Resultados18 letters/passages
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.02
… to recognize the devil's favorite instrument. The basilica was surrendered. The imperial hangings were removed. The people sang hymns of relief and thanksgiving. But even then, a notary came to me with a warning: "Ambrose, you despise the emperor. I see that you wish for death." I answered: "God grant that I do not des …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.02
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most gracious Emperor Valentinian. Since the illustrious Symmachus, Prefect of the City, has petitioned your Grace to restore the altar removed from the Roman Senate house, and since you, Emperor — young in years but a veteran in faith — rejected the prayer of the pagans, …
ambrose_milan · c. 386 · score 0.02
… plays the same role against the church of Milan. The basilica was released. The imperial cloths were removed. The people sang hymns of thanksgiving. But a notary came to me privately and delivered a threat: "Ambrose, you despise the emperor. I see that you wish for death." I replied: "God grant that I do not deserve it …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
Ambrose to his most beloved sister Marcellina — greetings. You will have heard reports of what has happened here, and I want you to have the truth from me directly, not from rumor. The court demanded that I hand over the Portian Basilica [a church outside the walls of Milan] for the use of the Arians. I refused. They t …
ambrose_milan · c. 386 · score 0.02
… cials had been sent from the palace to seize the Portian basilica — hanging the imperial curtains as a sign of confiscation. When the people heard this, they surged toward the Portian basilica. I remained at the altar and began the liturgy. Then soldiers were sent to occupy the basilica. But when they arrived and saw t …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.02
… nto a bridle for his horse [a tradition that the nail was incorporated into the imperial diadem or horse's bridle]. This is rich in meaning: the instrument of Christ's humiliation became the instrument of imperial authority. The nail that pinned God to the wood now guided the horse of the Christian emperor. Power submi …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.01
But Rome's greatness was built by her soldiers, not her priests. Regulus did not consult the augurs before marching to Carthage. Scipio did not sacrifice to Victory before destroying it. The battles that made Rome were won by Roman arms, not Roman altars. And the rites that Symmachus defends — the very rites he claims …
ambrose_milan · c. 381 · score 0.01
… officials had been sent from the palace to seize the Portian basilica — hanging imperial curtains as a sign of confiscation, while part of the crowd was already heading there. I stayed at my post and began celebrating the Eucharist. During the offering, I heard that a certain Castulus — an Arian priest, the people said …
ambrose_milan · c. 397 · score 0.01
The clerical life and the monastic life are not the same, though they share much. A good monk is not automatically a good bishop, any more than a good soldier is automatically a good general. The skills are different. But the foundation — discipline, prayer, self-denial, obedience — must be the same. Do not choose a ma …
ambrose_milan · c. 397 · score 0.01
They dress like monks but live like libertines. They affect holiness in public and pursue indulgence in private. They have drawn others after them into the same ruin. I say plainly: a man who abandons the monastic life for the world has not found freedom; he has found a different kind of slavery. The flesh he thought h …
ambrose_milan · c. 397 · score 0.01
Ambrose, a servant of Christ, called to be a bishop, to the church of Vercellae and to all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: grace be fulfilled in you from God the Father and his only-begotten Son, in the Holy Spirit. I am spent with grief that the church of God among you is still without a bishop, and tha …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.01
I believed that gods of wood and metal could protect me. Experience has taught me otherwise. Hannibal came to my gates despite all the rites I performed. The Gauls seized the Capitol while the geese screamed and the priests chanted. My gods did not save me then. It was Roman courage that saved me — not Roman religion." …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to the faithful. Consider the widow of Zarephath. She had nothing — one handful of flour and a small amount of oil. She was gathering sticks to prepare a last meal for herself and her son, and then they would lie down to die of starvation (1 Kings 17:12). Into this extremity walked Elijah, and he asked for food …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to Romulus — greetings. You have asked about the status of widows in the Church, and your question comes at a good time, because the matter is often misunderstood. The widow who chooses not to remarry and devotes herself to prayer, fasting, and good works occupies an honored place in the Church (1 Timothy 5:3-1 …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to Horontianus — greetings in the Lord. Isaac is the child of promise, and his life teaches us about the soul that waits on God. Consider his birth: it was impossible by nature. Sarah was old and barren, and Abraham was beyond the age of fatherhood. Yet God had spoken, and what God speaks comes to pass. Isaac's …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to his most dear sister Marcellina — greetings. You ask me to write down what I have been preaching about virginity, and since you are the one person whose example gives me the right to speak on the subject, I comply. I know that this teaching offends many — especially the mothers of Milan, who suspect I am dis …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to his sister Marcellina. You wanted to know how the feast of Saint Agnes went. I can tell you — it went better than I expected, and not in the way I planned. I preached on Agnes herself — how this girl, barely twelve years old, faced the executioner with a composure that veterans of the arena could not match. …
ambrose_milan · c. 385 · score 0.01
Ambrose to his most dear sister Marcellina — greetings. Today marks another anniversary of your consecration, and I cannot let it pass without writing to you. You have now lived the consecrated life for longer than most people have lived at all, and the grace of that vocation has only deepened with time. When we were c …