Athanasius here identifies the only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ as God's uncreated Wisdom Incarnate. He insists that the "Wisdom" praised in Sirach, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and other biblical books is not a creature but is rather the Creator, the Divine Word in whose...
This excerpt from Eusebius of Caesarea's commentary on Isaiah 40 focuses on the role of St. John the Baptist, one of the key figures of Advent. John, the voice crying out in the wilderness, comes to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ....
In 1531, Our Lady appeared to a humble Indian named Juan Diego on a hill called Tepeyac, near what is now Mexico City. The following account of the apparition is found in the Nican Mopohua, or Huei Tlamahuitzoltica, written in Nahuatl, the Aztec language,...
It is not absolutely certain that it was St Ephraem who wrote this lyrical praise of Christmas, but the piece is sufficiently beautiful to be attributed to the poetic theologian and father of the church who is known as "the Harp of the Holy Spirit"...
Ephrem, on the brilliant light of God's wisdom that illuminates us especially initially through the sacrament of baptism and daily through the sacramental table of the eucharist. The sacraments are a mirror reflecting God's beauty and a pledge of our future resurrection....
Isn't Advent great? Welcome to the season where the only song we sing for four weeks is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! It's the best! Advent is my favorite season, and not just because, as a music minister, I get to play more songs with minor keys. Advent is my favorite...
St. Augustine explains how we can rejoice and even delight in something that we can’t yet see and don’t yet possess. In so doing, he helps us understand better the power of the theological virtue of hope....
The symbolic meaning of the sacrament of baptism according to Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop of Jerusalem in the middle of the fourth century and one of the most important sources we have for how the church celebrated the sacraments during that era. In his...
The selection from Origen’s Exhortation to Martyrdom is read on the feast of martyrs Saints Marcellinus and Peter on June 2. Marcellinus, a Roman priest, and Peter, an exorcist, were martyred together in Rome during the persecution of Diocletian around 303 AD. They evidently faced...
Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XV on St. Ephrem, the Syrian, written in 1920. The Latin title is Principi Apostolorum Petro....