Resultados19 letters/passages
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.02
One more thing: I've urged our gracious lords [the Emperor and Empress] as forcefully as I can to allow you to come here to Rome — to the threshold of Peter, prince of the apostles — with your full dignity restored, and to live with me for as long as God wills. For however long I am given to be near you, we could ease …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.02
Book I, Letter 27 To Anastasius, Archbishop of Corinth [a major city in Greece]. Gregory to Anastasius. The more God's judgments exceed our understanding, the more they ought to inspire something like awe. When reason can't follow, the only honest response is to lower your head and go where the will of our Ruler leads. …
leo_great · c. 442 · score 0.02
This must not continue. The appointment of one who is to govern all must proceed from the consent of all. A man who is to preside over a community must be chosen by that community. Otherwise he will be rejected or despised by those over whom he was imposed, and a peace that should have been preserved will be disturbed …
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.02
… gn to have him excommunicated and removed. It is addressed to Anastasius at the imperial court in Constantinople, in hopes that the central government will finally intervene. The letter reveals the desperate situation of a provincial bishop in a collapsing frontier zone — caught between barbarian raiders from outside, …
leo_great · c. 442 · score 0.02
Leo to his beloved brother Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica. I. He reminds him of his appointment as papal vicar and its responsibilities The divine kindness has so ordered it, dear brother, that some things are administered by us in person and some things are executed through you as our representative, so that by di …
gregory_great · c. 599 · score 0.02
Here begins the letter of Rechared, King of the Goths, addressed to the blessed Gregory, Bishop of Rome. Rechared to the holy lord and most blessed pope, Bishop Gregory. When the Lord in His mercy led us to break away from the impious Arian heresy, and the holy Catholic Church received us into her arms on the true path …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.01
Book I, Letter 26 To Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. [Note: The opening of this letter largely repeats Gregory's earlier letter to Anastasius (Letter 7 in this collection). It picks up with new content after the phrase "you who stand on the shore of virtue."] As for your calling me "the mouth and lantern of the Lord" …
augustine_hippo · c. 423 · score 0.01
Their advance is relentless. The cities that stand in their path will face siege, destruction, and massacre. The bishops in those cities will face the question you have asked me. My answer, for myself, is this: I will not flee. I cannot. My people cannot flee, and I will not leave them. If the Lord takes me, he takes m …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.01
Faithful bishops have been driven into exile, and wolves have been installed in their places, tearing apart Christ's flock. The churches stand empty; the wilderness is full of weeping congregations [under Emperor Valens, pro-Arian policies led to the exile of Nicene bishops and the suppression of orthodox worship acros …
synesius_cyrene · c. 402 · score 0.01
To Anastasius [one of Synesius's closest friends and an important courtier in Constantinople, tutor to the children of Emperor Arcadius]. Some god or argument or spirit has persuaded Sosenas that certain places attract or repel divine blessings. Since things have not gone well for him in our part of the world, he has c …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
None of this can be achieved without great labor and trouble. But let us call to mind the labors of those who went before us, and what we endure will not seem hard. For "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). And again: "We were pressed beyond measure, above our strength, so that we d …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
Gregory to Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14) — for that great river which once left the rocky shores of Antioch dry has at last returned to its proper channel, watering the valleys below and bringing forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty-f …
augustine_hippo · c. 423 · score 0.01
Augustine to Bishop Honoratus, greetings. You have asked me the most difficult practical question a bishop can face: when the barbarians approach, should the bishop flee? I have thought about this for a long time — longer than you might expect, because the question is not hypothetical for us in Africa. The barbarians a …
gregory_great · c. 599 · score 0.01
Gregory to Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch. I received the letter of your Fraternity, firmly professing the faith, and I gave great thanks to Almighty God. Even when the shepherds of his flock change, he still guards the faith he once delivered to the holy Fathers. The excellent preacher Paul says, "No one can lay any fo …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.01
To the bishops of the Western Church: Brothers, Even in the middle of everything we're suffering here, God has given me real comfort. Bishop Athanasius [the great champion of Nicene orthodoxy, then bishop of Alexandria] forwarded your letters to me, and they were exactly what I needed to read. Your faith is solid. You …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.01
Gregory to Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. Your Blessedness, your letter was like rest to the exhausted, medicine to the sick, water to the thirsty, shade to someone burning in the sun. Your words didn't feel like they came from a human tongue at all — it was as though your very soul were speaking directly, laying ba …
augustine_hippo · c. 410 · score 0.01
Augustine to Anastasius, greetings. I thank you for your letter, brother. Your question — about the relationship between the active life and the contemplative life — is one I have thought about for years, and I still do not have a fully satisfying answer. But let me share what I have. The contemplative life — the life …
basil_caesarea · c. 359 · score 0.01
We confess one essence because the divine nature is common to all three: what the Father is, the Son is, and the Spirit is. But we confess three hypostases because each possesses distinctive, incommunicable properties: the Father is unbegotten; the Son is begotten; the Spirit proceeds. The oneness is in the nature. The …
basil_caesarea · c. 359 · score 0.01
Many people studying the sacred doctrines fail to distinguish between what is common to the essence or substance, and what belongs to the individual hypostases. They end up thinking it makes no difference whether you say "essence" or "hypostasis." The result: some who take these statements at face value are happy to sp …