John the Baptist (aka the forerunner is the only Saint other than the Virgin Mary whose birthday is marked by a liturgical feast. Here Augustine brings out the similarities and contrasts between the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and that of his cousin, who...
The Fatherhood of God has come under fire with the rise of feminism. If we know that God is pure spirit who transcends male and female, masculine and feminine, why preserve what some believe to be the antiquated, patriarchal practice of referring to the divinity...
This selection on the cross comes from Hans Urs von Balthasar's book The Heart of the World. This beautiful mediation on the piercing of Christ's heart by the soldiers lance as recounted in John 19 is a poignant mediation for Lent or Holy Week...
Recounted by an eye-witness, the following is the account of the martyrdom of St. Justin Martyr and companions in Rome about 165 AD. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']T[/dropcaps]he saints were seized and brought before the prefect of Rome, whose name was Rusticus. As they stood...
Justin here describes the way the Sunday Eucharist was celebrated in Rome about 150 AD about 50-60 years after the last New Testament books. It shows that the Eucharist was interpreted in a very realistic way in the early church....
In this 35 minute video, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. (Dr. Italy) explains the importance of Justin Martyr, a second century philosopher turned apologist, on the development of Christian Thought. The first pagan intellectual to embrace the Christian faith and use some of the conceptual background of philosophy...
This excerpt from 2nd century Church Father, Irenaeus, contains beautiful imagery of the Holy Spirit as the rainfall of God as well as a fascinating allegorical interpretation of parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the role of the various persons of the Holy Trinity-...
Cyril of Alexandria on the unity of Christians. Receiving the same sacrament of the Lord's flesh, the Eucharist, and the same Holy Spirit, in baptism and confirmation/chrismation, bind us together in an intimate relationship with God the Father and each another, one body in Christ. [dropcaps...
A lyrical and dramatic ode to the resurrection victory of Jesus Christ by one of the most poetic of all the 4th century Church Fathers, Ephrem the Syrian....
Here Irenaeus underlines the Catholicity of the Church with many cultures professing a single truth, a common tradition of catholic and apostolic faith going back to the apostles and their disciples. Though this was written about 185 AD, one can recognize here the outline of...