This excerpt from an festal letter by Saint Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria in the 4th century, emphasizes the proper spiritual preparation for the feast of Easter. We must purify ourselves for the worthy celebration of the festival, which is better commemorated by deeds than...
This Holy week reading on imitating Christ's death by being buried with him through baptism amplifies St. Paul's words in Romans 6:11 that in the sacrament of baptism we are baptized into Christ's death, being buried as it were with him under the saving waters...
Saint Jerome on the nature of true repentance and the gracious mercy of God, our loving Father....
Mercy, says Gregory of Zanianzen, is by no means the least of the beatitudes. It is what Christ has asked for rather than sacrifice; he asks us to show him mercy by showing mercy to the poor....
St. Augustine here speaks of Christ's laying down of his life, handed over to us in the Eucharist, as the perfection of love. Augustine's words, written in the early 5th century, are also compelling evidence for the practice and meaning of devotion to the...
This powerfully poetic sermon on the Cross of Christ as the Cosmic Tree was preached during Holy Week in the early church, somewhere around the 5th century, by someone whose name has been lost. It was wrongly attributed to the great preacher St. John Chrysostom....
John Chrysostom warns against giving honor to Christ by adorning the Church building to the neglect of the poor and suffering members of Christ's body, the Church in the truest sense. ...
Augustine reflects on the nature of a true sacrifice pleasing to God. Works of mercy and acts of compassion qualify, but the most perfect sacrifice is that of the Whole Body of Christ, head and members (Totus Christus), which is offered to God in every...
Augustine describes the theological virtue of hope in terms of expanding the desire of our hearts to see God face to face, stretching the capacity of our souls to contain more of the fullness of his presence....
St. Ephrem testifies to the rich, inexhaustible treasure that is the Sacred Scriptures. The Bible is like a Spring which never runs dry, which always has the ability to satisfy our thirst for God and his truth...