Resultados19 letters/passages
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.02
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. 381 · score 0.02
To my sister, dearer to me than my eyes and life. Since you ask anxiously in every letter about the church here, let me tell you what is happening. The day after I received your letter — in which you said your dreams were troubling you — the pressure of heavy troubles began. This time it was not the Portian basilica ou …
ambrose_milan · c. 386 · score 0.02
To my sister, dearer to me than eyes and life. Since you ask anxiously in every letter about the state of the church here, let me tell you what is happening. The day after I received your letter — in which you mentioned that your dreams were troubling you — a storm of heavy troubles began. This time it was not the Port …
ambrose_milan · c. 383 · score 0.02
I turned my temples red with the blood of animals, I bowed before dead stones, I honored gods who were demons. Now I have been taught better. I am ashamed of my past, not proud of it. I do not beg for my old errors to be restored. I beg you to leave them buried." If length of custom were an argument for truth, then the …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.02
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 0.02
But when they arrived and found the people assembled in prayer, they joined the congregation. When word reached us that the soldiers had come over, the joy was tremendous. It was Easter, and the troops sent to enforce the emperor's will had defected to Christ. I preached. I compared our situation to Job's trials — espe …
ambrose_milan · c. 386 · score 0.01
I pointed out that even Job's greatest trial came not from his enemies but from his own wife, who told him to curse God and die [Job 2:9]. Women, I said, are often the instrument through which the devil attacks — Eve in the garden, Jezebel against Elijah, Herodias against John the Baptist. And now the empress mother Ju …
ambrose_milan · c. 380 · score 0.01
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. 383 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most blessed prince and most merciful Emperor Valentinian. When the illustrious Symmachus, Prefect of the City, submitted his memorial to your Clemency requesting that the altar removed from the Roman Senate house be restored to its place, you, Emperor — though still young in years — proved your …
ambrose_milan · c. 389 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most merciful prince and most blessed Emperor Theodosius. I am always burdened with cares, most blessed Emperor, but I have never been in such distress as now — because I see that I must guard against anything that could be charged to me as sacrilege. I beg you: hear me patiently. If I am unwort …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.01
Ambrose, Bishop, to the most merciful prince and most blessed Emperor Theodosius. I am constantly burdened with cares, most blessed Emperor, but I have never been in such distress as now. I see that I must take every precaution against anything that might be charged to me as approaching sacrilege. I beg you: hear me wi …
ambrose_milan · c. 389 · score 0.01
Either way, the church loses. Is that your intention? I am not saying that the synagogue should have been burned. I am saying that the remedy you have chosen is worse than the offense. Punish the rioters, if you must — but do not compel a bishop to rebuild with his own money a place where Christ is blasphemed. That is …
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. 389 · score 0.01
To my brother's sister — greetings. You were good enough to write that your holiness was still anxious, because I had written that I was anxious too. I am surprised you did not receive my later letter, in which I reported that the matter had been resolved in my favor. Let me tell you the full story. When reports arrive …
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. 388 · score 0.01
Punish the rioters if justice demands it — but do not compel a Christian bishop to build a synagogue. That is not justice. That is a triumph of those who deny Christ over those who confess him. If you will not hear me as a counselor, hear me at least as an intercessor. I would rather owe you gratitude for mercy than be …
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. 389 · score 0.01
I reminded them of Julian the Apostate, who had tried the same thing in reverse and failed. When I came down from the pulpit, the emperor said to me: "You have been preaching about me." I replied: "I addressed what concerned your soul's welfare." He said the order about the synagogue was too harsh — he had already modi …
ambrose_milan · c. 388 · score 0.01
If he obeys, he becomes an apostate — building with Christian hands and Christian money a place where Christ is denied. If he disobeys, he becomes a martyr. Either way, the church loses and the synagogue wins. Is this truly your intention? I do not argue that the synagogue should have been burned. But the remedy is wor …