What makes a particular Church Council Ecumenical? How many have fit this definition down through history, and what is their importance and authority? The Catholic and Orthodox Churches have related but somewhat different answers to these questions....
The first in a 4 part series on the Magisterium, or sacred teaching office, of the Catholic Church, explaining the relation between Church authority and biblical authority, and how written documents, even inspired writings of the BIble, require authentic, authoritative interpretation....
Ambrose, speaking to newly baptized Christians in the fourth century, shows how the reality of the eucharist is the true bread from heaven of which manna was only the symbol and shadow. It is the heavenly banquet set before us on the abundant table...
Speaking to new Christians, about to be baptized, Cyril of Jerusalem urges them to acknowledge their sins and wash themselves clean, to empty themselves so as to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the supernatural seal conveyed through the anointing with sacred chrism following baptism....
Clement of Rome here speaks out against schisms and division in the Church of Corinth at the end of the first century. He makes clear that every effort must be made to restore and preserve unity and brotherly love in the body of Christ....
Clement's letter to the Corinthians, one of the earliest Christian documents after the New Testament writings, is focused on restoring unity and harmony in the church following rebellion against the presbyters of the Corinthian Church. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']L[/dropcaps]et the man truly possessed by...
St. Augustine explains how King Solomon was a prototype or symbol of Jesus Christ and how the Jerusalem Temple was likewise an image or figure of the Church. Only those who build with the Lord build up the church effectively. This passage is...
This excerpt from the Didache, provides a fascinating glimpse into how the Eucharist was celebrated by Christians of the late first or early second century....
Augustine shows how, inasmuch as Jesus Christ, the son of God, became man, he himself was the subject of predestination. By divine grace, not by human merits, Jesus was predestined to be of the line of David according to his sacred humanity....
Jerome shows that the living waters & springs for which the deer longs in Psalm 42, is in fact the Trinity. In so doing, he also provides an explanation of what Jesus meant by calling the apostles "fishers of men." ...