Ecce Verbum
Fear encourages evil Bl. Jerzy Popiełuszko "Overcoming fear is fundamental to personal and national freedom. After all, fear is born of the sense of danger. We fear that we are threatened by suffering, loss of some good, loss of freedom, health or position.…
On freedom
Bl. Jerzy Popiełuszko
*fragments of selected sermons
"We ask God for hope, because only people who are strong in hope are capable of surviving all difficulties. We ask for inner joy, for it is the most dangerous weapon against Satan, who is sad by birth. We ask for freedom from revenge and hatred, that freedom which is the fruit of love. (26 September 1982)"
"To remain a spiritually free person, one must live in the truth. To live in the truth is to bear witness to it outwardly, it is to acknowledge it and to claim it in every situation. Truth is unchangeable. Truth cannot be destroyed by one decision or another, by one law or another. This is basically our slavery, that we submit to the dominion of the lie, that we do not expose it and do not protest against it on a daily basis. We do not straighten it out, we remain silent or pretend to believe it. We then live in hypocrisy. The courageous witnessing to the truth is the path that leads directly to freedom. The man who bears witness to the truth is a free man even under conditions of external enslavement, even in a camp or prison. If the majority of Poles in the present situation would embark on the path of truth, if this majority would not forget what was true for them less than a year ago, we would become a spiritually free nation right now. (31 October 1982)"
"Only he can overcome evil who is himself rich in goodness, who cares to develop and enrich himself with the values which constitute the human dignity of the child of God. To multiply good and overcome evil is to care for one's own human dignity. Life must be lived with dignity, because there is only one life! It is necessary today to talk a great deal about human dignity in order to understand that man surpasses everything that can exist in the world except God. He surpasses the wisdom of the whole world. To preserve dignity in order to be able to magnify good and overcome evil is to remain inwardly free, even under conditions of external enslavement. To overcome evil with good is to remain faithful to the truth. (19 October 1984 - last sermon)"
"In order to overcome evil with good, the virtue of fortitude must be nurtured. The virtue of fortitude is overcoming human weakness, especially anxiety and fear. The Christian must remember that... "to fear is only to betray Christ for a few pieces of silver of idle peace". The Christian cannot be satisfied with mere condemnation of evil, lies, cowardice, enslavement, hatred, violence, but must himself be a true witness, spokesman and defender of justice, goodness and truth, freedom and love. For these values he must courageously fight, for himself and for others."(last sermon)
* Fr Jerzy's sermons, preached in the specific socio-political and cultural context of Poland at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, were a voice of opposition, but also of truth, to the situation of Poland under communist rule at the time, and to the Poles, especially from workers' circles, persecuted and interned by the communist authorities. They were also a voice of great hope and strengthening for many people, and even a source of numerous conversions. Fr. Jerzy was repeatedly vilified, threatened ,accused of organising "séances of hatred", until he suffered martyrdom for the truth that he preached. He lived the words of St Paul to the end: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good." (Rom 12:21).
Bl. Jerzy Popiełuszko
*fragments of selected sermons
"We ask God for hope, because only people who are strong in hope are capable of surviving all difficulties. We ask for inner joy, for it is the most dangerous weapon against Satan, who is sad by birth. We ask for freedom from revenge and hatred, that freedom which is the fruit of love. (26 September 1982)"
"To remain a spiritually free person, one must live in the truth. To live in the truth is to bear witness to it outwardly, it is to acknowledge it and to claim it in every situation. Truth is unchangeable. Truth cannot be destroyed by one decision or another, by one law or another. This is basically our slavery, that we submit to the dominion of the lie, that we do not expose it and do not protest against it on a daily basis. We do not straighten it out, we remain silent or pretend to believe it. We then live in hypocrisy. The courageous witnessing to the truth is the path that leads directly to freedom. The man who bears witness to the truth is a free man even under conditions of external enslavement, even in a camp or prison. If the majority of Poles in the present situation would embark on the path of truth, if this majority would not forget what was true for them less than a year ago, we would become a spiritually free nation right now. (31 October 1982)"
"Only he can overcome evil who is himself rich in goodness, who cares to develop and enrich himself with the values which constitute the human dignity of the child of God. To multiply good and overcome evil is to care for one's own human dignity. Life must be lived with dignity, because there is only one life! It is necessary today to talk a great deal about human dignity in order to understand that man surpasses everything that can exist in the world except God. He surpasses the wisdom of the whole world. To preserve dignity in order to be able to magnify good and overcome evil is to remain inwardly free, even under conditions of external enslavement. To overcome evil with good is to remain faithful to the truth. (19 October 1984 - last sermon)"
"In order to overcome evil with good, the virtue of fortitude must be nurtured. The virtue of fortitude is overcoming human weakness, especially anxiety and fear. The Christian must remember that... "to fear is only to betray Christ for a few pieces of silver of idle peace". The Christian cannot be satisfied with mere condemnation of evil, lies, cowardice, enslavement, hatred, violence, but must himself be a true witness, spokesman and defender of justice, goodness and truth, freedom and love. For these values he must courageously fight, for himself and for others."(last sermon)
* Fr Jerzy's sermons, preached in the specific socio-political and cultural context of Poland at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, were a voice of opposition, but also of truth, to the situation of Poland under communist rule at the time, and to the Poles, especially from workers' circles, persecuted and interned by the communist authorities. They were also a voice of great hope and strengthening for many people, and even a source of numerous conversions. Fr. Jerzy was repeatedly vilified, threatened ,accused of organising "séances of hatred", until he suffered martyrdom for the truth that he preached. He lived the words of St Paul to the end: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good." (Rom 12:21).
Ecce Verbum
Melchizedek and Eucharist *Melchizedek is notable in a number of ways; for instance, he is the first person in the Bible who is explicitly called a priest. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he…
The priesthood of Christ is derived from sacrifice
"In what was done by Melchisedech the priest we recognize a type of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sacrifice. For thus it is written in the writings of God: And Melchisedech, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham. Concerning the fact that Melchisedech was a type of Christ, the Holy Ghost himself doth testify in the Psalms, where the First Person of the Holy Trinity (that is, the Father) is set before us as saying unto the Second Person (that is, the Son): Before the day-star have I begotten thee: Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedech. And doubtless the sameness of order in the priesthood of Christ and of Melchisedech is derived from sacrifice, and proceedeth from this, namely; that Melchisedech was the priest of the Most High God; that he offered bread and wine; and that he blessed Abraham.
For who is so truly the priest of the Most High God as is our Lord Jesus Christ? And he it is that hath made an offering unto God the Father, and the same offering that Melchisedech made, Bread and Wine, that is to say, his own Flesh and his own Blood. And so far as Abraham is concerned, the blessing which Melchisedech gave him so long ago belongeth also to us. For if Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, verily then, whosoever believeth God and liveth by faith, the same is found righteous, and is made manifest unto us as one who hath thereby attained the blessing given faithful Abraham; which same is also justified as the Apostle Paul proveth, where he saith: Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham; and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
To the end therefore, that this blessing of Abraham by Melchisedech the priest might be duly solemnized, it was preceded (as we are told in Genesis) by a symbolic sacrifice consisting of bread and wine. Completing and fulfilling this sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ offered up bread, and a cup of wine mingled with water. And thus he who came, (not to destroy, but to fulfil, the Law and the Prophets,) utterly satisfied all the implications prefigured in the oblation made by Melchisedech. Through Solomon's Proverbs also did the Holy Ghost clearly foreshadow, as it were in a parable, the Lord's Sacrifice, saying: Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out seven pillars: referring thus to the Church. In the same passage he pointeth to the victim slain, and the bread and wine, saying: She hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine. He pointeth to the altar in the words: She hath also furnished her table. And to the apostolic priesthood in the words: She hath sent forth her servants, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither unto me; as for them that want understanding, she saith to them, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you."
From the letter to Caecilius by St. Cyprian
#eucharist #priesthood
"In what was done by Melchisedech the priest we recognize a type of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sacrifice. For thus it is written in the writings of God: And Melchisedech, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham. Concerning the fact that Melchisedech was a type of Christ, the Holy Ghost himself doth testify in the Psalms, where the First Person of the Holy Trinity (that is, the Father) is set before us as saying unto the Second Person (that is, the Son): Before the day-star have I begotten thee: Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedech. And doubtless the sameness of order in the priesthood of Christ and of Melchisedech is derived from sacrifice, and proceedeth from this, namely; that Melchisedech was the priest of the Most High God; that he offered bread and wine; and that he blessed Abraham.
For who is so truly the priest of the Most High God as is our Lord Jesus Christ? And he it is that hath made an offering unto God the Father, and the same offering that Melchisedech made, Bread and Wine, that is to say, his own Flesh and his own Blood. And so far as Abraham is concerned, the blessing which Melchisedech gave him so long ago belongeth also to us. For if Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, verily then, whosoever believeth God and liveth by faith, the same is found righteous, and is made manifest unto us as one who hath thereby attained the blessing given faithful Abraham; which same is also justified as the Apostle Paul proveth, where he saith: Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham; and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
To the end therefore, that this blessing of Abraham by Melchisedech the priest might be duly solemnized, it was preceded (as we are told in Genesis) by a symbolic sacrifice consisting of bread and wine. Completing and fulfilling this sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ offered up bread, and a cup of wine mingled with water. And thus he who came, (not to destroy, but to fulfil, the Law and the Prophets,) utterly satisfied all the implications prefigured in the oblation made by Melchisedech. Through Solomon's Proverbs also did the Holy Ghost clearly foreshadow, as it were in a parable, the Lord's Sacrifice, saying: Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out seven pillars: referring thus to the Church. In the same passage he pointeth to the victim slain, and the bread and wine, saying: She hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine. He pointeth to the altar in the words: She hath also furnished her table. And to the apostolic priesthood in the words: She hath sent forth her servants, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, saying, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither unto me; as for them that want understanding, she saith to them, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you."
From the letter to Caecilius by St. Cyprian
#eucharist #priesthood
Ecce Verbum
Photo
The Light of Faith
Fr. Józef Pelczar
I am the light of the world (Jn 8:12), I am the truth (Jn 14:6), so says Christ the Lord to all mankind. Before his coming, darkness reigned on earth because man, in the feeble light of reason, could know neither God nor himself well, and the remaining rays of the original revelation were almost lost in the darkness of error. But now, "in the fullness of the ages", the Light comes to earth. It is the Word who from all eternity has been with God as the only-begotten Son of God, who in time became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). This Word Incarnate, that is, Jesus Christ, is - in the words of St Bonaventure - like a lamp suspended over the world and constantly burning, whose oil is his divinity and whose vessel is his humanity; for he has brought to men the light of revelation, that is, supernatural truth which he has placed under the guardianship of the teaching Church.
This truth is truly divine and infallible, because it came from the mouth of the Supreme Wisdom, because it is proclaimed by the Church, which is "the pillar and confirmation of the truth". This truth is perfect and immutable, so that nothing can be taken from it, nothing can be added to it. It is a universal and all-embracing truth that, like the sun, enlightens valleys and peaks, the simple and the wise. This truth, as far as its content is concerned, is half light and half dark, like that cloud which led Israel through the wilderness; it gives as much light as the human spirit cannot even grasp, but it also has mysteries inaccessible to geniuses, because it is impossible for a small stream to contain an infinite ocean. This truth, accepted by faith, widens the scope of reason in a strange way; and just as an astronomer, standing on a high mountain, sees stars through a telescope, which the naked eye cannot see, so the believing Christian, in the light of faith, learns what the wisdom of all philosophers has not been able to discover. No wonder, then, that for this light the great prince of philosophy himself, Plato, sighed, and looked forward to Revelation as if it were a safe ship that would carry us across the sea of error. O, if he were now to rise from the grave and read our catechism, how deeply he would honour Him who alone could say, I am the light of the world.
The doctrine of this Light, proclaimed by the Church, has enlightened all the minds that have accepted it, has brought to earth a new body of truths, has civilised dark and savage peoples, has given a mighty increase to the sciences, has opened up rich sources of Christian education from which mankind still draws. It is only in the last hundred years that false sages, with greater audacity than before, have attempted to extinguish the light of Revelation, replacing it with the light of reason and science. Worse still, secret or overt associations have sprung up with the sole aim of fighting the Catholic religion, which they call darkness and superstition. Unfortunately, their work is not fruitless. With the help of bad laws, bad schools, bad books and journals, they have succeeded in extinguishing or dimming the light of the faith in many minds, with which they have been delighted to advise the eradication of God's truth from legislation, from politics, from public upbringing and from family life, in order thus to de-Christianise, as they say, society and to set it backwards into paganism.
But also for this, the world is growing darker and darker, because not only is there less faith, but also less common sense, and instead there is more and more monstrous error or gloomy doubt. [...] My dearest friends. There is still, thank God, a rich store of faith in society [...]. However, since the evil currents of the age are pressing in everywhere, one can also find people among us who disregard the light of Revelation, thinking that for them the light of reason and science is enough. [...]
Józef Sebastian Pelczar, Speeches and Sermons, 1877-1899, Krakow 1998, pp. 352-354.
p.2 🔗
#fidesetratio
Fr. Józef Pelczar
I am the light of the world (Jn 8:12), I am the truth (Jn 14:6), so says Christ the Lord to all mankind. Before his coming, darkness reigned on earth because man, in the feeble light of reason, could know neither God nor himself well, and the remaining rays of the original revelation were almost lost in the darkness of error. But now, "in the fullness of the ages", the Light comes to earth. It is the Word who from all eternity has been with God as the only-begotten Son of God, who in time became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). This Word Incarnate, that is, Jesus Christ, is - in the words of St Bonaventure - like a lamp suspended over the world and constantly burning, whose oil is his divinity and whose vessel is his humanity; for he has brought to men the light of revelation, that is, supernatural truth which he has placed under the guardianship of the teaching Church.
This truth is truly divine and infallible, because it came from the mouth of the Supreme Wisdom, because it is proclaimed by the Church, which is "the pillar and confirmation of the truth". This truth is perfect and immutable, so that nothing can be taken from it, nothing can be added to it. It is a universal and all-embracing truth that, like the sun, enlightens valleys and peaks, the simple and the wise. This truth, as far as its content is concerned, is half light and half dark, like that cloud which led Israel through the wilderness; it gives as much light as the human spirit cannot even grasp, but it also has mysteries inaccessible to geniuses, because it is impossible for a small stream to contain an infinite ocean. This truth, accepted by faith, widens the scope of reason in a strange way; and just as an astronomer, standing on a high mountain, sees stars through a telescope, which the naked eye cannot see, so the believing Christian, in the light of faith, learns what the wisdom of all philosophers has not been able to discover. No wonder, then, that for this light the great prince of philosophy himself, Plato, sighed, and looked forward to Revelation as if it were a safe ship that would carry us across the sea of error. O, if he were now to rise from the grave and read our catechism, how deeply he would honour Him who alone could say, I am the light of the world.
The doctrine of this Light, proclaimed by the Church, has enlightened all the minds that have accepted it, has brought to earth a new body of truths, has civilised dark and savage peoples, has given a mighty increase to the sciences, has opened up rich sources of Christian education from which mankind still draws. It is only in the last hundred years that false sages, with greater audacity than before, have attempted to extinguish the light of Revelation, replacing it with the light of reason and science. Worse still, secret or overt associations have sprung up with the sole aim of fighting the Catholic religion, which they call darkness and superstition. Unfortunately, their work is not fruitless. With the help of bad laws, bad schools, bad books and journals, they have succeeded in extinguishing or dimming the light of the faith in many minds, with which they have been delighted to advise the eradication of God's truth from legislation, from politics, from public upbringing and from family life, in order thus to de-Christianise, as they say, society and to set it backwards into paganism.
But also for this, the world is growing darker and darker, because not only is there less faith, but also less common sense, and instead there is more and more monstrous error or gloomy doubt. [...] My dearest friends. There is still, thank God, a rich store of faith in society [...]. However, since the evil currents of the age are pressing in everywhere, one can also find people among us who disregard the light of Revelation, thinking that for them the light of reason and science is enough. [...]
Józef Sebastian Pelczar, Speeches and Sermons, 1877-1899, Krakow 1998, pp. 352-354.
p.2 🔗
#fidesetratio
Ecce Verbum
St. Basil and correctio fraterna "Be strict without anger or flaccidity. When reprimanding someone for negligence, we have to be careful to do it in the appropriate measure, keeping in mind God’s ways. A criminal uses a knife to cut members out of the body…
On kindness 🧵
1.The Necessity of Kind Listening
“Many persons whose manners will stand the test of speaking, break down under the trial of listening. But all these things ought to be brought under the sweet influences of religion. Kind listening is often an act of the most delicate interior mortification, and is a great assistance towards kind speaking.” Moreover, “those who govern others must take care to be kind listeners, or else they will soon offend God and fall into secret sins.”
“Weak and full of wants as we are ourselves, we must make up our minds, or rather take heart, to do some little good to this poor world while we are in it. Kind words are our chief implements for this work. A kind-worded man is a genial man; and geniality is power. Nothing sets wrong right so soon as geniality. There are a thousand things to be reformed, and no reform succeeds unless it be genial. No one was ever corrected by a sarcasm, crushed, perhaps, if the sarcasm was clever enough, but drawn nearer to God, never.”
“Men want to advocate changes, it may be in politics, or in science, or in philosophy, or in literature, or perhaps in the working of the Church. They give lectures, they write books, they start reviews, they found schools to propagate their views, they coalesce in associations, they collect money, they move reforms in public meetings, and all to further their peculiar ideas. They are unsuccessful. From being unsuccessful themselves, they become unsympathetic with others. From this comes narrowness of mind; their very talents are deteriorated. The next step is to be snappish, then bitter, then eccentric, then rude, after that they abuse people for not taking their advice; and, last of all, their impotence, like that of all angry prophets, ends in the shrillness of a scream..Without geniality no solid reform was ever made yet.. Nothing can be done for God without geniality. More plans fail for want of that than for the want of anything else. A genial man is both an apostle and an evangelist—an apostle because he brings men to Christ; an evangelist because he portrays Christ to men.”
“The more humble we are, the more kindly we shall talk; the more kindly we talk, the more humble we shall grow. An air of superiority is foreign to the genius of kindness.”
🔗 Frederick William Faber, Kindness (London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1901).
2. The effects of kind actions 🔗
3. The effects of kind words 🔗
3.1 The effects of kind words 2 🔗
4. Judging others 🔗
5. Thoughts 🔗
6. Kindness makes life more bearable 🔗
7. Suffering well
#speech #charity
1.The Necessity of Kind Listening
“Many persons whose manners will stand the test of speaking, break down under the trial of listening. But all these things ought to be brought under the sweet influences of religion. Kind listening is often an act of the most delicate interior mortification, and is a great assistance towards kind speaking.” Moreover, “those who govern others must take care to be kind listeners, or else they will soon offend God and fall into secret sins.”
“Weak and full of wants as we are ourselves, we must make up our minds, or rather take heart, to do some little good to this poor world while we are in it. Kind words are our chief implements for this work. A kind-worded man is a genial man; and geniality is power. Nothing sets wrong right so soon as geniality. There are a thousand things to be reformed, and no reform succeeds unless it be genial. No one was ever corrected by a sarcasm, crushed, perhaps, if the sarcasm was clever enough, but drawn nearer to God, never.”
“Men want to advocate changes, it may be in politics, or in science, or in philosophy, or in literature, or perhaps in the working of the Church. They give lectures, they write books, they start reviews, they found schools to propagate their views, they coalesce in associations, they collect money, they move reforms in public meetings, and all to further their peculiar ideas. They are unsuccessful. From being unsuccessful themselves, they become unsympathetic with others. From this comes narrowness of mind; their very talents are deteriorated. The next step is to be snappish, then bitter, then eccentric, then rude, after that they abuse people for not taking their advice; and, last of all, their impotence, like that of all angry prophets, ends in the shrillness of a scream..Without geniality no solid reform was ever made yet.. Nothing can be done for God without geniality. More plans fail for want of that than for the want of anything else. A genial man is both an apostle and an evangelist—an apostle because he brings men to Christ; an evangelist because he portrays Christ to men.”
“The more humble we are, the more kindly we shall talk; the more kindly we talk, the more humble we shall grow. An air of superiority is foreign to the genius of kindness.”
🔗 Frederick William Faber, Kindness (London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1901).
2. The effects of kind actions 🔗
3. The effects of kind words 🔗
3.1 The effects of kind words 2 🔗
4. Judging others 🔗
5. Thoughts 🔗
6. Kindness makes life more bearable 🔗
7. Suffering well
#speech #charity
Internet Archive
Kindness : Father Frederick William Faber : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Father Faber discusses the nature of true kindness, and how to live a kinder life.
Ecce Verbum
The authority of Church's interpretation of Scripture St. Vincent of Lerins "But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it…
St. Thomas Aquinas on faith vs. individualism
"Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves one article of faith."
"The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Holy Writ and the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth. Consequently whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of faith otherwise than by faith. Even so, it is evident that a man whose mind holds a conclusion without knowing how it is proved, has not scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it. Now it is manifest that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error. Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will."
Summa Theologica IIa-IIae, q. v, art. 3
"Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves one article of faith."
"The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Holy Writ and the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth. Consequently whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of faith otherwise than by faith. Even so, it is evident that a man whose mind holds a conclusion without knowing how it is proved, has not scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it. Now it is manifest that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error. Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will."
Summa Theologica IIa-IIae, q. v, art. 3
www.newadvent.org
SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: Those who have faith (Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 5)
Was there faith in the angels, or in man, in their original state? Do the demons have faith? Do those heretics who err in one article, have faith in others? Among those who have faith, does one have it more than another?
Ecce Verbum
Beauty as orderliness of the soul "The need for beauty, which manifests itself in the child when it seeks light and in the wild man when he craves shine, can be developed and guided so that it becomes a lever in life. Such is the mission of literature and…
Augustine on Beauty
From his Confessions
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
•Augustine ponders this perennial question of “what is beauty” and comes to conclude that that which is beautiful is something that cannot be seen with our eyes, but rather it is the knowledge of the very source and Creator of all beauty, God Himself through light of faith and virtue.
“How can we love anything but the beautiful? What, then, is a beautiful thing, or beauty itself? Can anything compel us that is not beautiful and fitting?”(p.75)
•As such, beauty has its place, beauty temporarily exists to attract and raise its perceiver to a higher order of being, to reflect the beauty of its originator, the Creator of all beauty, God Himself.
•Augustine reflects on his discovery of true beauty in persons who are virtuous. He says,
“I was drawn to the peace I found in virtue, and repelled by the rancor I found in vice, attributing the former to unity, the latter to division.”
•Virtuous people just seem easier to be friends with; they tend to put others first and themselves last. Whereas, the person who lacks virtue is often difficult to be friends with, hard to be around, cynical, critical and a source of division. He continues,
“Unity was the sphere of the ordered mind, of real truth and the highest good, while in division I thought I saw some status of the disordered mind, of the highest evil as a reality, having not only a state of its own but a life as well…I called unity the Monad, pure mind without gender, and division I called the Dyad, pure anger to hurt and lust to despoil. It was my ignorance speaking, since I had not grasped or been told that evil has no reality of its own and mind is not the highest and changeless good.”
•It is much easier to destroy than to create, to divide than to unite, to criticise than to praise, to create chaos than to maintain order, so too in our own lives. Our minds can change. This is a great thing, but the fact that our mind can change itself is also a sign of our inherent lack of unity of the mind, with our body and soul, all of which yearn for balance, order, the ideal, and the truth in order to achieve interior peace of person, overall. We need to start with peace in our soul in order to have order in our mind and body. Augustine says,
“You, Lord my God, ‘light a lamp for me to bring light into my darkness.’ For ‘we all partake of your fullness,’ since you are ‘the true light, giving light to every man who comes into this world. In you ‘there is no alteration or dimming by time.’ (p.78)
•Physical beauty is subject to time, experiencing deterioration. That which is not altered by time is holiness. Holy people reflect eternal beauty by virtue.
#beauty
From his Confessions
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
•Augustine ponders this perennial question of “what is beauty” and comes to conclude that that which is beautiful is something that cannot be seen with our eyes, but rather it is the knowledge of the very source and Creator of all beauty, God Himself through light of faith and virtue.
“How can we love anything but the beautiful? What, then, is a beautiful thing, or beauty itself? Can anything compel us that is not beautiful and fitting?”(p.75)
•As such, beauty has its place, beauty temporarily exists to attract and raise its perceiver to a higher order of being, to reflect the beauty of its originator, the Creator of all beauty, God Himself.
•Augustine reflects on his discovery of true beauty in persons who are virtuous. He says,
“I was drawn to the peace I found in virtue, and repelled by the rancor I found in vice, attributing the former to unity, the latter to division.”
•Virtuous people just seem easier to be friends with; they tend to put others first and themselves last. Whereas, the person who lacks virtue is often difficult to be friends with, hard to be around, cynical, critical and a source of division. He continues,
“Unity was the sphere of the ordered mind, of real truth and the highest good, while in division I thought I saw some status of the disordered mind, of the highest evil as a reality, having not only a state of its own but a life as well…I called unity the Monad, pure mind without gender, and division I called the Dyad, pure anger to hurt and lust to despoil. It was my ignorance speaking, since I had not grasped or been told that evil has no reality of its own and mind is not the highest and changeless good.”
•It is much easier to destroy than to create, to divide than to unite, to criticise than to praise, to create chaos than to maintain order, so too in our own lives. Our minds can change. This is a great thing, but the fact that our mind can change itself is also a sign of our inherent lack of unity of the mind, with our body and soul, all of which yearn for balance, order, the ideal, and the truth in order to achieve interior peace of person, overall. We need to start with peace in our soul in order to have order in our mind and body. Augustine says,
“You, Lord my God, ‘light a lamp for me to bring light into my darkness.’ For ‘we all partake of your fullness,’ since you are ‘the true light, giving light to every man who comes into this world. In you ‘there is no alteration or dimming by time.’ (p.78)
•Physical beauty is subject to time, experiencing deterioration. That which is not altered by time is holiness. Holy people reflect eternal beauty by virtue.
#beauty
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CHURCH FATHERS: Confessions (St. Augustine)
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Ecce Verbum
Augustine on Beauty From his Confessions "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which…
The beauty of humility
St. Gregory I, Moralia in Iob, Part VI, Book XXXV
"All human wisdom, however powerful in acuteness, is foolishness, when compared with Divine wisdom. For all human deeds which are just and beautiful are, when compared with the justice and beauty of God, neither just nor beautiful, nor have any existence at all.
Blessed Job therefore would believe that he had said wisely what he had said, if he did not hear the words of superior wisdom. In comparison with which all our wisdom is folly. And he who had spoken wisely to men, on hearing the Divine sayings, discourses more wisely that he is not wise. Hence it is that Abraham saw, when God was addressing him, that he was nothing but dust, saying; I speak unto my Lord, though I am dust and ashes. [Gen. 18, 27] Hence it is that Moses, though instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, as soon as he heard the Lord speaking, discovered that he was a person of more hesitating and slower speech, saying; I beseech Thee, O Lord, I am not eloquent; for from yesterday, and the day before, since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, I am of a more hesitating and slower tongue. [Ex. 4, 10]
Hence Ezekiel speaking concerning the four animals, says; When there was a voice above the firmament, which was over their heads, they stood, and let down their wings. [Ez. 1, 25] For what is designated by the flying of the animals but the sublimity of evangelists and doctors? Or what are the wings of the animals, but the contemplations of saints raising them up to heavenly things? But when a voice is uttered above the firmament which is over their heads, they stand, and let down their wings, because when they hear within the voice of heavenly wisdom, they drop down, as it were, the wings of their flight. For they discern, in truth, that they are not able to contemplate the loftiness itself of truth.
To drop down their wings then at the voice which comes from above, is, on learning the power of God, to bring down our own virtues, and from contemplating the Creator, to think but humbly of ourselves.
When holy men, therefore, hear the words of God, the more they advance in contemplation, the more they despise what they are, and know themselves to be either nothing, or next to nothing."
#humility
St. Gregory I, Moralia in Iob, Part VI, Book XXXV
"All human wisdom, however powerful in acuteness, is foolishness, when compared with Divine wisdom. For all human deeds which are just and beautiful are, when compared with the justice and beauty of God, neither just nor beautiful, nor have any existence at all.
Blessed Job therefore would believe that he had said wisely what he had said, if he did not hear the words of superior wisdom. In comparison with which all our wisdom is folly. And he who had spoken wisely to men, on hearing the Divine sayings, discourses more wisely that he is not wise. Hence it is that Abraham saw, when God was addressing him, that he was nothing but dust, saying; I speak unto my Lord, though I am dust and ashes. [Gen. 18, 27] Hence it is that Moses, though instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, as soon as he heard the Lord speaking, discovered that he was a person of more hesitating and slower speech, saying; I beseech Thee, O Lord, I am not eloquent; for from yesterday, and the day before, since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, I am of a more hesitating and slower tongue. [Ex. 4, 10]
Hence Ezekiel speaking concerning the four animals, says; When there was a voice above the firmament, which was over their heads, they stood, and let down their wings. [Ez. 1, 25] For what is designated by the flying of the animals but the sublimity of evangelists and doctors? Or what are the wings of the animals, but the contemplations of saints raising them up to heavenly things? But when a voice is uttered above the firmament which is over their heads, they stand, and let down their wings, because when they hear within the voice of heavenly wisdom, they drop down, as it were, the wings of their flight. For they discern, in truth, that they are not able to contemplate the loftiness itself of truth.
To drop down their wings then at the voice which comes from above, is, on learning the power of God, to bring down our own virtues, and from contemplating the Creator, to think but humbly of ourselves.
When holy men, therefore, hear the words of God, the more they advance in contemplation, the more they despise what they are, and know themselves to be either nothing, or next to nothing."
#humility
Ecce Verbum
The wisdom of silence "..I do not think that we are far wrong in saying that, on the whole, men are not too appreciative of the virtue of silence. Most of our conversation has no more merit or effect than to stir the air around us. We could all say so very…
The value of solitude
🔗 The Sounding Solitude by Francis M. Drouin, OP
pages 39-44
"If persons enter into solitude and taste its fruits, one certain effect is that they will no longer see as they saw before, no longer behold themselves, others, or God as they did formerly. Solitude provides another way of seeing. We will be given new lenses to in-sight. Our eyes will have been purified by the mystery of solitude changing the heart and therefore changing the vision. The obvious is always to be discovered anew! The mystery of solitude purifies the sight, the seeing, the beholding of each person, when we are open to discovering and to receiving. When solitude brings us to God, God brings us into new vision. 'Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things..." (Ps 119:18)"
Sounding Solitude, Sr Mary Paul Cutri 🔗, ocd
#spirituallife
🔗 The Sounding Solitude by Francis M. Drouin, OP
pages 39-44
"If persons enter into solitude and taste its fruits, one certain effect is that they will no longer see as they saw before, no longer behold themselves, others, or God as they did formerly. Solitude provides another way of seeing. We will be given new lenses to in-sight. Our eyes will have been purified by the mystery of solitude changing the heart and therefore changing the vision. The obvious is always to be discovered anew! The mystery of solitude purifies the sight, the seeing, the beholding of each person, when we are open to discovering and to receiving. When solitude brings us to God, God brings us into new vision. 'Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things..." (Ps 119:18)"
Sounding Solitude, Sr Mary Paul Cutri 🔗, ocd
#spirituallife
Ecce Verbum
St. John of the Cross on vices of converts p.IV Spiritual immaturity Dark Night of the Soul (Book I, Chapter VI) "These persons have the same defect as regards the practice of prayer, for they think that all the business of prayer consists in experiencing…
Fr. Faber on the mistakes of converts and beginners
“When we read the lives of the saints, or ponder on the teaching of mystical books, we shall surely have no difficulty in admitting that we ourselves are but beginners.” And beginners on the road to spiritual perfection are especially prone to make two mistakes.
The first mistake is this: “Beginners like to turn their eye away from outward conduct to the more hidden processes of their own spiritual experiences. If we allow a beginner to choose his own subject for particular examen of conscience, he will generally choose some very delicate and imperceptible fault, the theatre of which is almost wholly within, or some refined form of self-love whose metamorphoses are exceedingly difficult either to detect or to control. He will not choose his temper, or his tongue, or his love of nice dishes, or some unworthy habit which is disagreeable to those around him. This leads to hardness of heart, to spiritual pride, and to self-righteousness. It has a peculiar power to neutralize the operations of grace, and to reduce our spirituality to a matter of words and feelings.”
“The second mistake is very like the first, though there is a difference in it. It consists in giving way to an attraction which is too high for us. It is not that we divide things into outward and inward, and exaggerate the latter. But we divide them into high and commonplace, and are inclined almost to despise the latter. We fasten with a sort of diseased eagerness upon the exceptional practices of the saints. Peculiarities have a kind of charm for us. We try to force ourselves to thirst for suffering, when we have hardly grace enough for the quiet endurance of a headache. We ask leave to pray for calumny, when a jocose retort puts us in a passion. We traffic with exceptions rather than with rules. Hence the common moral virtues, the ordinary motives of religion, the duties of our state of life, our responsibilities toward others, the usual teaching of sermons and spiritual books, are kept in the background. We are too well instructed to speak evil of them, or to show them contempt, but we treat them with a respectful neglect. Thus our spiritual life becomes a sort of elegant selfish solitude, a temple reared to dainty delusions, a mere fastidious and exclusive worship of self whose refinement is only an aggravation of its dishonesty. No saint ever went along this road. The grace to be indistinguishable from the good people round us is a greater grace than that which visibly marks us off from their practices or their attainments.”
Frederick William Faber, Kindness (London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1901) 🔗
#converts
“When we read the lives of the saints, or ponder on the teaching of mystical books, we shall surely have no difficulty in admitting that we ourselves are but beginners.” And beginners on the road to spiritual perfection are especially prone to make two mistakes.
The first mistake is this: “Beginners like to turn their eye away from outward conduct to the more hidden processes of their own spiritual experiences. If we allow a beginner to choose his own subject for particular examen of conscience, he will generally choose some very delicate and imperceptible fault, the theatre of which is almost wholly within, or some refined form of self-love whose metamorphoses are exceedingly difficult either to detect or to control. He will not choose his temper, or his tongue, or his love of nice dishes, or some unworthy habit which is disagreeable to those around him. This leads to hardness of heart, to spiritual pride, and to self-righteousness. It has a peculiar power to neutralize the operations of grace, and to reduce our spirituality to a matter of words and feelings.”
“The second mistake is very like the first, though there is a difference in it. It consists in giving way to an attraction which is too high for us. It is not that we divide things into outward and inward, and exaggerate the latter. But we divide them into high and commonplace, and are inclined almost to despise the latter. We fasten with a sort of diseased eagerness upon the exceptional practices of the saints. Peculiarities have a kind of charm for us. We try to force ourselves to thirst for suffering, when we have hardly grace enough for the quiet endurance of a headache. We ask leave to pray for calumny, when a jocose retort puts us in a passion. We traffic with exceptions rather than with rules. Hence the common moral virtues, the ordinary motives of religion, the duties of our state of life, our responsibilities toward others, the usual teaching of sermons and spiritual books, are kept in the background. We are too well instructed to speak evil of them, or to show them contempt, but we treat them with a respectful neglect. Thus our spiritual life becomes a sort of elegant selfish solitude, a temple reared to dainty delusions, a mere fastidious and exclusive worship of self whose refinement is only an aggravation of its dishonesty. No saint ever went along this road. The grace to be indistinguishable from the good people round us is a greater grace than that which visibly marks us off from their practices or their attainments.”
Frederick William Faber, Kindness (London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1901) 🔗
#converts
Ecce Verbum
Fr. Faber on the mistakes of converts and beginners “When we read the lives of the saints, or ponder on the teaching of mystical books, we shall surely have no difficulty in admitting that we ourselves are but beginners.” And beginners on the road to spiritual…
Fr. Faber on the signs of spiritual progress
Frederick William Faber, "Growth in Holiness, or the progress of the spiritual life" 🔗
pages 25-28
#converts
Frederick William Faber, "Growth in Holiness, or the progress of the spiritual life" 🔗
pages 25-28
#converts
Ecce Verbum
On the necessity of looking up to the Saints St. Bernard of Clairvaux, from the opening of his Life of St. Malachy: "It is indeed always worth while to portray the illustrious lives of the saints, that they may serve as a mirror and an example, and give,…
Even for the Blessed in heaven God remains in a certain sense incomprehensible
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Providence 🔗
(Part II The Perfections of God, section 11. The Divine Incomprehensibility, the light and shade in the mysteries of God’s life)
#saints
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Providence 🔗
(Part II The Perfections of God, section 11. The Divine Incomprehensibility, the light and shade in the mysteries of God’s life)
#saints
Ecce Verbum
Humility corrects false religiosity In Introduction to the Devout Life, St Francis De Sales warns of a kind of false religiosity that can convince both others and ourselves that we’re right with God, when we’re not. Specifically, he warned of our tendency…
All the good that is in us comes from God - On the words of prideful men
"Humility is charitable, interpreting all things for the best and pitying and excusing the faults of others as much as possible. For this reason St. Peter, wishing to exhort us to love and have compassion upon our fellow-creatures, also exhorts us at the same time to be humble: "Having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood-----humble," [1 Pet. iii, 8] for there can be no charity without humility, and therefore to censure and criticize too readily the actions of our neighbors and to judge and speak ill of them are vices which are directly opposed to the virtue of humility. Who has given me the power to judge my brethren? When I thus constitute myself their judge and in the tribunal of my thoughts condemn first one and then another, I am usurping an authority I do not possess and which belongs to God alone: "For God is Judge." [Ps. xlix, 6]
And if this is not pride, what is pride? In punishment of such arrogance God often permits us to fall into the very faults that we have condemned in others, and it is well for us to remember the teaching of St. Paul: "Wherefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself." [Rom. ii, 1] There is always some pharisaical pride in the heart of him who judges and speaks evil of others, because in belittling others he exalts himself. It is in vain that we try hard cover our evil-speaking under ,the veil of some good motive; it must always be the result of pride which is quick to find out the weaknesses of others while remaining blind to its own.
If we are guilty of pride let us try and amend and not flatter ourselves that we possess the smallest degree of humility, until by our good resolutions carefully carried out we have mortified our evil tendency to speak ill of our neighbor. Let us hearken to the Holy Ghost: "Where pride is there also shall be reproach, but where humility is there also is wisdom." [Prov. xi, 2]
The proud man is scornful and arrogant in his speech; and the humble alone knows how to speak well and wisely. If there is humility in the heart it will be manifested in the speech, because "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good." [Luke vi, 45]
What good qualities have we of our own for which we can praise ourselves? All the good that is in us comes from God, and to Him alone we must give praise and honor. When, therefore, we praise ourselves we are usurping glory which is due to God alone. Even though in praising ourselves we sometimes refer all to the honor of God, it matters little; when there is no absolute necessity it is better to abstain from self-praise, for although we refer all to the glory of God with our lips, our ingenious and subtle self-love cannot fail to appropriate it secretly. And even speaking depreciatingly of ourselves there may lurk some hypocritical pride in our words, such as was mentioned by the sage of old when he said: "There is one that humbleth himself wickedly, and his interior is full of deceit." [Ecclus xix, 23]
Therefore we can never watch over ourselves enough, because there is nothing that teaches us so well to know the pride of our heart as our words, with which we either reveal or hide the depravity of our affections. And this is the characteristic of the proud, according to St. Bernard: "One who boastfully proclaims what he is, or lies about what he is not." [Epist. lxxxvii]
Let us bear in heart and mind this precious advice given by Tobias to his son: "Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind or in thy words." [Tob. iv, 14] The words of a proud man are nauseous, whether he speaks of himself or others, and they are hated both by God and man: therefore we should detest this vice, not only from the Christian but also from the human standpoint."
Humility of Heart by Fr Cajetan Mary da Bergamo 🔗
#humility #speech
"Humility is charitable, interpreting all things for the best and pitying and excusing the faults of others as much as possible. For this reason St. Peter, wishing to exhort us to love and have compassion upon our fellow-creatures, also exhorts us at the same time to be humble: "Having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood-----humble," [1 Pet. iii, 8] for there can be no charity without humility, and therefore to censure and criticize too readily the actions of our neighbors and to judge and speak ill of them are vices which are directly opposed to the virtue of humility. Who has given me the power to judge my brethren? When I thus constitute myself their judge and in the tribunal of my thoughts condemn first one and then another, I am usurping an authority I do not possess and which belongs to God alone: "For God is Judge." [Ps. xlix, 6]
And if this is not pride, what is pride? In punishment of such arrogance God often permits us to fall into the very faults that we have condemned in others, and it is well for us to remember the teaching of St. Paul: "Wherefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself." [Rom. ii, 1] There is always some pharisaical pride in the heart of him who judges and speaks evil of others, because in belittling others he exalts himself. It is in vain that we try hard cover our evil-speaking under ,the veil of some good motive; it must always be the result of pride which is quick to find out the weaknesses of others while remaining blind to its own.
If we are guilty of pride let us try and amend and not flatter ourselves that we possess the smallest degree of humility, until by our good resolutions carefully carried out we have mortified our evil tendency to speak ill of our neighbor. Let us hearken to the Holy Ghost: "Where pride is there also shall be reproach, but where humility is there also is wisdom." [Prov. xi, 2]
The proud man is scornful and arrogant in his speech; and the humble alone knows how to speak well and wisely. If there is humility in the heart it will be manifested in the speech, because "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good." [Luke vi, 45]
What good qualities have we of our own for which we can praise ourselves? All the good that is in us comes from God, and to Him alone we must give praise and honor. When, therefore, we praise ourselves we are usurping glory which is due to God alone. Even though in praising ourselves we sometimes refer all to the honor of God, it matters little; when there is no absolute necessity it is better to abstain from self-praise, for although we refer all to the glory of God with our lips, our ingenious and subtle self-love cannot fail to appropriate it secretly. And even speaking depreciatingly of ourselves there may lurk some hypocritical pride in our words, such as was mentioned by the sage of old when he said: "There is one that humbleth himself wickedly, and his interior is full of deceit." [Ecclus xix, 23]
Therefore we can never watch over ourselves enough, because there is nothing that teaches us so well to know the pride of our heart as our words, with which we either reveal or hide the depravity of our affections. And this is the characteristic of the proud, according to St. Bernard: "One who boastfully proclaims what he is, or lies about what he is not." [Epist. lxxxvii]
Let us bear in heart and mind this precious advice given by Tobias to his son: "Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind or in thy words." [Tob. iv, 14] The words of a proud man are nauseous, whether he speaks of himself or others, and they are hated both by God and man: therefore we should detest this vice, not only from the Christian but also from the human standpoint."
Humility of Heart by Fr Cajetan Mary da Bergamo 🔗
#humility #speech
Ecce Verbum
How Can a Good God Permit Eternal Damnation? Thomism and the Problem of Hell The most common explanation of why God might permit some rational creatures to miss their final end is the so-called “Free Will Defense” of hell. Unfortunately, this explanation…
Original sin didn't deprave man's substance, evil is secondary to goodness, man was endowed with free will
St. Hippolytus
"The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God. Now the world was made from nothing; wherefore it is not God; as also because this world admits of dissolution whenever the Creator so wishes it.
But God, who created it, did not, nor does not, make evil. He makes what is glorious and excellent; for He who makes it is good.
Now man, that was brought into existence, was a creature endued with a capacity of self-determination, yet not possessing a sovereign intellect, nor holding sway over all things by reflection, and authority, and power, but a slave to his passions, and comprising all sorts of contrarieties in himself. But man, from the fact of his possessing a capacity of self-determination, brings forth what is evil, that is, accidentally; which evil is not consummated except you actually commit some piece of wickedness. For it is in regard of our desiring anything that is wicked, or our meditating upon it, that what is evil is so denominated.
Evil had no existence from the beginning, but came into being subsequently.
Since man has free will, a law has been defined for his guidance by the Deity, not without answering a good purpose. For if man did not possess the power to will and not to will, why should a law be established? For a law will not be laid down for an animal devoid of reason, but a bridle and a whip; whereas to man has been given a precept and penalty to perform, or for not carrying into execution what has been enjoined "
From a fragment of The Refutation of All Heresies, chapter XXIX - The Doctrine of the Truth
more:
🔗 substance and accident - Christian Philosophy by Louis De Poissy
🔗 substance and accident in short
🔗 will and free will in Summa Theologiae
🔗 The effects of original sin in Summa
#freewill #sin
St. Hippolytus
"The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God. Now the world was made from nothing; wherefore it is not God; as also because this world admits of dissolution whenever the Creator so wishes it.
But God, who created it, did not, nor does not, make evil. He makes what is glorious and excellent; for He who makes it is good.
Now man, that was brought into existence, was a creature endued with a capacity of self-determination, yet not possessing a sovereign intellect, nor holding sway over all things by reflection, and authority, and power, but a slave to his passions, and comprising all sorts of contrarieties in himself. But man, from the fact of his possessing a capacity of self-determination, brings forth what is evil, that is, accidentally; which evil is not consummated except you actually commit some piece of wickedness. For it is in regard of our desiring anything that is wicked, or our meditating upon it, that what is evil is so denominated.
Evil had no existence from the beginning, but came into being subsequently.
Since man has free will, a law has been defined for his guidance by the Deity, not without answering a good purpose. For if man did not possess the power to will and not to will, why should a law be established? For a law will not be laid down for an animal devoid of reason, but a bridle and a whip; whereas to man has been given a precept and penalty to perform, or for not carrying into execution what has been enjoined "
From a fragment of The Refutation of All Heresies, chapter XXIX - The Doctrine of the Truth
more:
🔗 substance and accident - Christian Philosophy by Louis De Poissy
🔗 substance and accident in short
🔗 will and free will in Summa Theologiae
🔗 The effects of original sin in Summa
#freewill #sin