Ambrose explains how the delighteful book of the psalms provides a true gymnasium for the soul with exercises to develop every virtue, and condense all parts of the Old Covenant - law, prophecy, and history and foreshadow the New Covenant as well, predicting as they...
Dorotheus, a sixth century abbot, here speaks here of a shallow sort of happiness and peace that disappears when hardship comes or offense is given. The true "peace that passes understanding" cannot easily be disturbed by adversity or robbed by those giving offense....
St. Dorotheus, a wise abbot from the early Church, here explains why we get so ruffled by the criticism of others. He illustrates the value of fraternal correction and self-accusation in the spiritual life. ...
Leo the Great explains how the Ascenion increases our faith in what is unseen, namely the divinity of Christ, and how our Redeemer's visible presence after the Ascension passes into the sacraments....
This excerpt on the sacrament of baptism from St. Basil the Great’s book On the Holy Spirit (ca. AD 360) describes how baptism fulfills what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 about being born again in water and the Spirit. He also here outlines...
Cyril of Alexandria here emphasizes that the risen body of Jesus Christ, received in the Eucharist, gives life to those who receive it, expelling death and corruption....
This reading by St. Bernadino of Siena on St. Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus, is so clear and powerful that it is used by the Church for the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19 to honor the Guardian of the Lord and his...
This excerpt from St. Gregory of Agrigentum is an example of the Early Church Father's spiritual interpretation of Scripture whereby realities of the Old Covenant are seen as pointing beyond themselves to Jesus Christ and the realities of the new dispensation. In this case, the...
Tract of Jerome against Helvidius defending the perpetual virginity of Mary, the Mother of Jesus....
Gregory of Nyssa on the famous statement of Ecclesiastes "there is a time to be born and a time to die." He interprets this as a reference to the death and new birth of salvation, dying and rising with Christ through faith and baptism....