dearest Son Homer, (Angilbertus) 1 Lk 5.4-7, Jn 21.4-6 2 Ovid Ars Amatoria 2.280 3 Jn 14.6

Friendship And Communication

Quanqum mihi multorum sim conscius peccatorum et quotidie in oratione flexis genibus loquar: Delicta juventutis meae et ignorantias meas ne memineris: tamen sciens dictum esse eb Apostolo: Ne inflatus superbia incidat in judicium diaboli: et in alio scriptum: Superbis Deus resistit; humilibus autem dat gratiam, nihil ita a pueritia conatus sum vitare quam tumentem animum et cervicem erectam, Dei contra se odia provocantem. Novi enim magistrum et Dominum et Deum meum in carnis humilitate dixisse: Discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde: et ante per os David cecinisse: Memento, Domine, David, et omnis mansuetudinis ejus. Et in alio loco legimus: Ante gloriam humiliabitur cor viri; et ante ruinam elevatur. Itaque obsecro te, ne me putes sumptis litteris tuis ante tacuisse; et aliorum, vel infidelitatem, vel negligentiam in me referas. Quid enim causae erat, ut provocatus officio, tacerem et amicitias tuas meo silentio repellerem, qui altro soleo bonorum appetere necessitudinem, et me eorum ingerere caritati? Quia meliores sunt duo, quam unus: et si alter ceciderit, ab altero fulcietur. Funiculus triplex non facile rumpitur, et frater fratrem adjuvans, exaltabitur. Scribe igitur audacter; et absentiam corporum, crebro vince sermone. Nec doleas, si hoc non habeas quod formiculae, et muscae, et serpentes habent, id eas, carnis oculos: sed illum te oculum habere laetare, de quo in Cantico dicitur Canticorum: Vulnerasti me, soror mea sponsa, uno de oculis tuis; quo Deus videtur; de quo a Moyse dicitur: Transiens videbo visionem hanc magnam. Denique quosdam etiam mundi Philosophos legimus, ut totam cogitationem ad mentis  cogerent puritatem, sibi oculos eruisse. Et a Propheta dicitur: Intravit mors per fenestras vestras. Et Apostoli audiunt: Qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam moechatus est eam in corde suo. Unde praecipitur eis, ut levent oculos, et videant candidas segetes, quae paratae sunt ad metendum. Quod autem precaris, ut nostris monitis Nabuchodonosor et Rapsaces et Nabuzardan et Holofernes in te occidantur, nunquam nostra auxilia postulares, si in te viverint. Sed quia illi mortui sunt, et cum Zorobabel, et cum Jesu filio Josedee Sacerdote magno, cum Ezra quoque, et Neemia ruinas Jerusalem aedificare coepisti; nec mittis mercedes in pertusum sacculum, sed thesauros tibi in coelestibus paras, idcirco nostras appetis amicitias, quos Christi famulos arbitraris. Sanctam filiam meam Theodoram, sororem beatae memoriae Lucinii, per se commendatam, meo sermone commendo, ut in coepto itinere non lassetur; ut ad Terram sanctam multo per eremum labore perveniat: ut non putet perfectam esse virtutem exisse de Aegytpo; sed per innumerabiles insidias ad montem Nabo, et ad Jordanem fluvium pervenire: ut accipiat secundum in Galgala circumcisionem: ut illi Jericho corruat, sacerdotalium tubarum subversa clangoribus: ut juguletur Adonisedee: ut Hai, et Azor pulcherrimae quondam corruant civitates. Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistula LXXVI, Ad Abigaum Source: Migne PL 22.689-690

Although I am conscious of many sins and every day I say in prayer on bended knees, 'Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions,' 1 yet because I know that it has been said by the Apostle: 'Let a man not be lifted up with pride lest he fall into the condemnation of the devil,' 2 and that it is written in another passage: 'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble,' 3 there is nothing from my boyhood that I have endeavoured to avoid more than a bloated mind and a stiff neck, which always provoke against themselves God's revulsion. For I know that my teacher and Lord and God has said in the lowliness of the flesh: 'Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,' 4 and that before this He sang through the mouth of David: 'Lord, remember David and all his meekness.' 5 Again we read in another passage, 'Before glory the heart of a man shall be humble, and before ruin he shall be elated.' 6 Thus I implore you not to think that having received your letter I have been silent, nor attribute to me the dishonesty and negligence of others. For what reason would I, who am obliged to respond, be silent and by my silence repel your friendship, I who am accustomed to desire relations with the good and even to throw myself on their charity? Better are two than one, for if one falls, the other will lift him up, a three fold cord is not easily broken, and a brother who helps his brother shall be exalted. 7 Write to me, therefore, boldly, and conquer absence of bodies by frequent words. You should not grieve that you are destitute of those bodily eyes which ants, flies, and creeping things have, but rather you should rejoice that you have that eye of which it is said in the Song of Songs, 'You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, with one of your eyes,' 8 which is the eye with which God is seen and of which Moses speaks of when he says: 'I will now turn aside and see this great sight.' 9 Then we even read that some of the philosophers of this world have plucked out their eyes to drive all their thoughts to the depths of the mind. 10 And a Prophet says: 'Death has entered through your windows.' 11 And the Apostles hear: 'Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' 12 Thus they are commanded to lift up their eyes and to look on the white fields, for they are ready for harvest. 13 You bid me by my exhortations to slay in you Nebuchadnezzar and Rabshakeh and Nebuzaradan and Holofernes, but our help you would never request were they alive in you. They are dead within you, but with Zerubbabel and Joshua the son of Josedech the high priest, 14 and Ezra and of Nehemiah you have begun to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Nor do you put your wages into a bag full of holes, 15 but you lay up for yourself treasure in heaven, 16 and so if you seek my friendship, it is because you judge that I am a servant of Christ. My holy daughter Theodora, the sister of Lucinius of blessed memory, commends herself, and with this word of mine I commend her, that she not grow weary of the path on which she has entered, that she will come to the Holy Land only by much toiling through the wilderness, that she should not think that the work of virtue is perfected when she has come out from Egypt, but she must pass through snares innumerable to come to Mount Nebo and the River Jordan, 17 that she must receive circumcision again at Gilgal, that Jericho must fall before her, overthrown by the blasts of priestly trumpets, 18 that Adoni-zedec must be slain, that Ai and Hazor, once fairest of cities, must both fall.  St Jerome, Letter 76, To Abigaus 1 Ps 24.7 2 1 Tim 3.6 3 Jam 4.6 4 Mt 11.29 5 Ps 131.1  6 Prov 18.12  7 Eccl 4.9  8 Song 4.9  9 Exod 3.3  10 cf Democritus, Aulus Gellius Attic Nights 10.17 11 Jerem 9.21  12 Mt 5.28  13 Jn 4.23  14 1 Esd 3  15 Haggai 1.6  16 Mt 6.20  17 Numb 33.47-48  18 Josh 6.20

The Travails Of Seeking

Εκὰλεσα αὐτὸν, καὶ οὐχ ὑπήκουσέ μου. Ἀναστήσομαι καὶ κυκλώσω ἐν τῇ πόλει. Ἀναγνώσομαι τὸν νόμον, ἀναγνώσομαι τοὺς προφήτας, ἐρευνήσω τὰ Εὐαγγέλια. Ταῦτα δὲ κατανυγεῖσα τῷ Θείῳ πόθῳ φησί· Ἐπὶ κοίτην μου ἐν νυξίν. Κοίτην ὀνομάζει τὴν τελειοτέραν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μετουσίαν, καὶ νύκτα· λέγει τὸν τῆς κοίτης καιρόν. Διὰ δὲ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς νυκτὸς ἐνδείκνυται τῶν ἀοράτων τὴν θεωρίαν, καθ' ὁμοιότητα Μωῦσέως, τοῦ ἐν τῷ γνόφῳ γεγονότος ἐν ᾦ ἦν ὁ Θεός. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Οὐ γὰρ ᾔδειν τίς ἦν ὁ τρώσας με. Θεογνωσίαν μοι κοιμωμένῃ ἐνέσπειρεν ὁ Λόγος. Ταχέως διαναστᾶσα, ζητῶ τὸν τρώσαντα, καὶ παρακαλῷ αὐτῷ ὀφθῆναί μοι, καὶ περιέρχομαι ζητοῦσα τὸν ἀδελφιδοῦν μου. Ἅγιος Ἀθανάσιος, Εἰς Τα Ἀσματα Των Ἀσμάτων, Ἐκλογή Source: Migne PG 27.1348d-1349a

I called him and he did not answer me. I rose up and went about the city. 1 I read the Law, I read the Prophets, I study the Gospel. These things, she says, strike me with Divine love: On my bed in the night. 2 The bed it names the perfect participation in goodness, and the night as the right time for the bed. For by the name of night is indicated the contemplation of invisible things, as in the manner of Moses, who was in the darkness in which was God. 3 On the same. I did not know who it was that wounded me. While I was asleep the Word sowed Divine knowledge in me. Swiftly I rose up seeking the one who wounded me, and I cried out that he be shown to me, and I wandered about seeking my brother's son.  Saint Athanasius, Fragment on The Song of Songs 1 Song 3.2 2 Song 3.1 3 Exodus 20.21

The Foreknowledge Of God

Priusquam te formarem... Tria dicit, que ad consecracion pertinet, scilicet predestinacionis preordinacionem, gracie apposicionem et gradus sive poetestis collacionem. De primo dicit: Priusquam te formarem, id est: anima racionali, que forma hominis est, in specie hominis ponerem. Novi te, id est: luce predestinacionis ad graciam et gloriam preordinavi. Non enim novit Deus ad modum hominis. Noscit homo noticiam rei a re accipiendo, et hic intellectus sine passione non est, quia rem recipere pati quoddam est. Noscit Deus luce sapiencie res in formis suis constitudendo, et quod meneant in esse approbando. Vidit Deus cuncta que fecerat, et erant valde bona. Sic ergo oculi beneplaciti novit quibus graciam parat et gloriam. Invenisti graciam coram me, et te ipsum novi ex nomine. Novit Deus qui sunt eius. Sic per oppositum de malis quos ad graciam et gloriam non preparavit, dicitur: Ego iurabo illis: quia uumquam novi vos, non quia in noticia simplicis visionis malos non previderit, sed quia lucem gracie ex gratis oculis suis super eos non effudit, sicut de sanctis dicitur: In via hac qua gradieris, firmabo super te oculos meos. Mecum ibit Chanaan, et ponam oculos meos super eum. Secundum hoc ergo, quia noticia Dei a rebus nihil accipit, sed pocius res in esse constituit, ideo eodem modo novit res antequam fiant et postquam factae sunt. Vocat ea que non sunt tamquam ea que sunt. Fuerunt tamen heretici, a philosophis, qui stoici vocantur, occasionem erroris accipientes, qui propter hec et similia, animas ab aeterno esse dixerunt, vel ab inicio mundi simul creatas. Et quia uniuscuiusque animam novit Deus, ideo dicere quod Ieremiam novit antequam nasceretur, et illis obviat glosa que dicit: non quia ante concepcionem fuerit, ut heretici suspiciantur, sed quia prescivit eum Dominus, cui facienda iam facta sunt, qui vocat ea que non sunt tamquam ea que sunt. Sanctus Albertus Magnus Super Jeremiam Source: here

Before I formed you.. 1 Three things he speaks which pertain to consecration, certainly the preordination of predestination, and the application of grace and the degree or amount of power. Concerning the first of these He says, 'Before I formed you,' that is, before I placed the rational soul which is the form of man in the species of man. I knew you, that is, in the light of predestination I preordained you to grace and glory. For God does not know according to the way of men. Man knows by receiving from the thing an awareness of the thing, and this understanding is not without passion, because to receive things is a certain disturbance. God knows in the light of wisdom which establishes things in their forms and they remain in being by His approval. 'God saw everything which He made and it was very good.' 2 So with benevolent eye He knows those He prepares for grace and glory. 'You have found grace before me and I know you by name.' 3 'God knows those who are His.' 4 And contrariwise of the wicked ones He has not prepared to grace and glory, He says, 'I shall swear to them, I never knew you.' 5 not because with the awareness of simple vision He does not foresee, but because He does not pour the light of grace from the eyes of grace over them, just as concerning His holy ones He says, 'In this way which you shall walk, I shall fix my eyes over you.' 6 With me he shall go to Canaan, 'And I shall place over him my eyes.' 7 According to this, therefore, the knowledge of God receives nothing from things, but rather He establishes things in their being, and therefore in the same way He knows things before they are and after they are made. 'He calls things that are not as if they were.' 8 There were certain heretics, philosophers called Stoics, who received an occasion of error, who on account of this and similar things, spoke of souls as being created from eternity, or at the beginning of the world. And because He knows the soul of everyone, therefore He says that He knows Jeremiah before he was born, but against this there is a gloss which says, 'Not that he was before his conception, as the heretics assume, but because the Lord foreknew him, to whom things to be already are, and He calls those things which are not as if they are.' 9 Saint Albert The Great, On Jeremiah 1 Jerem 1.5 2 Gen 1.31 3 Exodus 33.12 4 2 Tim 2.19 5 Mt 7.23 6 Ps 31.8 7 Gen 44.21 8 Rom 4. 17 9 St Jerome Pl 23.682 and PL 114.9

A Certain Sight

Καὶ ἀφελῶ τὴν χεῖρα καὶ τὸτε ὅψει τὰ ὁπίσω μου· τὸ δὲ πρόσωπόν μου οὐκ ὀφθήσεται σοι. Ἡ μὲν προκόσμιος ὕπαρξίς τε και θειότης δηλοῦται διὰ τοῦ προσώπου· ἡ δὲ δημιουργία καὶ πρόνοια διὰ τῶν ὀπίσω. Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Ἐκλογαὶ Εἰς Την Ἐξοδον Source: Migne PG 39.1116a

'I shall remove my hand and you shall see behind me, but my face you shall not see.' 1 The Divine nature which has existed from before the beginning of the world, is what 'face' indicates, and creation and providence is what 'behind' signifies. Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Exodus, Fragment 1 Exod 33.23

The Good Of Misfortune

Nam cum tanta, quantam semper admiror, indole tua, ab ineunte adolescentia adhuc infirmo rationis atque lapsante vestigio humanam vitam errorum omnium plenissimam ingredereris; excepit te circumfluentia divitiarum, quae illam aetatem atque animum, quae pulchra et honesta videbantur avide sequentem, illecebrosis coeperat absorbere gurgitibus, nisi inde te fortunae illi flatus, qui putantur adversi, eripuissent pene mergentem. Si res secundae studio sapientiae obsint. An vero si edentem te munera ursorum et nunquam ibi antea visa spectacula civibus nostris, theatricus plausus semper prosperrimus accepisset; si stultorum hominum, quorum immensa turba est, conflatis et consentientibus vocibus ferreris ad coelum; si nemo tibi auderet esse inimicus; si municipales tabulae te non solum civium, sed etiam vicinorum patronum aere signarent; collocarentur statuae, influerent honores, adderentur etiam potestates, quae municipalem habitum supercrescerent; conviviis quotidianis mensae opimae struerentur; quod cuique esset necesse, quod cuiusque etiam deliciae sitirent, indubitanter peteret, indubitanter hauriret, multa etiam non petentibus funderentur; resque ipsa familiaris diligenter a tuis fideliterque administrata, idoneam se tantis sumptibus paratamque praeberet: tu interea viveres in aedificiorum exquisitissimis molibus, in nitore balnearum, in tesseris quas honestas non respuit, in venatibus, in conviviis, in ore clientium, in ore civium, in ore denique populorum humanissimus, liberalissimus, mundissimus, fortunatissimus, ut fuisti, iactareris: quisquam tibi, Romaniane, beatae alterius vitae, quae sola beata est, quisquam, quaeso, mentionem facere auderet? Quisquam tibi persuadere posset, non solum te felicem non esse; sed eo maxime miserum, quo tibi minime videreris? Nunc vero quam te breviter admonendum tot et tanta, quae pertulisti adversa fecerunt? Non enim tibi alienis exemplis persuadendum est quam fluxa et fragilia, et plena calamitatum sint omnia, quae bona mortales putant; cum ita ex aliqua parte bene expertus sis, ut ex te caeteris persuadere possimus.  Illud ergo, illud tuum, quo semper decora et honesta desiderasti; quo te liberalem magis quam divitem esse maluisti; quo nunquam concupisti esse potentior quam iustior, nunquam adversitatibus improbitatibusque cessisti: illud ipsum, inquam, quod in te divinum nescio quo vitae huius somno veternoque sopitum est, variis illis durisque iactationibus secreta providentia excitare decrevit. Evigila, evigila, oro te; multum, mihi crede, gratulaberis quod pene nullis prosperitatibus quibus tenentur incauti, mundi huius tibi dona blandita sunt: quae meipsum capere moliebantur quotidie ista cantantem, nisi me pectoris dolor ventosam professionem abicere et in philosophiae gremium confugere coegisset. Ipsa me nunc in otio, quod vehementer optavimus, nutrit ac fovet: ipsa me penitus ab illa superstitione, in quam te mecum praecipitem dederam, liberavit. Ipsa enim docet, et vere docet nihil omnino colendum esse, totumque contemni oportere, quidquid mortalibus oculis cernitur, quidquid ullus sensus attingit. Ipsa verissimum et secretissimum Deum perspicue se demonstraturam promittit, et iam iamque quasi per lucidas nubes ostentare dignatur. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, Contra Academicos, Liber I Source: Migne PL 32.906-097

With such great innate talent, as ever makes me wonder, from your earliest youth, when reason's progress is but weak and faltering, you entered into this human life abundant with every error.  An excess of riches flowed around you, which at that age of the soul which avidly follows what seems beautiful and good would have begun to overwhelm it by the floods of pleasure, unless it was then that the winds of fortune, which are thought adverse, snatched you away, just when you were on the point of sinking. But truly if in giving bear fights and spectacles never seen before by our cities, you were always received with the most abundant applause of the spectators, if you were borne off to the skies by the unanimous and united voices of foolish men, the crowd of which is very great, if no one ever dared to be your foe, if municipal tablets were to proclaim in bronze that you are a benefactor not only of your fellow citizens but also of the neighbouring peoples, if they raised up statues of you, poured out honours on you, and even added to the powers greater than is customary in municipal appointments, if every day your tables were sumptuously strewn with feasts, if any man might without worry ask of you whatever he needed, or his delicacy desired, and be assured of receiving it, and if many things were lavished even on those who did not seek them, if your estate itself, carefully and faithfully administered by your own people, were sufficiently capable and organized to meet such great expenses, and if meanwhile you yourself were to live in exquisite buildings in luxury, in shinning baths, amid dice-games honour does not forbid, and with hunting, and with feasting, if in the mouths of your dependents and your fellow citizens and all the people you were proclaimed as a most kind man, most generous, most elegant, and most fortunate, would anyone, Romanianus, I ask you, dare to make mention to you of another happiness which alone is happiness? Who would be able to persuade you, since it did not appear to you that it was so, that not only were you not happy but that you were especially wretched? Now, however, have you not been swiftly admonished concerning all such things by the many reverses that you have suffered? Indeed one need not persuade you with examples of others concerning how fleeting, unreliable, and full of calamities are all things which mortals think good, when by you we will able to persuade others. That part of you, then, by which you have ever desired the honourable and the good, by which you have preferred to be generous rather than wealthy, by which you have never desired to be more powerful but more just, by which you have never given yourself up to adversity or dishonesty, that which in you, I say, is Divine, which has somehow been lulled to sleep by the long dream of this life, Providence, by various hard blows, working in secret, has decided to rouse up in you. Wake up, wake up, I beg you. Believe me, you will be most joyful that this world had scarcely charmed you with its gifts, by which it lays hold of the unwary, which things strove to seize me, I who sang of them every  day, had not chest pains compelled me to give up my profession of windy rhetoric and flee to the lap of philosophy. She now nourishes and cherishes me in that leisure which we have so much desired. She has freed me entirely from that heresy into which I had cast you along with myself. For she teaches, and teaches truly, that nothing should be worshipped and that all such things should be spurned which are discerned by mortal eyes, or are the object of any sense-perception. She promises to make known clearly the true and hidden God and is indeed now on the very point of condescending to present Him as through shining clouds. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Against the Academics, from Book 1

A Warning To One Who Would Go Back

Τί σοι καὶ τῇ ὁδῷ Αἰγύπτου, πιεῖν ὕδωρ Γηών; πρὸς τὸν παλίνστροφον λαὸν ὁ προφήτης φησὶν, ἢ μᾶλλον δι' ἐκείνου Θεός. Τί σοὶ καὶ τῇ συγχύσει ἥς ἀπηλλάγης χειρὶ Θεοῦ κραταιᾷ και βραχίονι ὑψηλῷ; Τί τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀψάμενος, καὶ τῆς ἄκρας φιλοσοφίας γευσάμενος, εἰς κακίαν παλινοστεῖς, οὐκ ἔχων τὸ Γραφικὸν κατὰ νοὺν. Τὸν ἀποστρέφοντα ἀπὸ δικαιοσύνης ἐπὶ ἁμαρτίαν ἐτοιμάσει ὁ Κύριος εἰς ῥομφαίαν; Φυγε τὸν κλύδωνα, καὶ φύγε τὰ κύματα. Ἐπετίμησε Χριστὸς τῷ ἀνέμῳ. Οὐδείς σε χειμῶνος καταλήψεται πεῖρα, εἰ τὸν λιμένα κρατοίης Χριστόι. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΡΙΕ', Ἠλιᾳ Μονακῳ Source: Migne PG 78.260c

'Why do you go on the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Geon?'1 as the Prophet said to a fugitive people, or rather as God said through him. Why are you so confused that you would take yourself from the hand of God and the uplifted arm? Why after attaining to virtue and tasting the heights of philosophy, would you turn back to evil, not having that passage of Scripture in mind which says:'God has prepared a sword for him who turns from righteousness to sin'? 2 Flee the tempest, flee the waves. Christ commanded the wind. You would be in no danger from the storm if you held to the port of Christ. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 115, To Elias the Monk 1 Jer 2.18 LXX  2 cf Ezek 18.24

Hope And Liberation

Ὁ τὰ ἐνεστῶα θλιβερὰ προδοκίᾳ τῶν μεταγενεστέρων ἀγαθῶν προσδεχόμενος γνῶσιν ἀληθείας εὕρηκε, καὶ ὀργῆς καὶ λύπης ταχέως ἀπαλλαγήσεται. Ἅγιος Μάρκος ὁ Ἐρημίτης, Περὶ Τῶν Οἰομένων Ἐξ Ἔργων Δικαιοῦσθαι Source:  Migne PG 65.953d

He who is prepared for grievous troubles in the hope of goods to come has discovered the knowledge of truth, and he is swiftly delivered both from anger and sorrow. Saint Mark The Ascetic, from On Those Who Think Themselves Justified By Works

Wickedness And Judgement

θαυμάσαι πρόσωπον ἀσεβοῦς οὐ καλόν οὐδὲ ὅσιον ἐκκλίνειν τὸ δίκαιον ἐν κρίσει. Ὁ τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν τῷ διαβόλῳ κακίαν ἀποδεχόμενος, καὶ κατ' αὐτὴν ἐνεργῶν θεωρίᾳ καὶ λόγῳ, οὗτος θαυμάζει τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ ἀσεβοῦς· τὸ δίκαιον δὲ ἐν κρίσει, ἐν λόγῳ τε σωμάτων, οὐ καλὸν ἐκκλῖναι ὅσιον. Ὠριγένης, Ἐκλογαὶ Εἰς Παροιμίας  Source: Migne PG 17.204a

To admire the person of a godless man is not good, nor is it holy to fall from righteousness in judgement.1 He who by his own evil receives the devil into himself, thus thinking and pondering according to his rule, is the one who admires the person of the godless. It is not good for righteousness in judgement, nor the appraisal of corporeal things, to fall from holiness. Origen, On Proverbs, Fragment 1 Prov 18.5 LXX

Dealing With Anger

Rex. Utinam, pater, retribuere possim inimicis meis juxta impetum et desiderium irae meae : irasci possum et plusquam volo, sed retributionem in mea non habeo potestate ; ille qui omnia potest retribuat abundanter facientibus mihi superbiam et accipiat anima mea de illorum confusione laetitiam. Abbas. Illustrissime rex, proprium est hominis quandoque irasci, sed cavendum est ne ira convertatur in odium et peccatum, sicut scriptum est: Irascimini, et nolite peccare. Prohibet autem Deus ne cadat Sol super iracundiam vestram, et, ut hoc simpliciter exponamus, induret ira nostra a mane usque ad vesperum. Habeamus itaque in omnibus patientiam: si quis offenderit nos, personae peccatum habeamus odio, non personam; hoc enim perfectorum odium sive perfectum, sicut scriptum est: Perfecto odio oderam illos. Abjectis ergo maledictionibus reddamus maledicentibus et malefacientibus bona pro malis: habeamus exemplum in beato Stephano, qui pro persequutoribus suis oravit et obdormivit in Domino. Ille etiam, qui docet hominem scientiam, suo nos docet et informat exemplo, dum pro suis crucifixoribus orans, Pater, inquit, dimitte illis, quia nesciunt quid faciunt. Si maledixerimus hominibus, maledictio convertetur in sinum nostrum, et ira quam habemus erga illum, qui Dei est imago, omnem nobis reddet iratum. Si quis, pater, multos haberet filios et aliquis illorum alium flagellaret in oculis patris, credo quod non irasceretur filio pater flagellato, sed potius flagellanti. Coelesti ergo patri reservemus omne judicium, nec faciamus malum aut oremus malum malefactoribus nostris, ne nobis fiat oratio nostra in peccatum. Petrus Blenensis, Dialogus Inter Regem Henricum II et Abbatem Bonaevallensem Source:  Migne PL 207.980a-d

King: That, father, I might return to my enemies according to the passion and desire of my anger. I am able to be angry and more I wish to do it, but in me I do not have the power to return it. That one who is able to do everything, may he return it abundantly to those who are proud before me and may my soul receive joy from their confounding. Abbot: Illustrious king, sometimes anger comes upon a man, but let us be wary lest we turn our anger into hate and sin, as it is written, 'Be angry and sin not.' 1 Indeed God prohibits us from letting the sun go down on our anger, 2 and if we may explain this simply, makes numb our anger from morning to night. So let us have patience in all things. If someone offends us, let us hate the sin of the person, but not the person, for this is the hatred of those who are perfect, or the perfect hatred, as it is written, 'With perfect hatred I have hated them.' 3 Therefore let a refusal to speak ill of those who speak ill of us be our return to those who speak ill of us and to evil doers let us return good for evil. Let us have an example in blessed Stephen, who prayed for his persecutors and slept in the Lord. 4 He who indeed teaches men wisdom 5 teaches and fashions us with His example, praying during his Crucifixion: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.' 6 If we curse men, the curse returns into our own laps, and the anger which we have against another, he who is an image of God, shall be returned to us. If there is a father of many sons, and one of them whips another before the eyes of his father, I believe that the father will not be angry with the one who is whipped but rather with the one who is doing the whipping. To our heavenly Father is reserved all judgement. Let us neither do evil to those who do evil to us, nor let us pray for evil to come to them, lest our prayer be accounted a sin. Peter of Blois, from a Dialogue Between King Henry the Second and the Abbot of Bonneval 1 Ps 4.5 2 Ephes 4.26 3 Ps 138.22 4 Acts 7.59 5 Ps 93.10 6 Lk 23.34

Mercy And Benvolence

Fidelis sermo: et de his volo te confirmare; ut solliciti sint ad effectum bonorum operum ii, qui crediderunt Deo. Haec sunt bona et utilia hominibus. Nihil tam apertum, quia misericordia atque humanitas bona ad praesens, et utilis in futurum; et hic enim habet laudem, et in judicii die coronam. Omnis enim Deo credens, misericordiae debet studere, per quam vivit. Ut in haec ergo esset sollicitus rector populi, admonetur. Ambrosiaster, In Epistolam Beati Pauli Ad Titum Source: Migne PL 17.503a-b

The saying is true, and in these things I wish to strengthen you, that they who believe in God be anxious for the doing of good works. Those things which are good and useful for men.  1  Nothing is so clear that mercy and benevolence are goods in the present and useful in the future; here it has praise and on the day of judgement a crown. For all who believe in God should be eager for mercy, by which mercy they live. Thus he admonishes him about these things that he be a vigilant guide of the people. Ambrosiaster, from the Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul To Titus 1 Titus 3.8