"For since Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, as the sun and the day of the world recede, when we pray and petition that the light come upon us again, we pray for the coming of Christ to provide us with the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the psalms declares that Christ is called the Day. He says: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice therein (Ps. 118:22-24). Likewise Malachias the prophet testifies that He is called the Sun when He says: But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and healing is in His wings (Mal. 3:20). But if in holy Scripture Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, no hour is excepted for Christians, in which God should be adored frequently and always, so that we who are in Christ, that is, in, the true Sun and in the true Day, should be insistent throughout the whole day in our petitions and should pray; and when, by the law of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no harm from the nocturnal shades for those who pray, because to the sons of light even in the night there is day. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when does he not have sun and day, to whom Christ is Sun and Day?" (Text: CSEL 3, 1.292=FOTC 36.158).

"Moreover, let us who are always in Christ, that is, in the light, not cease praying even in the night. Let us, most beloved brethren, who are always in the light of the Lord, who remember and retain what we have begun to be after receiving grace compute the night as day. Let us believe that we walk always in the light (cf. 1 Jn. 1:7); let us not be hindered by the darkness which we have escaped; let there be no loss of prayers in the hours of the night, no slothful or neglectful waste of opportunities for prayer. Let us who by the indulgence of God have been recreated spiritually and reborn imitate what we are destined to be; let us who in the kingdom will have day alone without the intervention of night be just as alert at night as in the day; let us who are destined to pray always and to give thanks to God, not cease here also to pray and to give thanks" (Text: CSEL 3, 1.294=FOTC 36.159).

God, who created time, gave it the periods of the days as measures and signs, and, measuring it by the week, He established that the week, returning always upon itself (ana-kuklousthai) should mark the measure of time. And the week itself constitutes one single day, returning seven times on itself. Here is the form of the cycle, which has its beginning and end in itself. Now the property of the aeon is to return on itself and never to end. This is why the principle of time is called not the first day, but one day, so as to indicate, by its name, its relationship with the aeon. Having the characteristics of oneness and of incommunicability, it is properly and fittingly called one. (PG 29.59).

The Day of the Lord (hemera Kyriou) is great and celebrated (cf. Joel 2:1). Scripture knows this day without evening, without succession, without end; the Psalmist calls it also the eighth day because it is outside of this time of seven days. Whether you call it day or age, the sense is the same. If this state is called day, it is one (mid) and not multiple; if it is called aeon, it is alone (monakos) and not part of a whole (pollostos). To raise our spirit toward the future life. (Moses) called one the image of the aeon, the first-fruits of days, the contemporary of the light, the holy Lord's Day (kyriake) honored by the resurrection of the Lord (kyrios; PG 29.52).

We think that season means the changes of the periods of time — winter, spring, summer, and autumn — which, due to the regularity of the movement of the luminaries, are made to pass by us periodically. It is winter when the sun tarries in the southern parts and produces much night shadow in the region about us, so that the air above the earth is chilled and all the damp exhalations, gathering around us, provide a source for rains and frosts and indescribably great snows. Afterwards, returning again from the southern regions, it arrives in the center, so that it divides the time equally between night and day, and the longer it tarries in the places above the earth, much milder a climate does it bring back in turn. Then comes spring, which causes all plants to bud, brings returning life to most trees, and preserves the species for all land and water animals by a series of births. And now, the sun, moving thence toward the summer solstice in a northerly direction, offers us the longest days. And, because it travels through the air a very great distance, it parches the very air above our heads and dries up all the land, aiding in this way the seeds to mature and hurrying the fruits of the trees to ripeness. When the sun is most fiery hot, it causes very short shadows at midday because it shines upon our region directly from above. Those days are longest in which the shadows are shortest, and again, the shortest days are those which have the longest shadows. This is so for us who are called Heteroscians (Shadowed-on-one-side), who inhabit the northern part of the earth. Yet, there are some who for two days of every year are entirely shadowless at midday, upon whom the sun, shining from the zenith, pours equal light from all sides, so that it even lights up the water in the depth of the wells through narrow apertures. Consequently, some call them Ascians (Shadowless). But, those beyond the spice-bearing land have shadows that change from one side to the other. They are the only inhabitants in this world who cast shadows to the south at midday; whence some call them Amphiscians (Shadowed-on-both-sides). All these phenomena happen when the sun has already passed across to the northern regions. From them it is possible to conjecture the intensity of the burning heat which exists in the air from the solar beam, and what effects it produces. The season of autumn, welcoming us in turn from summer, breaks the excessive stifling heat and, gradually lessening it, by its moderate temperature leads us unharmed out of itself into winter, that is to say, while the sun again turns back from the northerly regions to the southern. These changes of the seasons, which follow the movements of the sun, govern our lives.

Let them serve, He says, for the fixing of days (Gen. 1:14), not for making days, but for ruling the days. For, day and night are earlier than the generation of the luminaries. This the psalm declares to us when it says: He placed the sun to rule the day, the moon and stars to rule the night (Ps. 136:8). How does the sun rule the day? Because, whenever the sun, carrying the light around with it, rises above our horizon, it puts an end to the darkness and brings us the day. Therefore, one would not err if he would define the day as air, lighted by the sun, or as the measure of time in which the sun tarries in the hemisphere above the earth. But, the sun and the moon were appointed to be for the years. The moon, when it has completed its course twelve times, measures a year, except that it frequently needs an intercalary month for the accurate determination of the seasons, as the Hebrews and the most ancient of the Greeks formerly measured the year. The solar year is the return of the sun from a certain sign to that same sign in its regular revolutions....

May He who has granted us intelligence to learn of the great wisdom of the Creator from the most trivial objects of creation permit us to receive loftier concepts of the Creator from the mightly objects of creation. And yet in comparison with the Creator, the sun and moon possess the reason of an ant or gnat. Truly it is not possible to attain a worthy view of the God of the universe from these things; we can only be led on by them, as also by each of the tiniest of plants or animals to some vague and faint impression of Him. (PG 29.117-148=FOTC 46.95.103).

Every day is the Lord's Day ... therefore Christians eat the flesh of the Lamb daily: they consume each day the flesh of the Word, for Christ our passover has been sacrificed (I Cor. 5:7). He was sacrificed on the evening of the Day of Preparation, in keeping with the law of the Pasch, which was eaten in the evening, — in the evening of the world that you might nourish yourselves on the flesh of His Word, you who are always evening until the morning comes ... In the evening weeping shall have place and in the morning gladness (Ps. 30:6): so, too, you shall rejoice and be glad in the morning, that is in the world to come (Origen, On Genesis, Hom. X).

The Lord came in the evening of the declining world and near the end of its appointed course, but at His coming, since He Himself is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2), He restored a new day for those who believe. Because, therefore, a new light of knowledge arose in the world, in a certain manner, He made His own day in the morning, and, as it were, the Sun of Righteousness brought forth its own morning, and in this morning those who receive His precepts are filled with bread (Origen, On Exodus, Hom. VII).

Others, whose names were given to me by an informer, admitted the charge of being Christian at first, but later on denied it, saying that they had ceased to be Christian two or more years previously, and some as long as twenty years before. To your statue, and to the images of the gods in the same way, they all did reverence, and they all reviled the name of Christ. They also confessed the sum total of their guilt in this way: on a fixed day, before dawn, they met regularly to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ, as if He were a God; and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but rather to abstain from robbery, theft and adultery, from violating any breach of trust, especially a deposit when called upon to restore it. After this ceremony they usually dispersed but reassembled later to take food of an ordinary harmless kind. This practice, in fact, they had given up after my edict (issued on your instructions), which banned all political assemblies. This decision made me all the more extract by torture from two serving women, whom they call deaconesses, a confession I found nothing but a degenerate sort of a cult carried out to extravagant lengths (BK.X. ep.XCVI.5-8).

Do not be led astray by wrong views or by outmoded fables that count for nothing. For if we go on observing Jewish rites we admit we never received grace. The divine prophets themselves lived Christ Jesus' way. That is why they were persecuted, for they were inspired by His grace to convince unbelievers that God is one, and that He has revealed Himself in His Son Jesus Christ, who is His Word proceeding from silence and who was pleasing in all things to Him who sent Him.

Those, then, who lived by ancient practices arrived at a new hope. They ceased to keep the Sabbath but lived by the Lord's Day, on which our life as well as theirs shone forth, thanks to Him and His death, though some deny this. Through this mystery we got our faith, and because of it we stand our ground so as to become disciples of Jesus Christ, our sole teacher. How, then, can we live without Him when even the prophets, who were His disciples by the Spirit, awaited Him as heir teacher? He, then, whom they were expecting, raised them from the dead, when He came.

We must not, then, be impervious to His kindness. Indeed were He to act as we do, we should at once be done for. Hence' now we are His disciples, we must learn to live like Christians — to be sure — whoever bears any other name does not belong to God. Get rid, then, of the bad leaven — it has grown stale and sour — and be changed into new leaven, that is, into Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, so that none of you go bad, for your smell will give you away. It is out of place to talk Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity. People of every tongue have come to believe in it, and so been united together in God. (SC 10.87).

As for Jewish scruples with respect to food, along with their superstition about the Sabbath, their bragging about circumcision and their hypocrisy about fast days and feasts of new moons I hardly think that you need to be told by me that all these things are ridiculous, and not worth arguing about. How can it be anything but godlessness that makes me accept some of the things made by God for man's use as created good and reject other things as useless and superfluous? And is it not impious to pretend that God forbids a good deed on the Sabbath day? And are they not asking for ridicule when they boast of the mutilation of the flesh as a sign of their being chosen by God, as if for this reason they were especially beloved by him? Again when they constantly gaze at the stars and watch the moon, in order to observe months and days with scrupulous care and to distinguish the changes of the seasons which God has ordained, in order to cater to their own whims, making some into festivals, and others into times of fasting, who could call this evidence of religion rather than of folly? All this being so, I think that you have learned enough to see that Christians are right in holding themselves aloof from the silliness and trickery of Greeks and Jews alike, and from the fficiousness and noisy conceit of the Jews. But as far as the mystery of the Christians' own religion is concerned, you cannot expect to learn that fully from man. (SC 33.60).

Furthermore, it is also written concerning the Sabbath in the decalogue ... sanctify also the Sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and a pure heart (Exod. 20:8) ... and ... if my sons keep the Sabbath, I will have mercy upon them (Jer. 17:24). Now concerning this Sabbath He speaks at the beginning of creation ... and He rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2). This means that when this Son will come and destroy the time of the lawless one and judge the godless, and change the sun and the moon and the stars, then He shall indeed rest on the seventh day. Furthermore He says: thou shalt keep it holy with pure hands and a pure heart (Exod. 20:8). If, then, anyone is able in the here and now to hallow the ay which God sanctified, by being pure in heart, we are completely deceived: know that we cannot sanctify it until that jme when we shall enjoy true repose; when we shall be able to so simply because we have been made just ourselves and shall have received the promise, when there is no more sin, but all things have been made new by the Lord; then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been made holy ourselves. Furthermore, He says to them: I will not abide your new moons and your Sabbaths (Isa. 1:13). You see what He means: the present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but that Sabbath which I have made, in which, after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of another world. Therefore, we also celebrate with joy the eighth day on which Jesus also arose from the dead, was made manifest, and ascended into heaven. (SC 172.182).

It follows accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary.

For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the seventh day, by resting on it from all His works which He made; and that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the People: Remember the day of the Sabbath, to sanctify it (Ex. 20:8): every servile work ye shall not do therein, except what pertaineth unto life (Ex. 12:16). Whence we (Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a Sabbath from all "servile work" always, and not only every seventh day, but through all time. And through it arises the question for us, what Sabbath God willed us to keep? For the Scripture points to a Sabbath eternal and a Sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, Your Sabbaths my son hatted (Isa. 1:13), and in another place is said My Sabbaths ye have profaned (Ez. 22:8). Whence we discern that the temporal Sabbath is human, and the eternal Sabbath is accounted divine; concerning which He predicts through Isaiah: And there shall be. He says, month after month, and day after day, and Sabbath after Sabbath; and all flesh shall come to adore in Jerusalem, said the Lord, which we understand to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when 'all flesh' — that is, every nation — 'came to adore in Jerusalem' God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, as was predicted through the prophet: Behold your God, cities of Judah (Isa. 40:9). Thus, therefore, before this temporal Sabbath, there was withal an eternal Sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnal circumcision there was withal a spiritual circumcision foreshown. In short, let them teach us, as we have already premised, that Adam observed the Sabbath; or that Abel, when offering to God a Holy victim, pleased Him by a religious reverence for the Sabbath; or that Enoch, when translated had been a keeper of the Sabbath; or that Noah the ark-builder observed on account of the deluge an immense Sabbath; or that Abraham in observance of the Sabbath, offered Isaac his son: or that Melchizedek in his priesthood received the law of the Sabbath.

But the Jews are sure to say that, ever since this precept was given through Moses, the observance has been binding. Manifest accordingly it is, that the precept was not eternal nor spiritual, but temporary, which would one day cease. In short, so true is it that that it is not in the exemption from work the Sabbath — that is, of the seventh day — that the celebration of this solemnity is to consist, that Joshua the son of Nun, at the time that he was reducing the city Jericho by war stated that he city received from God seven days, making the circuit of the city; and thus, when the seventh day's circuit had been performed, the walls of the city would spontaneously fall (cf. Josh. 6:1-20). Which was so done; and when the space of the seventh day was finished, just as was predicted, down fell the walls of the city. Whence it is manifestly shown, that in the number of the seven days there intervened a Sabbath day. Whencesoever they may have commenced, must necessarily include within them a sabbath-day; on which day not only must the priests have worked but the city must have been made a prey by the edge of the sword by all the people of Israel. Nor is it doubtful that they wrought servile work (Ex. 12:16). When, in obedience to God's precept, they drove the preys of war. For in the times of the Maccabees, too, they did bravely in fighting on the Sabbaths, and routed their foreign foes, and recalled the law of the fathers to the primitive style of life by fighting on the Sabbaths. Nor should I think it was any other law which they thus vindicated than the one in which they remembered the existence of the prescript touching the day of the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8; Deut. 5:12-15).

Whence it is manifest that the force of such precepts was temporary, and respected the necessity of present circumstances; and that it was not with a view to its observance in perpetuity that God formerly gave them such a law. (PL 2.605 ANF 3.155).

Concerning the Sabbath I have this to say: the question could not have arisen if Christ had not publicly declared Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath.... Thus men wondered ... was it proper for Christ to proclaim the Creator to be God, and at the same time to impugn His Sabbath?... But let me say this: If Christ interfered with the Sabbath He simply acted after the Creator's example in as much as in the siege of Jericho the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant round the walls for eight days, including the Sabbath by the Creator's express command (cf. Josh. 6:14-15), broke the Sabbath by working — or so those people think who have the same opinion also of Christ, being unaware that neither did Christ break the Sabbath nor did the Creator as I shall shortly show. Even so, the Sabbath was on that occasion broken by Joshua so that this too might be taken as referring to Christ. Even if it was through hatred that He made an attack on the Jews' most solemn day because (as Marcion alleges) He was not the Jews' Christ, even by this hatred of the Sabbath He, the Creator's Christ, acknowledged that Creator, following up His cry made by the mouth of Isaiah: Your new moons and Sabbaths my soul hateth (Isa. 1:13). Now in whatever sense this was spoken we know that in circumstances of this kind a sharp reproof has to be put in action against a sharp provocation. Next I shall argue the case in reference to the actual subject in which Christ's rule of conduct has been thought to destroy the Sabbath. The disciples had been hungry; on that very day they had plucked the ears of corn and rubbed them in their hands: by preparing food they had made a breach in the holy day. Christ holds them guiltless and so becomes guilty of infringing the Sabbath: the Pharisees are His accusers. Marcion takes exception to the heads of the controversy — if I may play about a bit with the truth of my Lord — written document and intention. A plausible answer is based upon the Creator's written document and on Christ's intention, as by the precedent of David who on the Sabbath day entered into the temple and prepared food by boldly breaking up the loaves of the shewbread. For he, too, remembered that even from the beginning since the Sabbath day was first instituted, this privilege was granted to it. I make exception from fasting. For when the Creator forbade the gathering of two days' supply of manna, He allowed it only on the day before the Sabbath, so that by having food prepared the day before He might make immune from fasting the holy day of the Sabbath that followed. Well it is then that our Lord allowed the same Purpose in breaking down the Sabbath — if that is what they ant it called: well it is also that He gave effect to the Creator's mention by the privilege of not fasting on the Sabbath. In fact He would have once and for all broken the Sabbath, and the Creator besides, if He had enjoined His disciples to fast on the Sabbath, in opposition to the fact of Scripture and of the Creator's intention. So then, as He did not keep His disciples in close constraint, but now finds excuse for them; as He puts in answer human necessity as begging for considerate treatment: as He conserves the higher privilege of the Sabbath, of freedom from sorrow rather than abstention from work: as He associates David and his followers with His own disciples in fault and in permission: as He is in agreement with the relaxation the Creator has given: as after the Creator's example He Himself is equally kind: is He on that account an alien from the Creator? After that the Pharisees watch if He will heal a man on the Sabbath, that they might accuse Him — evidently (accuse him) as a breaker of the Sabbath, not as the setter forth of a strange god: for perhaps I shall everywhere insist on this point alone, that nowhere was there any prophecy of a different Christ. But the Pharisees were utterly in error about the law of the Sabbath, having failed to notice that it is under certain conditions that it enjoins abstention from works, under a specific aspect of them. For when it says of the Sabbath day, No work of thine shall thou do in it (Ex. 20:10), by saying thine it has made a ruling concerning that human work which any man perform by his craft or business, and not about divine work. But the work of healing or of rescue is not properly man's work but God's. So again in the law it says, In it thou shall do no manner of work, save that which is to be done for every soul (Ex. 12:16), that is, with the purpose of setting a soul free for the work of God can be done even by the agency of a man, for the saving of a soul, yet God is the doer of it: and this as man Christ also was going to do, because He is also God. Because of His desire to lead them towards this understanding of the law by the restoration of the withered hand, He asks them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or not? to set a soul free, or to destroy it? (Lk. 6:9): so that by giving approval to that sort of work which He purposed to do for the soul, He might give them warning of what works the law of the Sabbath forbade, human works, and what works it enjoined, divine works, which were to be done for every soul.

He called himself Lord of the Sabbath because He was protecting the Sabbath as belonging to Himself. Though even f He had broken it He would have had the right to do so as being its Lord, and even more so as He who instituted it. But He did not utterly destroy it in order that henceforth it might be clear that the Sabbath was not broken either by the Creator, even at a time when the Ark was carried around the walls of Jericho ... and although He has shown a certain distaste for Sabbaths in calling them your Sabbaths, elsewhere ... He has put His own Sabbath in a different light, ... declaring them to be 'true, and delightful and inviolable.' (PL 2.383=ANF 3.155).

On every Lord's Day — His special day — come together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. Anyone at variance with his neighbor must not join you, until they are reconciled, lest your sacrifice be defiled. For it was of this sacrifice that the Lord said, Always and everywhere offer me a pure sacrifice; for lam a great King, says the Lord, and my name is marveled at by the nations (Mal. 1:11; SC 248.192).

Those, then, who lived by ancient practices arrived at a new hope. They ceased to keep the Sabbath and lived by the Lord's Day, on which our life as well as theirs shone forth, thanks to Him and His death, though some deny this. Through this mystery we got our faith, and because of it we stand our ground so as to become disciples of Jesus Christ, our sole teacher. How, then, can we live without Him when even the prophets, who were His disciples by the Spirit, awaited Him as their teacher? He, then, whom they were rightly expecting, raised them from the dead, when He came. (SC 10.88).

Now then, whenever you teach, command and warn the people to be constant in coming to church ... lest any one diminish the Church by not assembling and cause the body of Christ to be short of a member. Let no one take thought of others only, but of himself as well, listening to that which our Lord said: Every one that gathereth not with me, scattereth (Mt. 12:30). Since therefore you are the members of Christ, do not scatter yourselves from the Church by not assembling. Seeing that you have Christ for your head, as He promised — for you are partakers with us — be not then neglectful of yourselves and do not then deprive our Savior of His members: do not rend and scatter His body by making your worldly affairs of more account than the word of God; but on the Lord's Day leave everything and run eagerly to your Church for she is your glory. Otherwise, how can you stand before God who do not assemble on the Lord's Day to hear the word of life and be nourished with the divine food which lasts forever? (Text R.H. Connolly, ed. 124).

Go often to church and to the holy places and pray to God: do not neglect the Lord's Day, but hold it in reverence, because on it the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, arose from the dead. Do not perform servile work on the Lord's Day in field or meadow or vineyard: ... cook only what is necessary to nourish the body ... do not journey on the Lord's Day ... except for a good purpose, such as walking to holy places, visiting a brother or a friend, consoling the sick, or carrying counsel or aid for a good cause to one in trouble. In this way the Christian should honor the Lord's Day. It is quite disgraceful that the pagans who do not know the faith of Christ but worship idols and demons, should honor the day of Jupiter or any other demon and abstain from work, when demons certainly never created and do not have any day. Yet we who worship the true God and believe that the Son of God rose from the dead, do not honor the day of the resurrection, the Lord's Day. Do not do wrong to the resurrection of the Lord, but honor it and hold it in reverence for the sake of the hope which we have in it. For just as He, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is our Head, rose from the dead on the third day, so, too, do we hope that we who are His members shall rise in our flesh at the end of the world. (PL 72.18=FOTC 62.84).

On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, which we call the Lord's Day, you must always come together to give thanks to God, and to bless Him for all the benefits which He has bestowed upon us through Christ by rescuing us from the bonds of ignorance and error: thus let your sacrifice be spotless and pleasing to God who to His universal Church said: In everyplace I am offered incense and a pure offering; for I am indeed a great King says the Lord God Almighty, and my name is wonderful among the nations (Mal. 1:11; ANF 7.470).

When you instruct the people, O bishop, command and exhort them to come constantly to church morning and evening, every day, and in no way to forsake it on any account, but to assemble together continually.... For it is not only spoken concerning the priests but let every one of the laity listen to it as concerning himself ... Be not careless of yourselves, neither deprive the Savior of His own members, neither divide his Body nor disperse His members ... but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord's house; in the morning saying the sixty-second psalm, and in the evening the hundred-fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath day. And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's Day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and allowed Him to suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection, on which we pray three times, standing in memory of Him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the Gospel and the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food? (ibid 422).

Furthermore He says to them: I will not abide your new moons and your Sabbaths (Isa. 1:13). You see what He means: the present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but that Sabbath which I have made, in which, after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world. Therefore we also celebrate with joy the eighth day on which Jesus also rose from the dead, was made manifest, and ascended into heaven. (Text: SC 172.186).

Thus, as I already stated, God speaks through Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, concerning the sacrifices you then offered up to Him: I have no pleasure in you, said the Lord, and I will not receive your sacrifices at your hands. For from the rising of the sun even to its going down my name is great among the Gentiles, said the Lord, but you profane it (Mal. 1:10-12). By making reference to the sacrifices that we Gentiles offer to Him everywhere, the Eucharistic bread and the Eucharistic chalice, He predicted that we should glorify His name, but that you should profane it. Furthermore, the precept of circumcision, obliging you without fail to circumcise your sons on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision by which we are circumcised from error and wickedness through our Lord Jesus Christ who arose from the dead on the first day of the week. For the first day of the week, while it remains the first of all days, yet is called the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and still it remains the first. (PG 6.564).

This mother they also call Ogdoad, Sophia, Terra, Jerusalem, Holy Spirit, and with a masculine reference, Lord. Her place of habitation is an intermediate one, above the Demiurge indeed, but below and outside of the Pleroma, even to the end. (Text: SC 264.32).

I have become to Him a thing ... completed according to the type; I have come into being on the eighth day which is the Day of the Lord. But the whole completion of the completion you will see through the redemption that has happened to me and you will see me. (Text: SC 264.170).

By the meadow (cf. Plato, Republic X. 616B) is to be understood the fixed sphere as being a peaceful and congenial spot and the place of the saints; and by the seven days the motions of the seven planets, and every art and operation which strives to attain its true end in rest. But after the wandering world the journey leads to heaven, that is to the eighth motion and the eighth day.

Those who have advanced to Gnostic perfection are at rest in the holy will of God, in the celestial church in which are gathered the philosophers of God who do not remain in the rest of the Hebdomad, but by the active beneficence of assimilation to God are promoted to the heritage of beneficence of the Ogdoad, and thereby are devoted to the pure vision of insatiable contemplation. (Text: ibid. 433).

And the third word is the one which indicates that the world was created by God, and that He gave us the seventh day for rest, because of life's troubles. For God is incapable of weariness and suffering and want. But we who bear flesh need rest. Therefore the seventh day is proclaimed a day of rest — separation from evils — preparing for the primal day, our true rest, which, in truth, is the first creation of light, in which all things are seen and possessed. From this day we are illuminated by wisdom and knowledge.... For the light of truth, a true light casting no shadow, is the Spirit of God invisibly apportioned to all who are sanctified by faith, holding the place of a luminary as a guide to the knowledge of real existence. By following him through our whole lives we become impassible, and this is to rest.... Having reached this point we must mention these things incidentally, since the discourse has turned on 'the seventh' and 'the eighth'. For the eighth may turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh manifestly the sixth, and this latter properly the Sabbath, and the seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded in six days. For the motion of the sun from solstice to solstice is completed in six months, in the course of which, at one time the leaves fall, and at another plants bud and seeds come to maturity.... The Pythagoreans reckon six the perfect number from the creation of the world: ... just as marriage generates from male and female, so six is generated from the odd number three, which is called the masculine number, and the even number two, which is considered the feminine, for twice three are six.... Rightly, then, the number seven is reckoned to be motherless and childless, for figuratively it expresses the nature of Sabbath rest, in which they neither marry nor are given in marriage (Mk. 12:25). And they call eight a cube, counting the fixed sphere along with the seven revolving ones, by which is produced 'the great year,' as a kind of period of recompense of what has been promised.... Thus, man is said to have been made on the sixth day ... so as straightway to receive the rest of the Lord's inheritance. Some such thing also is indicated by the sixth hour in the scheme of salvation, in which man was perfected: for just as there are seven intervals in eight and seven thereby glorifies eight, so too the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19:1).... (Text: GCS 2.501).

Again, not understanding the meaning of the words, And God ended on the sixth day His works which He had made, and ceased on the seventh day from all the works which He had made; and God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it He had ceased from all His works which He had begun to make (Gen. 2:2-3) ... and imagining the expression He ceased on the seventh day to be the same as He rested on the seventh day Celsus makes the remark, 'After this He is weary, indeed, like a very bad workman who is in need of rest to refresh himself.' For Celsus knows nothing of the day of the Sabbath and God's rest which follows the completion of the creation of the world, and which lasts during the duration of the world, and in which all those who will keep festival with God who have in turn done all their works in their six days and who, because they have omitted none of their duties will ascend to the contemplation (of heavenly things) and to the assembly of righteous and blessed things. (Text: SC 147.330).

Thus we all look to the East when we pray but few of us know that we are seeking our old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East (Gen. 2:8). We pray standing, n the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection, rising up we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ and are bound to seek those things which are above (Col. 3:1), but because the day seems to us to be somehow an image of the age which we await wherefore, though it is 'the beginning of days' it is not called by Moses 'first', but 'one'. For he says, there was evening and there was morning, one day (Gen. 1:5.), as though the same day often recurred. Now 'one' and 'eight' are the same, in itself distinctly indicating that really 'one' and 'eight' of which the Psalmist makes mention in certain titles of the psalms, the state which follows after this present time, the day which knows no waning or eventide, and no successor, that age which ends not or grows old. Of necessity, then, the Church teaches her foster-children to offer their prayers on that day standing so that through a continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our passing on to that place. (Text: SC 17 bis. 484).

The title, 'For the secret' proposes accurate diligence to us In our knowledge of God. For the worst fate of the soul is false And erring perceptions about God (for what use does one Derive from any good if one does not have goodness itself?).

Accordingly the title proffers you a torch to illuminate the secrets of the knowledge of God, the sum total of which is faith in the Son. For the title says 'for the secrets of the Son', for that is truly a secret, and is impervious to thought or sight, in that it far transcends human comprehension but the one who approaches with faith will be the first to reach the goal of victory. The meaning of the title, "For the Inheritor" is obvious. For the prophet pours forth to God this prayer for the soul which has departed from its inheritance when the sun has been allowed to go down on its transgression of God's commandment, that the morning sun will again dispel the darkness and that he shall deserve to hear those sweet words addressed to those on the right, Come, you blessed of my father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the constitution of the world (Mt. 25:34).... And one would not err if one attached the same meaning to the title, 'For the morning undertaking'. For Scripture is in the habit of calling the dawn 'morning'. Dawn is the boundary of night and day, ending one and beginning the other. Scripture often enigmatically calls evil 'darkness,' so that when through the help of divine grace we undertake the life of virtue we then come to victory, laying aside the works of darkness and walking honorably as in the daytime as the Apostle says (Rom. 13:13). The title 'for the Octave' is close in meaning to what we have explained. For all the care shown in the life that is cultivating virtue is directed to the future life. Its beginning is called the Ogdoad, and is the successor of this earthly time, which is enclosed in the Hebdomad. The title, 'For the Octave,' then, urges us not to look to this present time, but rather to look forward to the Ogdoad. For when this fluid and mutable state of time ceases, in which one thing is born and another perishes, and there will be no further need for things to be born or to perish, the hope of resurrection will change our nature into another order of life and the passing nature of time will cease together with the activities of birth and decay. Then Hebdomad will completely cease as a measurement of time and the Ogdoad will succeed which is the future age comprehending3 single day, as one of the prophets says, who has named the l»e we hope for the great day (Joel 2:11). That day will not be illumined by this visible sun of ours, but rather by the true 1 ht the sun of justice, who is called the Rising Sun by the prophet (Zech. 6:12) for the reason that it will never be veiled in settings. (Text: PG 44.504).

However, the Lord's Day was not made known to Jews but to Christians by the resurrection of the Lord, and from that event it began to acquire its solemnity. Doubtless, the souls of all the saints prior to the resurrection of the body enjoy repose, but they do not possess that activity which gives power to risen bodies. (Text: PL 33. 215).

It is the eighth day which symbolizes that activity, which is also the first, because it does not destroy that rest but glorifies it. The limitations of the body do not rise with the body, which is free from corruption; for this corruptible body must put on incorruption and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). And so, before the resurrection of the Lord, although this mystery of the eighth day by which the resurrection is symbolized was not concealed from the holy Patriarchs, filled as they were with the spirit of prophecy, it was locked up, and hidden, and taught only as the Sabbath observance. As example we have the psalm written for the octave (PS. 6) and children circumcised on the eighth day. In Ecclesiastes it is used to signify the two Testaments: Give a portion to seven and also to eight (Eccles. 11:2).

Before the Lord's resurrection there was rest for the dies no resurrection for none: Rising from the dead He dies no more; death has no more domination over Him (Rom. 6-9). But after such resurrection had taken place in the Lord's body, so that the head of the Church might foreshadow what the body of the Church hopes for at the end, then the Lord's Day — that is the eighth which is also the first — began to be observed. The reason also is understood why, in observing the Pasch, they were ordered to kill and eat a sheep, since it plainly prefigured the Passion of the Lord, but they were not commanded to see that a sabbath coincided with the month of new corn and with the third week of the moon: so that the Lord might signalize that same day by His Passion, who had also come to announce the Lord's Day, the eighth, which is also the first.

We therefore accept spiritually and hold spiritually what has been written about the Sabbath which simply means rest; but we already have our rest, our true Sabbath in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer ... our Sabbath. Therefore ... on the Lord's Day there should be a ceasing from earthly toil and attention given in every way to prayer and contemplation ... on the day of the resurrection. (Text: PL 77.1255=NPNF 13.92).

Seven multiplied by seven gives fifty, if you add one, which, according to the tradition coming from the authority of the ancients, prefigures the future age; this day is itself alway8 the eighth and the first, nay rather it is always unique, that is the Lord's Day. (Text: PL 83.769).

They no longer observe the Jewish Sabbath, but keep holy the Lord's Day on which through Him and through His death our life rose up. (Text:SC 10.88).

And on the so-called day of the Sun those who live in the cities or in the country assemble in one place and the writings of the prophets are read for as long as time permits ... This Sunday is the day on which we assemble, for it is the first day on which God, when He changed darkness and matter, made the world, and the day on which Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. They crucified Him on the day before the day of Saturn and on the following day which is the day of the Sun, He appeared to His apostles and disciples and taught them what I now pass on to you. (Text: PG 6.429).

But, if all nations are blessed in Christ, and we who are from all nations believe in Him, then He is the Christ, and we are they who are blessed through Him. It is written that God once allowed the sun to be worshipped (cf. Deut. 4:19), and yet you cannot discover anyone who ever suffered death because of his faith in the sun. But you can find men of every nationality who, for the name of Jesus, have suffered, and still suffer, all kinds of torments rather than deny their faith in Him. For His word of truth and wisdom is more blazing and bright than the might of the sun, and it penetrates the very depths of the heart and mind. Thus Scripture says: His name shall arise above the sun (Ps. 72:17), and Zacharias affirms: The East is His name (Zach. 6:12; Text: ibid. 757=FOTC 6.335).

Others, it must be admitted, suppose the sun to be the god of the Christians, for it is a well-known fact that when we pray we face the east, and that we celebrate Sunday as a day of festivity. And what about it? Do you not do the very same? Do not many of you, with an affectation of worshipping the celestial deities, also move your lips while facing toward the rising sun? After all, it is you yourselves who have introduced the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have chosen its day (Sunday) in preference to the preceding day (Saturn's-day) as the most fitting one in the entire week, for either a total abstinence from bathing, or for its postponement until the evening, or for taking a rest and for banqueting. In resorting to such customs, you consciously deviate from your own religious rites and follow those of strangers. For the Jewish feasts are the Sabbath and the Purification, and Jewish too are the ceremonies of the lamps and the fasts from unleavened bread. All these practices and rites are indeed foreign to your gods. Wherefore, returning now from this digression, you who reproach us with the sun and with Sunday should first consider your proximity to us. For we are not far removed from your Saturn and days of rest. (Text; PL 1.579).

For us, dearly beloved brethren, there are in addition to the times of prayer observed by all, new times that are more meaningful.... For we must pray in the morning that the resurrection of the Lord may thus be celebrated by morning prayer. The Holy Spirit proclaimed this of old, when in the psalms He spoke: O my king and my God. For to thee will I pray: O Lord, in the morning thou shall hear my voice. In the morning I will stand before thee, and I will see thee (Ps. 5:3) And again, through the mouth of the Prophet the Lord says: At dawn they will be on watch for me, saying: let us go down and return to the Lord our God (cf. Hos. 6:1). Likewise, at the setting of the sun and at the end of the day there must again be prayer. For since Christ is the True Sun and the True Day, as the sun and day of the world recede, we pray and petition for the light to come upon us again when we pray for the coming of Christ to provide us with the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the psalms declares that Christ is called the day. He says: This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exalt and rejoice therein (Ps. 118:24). Likewise, Malachias the prophet gives witness that He is called the Sun, when He says: But unto you who fear my name, the Sun of Justice shall arise, and healing is in His wings (Mal. 4:2). Thus if in the Scriptures Christ is called the True Sun and the True Day, no hour is excepted for Christians, in which God should be adored often and always, so that we who are in Christ, that is, in the True Sun and in the True Day, should be constant throughout the entire day in our petitions and prayers; and when, by the laws of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no danger from the nocturnal shades for those who pray, because to the sons of light even in the night there is day. For when is he without light-who has the light in his heart? Or when does he not have the sun and the day, to whom Christ is Sun and Day?

Hail O Light! For in us who are buried in darkness, and imprisoned in the shadow of death, light has come forth from imp en purer than that of the sun and sweeter than life here blow This light is eternal life for all those who share in it. But the night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror it makes way for the Day of the Lord. This is the light that never sleeps, the light that hovers over all, and the West has come round to the East. This Light is Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. (Text: SC 2.182).

It is not only the believer who will be judged impartially before the tribunal of heaven. The same holds good for the heathen. For, since God knew, by means of His foreknowledge, that the heathen would not believe, nevertheless, in order that it might redound to His own perfection, He gave him philosophy before giving him Faith. And He gave him the sun and the moon and the stars to worship, as the Law itself tells us (cf. Deut. 1.19) that the heathen would not become completely atheistic and perish in this condition. But they have taken leave of their senses and have worshipped graven images, and thus they will be judged according to this commandment, unless they repent: some of them deliberately rejected any belief in God; others though they did have the desire to believe, yet they did not take the trouble to do so. There were also those, who having worshipped the heavenly bodies first, did not return to worship the maker of them. For this worship of the heavenly bodies was the road which was given to the heathen by which they could rise up to the worship of the true God. But there were those who were not content with the worship of these heavenly bodies which were assigned to them and so they went their own way and worshipped stocks and stones and thus were counted as chaff and as a drop from the bucket (Isa. 40:15;. Text:GCS 2.487).

He also ordained that one day should be set aside as a special day for prayer: I mean that which is truly the first and chief of all, the day of our Lord and Savior. The care of his entire household was entrusted to deacons and other ministers consecrated to the service of God: ... and his body guard,.... found in their emperor and instructor in the practice of piety-and like him held the Lord's salutary day in honor, and performed on that day the devotions which he loved. The same observance was recommended by this blessed prince to al classes of his subjects: his earnest desire being gradually to lea all mankind to the worship of God. Accordingly he enjoin6 on all the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the Lord's Day, as a day of rest, and also to honor the day which precedes the Sabbath, in memory, I suppose, of what the Savior of mankind is recorded to have achieved on that day. And since his desire was to teach his whole army zealously to honor the Savior's day (which derives its name from light, and from the sun) he freely granted to those among them who were partakers of the divine faith, leisure for attendance on the services of the Church of God, in order that they might be able to perform their religious worship. (Text: PG 20.1165).

"With regard to those who were as yet ignorant of divine truth, he provided by a second statute that they should appear on each Lord's Day on an open plain near the city, and there, at a given signal, offer to God with one accord a prayer which they had previously learnt. He admonished them that their confidence should not rest in their spears, or armor, or bodily strength, but that they should acknowledge the supreme God as the giver of every good and of victory itself; to whom they were bound to offer their prayers with due regularity, uplifting their hands toward heaven, and raising their mental vision higher still to the King of heaven, on whom they should call as the Author of victory, their Preserver, Guardian, and Helper. The emperor himself prescribed the prayer to be used by all his troops. (Text: ibid. 1168).

The Day of the Lord, or the Day of the Resurrection, is indeed the true day of every Christian: for this reason it is called the Lord's Day, because on that day the Lord ascended triumphant to the Father. And if this day is called Sunday by the pagans, we too are most ready to confess that today the Light of the World has risen, that today the Sun of Justice has risen. (Text: CCL 78.550).

From these and similar notions there arise forms of impiety in which the sun is worshipped at the break of day from some elevated place. Even Christians are not immune from such a practice; indeed they believe that they are acting m good conscience, when on arrival at the doors of St. Peters Basilica, which is dedicated to the One, Living and True God, having ascended the steps which lead up to the open place, they turn around, face toward the rising sun, and bending their heads give honor to the shining orb with a reverential bow. For a long time we have deplored this custom and it has grieved us greatly. It is due partly to ignorance and partly to the influence of paganism. For even if these latter venerate the Creator of this beauteous light, more than the light itself which is but a creature, yet we must abstain from even the appearance of such a rite; which should any one who has abandoned the worship of idols find among us, will he too not hold on to this part of his former belief as credible, which he observes to be common to Christian as well as to pagan. (Text. PL 54.218).

"Notice that we read in Proverbs: A wise man continues as the sun, but a fool is changed as the moon (Sir. 27:ll) and who then is the wise man who continues but the Sun of Justice of whom it is said: The Sun of Justice is risen unto me? (Mal. 4:2). But the wicked upon whom He has not risen shall weep and say on that last day: The light of justice has not shined upon us and the sun has not risen upon us (Wis. 5:6). For, God has made the sun visible to fleshy eyes, to shine upon the good and the bad, who also, rains upon the just and the unjust (Mt. 5:45). But appropriate comparisons of invisible things are often drawn from visible ones. Who then is the fool who is changed as the moon but Adam, in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5:12)?

Nevertheless ... it should not be supposed that those luminaries are to be adored which are used as parables to symbolize divine mysteries — such comparisons are taken from all created things... For Just as we do not adore domestic animals, although He is called a lamb (Jn. 1:29) or a calf (Ezek. 43:19); nor wild beasts because He is called a lion of the tribe of Judah (Apoc. 5:5); nor stones because they are figures of Christ, nor Mount Sion because it is the figure of the Church, so neither do we adore the sun nor the moon, although from these heavenly bodies ... we draw symbols of the mysteries and thereby increase our mystical knowledge. We make use of these things as symbols to illustrate the mysteries of the word of God. We make use of parables formulated with reverent devotion to illustrate our religion; likewise we have no hesitation in using the visible creation for the same purpose, the winds, the sea, the earth, as in the administration of the sacraments we use, with Christian liberty, but with necessary reserve, water, wheat, wine and oil. If, however, allegories are taken not only from the heavens and the stars, but also from lower creation and are adapted to the administration of the sacraments, they thus become a type of language of redemption fitted to win the affection of the hearers from the visible to the invisible, from the corporeal to the spiritual and from the temporal to the eternal. (Text: PL 33.208).

And just as the dawn is an image of the day ... and its light begins to dispel the darkness of the night, so too there dawns on those who sit in darkness a day of knowledge and of truth: thus in keeping with the manner of the sun's rising, prayers are offered while looking toward the sunrise in the East. It was for this reason that those very ancient temples looked toward the West so that the worshippers might turn to the East when facing the images. (Text:GSC 3.32).

Thus we all look towards the East at our hours of prayer but few of us realize that we are seeking our lost land ... Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East. Similarly on the first day of the week we pray standing; yet few of us are aware of the reason ... on the day of the resurrection (which in Greek means standing again) we stand again in expectation of the age which is contained in this symbol for the day is an image of eternity: We do not stand simply because we rose with Christ to seek the things that are above. (Text: PG 32.192).

But when we turn towards the East we do so because our first homeland is in the East; we do not turn to the East as if God were only to be contemplated there, for He who is everywhere is not particularly apprehended in any part since He comprises all things equally. (Text:PG 44.1184).

The day was almost done and the sun was beginning to set, but her zeal in no way declined. Rather as she approached the end and saw more clearly the beauty of the Bridegroom she seemed to rush toward the one she desired with even greater desire; no longer did she speak to those of us who were present; she spoke only to the One toward whom she gazed with steadfast look. She was turned towards the East and ... spoke only to Him ... then, evening came and the lamp was brought in, and Macrina turned towards the beam of light ... forth' night prayer, and with the prayer her life came to an end. (Text: PG 46.984).

Address him as personally present and with arm outstretched say: 'I renounce you, Satan.' Allow me to explain the reason of your facing West, for you should know it. Because the West is the region of visible darkness, Satan, who is himself darkness, has his empire in darkness — that is the significance of your looking steadily towards the West while you renounce that gloomy prince of night... then ... God's Paradise opens before you that Eden, planted in the East, from which for his transgressions our first father was banished. Symbolic of this is your facing about from the West to the East, the place of light. It is at this point that you were told to say: 'I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.' (Text: PG 33.1068=FOTC 64.155).

When you gather the faithful together in the Church of God, act as a pilot of a great ship. With prudence and wit"1 discipline regulate the assembly, commanding the deacons like sailors, so that the faithful, embarking on this ship, may v directed to their proper place. And concerning the church itself, see to it that it is built facing in the direction of the East, and that it has vestries on both sides at the East so that it will resemble a ship. (Text: Funk 1.159=ANF 7.421).

The ecclesiastical manner of speaking for the days of the k is more fitting on Christian lips. But if habit has perhaps led anyone to let slip from his tongue, by chance, what he disapproves of in his heart, let him understand that all those, from whom the days of the week derive their names, were mere men, and because of certain benefits accruing to mortals, because they were very powerful and eminent in this world, divine honors were bestowed upon them by their followers, in such wise that these latter named the days and the heavenly bodies after them. First the heavenly bodies were called after the names of men, and the days from the heavenly bodies. The 'feriae' were so called from 'fando,' that is, 'speaking,' because there is a time for speaking in both divine and human services. Those established for men are called 'holidays (dies festi) while those for divine services are called 'holy-days' (feriati; Text: PL 82.216).

At night, the King offers his sacrifices to Marduk and Ishtar; on the seventh day to Belith and Nergal; on the fourteenth to Ninib and Gula, and the nineteenth (representing a week of weeks from the first of the previous month) to Samsch, Belith-Matati, Sin and Belith-ile; on the twenty-first to Ea and on the twenty-eighth to Belith-ile; he pours out the offering of the sacrifice and his prayer is accepted by the god. (Text: N. Denis-Boulet, The Christian Calendar, 16).

'This last charge is what surprises us,' replied Trypho... for you do not keep the feasts or Sabbaths.... You place your hope in a crucified man, and still expect to receive favors from God when you disregard His commandments....'

'Trypho,' I began, 'there never will be, nor has there been from eternity, any other God except Him who create and formed the universe. Furthermore we do not claim that our God is different from yours, for He is God who, win, strong hand and outstretched arm, led your forefathers out the land of Egypt. Nor have we placed our trust in any other (for, indeed there is no other), but only in Him whom you also have trusted, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob But, our hope is not through Moses or through the Law otherwise our customs would be the same as yours....'

In Christ an everlasting covenant and final law has been given to us.... Concerning this New Covenant, God thin spoke through Jeremias: Behold the days shall come, said the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (Jer. 31:31). II therefore, God predicted that He would make a new covenant and this for a light to the nations, and we see and are convinced that, through the name of the crucified Jesus Christ, men haw turned to God ... and have practiced piety even unto death then everyone can clearly see from these deeds ... that He is indeed the New Law, the New Covenant, and the expectation of those who, from every nation, have awaited the blessings God. We have been led to God through this crucified Christ, and we are the true spiritual Israel, and the descendants Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham....

The New Law demands that we observe a perpetual Sabbath, whereas you consider yourselves pious when you refrain from work on one day out of the week, and in doing so you don't understand the real meaning of that precept...

We, too, would observe ... your Sabbath days, and, in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you. . .

The observance of the Sabbaths was imposed upon you by God so that you would be forced to remember Him, as Himself said: That you may know that I am God, your Savior (Ex. 20:20)...

Before Moses there was no need of Sabbaths, festivals, or sacrifices: neither are they needed now, when in accordance with the will of God, Jesus Christ, His Son, has been born of the Virgin Mary, a descendant of Abraham .

Now Trypho, tell me, was it God's desire that your high priests commit sin when they offer oblations on the Sabbaths? Or did He wish that they who received or performed circumcision on that day be guilty of sin, since it is His command that circumcision be given on the eighth day after birth, even though that day may fall on a Sabbath? If He knew it would be sinful to perform that act on a Sabbath, could He not have decreed that infants be circumcised either a day before or a day after the Sabbath? And why did He not instruct those persons who lived before the time of Moses and Abraham to observe these same precepts; men, who are called just and were pleasing to God, even though they were not circumcised in the flesh, and did not keep the Sabbaths?

Neither should you consider it dreadful if we drink hot water on the Sabbath, for God doesn't stop controlling the movement of the universe on that day, but He continues directing it then as He does on all other days. Besides, your chief priests were commanded by God to offer sacrifices on the Sabbath, as well as on other days. Then, too, there are so many just men who are approved by God Himself, yet they never performed of your legal ceremonies. (Text: PG 6. 496).

And for this reason the Lord said: When you make a dinner or a supper, do not call friends, neighbors, or kinsfolk lest they ask you in return and so repay you. But call the lame, the blind, and the poor and you shall be blessed, since they cannot repay you, but a recompense shall be made to you at the resurrection of the just (Lk. 14:12). And again He said, Whosoever shall have left lands, or houses, or parents, or brethren, or children because of Me, he shall receive in this world a hundredfold, and in that to come he shall inherit eternal life (Lk. 18:29). For what are the hundred-fold rewards in this world, the entertainment's given to the poor and the suppers for which a return is made? These are to take place in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon the seventh day, which has been sanctified, in which God rested from all the works which He created, which is the true Sabbath of the righteous, which they shall not be engaged in any earthly occupation; but shall have a table at hand prepared for them by God, supplying them with all sorts of dishes. (Text: SC 153.408).

Moreover, we learn from Scripture itself that God gave circumcision not as a means of righteousness, but rather as a sign by which the people of Abraham might be recognizable ... Ezekial, the prophet, says the very same about the Sabbath: I also gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between them and Me that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them (Ezek. 20:12). In Exodus God says to Moses: And you shall observe my Sabbath; and it shall be a sign between Me and you for your generations (Exod. 31:16). These things then were given for a sign; but the signs were not without significance, that is, neither without meaning nor to no purpose because they were given by a wise Artist: indeed the circumcision of the flesh typified that of the spirit, for, as the Apostle says, We have been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands (Col. 2:11); and the prophet says: Circumcise the hardness of your hearts (Jer. 4:4)-----But the Sabbaths teach that we should continue day by day in God's service. For we have been counted, says the apostle Paul, all the day long as sheep for the slaughter (Rom. 8:36); that is we have been consecrated to God and ministering continually to our faith and persevering in it, and abstaining from greed, and neither acquiring nor possessing treasures on this earth. Moreover, the Sabbath of God is that the kingdom of God was, as it were, indicated by created things: in which kingdom the man, who shall have persevered in serving God, shall in a state of rest partake of God's table. Such a man was not justified by these things: rather they were given to the people as a sign of his justification. Consider this: Abraham was without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths; yet he believed God: thus was he justified and called 'the friend of God.' (Text: SC 100.558).

...He performed cures on the Sabbath, at Siloam, and afterwards, on many other occasions: for this reason many used to come to Him on the Sabbath day. The law commanded them to abstain from servile work, that is, from grasping after wealth, which is procured by trading and other worldly ways: but it also exhorted them to engage in spiritual exercises such as contemplation and charitable activities for the good of neighbor. For this reason the Lord reproved them for blaming Him because He healed upon the Sabbath day. By so doing He did not break the law; rather He fulfilled it and performed the duties of the High Priest — propitiating God for men, cleansing lepers, healing the sick. He even suffered death so that sinful man might return from His exile and re-enter His inheritance …

Again ... He said to them: Have you not read what David did when he was hungry? How he entered the house of God and ate the loaves of offering, loaves which only the priests are allowed to eat (Mt 12:3-4)... The workman is worthy of his meat.... Therefore, those priests in the temple, who profaned the Sabbath were blameless, because in the temple they were not engaged in the affairs of the world but in the service of God,... fulfilling the law but not going beyond it, like the man who carried the dry wood into the camp of God and was justly stoned to death: for every tree that brings not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire (Mt. 3:10; Text: SC 100.470).

You are blessed, O Lord, King of the Ages, who by Christ has made the whole world and in the beginning brought order to disorder by that same Christ... for by your Word, O Lord, heaven was fixed as an arch above us ... the light and the sun were begotten for days and the production of fruit: likewise the stars and the moon for our comfort in darkness and the life of the seasons ... the former you called 'day,' and the latter you called 'night.' (Text: Sc 294.356).

Leaving aside, then, the Jewish observances of the Sabbath, let us see of what kind the observance of the Sabbath should be for the Christian. On the Sabbath day no worldly activities should be undertaken (Ex. 31:14). So if you abstain from all secular works and do nothing worldly, but keep yourself free for spiritual works, come to church (ecclesiam), listen to scripture readings and sermons, have before your eyes the coming judgment, consider not the things that are present and visible but those that are invisible and future, this is the observance of the Sabbath for the Christian. But these things the Jews ought also to have observed. Even among them a blacksmith or a builder or any kind of manual worker abstains from work on Sabbath day. But the reader of the divine law or the teacher does not abstain from work and yet does not profane the Sabbath. For so the Lord said to them: Have you not read that the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are without reproach! (Mt. 12:5). Therefore he who abstains from the works of the world and is free from spiritual activity, he it is who offers the sacrifice of the Sabbath and celebrates the Sabbath feast. He carries no burden on the way (cf. Jer. 17:24). For the burden is every sin, as the prophet says, Like a heavy burden they weigh me down (Ps. 38:4).

He does not kindle a fire (cf. Ex. 35:3), that is, that fire of which it is said: Go in by the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled (Isa. 50:11).

On the Sabbath everyone remains seated in his place and does not leave it (cf. Ex. 16:29). So what is the spiritual place of the soul? Its place is righteousness, truth, wisdom, holiness and everything which Christ is, that is the place of rest. The soul ought not to leave this place, if it is to keep the true Sabbath and celebrate with sacrifices the feast day of the Sabbath, as the Lord said: He who abides in me, I abide in him (Jn. 15:5; In Num. Horn. 23:4; Text: GCS 2.501).

It is necessary to discover what the Sabbath signifies. Scripture calls it the rest of God and places it after the creation of the sensible world. But what is the rest of God except His devoting Himself to the intelligible and supramundane realities? Indeed, when He looks at the sensible world and gives Himself to the exercise of His providence over the world, He is said to work. It is in this sense that we must understand the word of our Savior: My Father works until now, and I work (Jn. 5:17). But when He turns to the incorporeal and supramundane realities, in His heavenly realm, then we may understand Him to be resting and observing His Sabbath. In the same way, when men of God turn from the works that weary the soul (such are all works of the body and those which are dear to earthly flesh) and give themselves wholly to God and to the study and contemplation of divine and intelligible realities, then they observe the Sabbaths which are dear to God and rest for the Lord God. And it is of such Sabbaths that Scripture teaches: Now there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Heb. 4:9), and again: Let us strive to enter into that rest (4:11). For the perfect Sabbath and the perfect and blessed Sabbath rest is found in the kingdom of God, above the work of the six days and outside all sensible realities, among the incorporeal and supramundane realities, where grief and sorrow and sighing have fled away (cf. Isa. 35:10). There, released from mortal and corruptible life, enjoying the blessed rest which pleases God, and freed from bodily activities and the slavery of the flesh, we shall celebrate the Sabbath and rest truly with God and beside Him. That is why the Apostle says: Let us strive to enter into that rest (Heb. 4:11). For the men of God (the patriarchs) bearing on earth the image (Eikon) of that Sabbath, of that perfect and blessed rest, abstained from things which turned them away from God, and giving themselves wholly to the contemplation of divine realities, applying themselves day and night to meditation on the holy scriptures, they were then celebrating the holy Sabbaths and resting in the rest which pleases God. And so suitably, the law of Moses, providing shadows and signs of the things of which we have spoken, appointed a particular day for the people so that on this day at least they should leave their ordinary work and have leisure for meditation on the law of God.

So you see what the present text requires to be done on the day of the resurrection.... Also on the Sabbath the priests in the temple were employed in many other activities according to the Law. It does not prescribe idleness. It was not for the priests that the Sabbath was prescribed, but only for those who were unlike them in not devoting all their time and every day to the service of God and to the works which please Him. For these it was prescribed that intervals be made. But those who give themselves to feasting and drinking and disorder on the Sabbath, God rebukes by the prophet, saying: They adopt false Sabbaths (Amos 6:3), and again, I cannot endure your new moons and Sabbaths and festivals (Isa. 1:13).

This is why, rejecting those Sabbaths, the Word by the New Covenant has changed and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the rising of the light. He has given to us an image (Eikori) of true rest, the day of salvation, the Lord's Day and the first day of the light, on which the Savior of the world, after all His deeds among men, and victorious over death, opened the gates of heaven, passing beyond the creation of the six days, and received the divine Sabbath and the blessed rest, when the Father said to Him, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool (Ps. 110:1). On that day of light, the first day and the day of the true sun, we also gather after the interval of six days, when we celebrate the holy and spiritual Sabbaths — we who have been redeemed through Him from the nations throughout the world — and what the law ordained for the priests to do on the Sabbath we fulfill according to the spiritual law. For we offer spiritual sacrifices and oblations, which are called sacrifices of praise and joy (cf. Ps. 27:6). We cause sweet-smelling incense to ascend, of which it is written, May my prayer go up as incense in your sight (Ps. 141:2). Also we offer the shewbread, renewing the memorial of salvation, and the blood of sprinkling, the blood of the lamb of God who stakes away the sin of the world and purifies our souls. We light the lamps of the knowledge of the face of God. Furthermore we zealously devote ourselves to putting in practice on this day the things described in this Psalm... Everything else which had to be done on the Sabbath we have transferred to the (Lord's Day, as being more lordly (kurioteras), taking the lead (egoumenes), the first, and more worthy of honor than the Jewish Sabbath. For it was on this day in the creation of the (world that God said, Let there be light, and there was light (Gen. 1:3; Text: PG 23.1165=Carson, 282).

And it came to pass that when the Lord came up out of the (waters the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended upon Him land rested upon Him and said to Him: My Son in all the [prophets was I awaiting for thee that thou shouldst come and [that I might have my rest in thee: for thou indeed art my rest: [thou are my first begotten Son that reignest forever. (Text: PL 24.144).

This psalm is entitled — A psalm to be sung on the Sabbath day. Lo, this day is the Sabbath, which the Jews at this time observe by a sort of bodily rest — languid and luxurious. They abstain from servile work but they surrender themselves to leisure; and although God ordained the Sabbath they keep it in ways that God forbids. On the other hand, our rest is from evil works whereas theirs is from good works, for it is much better to plough than to dance: they would abstain from good works but not from trivial works. To us also God proclaims His Sabbath. What kind of Sabbath? In the first place consider where it is: it is within us, in our very hearts. There are many indeed who are idle in body but are disturbed in heart and conscience ... but our Sabbath is the joy and peace of our hope. This is the subject of our praise, and of the psalm we sing, for a Christian enjoys the Sabbath of his own heart — that is, he rests in the quiet and peace of a serene and undisturbed conscience. Thus in this psalm we are told how men are wont to be disturbed, and we are taught to be at rest by keeping the Sabbath in our own hearts. (Text: PL 37.1172).

Your fasts must not be the same as those of the hypocrites, (the Jews). They observe Mondays and Thursdays; but you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. (Text: SC 248.172).

Why do you devote to Stations the fourth and sixth days of the week, and to fasts the day of preparation? Anyhow, you sometimes continue your Station even over the Sabbath — a day never to be kept as a fast except at the Passover season. (Text: PL 2.956).

I believe you heard this some time ago, but I am nevertheless repeating it now. My mother, who had followed me to Milan, found that the church there did not fast on Saturday. She began to be anxious and uncertain as to what she should do. I was not then concerned with such things, but for her sake I consulted on this matter that man of most blessed memory, Ambrose. He answered that he could teach me nothing but what he himself did, because, if he knew anything better, he would do it. When I thought that he wished to impose his views on us, solely by his own authority, without giving any reason, he followed up and said to me: 'When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you do not want to give or receive scandal.' When I told this to my mother, she willingly accepted it. And, recalling this advice over and over again, I have always esteemed it as something given by a heavenly oracle. For I have often experienced with grief and dismay that the weak are deeply disturbed by the aggressive obstinacy or superstitious fears of certain brethren, who stir up such controversial questions, that they think nothing is right except what they do themselves. And these are things of such sort that they are not prescribed by the authority of holy Scripture nor by the tradition of the universal Church, and they serve no good purpose of amending one's life, but they are insisted on simply because somebody thinks out a reason for them, or because a man was accustomed to do so in his own country, or because he saw things done somewhere on a pilgrimage, and he esteemed them to be more correct because they were further from his own usage. (Text. PL 33.200).

This is the night when first you saved our fathers,

destroyed the darkness of sin.

to see Christ rising from the dead.

pointing out him who rises before the morning star. Come to the feast, air, which extends over the abysses....

The day of preparation (Friday) was divided into two days and one night because of the darkness that intervened when the sun was overshadowed. For if the Lord called the darkness night, and for three hours there was darkness over the entire earth (Mt. 28:45) that space of time in the middle of the day was in fact night, with two days on either side of it, one from dawn until the sixth hour, the other from the ninth hour until evening.... Our remaining question is ... when, then, did Christ arise? On the evening of the Sabbath (Mt. 28:1), Matthew tells us clearly. This is the hour of the resurrection, according to the angel's word. This was the end of the Lord's stay in the heart of the earth. For when it was late in the evening (the evening was the beginning of that night which ended the first Sabbath day) then the earthquake occurred. Then the angel clad in gleaming garments rolled back the stone from the tomb. And the women rising early in the morning, just after dawn, when the splendor of the rising sun could be seen, and could then tell that the resurrection had already occurred. They recognized the marvellous event, but did not tell at what hour it occurred. The angel announced that the Lord had risen (cf. Mt.28:6), but did not add the detail of the precise time. The great Matthew alone of all the evangelists had indicated the time with accuracy, telling us that the evening of Saturday was the hour of the resurrection.

If these things are so, it is clear that the period of three days extends from the evening of Thursday to the evening of Saturday and that Friday had two days and two nights because of the intervening period of darkness. For it was necessary that in the Lord's dominion over time that His deeds should not be constricted by the prescribed measures of time but that new measures of time should be devised as the needs of things arose, and that the divine power should exercise itself in goodness in a shorter period by a contraction with the usual limits of time jettisoned so that the period of three days and three nights could be telescoped in this way. (Text: PG 46.613).

What is the Pasch? Its name is derived from what happened, from the verb to suffer. Learn who it was who suffered and who suffered along with the sufferer, and why the Lord is present on the earth. It is so that in the vesture of one who has suffered He may be taken up to the highest heavens. (Text: OECT 22, ed. S. Hall).

He came on earth from the heavens on account of suffering man; dressing Himself with humanity through a virgin's womb, He took upon himself the sufferings of suffering man through a body capable of suffering and destroyed the sufferings of the flesh, and through His spirit incapable of death He became the death of death which is destructive to man. (Text: ibid. 34).

The majority of the brothers, perhaps all of them, believe that the Pasch (Paskha) is so called on account of the Passion (pathos, from the verb paschein) of the Savior. Nonetheless, the actual word for the festival in question is not in Hebrew paskha, but phas. The three letters of phas, plus the rough breathing, (equivalent to the "h" in English), which is stronger in their language, constitute the word for the festival, which means, in translation, "passage." Because in this festival the people pass from Egypt, it is appropriately called phas, which means "passage." Because it is not possible in Greek to say the word as it is pronounced in Hebrew, because the Greeks cannot pronounce the stronger rough breathing of the Jews (the Hebrew letter heth), the word was Hellenized. In the translation of the prophets it is written phasek, then, more thoroughly Hellenized, the word becomes paskha. If one of our brothers, happening to be among Jews, should let it slip that he thinks the Pasch to be so called because of the Savior's Passion, they would make fun of him on account of his utter ignorance of the real etymology of the word. (Text: Origene. Sur la Paque, Paris, 1979, 154, edd. O. Gueraud, P. Nautin).

'Perhaps it would not be out of place to treat again of the Pasch and to explain that from the beginning it was handed down as a figure to the children of the Hebrews. For when the Hebrews, celebrating the shadow of things to come, first kept the festival of phasek, they took an animal from the flock. This was a sheep or a lamb. And this they immolated themselves. Then each anointed with its blood the lintels and his house. In this way they kept away the exterminator, with the blood on the ground and the ceilings. Then, having fed on the flesh of the sheep, and with loins girt with a cincture, and having taken unleavened bread and bitter herbs, they pass over from one place to another, from Egypt to the desert. It had been prescribed that they do these things at the same time as the slaughter and eating of the sheep. And it is from this passover to Egypt that the feast has received the name Passover. (Text: PG 24.693).

This great, venerable Pasch is called Phaska by the Hebrews in their language. The word means passage, historically because of the flight and passing over from Egypt to the land of Canaan, spiritually because of the passage and ascent from things below to things above, to the Promised Land. As we often find happening in the Scripture, the meaning of words changed from rather vague to rather clear. Something rather rough becomes more refined, as in the case that we are examining. For after considering the name of the Passion of the Savior, some decided to Hellenize the word, changing the letter'ph'to 'p,'and the letter'k'to'ch,'and so have named the day Pascha. Custom adopted this name, consolidated it, and the more people heard it the more they liked its piety. (Text: PG 36.636).

For the passion of Christ is the true Pasch; it is from this that it has received the name 'Pasch.' The word of the Apostle clearly demonstrates this, saying, For Christ, our Pasch, has been immolated (1 Cor. 5:7). With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you (Lk. 22:15). We eat this Pasch, then, with Christ because He pastures (Pascha/pascit) those whom He saves. He is Himself the author of this Pasch, the author of this mystery. He has accomplished this feast of the Pasch so that He might refresh us with the food of His Passion, and might refresh us with the drink of salvation. (Text: SC 154.276).

Brethren, the word 'Pasch'is not Greek, as some think, but Hebrew, but as it happens very opportunely, there is a certain congruence here between both languages. Because the Greek word for 'suffer' is 'paschein', so 'Pasch' was thought to be related to the word 'passion.' But in its own language, that is in Hebrew, the word 'pasch' means 'passover.' Accordingly, for the first time the people of God celebrated the Pasch when they, fleeing from Egypt, passed over the Red Sea. Now indeed that figure in prophecy has been fulfilled in truth, when Christ like a sheep was led to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7) and with His blood our doorposts were smeared, that is, with our foreheads smeared with the sign of the cross, we are liberated from the destruction of this world, as from the slavery and destructiveness of Egypt. We perform a very salutary passover when we make the transition from the devil to Christ, and from this unstable age to the stable foundations of His kingdom. (Text: CCL 36.463).

The Pasch, which in Hebrew is called phase, is not derived from the word passio as many think, but is named from the word for passover in that the exterminator, seeing the blood on the doors of the Israelites, did not strike against them, but passed over them, or rather that the Lord, in bringing help to His people, passed above. You must read the Book of Exodus for further details and we will discuss it if life is kind to us. Our passover, however, that is, OUT phase, is so celebrated if, laying aside Egypt and earthly things, we hasten to heavenly things. (Text: SC 259.234).

Now is the time when the blessed light of Christ sheds its rays, the pure torches of the pure spirit arise and the heavenly treasures of divine glory are opened up. Night's darkness and obscurity have been swallowed up, and the dense blackness dispersed in the light of day; crabbed death had been totally eclipsed. Life has been extended to every creature and all things are diffused in brightness. The dawn of dawn ascends over the earth, and He who was before the morning star (Ps. 110:3) and before the other stars, the mighty Christ, immortal and mighty, sheds light brighter than the universe.

For us, His faithful, He has initiated a bright new day, long, eternal and inextinguishable; it is the mystical Pasch, celebrated in figures under the law, but fulfilled in very truth by Christ; the marvelous Pasch, the wonder of divine virtue, truly a feast, an everlasting memorial.

Impossibility born of suffering, immortality born of death, life born in the tomb, healing born from plague, resurrection born from the fall, ascent to heaven born from descent to hell. God is the author of these wonders, from impossible beginnings to wonderful results. For He alone can accomplish all that He wills...

So the Law came first to signify in type the true reality, but type and figures are no more now that truth has come. Then a lamb was taken from the flock; today the lamb has come down from heaven; then there was the sign of blood, the small protection of all; today the word and cup of blood, filled with the Divine Spirit; then there was the sheep from the flock, today there is not just the sheep, but the shepherd in person. Will not the reality accomplish the salvation of all? Even their types were already salutary!...

The Pasch is the Pasch of the Lord... No longer just a figure, just a narrative. No longer a shadow, but the Pasch of the Lord in truth. This is the night on which the flesh is eaten, for the light of the world has set upon the great body of Christ. (Text: SC 27.117).

Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God. Let it mingle with the lights of heaven and continue bravely burning to dispel the darkness of the night. May the morning star which never sets find the flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed His peaceful light on all mankind, your son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. (Exultet; Missale Romanum).

And so He plants a new tree in place of the old one; it is no longer the old hand of wickedness which yesterday was extended in an impious gesture; it is His pure hand in a gesture of pity, — thus He shows His whole life truly stretched on the cross. But you, Israel, were unable to eat, whereas we ate with a spiritual, indestructible knowledge, and eating we shall not die.

This cross is the tree of my eternal salvation nourishing and delighting me. I take root in its roots. I am extended on its branches, I am delighted by its dew, I am fertilized by its spirit as by a delightful breeze. In my tent I am shaded by its shade and, fleeing the excessive heat, I find this refuge moist with dew. Its flowers are my flowers; I am wholly delighted by its fruits and I feast unrestrainedly on its fruits which are reserved for me always.

This is my nourishment when I am hungry, my fountain when I am thirsty, my covering when I am stripped, for my leaves are no longer fig leaves but the breath of life. This is my safeguard when I fear God, my support when I triumph. This is my narrow path, my steep way. This is the ladder of Jacob, the way of angels, at the summit of which the Lord is truly established. This is my tree, wide as the firmament, which He ascended from the earth to the heavens, with its immortal trunk established between heaven and earth; it is the pillar of the universe, the support of the whole world, the joint of the world, holding together the variety of human nature, and riveted by the invisible bolts of the Spirit, so that it may remain fastened to the divinity and impossible to detach. Its top touches the highest heavens, its roots are planted in the earth, and in the midst its giant arms embrace the ever present spirits of air. It is wholly in all things and in all places. (SC 27.177).

The Jews celebrate an earthly Pasch having denied the heavenly one. But we celebrate the heavenly Pasch, having passed over the earthly one.

The Pasch which they celebrated was a figure of salvation of the firstborn of the Jews; the firstborn of the Egyptians died without the firstborn of the Jews also perishing; they were symbolically protected by the blood of the paschal victim. But the Pasch celebrated by us is a cause of salvation for all men beginning with the first-created, who is saved and given life in all.

Things partial and provisory are types of what is perfect and eternal; they are a shadowy prelude to the Truth which now emerges. But when the truth appears, the figure is no longer viable. Subjects no longer prostrate themselves before a king's statue when the king himself appears in person.

It is self-evident that the figure is less than the reality; the figure celebrates the fleeting existence of the firstborn of the Jews; the reality celebrates the eternal life of all mankind. For to escape death briefly is a matter of no great importance when one is going to die in any case a little later; but it is of great importance to escape death forever. That is what has happened to us; for us Christ our pasch has been immolated (1 Cor. 5:7).

The name of this feast only gets its full meaning when used in reference to the Truth; the Pasch means 'Passover'; the Destroyer slaying the firstborn passed over the houses of the Hebrews, but with us the passover of the Destroyer becomes a genuine reality; once and for all he passes over us whom Christ has resurrected for life everlasting.

We ought to examine the whole subject of the Pasch in a spiritual manner and believe in it as the apostles have interpreted it. The faithful one desires to understand the whole rationale of the figure and its relation to the Truth, and to see spiritual realities that affect him underlying the material things of that time. What pertains to the Law is thus interpreted by him in Christian terms and the invisible is deciphered from the visible. (SC 36.55).

O mystical choir! O feast of the Spirit! O Pasch of God, who has come down from heaven to earth, and from earth you ascend again to the heavens. O feast common to all, O universal joy and honor of the universe, its nurture and its luxury, by whom the darkness of death has been dissolved and life extended to all, by whom the gates of heaven have been opened as God has become man and man has become God. Through him the gates of hell have been broken, the bars of iron have been loosed, the people below have been raised from the dead proclaiming the good news; an antiphonal choir has been formed on earth to respond to the choir above. O Pasch of God, no longer confined to the heavens and now united to us in spirit; through Him the great marriage chamber has been filled, and all wear wedding garments though nobody is expelled for not having one on. O Pasch, illumination of the new bright day — the brightness of the torches of the virgins, through which the lamps of souls are no longer extinguished, but the divine fire of grace burns divinely and spiritually in all, nurtured by the soul and body and oil of Christ.

We call on you, then, sovereign Lord, spiritually eternal, Christ, Lord and King, extend your wonderful hands over your holy Church and over your people ever holy; guard and conserve them, attacking, pursuing, and combating all their enemies, and subjugating all of them to your power, until their invisible forces are routed and wiped out. Raise now your standard above us and enable us to chant with Moses the canticle of triumph. For with you is the victory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (SC 189-191).

Beginning at the beginning let us say first why this month is the beginning of months and why the month of the Pasch is the first of the months of the year.

There is a secret tradition among the Hebrews which says that in this month God, the artist of creation and the creator of all, conceived His universe. It was among the first blooms, in the full beauty of the world, they say, that the sculptor saw his statue come to life, graceful, exactly as He had desired. They invoke the serenity of the heavens, the sweetness of the season, the regular course of the sun, the rising of the full moon, the burgeoning of fruits, the growth of plants, the blossoms on the trees, the lambs in the flocks, when the whole earth is verdant and the trees, laden down, creak under the burden of their fruits. This is the time when the farmer loosens the plough from its yoke and lets his team of oxen to breathe, when he sows the blessed seeds and awaits the fountains of heaven; when the shepherd milks the white milk of the flocks and the beekeeper shapes the sweet combs of the hive; when the mariner joyfully dares to confront the sea, braving the tumultuous waves in pursuit of gain. They think that this harmony of the world, this repose of all things, this blissful state, was not only the beginning of spring, but also for them the beginning of the year.

For my part, I do not disbelieve all this, but I feel, or rather I am certain, that this is so because of the spiritual nature of the Pasch: it is the beginning, the head and leader of all times and ages because in this month the great mystery is accomplished and celebrated. Just as the Lord is the first-engendered and firstborn of all beings intelligible and invisible, likewise this month, which celebrates the sacred solemnity, becomes the first of the year and the beginning of all ages; and the year is that which is announced in the Divine Scriptures: Declare the acceptable year of the Lord (Isa. 61:2; Text:SC 27.145-149).

The text of the Hebrew exodus has been read and the words of the mystery have been enunciated: how the sheep was immolated and the people saved. Now grasp this, beloved: how it is new and old, eternal and transient, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal, the mystery of the Pasch. It is old in regard to the Law, new in regard to the Word, transient in terms of figure, eternal in terms of grace, corruptible because of the slaughter of the sheep, incorruptible because of the life of the Lord, mortal because of burial in the earth, immortal because of the resurrection from the dead.

The Law is old, the Word new, the figure is transient, grace is eternal, the sheep is corruptible, the Lord is incorruptible: immolated as a lamb, resurrected as God. For as a sheep He was led to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7) but a sheep He was not, and as a lamb without voice (Isa. 53:7), but a lamb He was not. For the type has passed away and the truth has been realized. Now in place of the lamb God has come, and in place of the sheep, man, and in man, Christ who contains all things. For the slaughter of the sheep, and the rite of the Pasch, and the letter of the Law have issued in Jesus Christ on whose account everything took place in the Old Law and, even more, in the new dispensation.

For the Law has become Logos, and the old new, the two proceeding from Sion and Jerusalem, and the commandment grace, and the figure truth, and the Lamb the Son, and the sheep man, and man God. For born Son-like He has risen from the dead God-like, being by nature God and man. He is all things: inasmuch as He judges, Law; inasmuch as He teaches, Logos; inasmuch as He saves, grace; inasmuch as He begets, Father; inasmuch as He is begotten, Son; inasmuch as He suffers, sheep; inasmuch as He is buried, man; inasmuch as He is risen, God. This is Jesus, the Messiah to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Such is the mystery of the Pasch as it is. written in the Law according to the reading just heard.

After my return to the Father you will celebrate the memory of my death. For when the Pasch arrives then one among you will be thrown into prison because of my name and he will be in grief and apprehension because you celebrate the Pasch while he is in prison, separated from you.

But I will send my power under the form of the angel Gabriel and the prison gates will be opened and he will come to you and join in the night vigil with you, and stay near you until cockcrow. When you then have ended your Agape, the memorial of me which you make, he will be thrown back into prison for a testimony unto the day when he shall emerge to preach that which I have commanded you.

But you will demand of Him: 'Lord, is it indeed necessary that we take the chalice and drink it anew?' And He will say to you, 'Yes, it is necessary until the day when I will return with those who have been put to death with me.' (Text: cf. Cantalamessa, 30-33; Talley, 5-7; casel, 19-22).

Already the Lord has proclaimed His sufferings in the patriarchs, prophets, and the whole people, sealing it through the Law and Prophets. For what is to be new and great is prefigured beforehand: a coming event derives credence from its earlier prefiguration. Of such a kind was the mystery of the Lord, for long prefigured, this day revealed, finding credence in fulfillment although regarded by men as new.

For the mystery of the Lord is old and new, old in terms of figure, new in terms of grace. If you look at this figure you will see the truth through its fulfillment. Accordingly, if you wish to see the mystery of the Lord, look to Abel likewise slaughtered, Isaac likewise bound, Joseph likewise sold, Moses likewise exposed, David likewise persecuted, the prophets likewise persecuted on account of Christ. Look also to the sheep slaughtered in the land of Egypt, trampling on Egypt and saving Israel with His blood.

The mystery of the Lord is also proclaimed by the voice of the prophets. For Moses says to the people: And you shall see your life hanging before your eyes night and day and you shall have no assurance of your life (Deut. 28:66). And David says: Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain. The kings of the earth and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed (Ps. 2:1). And Jeremiah: I was like a blameless lamb led to the slaughter. They devised evil schemes against me, saying: Come, let us cast wood on His bread and destroy Him from the land of the living and His name shall not be remembered (Jer. 11:19, LXX). And Isaiah: Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before His sharers this man did not open His mouth. Who shall tell His descent? (Isa. 53:7) And many other things by many prophets were proclaimed about the mystery of the Pasch which is Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

This one came from heaven to earth for suffering men clothing Himself with humanity in a virgin's womb and came forth as man: He took on Himself the sufferings of suffering man through a body capable of suffering and put an end to the sufferings of the flesh, and through His spirit incapable of death He killed death, the killer of man. This one, led like a lamb and slaughtered like a sheep, ransomed us from the service of the world as from the land of Egypt, and delivered us from the slavery of the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls with His own spirit, and the members of our body with His own blood. This is the one who draped death in shame, putting the devil in mourning garb, as Moses did Pharaoh. This is the one who trampled on lawlessness and left injustice childless, as Moses did Egypt. This is the one who rescued us from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to the kingdom of eternity, and made us a new priesthood, a people chosen, eternal. This is the one who is the Pasch of our salvation.

This is the one who suffered much in many people. This is He who in Abel was slaughtered, in Isaac was bound, in Jacob was exiled, in Joseph was sold, in Moses was exposed, in the lamb was immolated, in David was persecuted, in the prophets maltreated. This is the one who in the virgin was made incarnate, on the cross was suspended, in the earth was buried, from the dead was resurrected, to the heights of heaven was elevated. This is the lamb without voice. This is the lamb led to slaughter. This is the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. This is the one taken from the flock and dragged to slaughter, and at evening sacrificed, and by night buried, who on the cross was not broken, and in the earth did not dissolve, but from the dead rose again and raised up man from the depths of the tomb. This is the one who was slain. Where? In the midst of Jerusalem. Why? Because He cured their lame and cleansed their lepers and restored sight to their blind and raised to life their dead. (Text: OECT ed., Hall, 30).

At that time no small controversy arose because all of the dioceses of Asia thought it right, as though by more ancient tradition, to observe for the feast of the Savior's Passover the fourteenth day of the moon, on which the Jews had been commanded to kill the lamb. Thus it was necessary to finish the fast on that day, whatever day of the week it might be. Yet it was not the custom to celebrate in this manner in the churches throughout the rest of the world, for from apostolic tradition they kept the custom which still exists that it is not right to finish the fast on any day save that of the resurrection of our Savior. Many meetings and conferences with bishops were held on this point, and all unanimously formulated in their letters the doctrine of the Church for those in every country that the mystery of the Lord's resurrection from the dead could be celebrated on no day save Sunday, and that on that day alone we should celebrate the end of the Paschal fast. There is still extant a writing of those who were convened in Palestine, over whom presided Theophilus, bishop of the diocese of Caesarea, and Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem; and there is similarly another from those in Rome on the same controversy, which gives Victor as bishop; and there is one of the bishops of Pontus over whom Palmas presided as the oldest; and of the diocese of Gaul, of which Irenaeus was bishop; and yet others of those in Osrheone and the cities there; and particularly of Bacchyllus, the bishop and church of Corinth; and of very many more who expressed one and the same opinion and judgment and gave the same vote. These issued the single definition which was given above; but the bishops in Asia were led by Polycrates in persisting that it was necessary to keep the custom which had been handed down to them of old. (Text:PG 20. 489-507).

After these things it is written, In the second month after they set forth from Egypt, on the fifteenth day of the month, the people murmured against Moses saying, 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt when we sat over kettles of flesh and ate bread to satiety, since you led us into this wilderness to kill the whole congregation with famine' (Ex. 16:1-3). Granted, the sins of the people, that they murmured and were ungrateful for the divine benefits when they received the heavenly manna, are pointed out for the correction of the readers. But why is the day also recorded on which the people murmured! The text says: In the second month on the fifteenth day of the month. Certainly it was not written without reason. Recall what was said about the laws of the Passover and you will discover there that this is the time which is established to celebrate the second Passover for those who were impure in soul (Num. 9:10), or occupied with foreign business. Those, therefore, who were not impure in soul or not on a long journey (Num. 9:10), celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month (Num. 9:11). Those, however, who were on a long journey and were impure celebrated a second Passover at this time, at which time also the manna descended from heaven. The manna did not descend on the day on which the first Passover occurred but at this time on which the second Passover occurred.

Let us now see, therefore, what order of mystery these words contain. The first Passover belongs to the first people; the second Passover is ours. For we were impure in soul, who used to worship wood and stone (Deut. 4:28), and not knowing God we used to serve those things which, by nature, were not God's. We also were those who were on a long journey, of whom the Apostle says that we were strangers and foreigners to the testaments of God, not having hope and without God in this world (Eph. 2:12). Nevertheless, the manna from heaven was not given on that day on which the second was celebrated. For the bread which descended from heaven (Jn. 6:41) did not come to those who celebrated the first celebration but to us who received the second. For our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed (I Cor. 5:7), who descended to us as the true bread from heaven (Jn. 6:32).

But nevertheless let us see what it is which is shown to have happened on this day. On the fifteenth day of the second month, the text says, the people murmured and said that it would have been better for us to die in Egypt when we sat over kettles of flesh. O ungrateful people! They who saw the Egyptians destroyed desire Egypt! They who saw the flesh of the Egyptians given to the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky again seek the flesh of Egypt! They raise, therefore, a murmur against Moses, nay rather against God. (Text: PG 12.344=FOTC 71.305).

Brethren, it is appropriate then that you observe carefully the days of the Pasch and keep your fast diligently. You will begin at the moment when your brothers who belong to the (Hebrew) people make their Pasch since our Lord and Master, after He ate the Pasch with us, was betrayed by Judas after that hour and immediately we began to grieve because He had been taken away from us.

Accordingly, beginning with the tenth day (of the moon), which is the second day of the week (Sabbati) you will fast on the days of the Pasch, taking only bread, salt and water, from the ninth hour to the fifth day of the week; you will fast the whole of (Good) Friday and (Holy) Saturday, tasting nothing.

Remain assembled, then, in the same place, staying awake and keeping vigil the whole night, supplicating, praying and reading the prophets, Gospel and psalms with fear and trembling, in fervent supplication until the third hour of the night (i.e. cockcrow) which follows the Sabbath and then eat, rejoice, make merry, exult, since Christ, the pledge of our resurrection, has risen, and let this be a law for you forever unto the consummation of the world. (Text: FX Funk, ed. Didascalia Apostolorum, 1.286=R.H. Connolly, Didascalia Apostolorum, 187).

Having examined carefully the question whether it was necessary for the universal Church to celebrate the Pasch on the same day, it was discovered that three quarters of the world were in accord with the practice of Rome and Alexandria, and that the only part out of line was the East. It was decided that all discord and disagreement should be set aside, and that the brethren in the East should follow the practice of Rome and Alexandria and elsewhere, so that each and all on the same day and with one voice should send up their prayers on the one holy day of the Pasch. All the Orientals, who had been in disagreement with the others, accepted and ratified this decision (Council of Nicaea; Cf. J. B. Pitra, Spilegium Solesmense).

It appears to me that neither the ancients nor the moderns had much rational foundation for their debate ... for with Christianity the obligation to observe the Mosaic Law and its ceremonial types ceased.... Neither Christ nor His apostles enjoined this feast on us by any law ... but the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the customs of that place ... the Quartodecimans affirm that the observance of the fourteenth day was delivered to them by the apostle John while the Romans and those in the Western parts assure us their usage originated with the apostles Peter and Paul: but neither of these parties can produce any written testimony in confirmation of their claims. I am therefore of opinion that they who agree in faith differ according to custom and usage. (Text: PG. 67.625=LNPF 2,2.130).

Holy Scripture and the tradition of the Fathers teach us that it requires more than ordinary wisdom to determine the day for the celebration of Easter. Those who met at the Council of Nicaea, in addition to their decrees, true and admirable, regarding the faith, using the help of men skilled in calculations, formulated for the above-mentioned celebration a scheme of nineteen years, and set up a sort of cycle on which might be patterned subsequent years. They called this the 'nineteen-years' cycle,' and, if we follow it, we should not waver amid foolish ideas regarding a celebration of this kind. Having found a true method of calculating, let everyone be of one opinion, so that the Sacrifice of the Mass for the resurrection of the Lord may be offered everywhere on one night.

Two observances are necessary in solemnizing the Passover: the fourteenth moon and the first month, called the month of new fruits. Now, that we may not seem to depart from the Old Testament, let us review the very chapter which concerns the day for celebrating the Passover. Moses tells the people to keep the month of new fruits, specifying that it be the first month, saying, This will be the beginning of months for you, it will be the first of the months of the year (Ex. 12:2); and thou shalt offer the Passover to the Lord thy God on the fourteenth day of the first month (Ex. 12:6).

Six years ago we celebrated Easter on April 21, which was the thirtieth day of the month, as we reckon it; therefore, we must not be disturbed to be soon celebrating Easter on the thirtieth day of Pharmuth. If anyone says it is in the second month, since Easter will occur three days after the completed month, which appears to end on April 21, he should realize that our concern is with the fourteenth day, which occurs on April 18, well within the month's count. The Law only requires that the day of the Passion be celebrated within the first month of the new fruits.

This reckoning is satisfactory as far as the full month is concerned, since it still has three days remaining for its completion. Easter does not pass into a different month when it is celebrated within the same month, the first. And, too, we should not be bound to the letter if the custom of the celebration is our guide. The Apostle, too, teaches us, saying: Christ, our passover has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7). The passage just read teaches us not to follow the letter, for you have the words: You will perform the Pasch to the Lord your God on the fourteenth day of the first month (Ex. 12:6). He uses the word day instead of month; consequently, those skilled in the Law compute the month by the course of the moon. Since the course of the moon, that is, its first day, may begin on more than one of the nones, you see that the nones of May can still be reckoned within the first month of new fruits. According to the judgment of the Law, therefore, this is the first month. Finally, the Greeks call the moon mene and so call the month menas, in Greek, while the natural practice of foreign peoples uses the term month in place of days.

Yet, the writings of the Old Testament show that we must celebrate the Passion one day and the resurrection another. We note, too, that the day of the Passion is appointed on a fast day because the lamb is to be slain toward evening, although we can understand the last time instead of evening according to John who says: Children, it is the last hour (I Jn. 2:18). But, according to the mystery, it is certain that the slaying took place in the evening when the shadows were falling quickly, and the fast should be kept on that day, for then you will eat it with anxiety, since those fasting have anxiety.

On the day of the resurrection there is the joy of refreshment and happiness, for it appears that the people left Egypt on that day, after the first-born of the Egyptians had been slain. It is evident then that the day of the resurrection should be kept after the day of the Passion, and the former should not be on the fourteenth of the month but later, as the Old Testament says. The day of the resurrection is that on which the people departing from Egypt were baptized in the sea and in the cloud (1 Cor. 10:2), as the Apostle says, and overcame death, receiving a spiritual food and drinking a spiritual drink from the rock. Again, the Lord's Passion cannot be celebrated on the Lord's Day. And, if the fourteenth day falls on the Lord's Day, another week should be added, as was done in the seventy-sixth year of the era of Diocletian. Then, with no hesitancy on the part of our predecessors, we celebrated the Lord's Day of Passover on the twenty-eighth of Pharmuth, April 23. The course of the moon and careful calculation support this plan to celebrate the next Easter on the twenty-first day, because the month is commonly extended to the twenty-first.

Since we have so much evidence of the truth, combined with the example of our predecessors, let us keep the feast of the people's salvation with joy and gladness, and color our doorposts where is hung the door of the Word. (Text: PL 16.1025=FOTC 26.189).

The emperor himself, as a sharer in the holy mysteries of our religion, would seclude himself daily at a stated hour in the innermost chambers of his palace; and there, in solitary converse with his God, would kneel in humble supplication, and entreat the blessings of which he stood in need. But especially at the salutary feast of Easter, his religious diligence was redoubled; he fulfilled, as it were, the duties of a hierophant with every energy of his mind and body, and outvied all others in the zealous celebration of this feast. He changed, too, the holy night vigil into brightness like that of day, by causing waxen tapers of great length to be lighted throughout the city: besides which, torches everywhere diffused their light, so as to impart to this mystic vigil a brilliant splendor beyond that of day. As soon as day itself returned, in imitation of our Savior's gracious acts, he opened a liberal hand to his subjects of every nation, province, and people, and lavished abundant bounties on all. (Eusebius; Text: PG 20.1168=LNPF 1.545).

On the next day, Saturday, the customary service is held at the third and sixth hours, but the ninth hour is not observed on this Saturday but preparations for the Paschal vigils take place in the Great Church, in the Martyrium. The Paschal vigils are performed the same here as at home; the only additional feature here is that the newly-baptized, once they are baptized and dressed in white garments, when they emerge from the font are conducted at the same time as the bishop first to the Anastasis. The bishop enters within the rails of the Anastasis, a hymn is chanted, then the bishop offers a prayer for them, and then goes to the Great Church with them where, according to custom, the whole people celebrate the vigil. There the customary things are done just as we do them, and after the oblation there is the dismissal. And after the dismissal of the vigil in the Great Church, immediately there is a procession with hymns to the Anastasis; there is read a passage from the Gospel on the resurrection, a prayer is said, and the bishop again performs the oblation. But everything is done rapidly because of the people, lest they be delayed too long, and then the people are dismissed. The hour of the dismissal of the vigil on this day is the same as with us at home. (Text: SC 296.290).

The lamb for you is Christ on your exodus from this life and He takes you with Him to heaven when He ascends there. He also leads you to everlasting life. In leading the man who is born from David He also brings along His followers ... who no longer fear the Pharaoh, and are no longer immersed in servility and earthly difficulties, on account of a brief ... pleasure which was typified by Israel eating the meats ... in Egypt.

Such is earthly pleasure which has a train of bitterness and is plagued with cares. It has a carnal, animal maw. For you leaving this earthly life is the beginning of true life, just as for them the symbolic Pasch was the beginning of months. Now the beginning of life is when you renounce the life of this world and this earth. Now you find what is the true life — life in the spirit.

Christ is sacrificed, so you know His sacrifice was offered for you. Then for you is fulfilled the words of the Scripture, Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before His shearer (Isa. 53:7). Christ's gentleness preserves the prototype of the sheep. His ascent on high without a descent to the depths preserves the ascent of the kid to the heights. Goats jump and ascend to lofty, inaccessible places. Heaven was lofty and inaccessible to man from the day when man sinned against the divine commandment, became a slave to the flesh and was estranged from the Holy Spirit. But the divine victim sacrificed for you ascends and brings you with Him. He died with you in order that you might live with Him.

The blood of the lamb brings salvation to you if you approach the blood with faith, if you anoint with faith as with blood those senses and thoughts through which death enters, bringing sin with it, just as Israel anointed their doors with blood. If concupiscence does not enter through your eyes, your ears, your smell, your taste, your touch, and afterwards through your thoughts, death will have no power over you, but, carrying in your body the death of Jesus, you will have obvious life in your body and so the death of the first-born Adam will pass over you, as the destruction of the first-born passed over the Hebrew homes.

And so the name of this feast is called the Pasch of the Jews, signifying the passing over. Your lamb shall be without blemish (Exod. 12:5): Jesus was also without blemish for you; Scripture says, He had committed no sin and there was no deceit in His mouth (Isa. 53:9).

A perfect male (Ex. 12:5). The perfection of justice is only found in the true king. The sheep one-year-old (Ex. 12:5) is a type of Christ the eternal. A year is a symbol of an age, which often revolves itself the same in every age, and it contains all the revolutions in itself, a type of the new man, in which the old is changed into the newness of our human nature: Put on the new man, Scripture tells us (Eph. 4:24). When you put on the blamelessness and perfection of the sheep you will be a lamb of God and when you present your own body a living, holy sacrifice pleasing to God as the Apostle says, you will be transferred to eternal life (Rom. 12:1).

Do you see that your Pasch bears no comparison with the Jewish Pasch, but merely a shadowy resemblance? Infant Israel, at the sacrifice of the sheep thought that God was concerned about the sacrifice and that it had obtained salvation through it, and did not see it as a type of sacrifice that really brought salvation. Accordingly, it was said to them by God through Jeremiah: I did not command you concerning sacrifices (Jer. 7:22). There is no lie with God that He would order you and say that He did not order you. The focus of the thing is shown from the fact that the sacrifice was accomplished in a prophetic manner and was a presignification of the sacrifice of Christ.

When God ordered them to sacrifice a sheep He showed that Christ was to be sacrificed, and everything pertaining to the sheep prefigured what concerned Christ, some of which you have already considered, others consider now to the best of your ability. (Text:PG 59.733).

Yesterday, the lamb was immolated; the doorposts were anointed with its blood; Egypt bewailed its firstborn; the destroying angel passed us over in fear and respect for this seal; the precious blood protected us. Today, we have fled purified from Egypt, from the Pharaoh, the cruel sovereign, and those pitiless rulers. We are freed from the mud and brick and not one will prevent us from celebrating it, not with the old leaven of malice and injustice but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth (cf. 1 Cor. 5, 8), with no admixture of the impious yeast of Egypt. Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I will be glorified with Him. Yesterday I died with Christ; today I will return to life with Him. Yesterday I was buried with Christ; today I will rise with Him from the tomb.

Let us, then, carry our first fruits to Him who has suffered and risen for us. Do you think, perhaps, that I am talking of gold, silver, garments, or precious stones? Insubstantial earthly goods, transitory, tied to earth, owned for the most part by the wicked, the slaves of materialism and the prince of this world? No, let us offer ourselves: it is the most precious and dearest gift in the eyes of God. Give to His image what resembles it most. Recognizing our greatness, honor our model, understanding the force of this mystery and the reasons for Christ's death.

Become like Christ, since Christ has become like us. Become gods for Him since He became man for us. He has become inferior to make us superior; He has become poor to enrich us by His poverty; He has taken the condition of a slave to procure freedom for us; He has come on earth to bring us to heaven. (Text: PG 35.397).

Towards evening we feed on the lamb; In haste ... lest we delay our return to sin; With bitter herbs ... for life according to the will of God is bitter and arduous; Loins girded... by the girdle of continence, light and contemplation; Shoes on feet ... for safety, lest we walk in the darkness of sin; And leaning on staves ... the words about the flesh and about the Passion. (Text:ibid. 645).

In the words of David, then, which we have just heard and have repeated with him, Praise the Lord all ye nations; praise Him all ye peoples (Ps. 117:1). He invites without exception all men born of Adam to this chant; those from the West, the East, and in between, North and South, he invites each and every one in this psalm. Elsewhere he invites some men specifically, calling them saints or sons (cf. Ps. 149:1; 8:3), exhorting them to sing a hymn. In this instance he leads in unison the nations and peoples in the psalm.

When, then, as the apostle says, the figure of this world has passed (I Cor. 7:31) and Christ has appeared as king and God to all, and every unbelieving soul is led to the fullness of faith and certainty of knowledge, and malicious tongues are restrained and bridled, He shall check the vanity of the Greeks, and the errors of the Jews, and the uncontrolled tongue-wagging of heretics. Then at last all the nations and peoples from the beginning of time will prostrate themselves and join in harmonious praise of God, the saints singing their usual praises, the impious making supplication by necessity. And then in truth the song of victory will be sung in harmony by all, victors and vanquished; then even that slave, the author of disorder who has assumed and arrogated to himself the dignity of his master, will be seen admonishing everybody while he is being drawn to punishment by the angels, and all the ministers and allies of this wickedness will be afflicted by suitable punishment and judgments. The one king and judge will appear whom all confess to be the Lord of all. There will be a quiet and silence as the praetor takes his seat on the tribunal, and the people, all ears and eyes, wait attentively on the words of his proclamation. Therefore, praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise Him, all ye peoples (Ps. 117:1). Praise Him as powerful, praise Him as benign, since He has restored to life those who have fallen and are dead; He has repaired the broken vase, and in His bounty He has changed into incorruptible living beings the dread remains in the sepulcher. As after a long voyage He has led back to its proper domicile the soul which had left the body (four) thousand years before, in no way alienated through time and forgetfulness from its own organism, but returning to it more quickly than bird to its nest.

The Creator of the universe, when He decided to create man, made him not as a worthless being, but as the most precious of all beings and named Him king of the entire earthly creation. With this in mind He made him wise and in God's image, adorning him with every grace. Now surely He did not give him such precedence in nature if He intended him to be born and die and suffer complete extinction? But it is vain and foolish to attribute to God such a plan, such a proposition, such an intention. For it is the way of children to build with care and quickly scatter the building, revealing a mind with no fixed and final purpose. Our teaching points to the other extreme, that God's first creation was fashioned immortal but that, after the fall and the first sin, man was deprived of immortality as a penalty for transgression. Then the fountain of goodness outflowed with kindness and, inclining to the work of His own hands, God adorned it with wisdom and knowledge until He thought good to renew us in our former state. (Text: PG 46.653).

The true Sabbath rest, that which has received God's blessing, in which the Lord has rested from His works on behalf of the world's salvation, spending the Sabbath in the inactivity of death is now at an end. It has manifested its grace to our eyes, our ears, and our heart through all these things which the feast has accomplished in us — in our eyes, our ears, and our joyful heart.

What have we seen? A light like a cloud of fire of the candles burning during the night. All night our ears have resounded with psalms, hymns and spiritual chants. It was like a river of joy running through our ears to our soul and filling us with blessed hopes. And our heart, delighted by what we heard and saw, was marked with ineffable joy, conducting us by means of the visible to the invisible. These blessings, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9), are shown to us in replica by the blessings of this day of rest. They are a guarantee to us of the ineffable blessing we hope for.

Since, then, this night is aglow with lights, since it mingles the brightness of its lights and the first rays of dawn, making one day with no interval of darkness, let us reflect, brethren, on the prophecy that says: This is the day which the Lord has made (Ps. 118:24). This proposes to us nothing difficult or hard, but joy, happiness, rejoicing, as it goes on to say, let us be glad and rejoice in it (Ps. 118:24). O wonderful instructions! O sweet order! Who can be slow in carrying out such instructions? Who does not feel guilty even at a slight postponement of carrying out these orders? Joy is our task and rejoicing is our instruction. By this the judgment pronounced on sin is effaced and grief is turned into joy. (Text: PG 46.681).

It is said in Jewish Wisdom that evils are forgotten on the day of joy (cf. Sir. 11:25). This day makes us forget the first sentence pronounced against us; or rather it eliminates its very existence and not just its memory. For it has completely erased the memory of our condemnation. At that time birth took place in travail; now our (re) birth is painless. At that time we were flesh born of the flesh; now it is a spirit that is born of spirit. At that time we were sons of men; now we are born children of God. At that time we were relegated from heaven to earth; now the one in heaven has made us sharers of heaven with Him. At that time death reigned because of sin; now, thanks to Life, it is justice which has taken over the power. At that time one man opened the gates of death; now through one man the gate of life is opened in its place. At that time we fell from life to death; now death is abolished by life. At that time we were hidden under the fig leaf by shame; now by glory we approach the tree of life. At that time through disobedience we were expelled from Paradise; now through faith we are admitted into Paradise.

Coming to the end of my exhortation I turn to those who in this blessed night are having the grace of baptism conferred on them: I address myself to those fair offshoots of the Church, those spiritual flowers, those new recruits of Jesus Christ: Two days ago the Lord died on the cross. Today He has risen from the dead. In the same way two days ago these neophytes were held in the bondage of sin. But today they rise along with Christ. He died in the flesh and rose in the flesh. They likewise were dead in sin and have risen from sin. The earth in the present season of spring produces for us roses, violets, and every type of flower. Today the waters of baptism show us a field much more pleasant than the earth. And do not wonder, beloved, if the waters produce fields bedecked with flowers. For the earth did not spontaneously produce growths of herbs from the beginning but rather in obedience to the orders of the Lord. And the waters produced living creatures when they heard the words, let the waters produce creeping creatures having life (Gen. 1:20). And it was so done. This inanimate substance has produced living beings. So also the divine command can effect everything. For then it was said, Let the waters produce creeping creatures having life. But today it is not creeping things but spiritual charisms that are produced. Then the waters produced irrational fish. Now they produce rational, spiritual fish for us, thanks to the fishermen, the apostles. Come, follow me, He said, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). An absolutely new method of fishing! For fishermen normally take the fish out of the water and kill what they catch. But we cast the fish into the water and that catch is given life.

Brethren, you see how great this gift is. Pay particular attention, you who this night have been received among the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. Show vigilance in proportion to the excellence of the graces which you have received so that they may ever abound; for the Lord increases His liberality to those who show gratitude for His gifts. He does not allow you, dear brethren, to live haphazardly; you should direct your lives according to His laws and rules so as to live correctly, paying the closest attention even to what seem to be the most unimportant details. This life is an unending struggle and it is necessary that those who once enter this arena of virtue should always maintain a scrupulous temperance. Every athlete that strives for the prize practices great self-control (1 Cor. 9:25). In athletic contests you see how the athletes take care of themselves although their contest is only with fellow human beings. Notice how austere is their discipline in training their body. We should imitate them, all the more since our contest is not with mere men but with spirits of wickedness. Our discipline and our exercises ought to be spiritual since the arms we have received from the Lord are spiritual. Our eyes ought to be restrained and regulated to avoid lighting indiscriminately on every object. Our tongue should be guarded to prevent speaking without prior reflection. Our teeth and lips should be placed as guards on our tongue, keeping it from violating these barriers and confining it to sounds which are regulated and timely, speaking with discretion only such words as would instruct and edify the audience. Immoderate laughter should be completely avoided; our walk should be peaceable and orderly, and our clothes decent and respectable. Whatever is prescribed for the arena cannot be too detailed or too correct in matters relating to exterior modesty, for bodily decorum is an index of the sentiments of the soul.

If we quickly contract these good habits we will walk without effort in the path of virtue and reach the end of our journey without mishap. The ways will be made more and more level before us and we will obtain great help from above. So we will be able to weather the storms of this life without fear, triumph over all the wiles of the devil and attain to eternal blessings by the grace and bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ with whom is glory, honor and power with the Father and Holy Spirit, today and always, for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: PG 52.769).

How beautiful is the Paschal celebration! Beautiful too is the present assembly. The mysteries contained so much that is both old and new! Our week of feast or rather of joy contains so much community that it is not just men on earth that rejoice but also the powers above join in our activities and celebrate with us because of the resurrection of Christ. For now the angels join in the feast, and the hosts of archangels celebrate the king of heaven, Christ our God, received as victor returned from earth to heaven. The choirs of saints keep festival too: They proclaim Christ risen before the dawn (Ps. 110:3). The earth celebrates the feast; it has been washed in the divine blood. The sea celebrates; it has been honored by Christ's footsteps. And let every man celebrate, born again of the water and the Holy Spirit. Let our first parent, Adam, celebrate, made free of his first transgression.

Such is the joyous grace with which Christ has filled us by His resurrection. He not only provides us with a festival but also grants us salvation from suffering, immortality from death, healing from wounds, and resurrection from a fall. Formerly, dearly beloved, the mystery of the Pasch was mystically accomplished in Egypt through the Law, and symbolically revealed through the slaughter of the Lamb. But now through the Gospel we spiritually celebrate the solemn Paschal day of the resurrection. Formerly, the Lamb from the flock was sacrificed according to the Law. But now Christ himself, the Lamb of God, is led forth. Formerly, a sheep from the fold was taken, now, in place of a sheep, it is the Shepherd himself, the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep! Formerly, it was the sign of the sprinkled blood of an irrational animal that provided protection for the new people. Now the precious blood of Christ is poured out for the salvation of the world that we may receive the remission of sins. Formerly, the firstborn of the Egyptians were put to death. Now the numerous offspring of sinners are purified by confession. Formerly, Pharaoh and his fearful host were submerged; now the spiritual Pharaoh with all his force is submerged by baptism. Formerly, the Hebrews after crossing the Red Sea sang the hymn of victory to their benefactor, crying let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified (Exod. 15:1). Now those initiated in baptism mystically sing the hymn of victory, saying, There is one who is holy, one Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father' (Liturgy of John Chrysostom; Text:65. 796).

The blessed Paul has well said: the former things have passed away, behold they are made new (2 Cor. 5:17). The heavens are made new, for He who came down from them consecrated them by His ascension. The earth is made new, for it was sanctified by His human birth in the stable. The sea is made new, since it kept afloat on its surface the footsteps of Him whom neither flesh conceived nor sin had rendered heavy. The earth is made new, since He freed it from war and filled it with a great calm. Mankind is made new, since it was washed by Him in water and molded in the fire of the spirit. The worship of God is made new, since sacrificial fumes and circumcision have disappeared and now faith is resplendent, praising and adoring three persons in one substance. (Text: PG 65.792).

Christ's loving concern for us is inexpressible: it has enriched His Church with many blessings. Great in His designs and powerful in His works, He has redeemed our nature from the curse of the law; He has cancelled the decree of the old debt. He has triumphed on the cross of wood over Him who had waylaid Adam by means of a tree. He has blunted the sting of fearful death. He has rejuvenated those who have grown old in sin, not by fire but by water. He has shown that the tomb of three days was a gate leading to resurrection. Those who had not been citizens of Israel He has proclaimed fellow-citizens and intimates of the saints. To those who were strangers to the covenants of the promise He has delivered the heavenly mysteries. To those who have no hope He has graciously given a pledge, the spirit of salvation. For those who were without God in the world He has completed temples of the Trinity.

Those who were afar off He has made near — afar off, not in terms of place but in terms of conduct, not by distance but by intention, not by space but by cult — He has brought them near through the saving cross, embracing those who had showed themselves restive.

Truly as the prophet said, Who has heard such things and who has seen them? (Isa. 66:8). All the angels are terrified by the mystery. All the heavenly powers tremble before the wonder. The throne has not been left vacant, yet the world has been saved. He has not departed from the heavens and yet He has liberated the earth. (Text: SC 187.206).

If anyone is pious and loves his God, let him enjoy this beautiful feast. If anyone is a faithful slave let him enter with joy into the joy of his Lord. If anyone has endured the hardships of fasting, let him now receive his penny reward. If anyone has labored from the first hour, let him receive today his just recompense. If anyone has come at the third hour, let him join with gratitude in the feast. If anyone has come after the sixth hour, let him not be upset, he will not be penalized. If anyone was delayed until the ninth hour, let him come without hesitation. If anyone has come just at the eleventh hour, let him not be perturbed at the lateness of the hour, for the Lord is liberal and receives the last as the first. He gives to the one coming at the eleventh hour just as to the one working from dawn. He takes pity on the last to arrive just as on the first; the latter receives injustice, the former in charity. He rewards both good actions and good intentions. Let all, then, enter into the joy of the Lord. Let first and last receive their reward. Let rich and poor sing in unison. Let the abstemious and the careless celebrate today's feast. Whether you have observed the fast or not, rejoice today!

The festive board is laden; let you all feast yourselves. The fatted calf is served; let no one go away hungry. Let all of you enjoy the wealth of His kindness. Let no one bewail His poverty; the kingdom is opened to all. Let no one deplore His offenses, pardon has come from the tomb. Let no one fear death. He has been overcome by death and thereby has in turn overcome it. He has descended into hell and rebuked it. He has cast down in terror those who touched His flesh and Isaiah has forseen this, exclaiming, Hell below was in an uproar at the coming (Isa. 14:9). When it ran to you below it was made bitter. It was dejected for it was overturned. It took flesh and received God. It seized earth and found heaven. It received that which was visible and fell into that which was invisible. O death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? (1 Cor. 15:55).

Christ has risen and death has been cast down. Christ has risen and devils have fallen. Christ has risen and the angels rejoice. Christ has risen and there are no corpses left in the sepulcher. For Christ in rising from the dead is the first-fruits of those that sleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: PG 59.721).

The mystery of the lamb which God ordered you to sacrifice as the Passover was truly a type of Christ, with whose blood the believers, in proportion to the strength of their faith, anoint their homes, that is, themselves. You are all aware that Adam, the result of God's creative act, was the abode of His inspiration. In the following fashion I can show that God's precept concerning the Paschal lamb was only temporary.

God does not allow the Paschal lamb to be sacrificed in any other place than where His name is invoked (that is, in the Temple at Jerusalem), for He knew that there would come a time, after Christ's Passion, when the place in Jerusalem (where you sacrificed the paschal lamb) would be taken from you by your enemies, and then all sacrifices would be stopped. Moreover, that lamb which you were ordered to roast whole was a symbol of Christ's Passion on the cross. Indeed, the lamb, while being roasted, resembles the figure of the cross, for one spit transfixes it horizontally from the lower parts up to the head, and another pierces it across the back, and holds up its forelegs. Likewise, the two identical goats which had to be offered during the fast (one of which was to be the scapegoat, and the other the sacrificial goat) were an announcement of the two advents of Christ, of the first Advent, in which your priests and elders sent Him away as a scapegoat, seizing Him and putting Him to death; of the second Advent, because in that same place of Jerusalem you shall recognize Him whom you had subjected to shame, and who was a sacrificial offering for all sinners who are willing to repent. (Text: PG 6.561=6.208).

If Christ is a new creation then the solemnities we keep in His honor must be likewise new; otherwise, when we celebrate the Pasch each year in the first month, we violate the Apostolic prohibition of seasons, and days, and months, and years! (Gal. 4:10)... Similarly, when we fast on the Sabbath of the Pasch, we are fasting on a day when fast was forbidden by the Law (On Fasting; Text: PL 2.975).

The celebration of the Pasch is the most solemn and suitable time for baptism, for the Lord's Passion, into which we are baptized, has been just completed. Nor will it be incongruous to interpret figuratively the words of the Lord — You will meet a man bearing water (Mk. 14:13): Hepointsout the place for the celebration of the Pasch by the sign of water (On Baptism; PL 1.1222).

The wife of an unbelieving husband is unable to give to the Lord satisfaction in matters of religious discipline ... for what husband, if he does not believe, will without anxiety allow his wife to be absent at the Paschal solemnities the whole night long (To His Wife)! (Text: ibid. 1294).

We take also in congregations before day-break, and from the hand of none but the presidents, the sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord has commanded (On Prayer). )Text: CSEL 70.158).

But all other Christians in the Western parts, and as far as the ocean itself, are found to have celebrated Easter after the equinox, from a very ancient tradition. And in fact these acting in this manner have never disagreed on this subject. It is not true, as some have pretended, that the synod under Constantine altered this festival: for Constantine himself, writing to those who differed respecting it, recommended that as they were few in number, they could agree with the majority of their brethren. His letter will be found at length in the third book of the Life of Constantine by Eusebius; but the passage in it relative to Easter runs thus:

'It is a becoming order which all the Churches in the Western, Southern, and Northern parts of the world observe, and some places in the East also. Wherefore all on the present occasion have judged it right, and I have pledged myself that it will have the acquiescence of your prudence, that what is unanimously observed in the city of Rome, throughout Italy, Africa, and the whole of Egypt, in Spain, France, Britain, Libya, and all Greece, the diocese of Asia and Pontus, and Cilicia, your wisdom also will readily embrace; considering not only that the number of Churches in the aforesaid places is greater, but also that while there should be a universal concurrence in what is most reasonable, it becomes us to have nothing in common with the perfidious Jews.' (Text: PG 67.629-632).

Lastly, the immolation of the animal called by those very people who carry to the feast (apo tou pascheiri) is because it is a figure of suffering, the Passion of our Lord. God in His foreknowledge of the future gave this feast through Moses to be celebrated by His people.

Then the middle of the heavens will be opened, though the night be stormy and dark, so that the light of the descending God might shine as a flame in the whole world. The Sibyl spoke of this in these verses: 'When He shall come — there will be brilliant fire in the midst of darksome night.' This is the night which is celebrated by us with a vigil on account of the coming of the king, our God. The significance of this night is twofold because in it He recovered life after He had suffered, and afterwards He will receive the kingdom of the world. (Text: CSEL 19.384=FOTC 49.314,521).

To be sure, the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:17). He who spoke the Law, coming later Himself through a virgin in later times, accomplished the fulfillment of the Law, because He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it (Mt. 5:17).

He celebrated the Passover in a week when the fourteenth of the month fell on the fifth day [of the new moon]. In fact, on that very day, as the above indicates, He ate the Passover with His disciples; on the following day, that is, the sixth day [of the new moon] and the fifteenth day [of the month] He was crucified; the sixteenth was on the great Sabbath, and therefore He arose from the dead on the seventeenth.

We must keep the law regarding Easter in such a way that we do not observe the fourteenth as the day of the resurrection; that day or one very close to it is the day of the Passion, because the feast of the resurrection is kept on the Lord's Day. Moreover, we cannot fast on the Lord's day; fasting on this day is what we criticize in the Manichaeans. One shows disbelief in the resurrection of Christ if he proposes a law of fast on the day of the resurrection, since the Law says that the Passover should be eaten with bitterness, that is, with sorrow because the Author of our salvation was slain by mankind's great sacrilege. On the Lord's Day the prophet bids us rejoice, saying: This is the day which the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it (Ps. 118:24).

Consequently, we must observe both the day of the Passion and of the resurrection, to have a day of bitterness and one of joy, fasting on one day, being refreshed on the other. If it happens, however, as will occur next time, that the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord's Day, since we should not fast on that day nor break our fast on the thirteenth which falls on the Sabbath, for it is a day of special observance as the day of the Passion, the celebration of Easter should be postponed to the following week. Otherwise, it happens that the fifteenth when Christ suffered will be on the second day of the week, the third day will be the sixteenth, when the Lord's body rested in the tomb, and the fourth day will be on the seventeenth when the Lord arose.

Therefore, when, as will happen next time, the three holy days run into the following week, the three days within which He suffered, lay in the tomb, and arose, the three days of which He said: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up (Jn. 2:19), what can cause troublesome doubt in us? If we scruple because we do not celebrate the day of the Passion or the resurrection on the fourteenth, recall that the Lord Himself suffered, not on the fourteenth, but on the fifteenth, and arose on the seventeenth. If our difficulty is in our failing to observe the fourteenth of the month which falls on the Lord's Day, that is, April eighteenth, and we tell you to celebrate the following Lord's Day, there is authority for this practice, too.

A short while ago, when the fourteenth of the first month fell on the Lord's Day, the solemnity was observed on the following Lord's Day. And in the eighty-ninth year of the era of Diocletian when the fourteenth day of the first month fell on March twenty-fourth, we celebrated Easter on the last day of March. So, too, did the people of Alexandria and Egypt. They wrote to say that when the fourteenth fell on the twenty-eighth day of the month of Phamenoth they celebrated Easter on the fifth day of Pharmuth, which is the last day of March. Thus, they agreed perfectly with us. Again, in the ninety-third year of the era of Diocletian when the fourteenth fell on the fourteenth of Pharmuth, which is April ninth and happened to be the Lord's Day, they celebrated Easter on the Lord's day, the twenty-first of Pharmuth, or, according to us, April sixteenth. Since we are supplied with a method of calculating as well as precedent, we should have no more trouble on this point. (Text: PL 16.130-131).

1. After the devout completion of your chaste fasts for the purpose of holy expiation, after the sweet vigils of a night resplendent with its own sun (i.e., Christ), after your souls have blossomed to hope of immortality in the life-giving bath of the milky font, from which you, so differing in age and social status, have suddenly emerged like children of one birth, I exhort you to celebrate the feast of so great a birth with happy festivity ... in a heavenly banquet, honorable, pure, salvific, and eternal, which in your hunger you can attend so as to be always full and happy.

2. The head of the house grants you from his stores precious bread and wine from his own table. First, three boys bring in together the vegetables, upon which, to make them more flavorful, they sprinkle the salt of wisdom (cf. Dan. 1:12-17). Christ pours the oil (cf. Lk. 10:34). Moses has quickly procured the mature lamb (cf. Exod. 12:4) and Abraham the fatted calf — (cf. Gen. 18:17) faithfully prepared. Isaac innocently carries the pot and the wood (cf. Gen. 22:6). Jacob patiently picks out the speckled beasts (cf. Gen. 30:32). Joseph, in charge of measuring, allocates a grain ration to all (cf. Gen. 42:6).

3. If anyone lacks for anything, Noah, who built the ark to store up everything, will not deny it to him (cf. Gen. 6:21). Peter, the fisherman, lays out an abundance of seafood along with the marvelous fish (cf. Mt. 4:18; 17:24-27). Tobit, the wanderer, carefully cleans the freshwater fish and roasts it (cf. Tob. 6:6). John, the devoted precursor, in camel's hair, brings honey and locusts from the desert (cf. Mt. 3:4). Paul with his invitation warns lest anyone reproach another who eats (cf. Rom. 14:3). David, the royal shepherd, supplies silver white milk and cheese at all times (cf. 1 Sam. 17:18).

4. Zacchaeus puts out fourfold gifts without delay (cf. Lk. 19:8). Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was fed on this banquet before us, speaks sweet words. How sweet to my lips are your words. Sweeter than honey from the comb to my palate (Ps. 119:103). Brethren, whoever believes these words shall find still more bountiful food. If he takes care of it he shall fill forever both himself and others with all blessings, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. (Text: CCL 22.71).

"Wreathed round with multiform grace in its established course, the day of salvation has arrived through the windings of the seasons in its customary tracks. The same day is its own successor and predecessor. Ever new although of great age, both parent and child of the year it precedes and follows the seasons and infinite centuries. It gives birth to a beginning for itself from its end and yet does not depart from the cradle of its birth. Assuredly, it bears the image of the mystery of the Lord, for by its setting it celebrates His Passion and by its rising it celebrates the resurrection. (Text: ibid. 132).

All the vigils which are celebrated in honor of the Lord by the universal Church are certainly pleasing and acceptable to Him. But this day in particular is called and believed to be the Day of the Lord beyond all others. For about today it has been written: This was a night of vigil for all the Israelites (Exod. 12:42). And the night preceding this day is rightly called 'the vigil of the Lord' because He kept vigil on this night during His lifetime so that we should not sleep through it in death. The Lord undertook for us the sleep of death through the Passion of the cross. But, behold, that sleep of the Lord has become the vigil of the whole world, because the death of the Lord has driven far from us the sleep of that eternal death to which we were all subject. This He Himself declares through His prophet saying: When I lie down in sleep, I wake again, and my sleep has been sweet (Ps. 3:6). Clearly that sleep has become sweet for Christ the Lord because He has recalled us from the bitter death to sweet life. Therefore, this night is called the Lord's vigil, because in it He also has awakened from the slumber of His Passion and death in which He has clearly declared the mystery of His own divinity and of our humanity. For in the sleep of His Passion He slept in the flesh, but in His divinity He journeyed to the depths of hell to lead out forcibly mankind therein detained. Therefore our Savior wished to come from heaven to earth to visit the world; and to descend from earth into hell to illuminate it. He visits all places with His works of mercy to show mercy to all. Rightly, therefore, this night is called the Lord's vigil because it illuminates hell as well as earth.

There is a further reason why Father, Son and Holy Spirit should celebrate the vigil of the Son of God. According to the will of Father and Holy Spirit, the Son died for us that by rising from the dead He might confer life on us. This day, then, is not just the celebration of angels and of men. It is also sacred in virtue of Father, Son and Holy Spirit because the whole Trinity collaborated in the redemption of the world and the liberation from captivity causes joy to all three divine persons. Therefore, we should solemnize with all devotion the celebration of such an important night, because on this night the world was redeemed. On this day, death was vanquished and life became victorious. Today the captives of the world are set free.

The angels rejoice in heaven in celebrating the most glorious expectation of this holy night. Men rejoice on earth, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ celebrating the resurrection of the same Lord Jesus Christ. Even the infernal powers rejoice, because today a light has risen for them, because they, too, have been reached by the glorious celebration of this holy night. And even though Jews and Gentiles seem estranged from the celebration of this holy day they are nonetheless not without joy because they are somehow inspired by the mysterious grace and blessing of the name of Christ — he who is blessed in Him on earth will be blessed in Him in heaven. Amen — for He is the Lord of all. Finally, not a few of the Jews and even Gentiles celebrate as their own the solemnity of our vigil, at least in joy of heart, if not liturgically. (Text: SC 154.258).

I cannot put in words the thoughts of my mind, and my tongue cannot express the joy of my heart. And I am not alone in my suffering, this longing to communicate my sentiments, but you suffer, too, with me, for your joy is more in your inner souls than in outward expression. This day seems brighter than others to me. The sun shines brighter on the world, the stars and all the elements rejoice. At the death of Christ they had ceased to shed their light and had gone into hiding. They could not look on their Creator crucified. But now that this day is His day of victory, after His resurrection from the dead, they perform their proper task, attending upon Him by their own brightness (if one can call it that). Heaven believes, earth believes. And the net let down for the whole world cannot contain the Jews.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it (Ps. 118:24). Just as the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, holds first place among all women, so among all other days this day is mother of all. A novel thought, perhaps, but one confirmed by Scripture. This day is one of seven and one outside of seven. This is the day called the octave, and that is why certain psalms are entitled For the Octave. This is the day the synagogue ended and the Church began. This is the day, the octave day, the souls were saved in Noah's ark. Likewise, says Peter, the Church also saves you (1 Pet. 3:21). But why go on ad infinitum? It would take the whole day to list everything significant in regard to this day.

For all these reasons, dearly beloved, let us chant in unison, This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it (Ps. 118:24). Today Christ with the thief has set aside the sword of fire and opened the gate of paradise which had remained unyielding to all. Today Christ has said to the angels: Open to me the gates of justice; I will enter and speak to the Lord (Ps. 118:19). And once opened they never more close to believers ... for the gate of the Church opens for us the gate of Paradise. (Text: CCL 78.545).

The Church in Milan had not long before begun to worship with this form of consolation and exhortation, wherein with great fervor the brethren sing together in voice and heart. For it was only a year, or not much more, since Justina, the mother of the boy king, Valentinian, had persecuted your man, Ambrose, in favor of her heresy, to which she had been seduced by the Arians. A devout people, who were prepared to suffer death together with their bishop, your servant, kept watch in the church. Therein, living in prayer, my mother, your handmaid, held a first place amid these cares and watchings. Ourselves, still cold to the warmth of your Spirit, were nevertheless stirred by the astonished and disturbed city. At that time it was established that, after the custom of the Eastern lands, hymns and canticles should be sung, so that the people would not become weak through the tedium and sorrow. From then up to the present day that custom has been maintained, with many, or almost all, of your congregations taking it up throughout other parts of the world. (Text: PL 32.770).

On this night all the world keeps vigil, the hostile and the reconciled worlds. The reconciled one does it to praise the Healer; the hostile one to pour insult on the judge who had passed the unfavorable verdict. The one keeps vigil all vibrant and resplendent in tenderness; the other's vigil is with trembling and gnashing of teeth. Love inflames the one, injustice the other. Love keeps the one from falling asleep, diabolical jealousy the other, on this feast. So our very enemies teach us in spite of themselves how we ought to keep watch since it is in envy of us that they keep watch. Many of those who in no way are sealed with the name of Christ keep vigil this night because of pain; many, too, because of shame, and some, already close to the faith, because of fear of God. Thus various reasons inspire man to keep this vigil.

Ought not the friend of Christ watch in joy when the pagan watches in pain? Ought not the Christian be fervent in observing the vigil when even the pagan is ashamed to sleep? Ought not he keep vigil who has already entered this great house (the Church) when the one who is only preparing to enter it keeps vigil?

Watch, I tell you, and pray. Let us celebrate this vigil internally and externally. Let God speak to us in these readings. Let us speak to Him in our prayers. If we hear His words obediently, He whom we pray to will dwell in us. (Text: PL 38.1088).

This is our annual feast, and our Pasch, not in prefigure by the sacrifice of a lamb as for the people of the Old Law, but for us, the new people, fulfilled by the death of our Savior. For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7) and the former things have passed away; behold, they are made new (2 Cor. 5:17).

Let us keep vigil, then, dearly beloved, because Christ's burial was prolonged until this night; so that on this very night the resurrection of the body should take place, a body which on the cross was a butt of derision but is now adored in heaven and on earth. This night, of course, is understood to be part of tomorrow which we call the Lord's Day. And His resurrection had to take place at night because by His resurrection He also enlightened our darkness. Nor was it in vain that the psalmist of old sang to Him: Thou shalt enkindle my lamp, O Lord, my God; thou shalt enlighten my darkness (Ps. 18:29).

Accordingly, our piety confronts us with this great mystery, so that just as our faith fortified by the resurrection continues to keep vigil, so also this night, enlightened by our vigil, may shine forth in splendor so that we may worthily think with the Church spread throughout the world today lest we be found in the night. For all these people — and what people! — congregated in the name of Christ on all sides for this solemn festival the sun has set, but day has not ended since it has been succeeded by an earth resplendent with the light of the heavens. He who has granted us the glory of His name has illuminated this night: He to whom we say Thou shah enlighten my darkness (Ps. 18:29) enlightens our hearts, so that just as our eyes rejoice at this splendor of lighted candles so our mind may be enlightened and shed light on the meaning of this resplendent night. (Text: SC 116.210-211).

We have been listening to many readings from Sacred Scripture. Their length will prevent our speaking at our usual length, and even if we could you would not be able to keep the thread. With God's help, then, we wish to speak to you, beloved brethren, on the first verse of the Bible in the reading you have heard: in the beginning God created heaven and earth. (Gen. 1:1). Consider attentively the creator. I am well aware that you cannot consider Him in Himself. So at least consider His works and praise the Creator.

In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Yes, His works are visible, but the creator is hidden; the object of our view is visible, but the object of our love is invisible. So when we behold the world and love its creator our love transcends our view. We see with our eyes, but love with our souls. (Text: PL 46.821).

Where is death? Seek it in Jesus Christ, for it exists no longer. It was in Him but it exists no longer. O life, the death of death! Take courage and it will die also in you. What has begun in our Head will continue in His members. Death will die also in us. When? At the end of the world. At the resurrection of the dead in which we believe without the slightest doubt. He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mk. 16:16).

Read what follows — it is formidable: He who does not believe shall be condemned (Mk. 16:16). Death will die in us but it will be victorious in those who are condemned. There will be everlasting death where death itself does not die because the torments will be everlasting. In us, however, death will die and will exist no more. (Text: PL 38.1114).

How many years does he live or, better, how many should he? Eighty years, for example, was his life expectancy, fifty of which are gone and thirty remain. He lives one: that makes fifty-one lived, and twenty-nine left to live. One is added to what is lived, one taken away from what is left to live. But when you add, you do not keep what has been taken away. In fear a second year is lived; there remain twenty-eight. A third year is added; that leaves twenty-seven. In living we draw on the span of life, and life is shortened in the process and finally is no more. For there is no way of avoiding the last day.

But our Lord Jesus Christ came to tell us in some such words: 'O men, what are you afraid of; I have created you and have not abandoned you. O men, ruin is from you, creation from me; O men, why did you fear death? Behold, I die; behold, I suffer. Behold, you should not fear what you do, because I show you reason for hope.' Behold, He did so; He showed us resurrection for eternity. The evangelists have described it in their Scriptures; the apostles have preached it throughout the world. (Text: PLS 2.570).

Do not touch me, He said, for lam not yet ascended to my Father (Jn. 20:17). Should you touch me prior to my ascent to the Father then you only see the man in me. What has this faith given you? Let me ascend to my Father. I have never left Him but for you I will ascend to Him if you believe me to be equal to the Father.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has never left His Father when He descended from Him. No more has He abandoned us in returning to His Father. For in the moment of departing and sitting at the right hand of the Father He said to His disciples: I am with you even unto the consummation of the world (Mt. 28:20; Text:PLS 2.573

Have faith and He whom you do not see is present with you. But these two, when the Lord spoke with them, because they had not faith, they did not believe that He had arisen, and they had no hope that He could rise. They had lost faith and lost hope. They were dead men walking with a man alive, they were dead men walking with life itself. Life was walking with them but in their hearts there was no life yet.

And you, if you wish to have life, do what they did to recognize the Lord. They offered Him hospitality. The Lord looked bent on continuing His journey but detained Him. When they reached the end of their journey they said: Stay with us here for the day has turned to evening (Lk. 24:29). Take in the stranger if you wish to recognize the Savior. Hospitality restored to them what lack of faith had taken away; the Lord manifested Himself in the breaking of bread. Learn where to seek the Lord, where to get Him, where to recognize Him, in eating bread. For the faithful know something that gives them a better insight than the uninitiated into this text. (Text:PL 38.1119).

We believe all this without seeing it. We are bidden to love Christ, the Lord, without seeing Him. And we all exclaim: I love Christ. How can he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, love God, whom he does not see? (I Jn. 4:20). In your love for the sheep testify to your love of the shepherd. For the sheep are the shepherd's members. He condescended to become a sheep so that the sheep might be His members. That the sheep might be His members, like a sheep He was led to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7). That the sheep might be His members it was said of Him: Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29). But this lamb has great strength. Would you like to know what strength appeared in that lamb? The lamb was crucified and the lion was vanquished. See and consider with what strength Christ the Lord governs the universe, when by His death He has vanquished the devil. (Text: PLS 2.580).

Our hymn, then, exalts the good life. When we all exclaim in harmony, with joy of spirit and heartfelt accord: This is the day which the Lord has made (Ps. 118:24); let us be in harmony lest our lips testify against our conduct.

See what joy, brethren; the joy in your assembly, the joy in chanting psalms and hymns, the joy of evoking Christ's Passion and resurrection, the joy of hope in life everlasting. And if mere hope causes such joy, how great will be the joy of realization? These are the days when we hear 'Alleluia' and our spirit is somehow transformed. (Text: ibid.557).

We are admonished to sing a new chant to the Lord. The new man knows this new chant. The chant is the expression of joy, and on reflection it is also an expression of love. The one, then, who knows how to love the new life knows how to sing this new song. We must learn what the new life is to learn what the new song is. All things belong to the one realm: the new man, the new song, the New Testament. Therefore the new man will both know the new chant and belong to the New Testament.

O brothers. O sons. O Catholic offshoots. O holy, celestial plants. O you who are regenerated in Jesus Christ and born in heaven, listen to me, or rather hear from me the words: Sing to the Lord a new chant (Ps. 96:1). Good, you say. I am singing. Yes, you are singing. I hear you. But let not your life belie your words. Sing with the voice, sing with the heart, sing with the mouth, but sing with your whole life: sing to the Lord a new chant. But how should you sing of that which you love? Doubtless it is what you love that you wish to sing of. You would like to know His glory to sing of it. You want to know what is His glory? His glory is the assembly of the saints (Ps. 149:1). The glory of Him who is sung about is nothing other than the one who sings about it. Become yourself the glory that you sing of. You are His glory if you lead the good life. For His glory is not in the synagogue of the Jews. (Text: PL 38.210).

Since it has pleased the Lord our God to allow me to be physically present here, let us join in your charity, let us join with you in singing Alleluia, which in Latin means 'Praise the Lord.' Brethren, let us praise the Lord, in our life and on our lips, in heart and on mouth, by word and deed. God wants our 'Praise the Lord' to be said without any lack of harmony in the one who praises: let what is in our life and on our lips then be harmonized in ourselves first; let our inner conscience square with our outer protestations, let our deeds, I say, match our words, lest our fine words be belied by evil conduct.

O blessed 'Alleluia' in heaven where the angels are the temple of God. There, agreement is perfect among those who chant; they have not to contend with the conflict between the law in the members; they have no struggle of concupiscence, in which the victory of charity is at stake. Here and now let us chant 'Alleluia' with concern so that there we may chant it with complete freedom from care.

Let us chant 'Alleluia' here in the midst of dangers and temptations, we and others. God is faithful, says the Apostle, He will not allow us to be tempted above our ability (1 Cor. 10:13). Let us then chant 'Alleluia.' Man is blameworthy but God is faithful. He does not say He will not permit you to be tempted but He will not permit you to be tempted above your ability (1 Cor. 10:13). With the temptation He will also give you a way out that you may be able to bear it. Preaching molds you like the potter's vase; the temptation hardens you. In entering think of the way out, for God is faithful: the Lord guards your going in and your coming out (Ps. 121:8).

O Blessed Alleluia of heaven! No more anguish, no more adversary. No more enemy. No more love of destruction. God is praised there and here, but mingled with fear here, but without disturbance above. Here, are those who are going to die; there, those who will be triumphing forever. Here the one who chants in hope, there, in possession; here it is Alleluia en route, there it is Alleluia on arriving home.

Today let us chant, brethren, no longer to entice repose, but to lighten our burden. Chant as a man on a journey, but keep time. Chant to sustain your effort, do not cultivate laziness. Chant and march. What do I mean, 'March?' Progress, make progress in good. For there are those, as the Apostle tells us (cf. 2 Tim. 3:13), who make progress in evil.

As for you, march to make progress, to advance in goodness, to progress in integrity of faith, and in purity of life. Chant and march, without straying, without going back, without marking time. (Text: PL 1190).

Great indeed is the mystery of the cross. And, properly understood, even the world itself is saved by this sign. For when sailors cleave their way through the sea they first raise a mast and spread the sails. Likewise our sins, like the unbridled, unrestrained waves of the sea, are destroyed by the Lord's cross. Those who are protected by the sign of the Lord seek the harbor of salvation and escape the danger of death. For the sail hanging on the mast is a sort of figure of the mystery. It is, what I might call, the Christ suspended upon the cross... Just as the Church cannot stand without the cross, so, too, a ship without the mast is powerless. For the wind immediately disturbs it and the winds toss it to and ***fro. Wherever the sign of the cross, however, is raised the devil's wickedness is immediately banished and the gusts of wind are lulled.

Similarly the good farmer, when he prepares to till the soil of his land in his quest for staple provisions attempts this only through the sign of the cross. For when he attaches the share-beam to the plough share, attaches the lugs and inserts the plough handle, he imitates the cross; the very composition of the implement resembles in some way the Lord's Passion.

The sky also is arranged so as to be a figure of this sign. For since it is divided into four parts, that is, east, west, south, and north, it embraces four angles like a cross. Even man's gait, when he stretches out his arms, is cruciform, and that is why we are commanded to stretch out our hands when we pray.... (Text: CCL 23.149).

Brethren, it is not by chance that we read today this psalm in which the prophet bids us rejoice and be glad (Ps. 118:24). For holy David invites all of creation to today's festivity. Today by Christ's resurrection the gates of hell are opened, the earth is renewed by the Church's neophytes, heaven is reached by the Holy Spirit. Hell, once opened up, yields up its dead, the renewed earth raises up the dead, heaven made blessed receives those ascending to it.... For Christ's resurrection is life for the dead, pardon for sinners, and glory for the saints.

In the resurrection, then, all the elements get glory. For I think that the sun itself is brighter on this glorious day. The sun must needs rejoice at the resurrection of Him at whose death it was saddened, and must needs welcome Him alive at whose death it shrouded itself with a mourning veil of mist. And as it was then draped like a good servant in mourning for the burial rites so now it should shine in observing the resurrection.

Therefore, brethren, let us all rejoice on this holy day. Let no one, in his consciousness of being a sinner, withdraw himself from the common rejoicing. Let no one be held back from the public prayers by the burden of his crimes. However great a sinner one is, he must not despair of forgiveness on this day for there is no small precedent. If the thief entered paradise, why won't the sinner deserve forgiveness? And if the Lord showed mercy to the thief at his crucifixion, will He not be much more merciful at His resurrection? And if the lowliness of suffering bestowed so much on one who trusted, how much more will the glory of resurrection bestow on him who prays? (Text: ibid. 214).

Brethren, God has granted us a great and marvelous gift of faith. On the Pasch, the day of salvation, He has risen and granted resurrection to all. Raising Himself from the depths to the heights, He has raised us also on high. For all of us Christians, the Apostle says, are the body of Christ and His members. In Christ's resurrection, then, all His members are necessarily raised with Him, in passing over from death to life. The word Pasch in Hebrew means passage or progress, doubtless because through this mystery there is a passage from worse to better things. It is a good passage to pass from sin to justice, from vice to virtue, from old age to infancy, of simplicity not of years. For virtue, too, has its ages. By our previous falls we were established in the seniority of sin, but by Christ's resurrection we have been renewed in the innocence of little children. (Text: ibid. 218).

"Brethren, today as yesterday let us celebrate our joy. If the shadows of night have interrupted our celebrations it is nonetheless the same day of celebration. The darkness of evening separates day and night, but the brightness which suffuses the joy of the Lord is eternal. Christ gave us illumination yesterday; today again we are in the warm glow of His presence. Jesus Christ is both yesterday and today (Heb. 13:8), says the blessed Apostle …

This is called 'today' because like a living, unfailing splendor it does not cease to illuminate the world in perpetual light and because this unceasing flame seems to be one uninterrupted day. (Text: PL 57.605).

The whole of the Easter mystery, dearly-beloved, has been brought before us in the Gospel narrative, and the ears of the mind have been so reached through the ear of flesh that none of you can fail to have a picture of the events: for the text of the divinely-inspired story has clearly shown the treachery of the Lord Jesus Christ's betrayal, the judgment by which He was condemned, the barbarity of His crucifixion, and glory of His resurrection ... happy, had we not fallen from what God had made us; but happier, if we remain what He has remade. It was much to receive form from Christ; it is more to have substance in Christ. (Text: SC 74.128).

Jesus said to her Mary (Jn. 20:16), after He had called her by the common title of her sex woman (Jn. 20:15) and was not recognized; He calls her now by name. As if He were to say openly, recognize Him by whom you yourself have been recognized. God said the same thing to a perfect man, I know you by name (Exod. 33:12). Man is a name common to all, but Moses is a proper name and the Lord said to him very properly that He knew him by name; as if He were to say: I do not just know you in a general way like the others but in a more special fashion. Mary, then, because she is called by name, recognizes the One that calls her and straightway calls Him Rabboni (Jn. 20:16), that is, Master, because it was He who was sought without and He it was who taught her to seek for Him within. Now the evangelist does not describe what Mary did but it is suggested by the words. Jesus said to her: Do not touch me for I have not yet ascended to my Father (Jn. 20:17). In these words it is shown that Mary wished to embrace the feet of Him whom she had just recognized. But the Master says to her; Do not touch me. Not that the Lord rejected the touch of women after His resurrection. For we are told of the two women who came to His tomb that they approached and held His feet in their embrace (cf. Mt. 28:9).

But the reason for not touching Him is added in the words, for I have not yet ascended to my Father (Jn. 20:17). Jesus ascends to the Father when He is regarded as equal to the Father. For whoever does not believe that He is equal to the Father, the Lord, has not yet ascended to the Father in His heart. Therefore He truly touches Jesus who believes that the Son is coeternal with the Father. (Text: 76.1192).

Behold, this day has come on which we celebrate the mystery of Christ's Nativity with due solemnity, a day on which we know that we have mingled with divinity and have been liberated from errors. We see a hope of eternal quiet and accordingly not unwillingly we endure the labor of perseverance. For Christ the Lord is born , a man mingled with God, so that He might mingle the Church in the divinity in Himself, might show an example of virtue to His future brothers and thus open up the reward of the heavenly kingdom for the faithful. (Text: PLS 1.288).

The majestic star arose, revealing a new kingdom and a light to believers. This stirred up the Magi from faraway lands to inquire after the king of souls with devout mind. They went in haste, they sought, they found, they paid honor with mystical gifts, and, under instructions, they went back another way, no doubt lest those who had known Christ might cling to their former errors, but by another way, that is, so that they might direct their actions, their whole way of life into virtuous pursuits and rejoice that they had escaped. This made Herod insane with fury. Or rather the devil cast down in Herod grieved that the Church had been snatched from his jaws and joined to God. With subtle pretenses Herod pretended that he would adore the Lord, so that he might kill, if it could be done, the man mingled with God. But the providence of the Holy Spirit thwarted Herod's bid to eliminate Christ and in his thirst for blood he ordered the slaughter of the innocents.

This is the way of the heavens, the truth of the Gospels, the perpetual way of the saints. I am the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except by me (Jn. 14:6). If, then, Christ is the heavenly way which He has paved to be endured by the brothers who would follow him, if, revealing a hidden truth, He gave life to those believing in Him, let us who are sealed in the militia of the faithful follow bravely in the footsteps of Christ. If the world hates us, if the secular power persecutes us, already it hated the Lord Himself and by subtle inquiries sought to kill Him. And when he killed the infants in place of Christ he made a crowd of martyrs, but he did not find Christ whom he had badly looked for.

Let us offer what we have learned that the Magi offered to the Lord: gold, frankincense, myrrh (Mt. 2:11). But we do not have any gold because we have left behind the goods of this world. What, then, are you going to do, you who have pre-elected poverty? In what way can you go to Christ, in what way will you adore Him when you do not bring with you a weight of gold, or the sweet aromas of incense and myrrh? (Text: ibid. 294).

Now the Lord was born in the month of December, the season of winter, eight days before the Kalends of January (i.e., 25 December), when the ripe olives are pressed to produce ointment, that is chrism, in which extract from other herbs is mingled. This is the time when bleating lambs are born, when the vine shoots are trimmed with pruning forks so that they may bear the wine of sweetness from which the apostles became inebriated with the Holy Spirit: for, He says, I am the vine and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire (Jn. 15:1-2; Mt. 3:10). But they also call it the birthday of the Unconquered One, who, to be sure, is so unconquered as our Lord who was the vanquisher of vanquished death. Or what they call the Sun's birthday is Himself the Sun of Justice concerning whom Malachi the prophet says, But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays (Mal. 4:2). He too was circumcised according to God's testimony because he had been brought to Abraham on the eighth day, that is, on January 1 on which day was the departure (cf. Gen. 17:9-12; Mt. 1:2; CF. Talley, 156, n. 27).

Even if I were to remain silent, brethren, the very season itself would bring to our notice the fact that the nativity of Christ is at hand. In fact, the period of preparation in reaching its end has pre-empted my preaching: by its groanings the world itself announces the imminence of something that will restore things to a better situation, and in impatient waiting this same world anticipates the brightness of a more resplendent sun that will illuminate the darkness. While it feared that its course would be ended by the shortness of its hours, it also indicated hopefully that its annual circuit would be renewed. This expectation of creation then persuades us to expect that Christ, the new Sun, when He rises, will illuminate our sinful darkness and that the sun of justice will by the vigor of His nativity disperse the lengthy fog of our crimes. (Text: ibid. 249).

When the whole world had been oppressed by the darkness of the devil and a fog thick with crimes possessed the age, the sun thought fit to shed forth the beginning of His birth at the last time, that is when the night was still incumbent. (Text: ibid. 262).

For if the sun was obscured when Christ was suffering it is all the more necessary therefore that it should shine forth with greater splendor than usual when He is born; and if it poured out its darkness on the Jews when they perpetrated death why should it not show its brightness on Mary giving birth to life? Or why should we not believe that at the birth of Christ the sun came with greater luster to pay its respects, when a brighter star preceded the Magi to lead the way? And if a star performed a function of night in the daytime why do we not believe that the sun also might steal some nocturnal time by an earlier rising than usual? From this, in a word, I think it came about that the night shrunk, while the sun in haste brought forth its light prematurely in obeisance to Christ's nativity: nay, rather, I do not say that it was night, or had any darkness, when the shepherds kept watch and the angels rejoiced ... for the angels and shepherds expressed their joy in their own voice or words, but the elements express theirs by their functions, since they cannot do so in words. (Text: ibid. 261).

The Day who has made all days has made this day holy for us. The psalm sings about Him: Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing ye to the Lord and bless His name, bring the good tidings of the Day of Day, of His salvation (Ps. 96:1-2). What is this Day of Day if not the Son of the Father, Light of Light? But that Day which begot this Day, who was born of the Virgin today — that Day has no sunrise, has no sunset. I am speaking of God the Father as Day. For Jesus would not be Day of Day, if the Father were not also Day.

What is Day but Light? Not light of eyes bound to flesh, not light common to man and beast, but the Light which shines upon the angels, the Light to see which our hearts are purified. Indeed, the night in which we are now living, in which the lamps of the Scriptures are lit for us, passes away; and there will come that which is foretold in another Psalm: In the morning I will stand before Thee, and will contemplate Thee (Ps. 59:17; Text: PL 38.1005=ACW 15.96).

Our Lord Jesus, who was with His Father before He was born of His mother, chose not only the virgin from whom He was to be born, but also the day on which He was to be born. Misguided men very frequently go by certain dates. One man chooses a day for setting out new vines; another, a day for building; another, a day for starting on a journey; and sometimes, too, a man takes a special day for getting married. When they do this, they have this in mind, that anything undertaken may for that reason thrive and prosper. But no one is able to choose the day of his own birth; whereas the Lord, who was able to create both, was also able to choose both.

Moreover, He did not make His choice of day after the manner of those ... people who think that the fates of men are bound up with the position of the stars. Obviously, He was not made happy by the day on which He was born; but the day on which He deigned to be born was made a happy one by Him. For indeed, the day of His birth also shows the mystery of His light. The Apostle indicates this when he says: The night is past, and the day is at hand. Let us ... cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day (Rom. 13:12-13). Let us recognize that it is day, let us be day ourselves. When we were living without faith, we were night. And, because this same lack of faith, which covered the whole world like the night, had to be lessened by the growth of faith, so on the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ the nights began to be shorter, while the days became longer. Let us, therefore, brethren, keep this day with due solemnity; not, like those who are without faith, on account of the sun, but because of Him who made the sun. For He who was the Word, was made flesh (Jn. 1:14), that for our sakes He might be under the sun. Under the sun, to be sure, in His flesh; but in His majesty, over the whole universe in which He made the sun. And now, too, He, incarnate, stands above that sun which is worshipped as god by those who, intellectually blind, do not see the true Sun of Justice. (Text: PL 38.1007=ACW 15.101).

Today Truth is sprung out of the earth (Ps. 85:12). Christ is born of flesh. Rejoice on this solemn occasion. On this day be reminded also of the Eternal Day and think of it, and with a profound hope desire the eternal gifts. Since you have received the power to be made the sons of God (Jn. 1:12), presume that you are such. For your sakes has the Maker of time been made in time. For your sakes has the Maker of the world appeared in flesh. For your sakes has the Creator been born. (Text: ibid. 1011=ACW 15.112).

So this is the day on which the Maker of the world came into the world, the day on which He who had never been absent in His power, became present in flesh; because He was in this world, and He came unto His own. He was in the world, but the world knew Him not (Jn. 1:10), because the light shone in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn. 1:5). He came, therefore, in the flesh to cleanse the vices of the flesh. He came born of the earth, a Physician to heal our inner eyes which this our outer world had made blind; thus, when He has healed them, we who were heretofore darkness are made light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8), and the light will no longer shine in darkness as a light present for such as are absent, but will become visible to seers of the truth. (Text: ibid. 1018=ACW 15.128).

Today we are celebrating an anniversary, so you should expect a sermon proper for the occasion. Christ has been born: as God of the Father, as man of His mother; of the immortality of His Father, of the virginity of His mother; of His Father without a mother, of His mother without a father; of His Father without time, of His mother without seed; of His Father as the beginning of life, of His mother as the end of death; of His Father as the Ruler of all days, of His mother as the Sanctifier of this day. (Text: ibid. 1015=ACW 15.121).

Today, a festive day for us, has dawned as the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His birthday, the day on which He was born. And this is today, because beginning with today the day begins to grow. Our Lord Jesus Christ had two births, the one divine, the other human. Both were miraculous. The first was without woman for a mother, the other, without man for a father. What the holy prophet Isaiah says, Who shall declare His generation! (Isa. 53:8) can be referred to both beginnings. Who could find the proper words to explain God's act of begetting? Who could properly explain the childbearing of the Virgin? The former was without day; the latter, on a definite day. Both transcend human estimation, both strike us with great awe. (Text: ibid. 1019=ACW 15.129).

Rightly, then, did the birth of our salvation impart no corruption to the Virgin's purity, for the birth of truth was the preservation of honor. Such was the nativity which became the power of God and the wisdom of God ... Christ... whereby He might be one with us in manhood, and surpass us in Godhead: unless He were true God He would not bring us a remedy; unless He were true man, He would not give us an example.... Let us give thanks... that we might be in Him a new creation and a new production. Let us put off the old man of sin, and having shared in this new birth of Christ let us renounce the works of the flesh. Christian, acknowledge your dignity — you have become a partner in the divine nature: remember the head and the body of which you are now a member.... (Text: ibid. 192).

His incorrupt nature preserved the virginity of the Mother ... and His divine spirit respected the holiness ... of the sanctuary He had chosen for himself ... that He might raise the fallen, restore the broken and bestow on us the power of chastity ... that we might recover in this our second birth the virginity that was lost in our first.... In this nativity of Christ, according to David the prophet, truth sprang out of the earth and righteousness looked down from heaven (Ps. 85:12); in this nativity also is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah — let the earth produce and bring forth salvation, and let righteousness cover the earth: (Isa. 45:8) in the first transgressor the earth of human flesh was cursed, but in the flesh of the Virgin there is produced a seed that is blessed and free from the fault of its stock; each one of us becomes a sharer of this new flesh through regeneration... This new birth of flesh, that is the birth of our Lord and Savior from the virgin mother, occurs to the thoughts of the faithful on all days and at all times but is suggested to us by no day more than this, when with the new-born light still shedding its rays on nature there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery. For the angels converse with the astonished Virgin, and her conception by the power of the Holy Spirit seems to recur not only to the memory but indeed to one's very eyes as well today ... today ... Today the Word of God appears clothed in flesh, and that which was never visible to human eyes begins to be tangible to our hands as well. Today the shepherds learn from angels' voices that the Savior is born in the flesh of our flesh, and today, too, we join with the whole army of heavenly hosts and say: Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth (Lk. 2:14).... This birthday of the Lord is the source of life for His faithful ones, because the birthday of the head is the birthday of the body ... just as the entire body of the faithful is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised with Him in His resurrection, placed at the Father's right hand in His ascension, so with Him are we born in each generation through this nativity... (Text: ibid. 196).

... Let not the frailty of earthly thoughts raise itself against the loftiness of God's grace ... for the mystery of this bounty is great and this gift exceeds all gifts ... that God should call man son, and man should call God his Father ... peace-loving sons of our Father ... all the members of adoption must meet in the first-begotten of the new creation, who came not to do His own will but the will of Him that sent Him ... for they that are reborn after one pattern must have a spirit like that of the model: indeed the birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace... When, therefore, we try to understand the mystery of Christ's birth ... let all the clouds of earthly reasoning be put aside ... for the authority on which we trust is divine ... our inward ear tells us that that is true which the blessed John, full of the Holy Spirit, uttered with his voice of thunder: in the beginning was the Word (Jn. 1:1)... the word was made flesh (Jn. 1:14). Therefore, in both natures ... it is the same Son of God ... renewing man in his manhood, but enduring unchangeable in Himself... because the supreme and eternal Essence, which lowered itself for the salvation of mankind, transferred us into its divine glory, but did not cease to be in itself what it always was and is and will be.... What mind can grasp this mystery ... the old nature becomes new: strangers receive adoption and outsiders are given an inheritance — the ungodly are made righteous the miserly benevolent, the incontinent chaste, the earthly heavenly....

Although Scripture tells us to rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4), nevertheless this day arouses in us the deepest spiritual joy, because the mystery of the Lord's nativity is shining brightly upon us. (Text: ibid. 213).

Lest the tempter win you back again with any of his wiles, and mar even the joys of the present festival by his deceitful art, misleading simpler souls with the pestilential notion of some to whom this our solemn feast day seems to derive its honor, not so much from the nativity of Christ as, according to them, from the rising of the new sun. Such men's hearts are wrapped in total darkness, and have no growing perception of the true Light: for they are still drawn away by the foolish errors of heathendom, and because they cannot lift the eyes of their mind above that which their carnal sight beholds, they pay divine honor to the luminaries that minister to the world. Let not Christian souls entertain any such wicked superstition and portentous lie. Beyond all measure are things temporal removed from the Eternal, things corporeal from the Incorporeal, things governed from the Governor. For though they possess a wondrous beauty, yet they have no Godhead to be worshipped. That power then, that wisdom, that majesty is to be adored which created the universe out of nothing, and framed by His almighty methods the substance of the earth and sky into what forms and dimensions He willed. Sun, moon, and stars may be most useful to us, most fair to look upon; but only if we render thanks to their Maker for them and worship God who made them, not the creation which does Him service. Then praise God, dearly beloved, in all His works and judgments. Cherish an undoubting belief in the Virgin's pure conception. Honor the sacred and divine mystery of man's restoration with holy and sincere service. Embrace Christ born in our flesh, that you may deserve to see Him also as the God of glory. (Text: ibid. 198).

From such a system of teaching proceeds also the ungodly practice of certain foolish folk who worship the sun as it rises at the beginning of daylight from elevated positions: even some Christians think it is so proper to do this that, before entering the blessed apostle Peter's basilica, which is dedicated to the one living and true God, when they have mounted the steps which lead to the raised platform, they turn around and bow themselves towards the rising sun and with bent neck do homage to its brilliant orb. We are full of grief and vexation that this should happen, which is partly due to the fault of ignorance and partly to the spirit of heathenism: because although some of them do perhaps worship the Creator of that fair light rather than the light itself, which is His creature, yet we must abstain even from the appearance of this observance: for if one who has abandoned the worship of gods finds it in our own worship, will he not hark back again to this fragment of his old superstition, as if it were allowable, when he sees it to be common both to Christians and to infidels? (Text: ibid. 218).

That for which patriarchs painfully labored, which prophets foretold, and just men longed to see, this has happened and today been fulfilled: God has appeared on earth in the flesh and walked with men. Let us rejoice, therefore, and exult, brethren. For if John leaped in his mother's womb at the coming of Mary to Elizabeth much more ought we, who have seen, not Mary, but our Savior born this day, to leap and exult, to marvel and stand amazed over the magnitude of God's dispensation, which exceeds all thought (cf. Lk. 1:41). For consider how great a thing it would be to behold the sun descended from heaven and running about the earth, emitting hence its rays to all. But if in the case of a body of light this would strike all beholders, reflect with me and consider what it is to see the Sun of Justice emitting His rays from our flesh and illuminating our souls. For a long time I have desired to see this day and not merely to see it but to see it observed by such a large congregation. And I have prayed continually that this place of assembly might be filled as you can see it filled now. This, then, has come to pass and been realized. (Text: ibid. 353).

So now I shall proceed to another path of preaching, for a feast day is about to arrive and it is the most holy, august and awesome of all feasts; it would be no mistake to call it the chief and mother of all holy days. What feast is that?

The day of Christ's birth in the flesh.

It is from this day that the feasts of the Theophany (i.e. Epiphany), the sacred Pasch, the Ascension, and Pentecost had their source and foundation. Had Christ not been born in the flesh, He would not have been baptized, which is the Theophany or Manifestation; nor would He have been crucified, which is the Pasch; nor would He have sent down the Spirit, which is Pentecost. So it is that, just as different rivers arise from a source, these other feasts have their beginnings from the birth of Christ.

Not only for this reason is it right that the day of Christ's birth should enjoy the principal place but also because what occurred on this day provides a much stronger reason for us to experience a holy fear and trembling than all the others do. For the fact that Christ who became man also died was a consequence of His birth. Even though He was free from any sin, He did take upon Himself a mortal body and that should make us all marvel. That He who is God was willing to become man ... makes us shudder with the deepest holy fear; it fills us with terror and trembling.

This is what amazed Paul when he said, Wonderful indeed is the mystery of our religion. How wonderful? God was manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16)... This is why I especially greet and love this day... And this is why I ask and beg all of you to be here in church for that feast with all zeal and alacrity. Let each of us leave his house empty so that we may see our master wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (cf. Lk. 2:7). This is a sight which is filled with holy fear and trembling. It is incredible and beyond our every expectation. (Text: PG 48.752=FOTC 72.174).

Can you, a Christian, not bear to give a brief measure of time to enjoy this blessed sight? If we shall present ourselves in a spirit of faith, there is no doubt but that we shall truly see Him as He lies in the manger. For the table of this altar takes the place of the manger.

And surely the master's body will be lying on this altar, not wrapped in swaddling clothes, as it was after His birth, but clothed all about by the Holy Spirit. Those who have been

initiated understand what I am saying. The Magi adored Him, but that was all. If your conscience is without stain when you come forward, we shall allow you even to receive that body and then to go off to your home. Do you, therefore, come forward and bring your gifts, not such gifts as the Magi brought, but gifts which are far holier and more august. The Magi brought gold; you bring a temperate and virtuous spirit. They brought incense; you must offer pure prayers, which are the incense of the soul. They brought myrrh; you must bring a humble and contrite heart along with alms.

If you come forward with these gifts, you will enjoy and share in this sacred table with great trust and confidence. Why do I speak these words at this time? I know for sure that on that day many will come forward and lay hostile hands on that spiritual sacrifice. We must not do this to the harm and condemnation of our souls. We must approach the altar to win salvation for ourselves. That is why, now, before that day, I beg and beseech you, only after you have cleansed yourselves in every way are you to approach these mysteries. Let no one say to me: 'I am so ashamed. I have a conscience filled with sins. I am carrying the heaviest of burdens.' The period of five days is time enough to cut away the multitude of your sins if you are sober and watchful and if you pray. Do not look to the shortness of the time but consider the loving kindness of the master. The people of Nineveh drove off God's great wrath in three days (cf. Mt. 12:41). The narrow span of time did not deter them, but after their eager souls won for them the master's loving kindness, they were able to accomplish the whole task...

Do you not know that this table is filled with a spiritual fire? Therefore... if you have any wickedness, drive it out and banish it from your soul. Does one of you have an enemy who has treated him with the greatest injustice? Let that man do away with his hostility; let him keep in check his soul, which is burning and swollen with hate, so that there may be no tumult or commotion in his heart.

You are going to receive your king in communion. And when your king comes into your soul, it must be very tranquil and still. Your thoughts must be marked with the deepest peace. But you were treated most unjustly and you cannot bear to put aside your anger. Why, then, do you do even greater wrong and more serious harm to yourself? Whatever your enemy may do to you, he will not treat you as badly as you treat yourself if you refuse to be reconciled to him and if you keep trampling underfoot the laws of God. (Text: ibid. 753=FOTC 72.177).

Christ is born! Glorify you Him. Christ comes from Heaven! Go you out to meet Him. Christ comes to earth! Be you exalted.... Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad ... He is from heaven and He is on earth. Christ in the flesh ... Christ of a Virgin-----Again darkness is past; again light is present ... let the people that sat in the darkness of ignorance now see the Great Light of full knowledge.... Gone is the shadow ... here is the truth ... clap your hands together, all you people ... unto us a child is born (Isa. 9:15)... A Son is given ... Let John cry his cry: prepare you the way of the Lord (Mt. 3:3): I too will cry my cry; I will cry the power of this day — the Son of God is the Son of Man....This is the festival of the Theophany ... the day of birth ... two names for the same day ... for truly is it both ... for ... by birth God was made manifest to man: the name Theophany is given on account of the manifestation; and that of Birthday in respect of His birth. Theophany and Birthday — this is the festival we are celebrating today.... Therefore, let us keep this feast, not after the manner of a heathen festival, but in the way of divine things — not the way of the world ... but a way above the world.... Let us not adorn our porches, arrange dances or decorate our streets: let us not feast the eye, enchant the ear, prostitute the taste ... or indulge the touch: let us not be effeminate in silks and satins... nor adorned with silver or gold ... let us not appraise the bouquet of wines, nor the dainties of cooks ... let not sea nor land tempt me with their precious waste ... thus have I been trained to look upon the luxuries of this world.... Let us leave all these things to the pomps and festivals of the Greeks ... and if we must in some way have luxury, let us seek it in the Word and the Law of God, that our delight may be in Him who has called us together.... I am your host today: you are my guests for this feast.... I shall feed you a discourse on God and on divine things as abundantly and as nobly as I can ... that when you depart, you may have had the enjoyment of delights that never really fade away. (Text: PG 36.312).

God always was, always is, always will be. More correctly God always is, for was and will be belong to time and are subject to change, but it is eternal — eternal being — the name He revealed to Moses ... in Himself He sums up and contains all being ... like some great sea of being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception of time and place ... only adumbrated by the mind ... and very darkly at that ... one image from this ... and another from that combining to give us some sort of momentary glimpse of the truth ... which escapes before conceptions of mind are formed, and remains as an object of wonder, of desire, of purification, of salvation •.. so that when we are thus made or remade in His image, He may, to use a bold expression, hold converse with us as God's.... Some conception!... The divine nature is therefore boundless and hard to understand.... And when infinity is considered from the two points of view — beginning and end, the mind finds in one the unoriginate ... and in the other ... the imperishable, and thus the Eternal is grasped by way of conclusion ... for eternity is neither time nor part of time and cannot be measured … This is all I shall say of God for the subject of this feast is not the doctrine of God but rather that of the incarnation....

When I speak of God ... I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ... a movement of self-contemplation ... going forth beyond itself to conceive the heavenly and angelic powers. This conception was a work fulfilled by His Word, and perfected by His Spirit — secondary splendors ... illumined with the first rays of God ... the World of Spirit ... before...A second world, material and visible ... A compound of earth and sky ... to show that He could call into being ... a Nature ... alien to Himself.... But perhaps someone of you, who are in the festive mood, may say. Spur your horse to the goal; talk to us about the festival and the reasons why we're here; yes, that I am about to do...

Spirit and Matter remained within their own boundaries ... then the Creator-Word produced a single living being out of both creations, the visible and invisible, and man was fashioned — a new angel, a mingled worshipper, fully initiated into the visible creation and only partially into the invisible ... earthly and heavenly; temporal and yet immortal; visible and yet intellectual; spirit and flesh in one person ... a living creature, trained here and moved elsewhere; and to complete the mystery, deified by its inclination towards God....

This being He placed in Paradise ... and gave him a law ... a commandment... this commandment he forgot... and for his sin he was banished ... from the tree of life, and from Paradise, and from God; and put on the coat of skins ... that is, perhaps, the coarser flesh, mortal and contradictory ... shame ... and he hid himself from God; — death, and his punishment, was his only mercy! He needed a stronger remedy, for his diseases were growing worse — mutual slaughters, adulteries, perjuries, idolatries. As these required a greater medicine, a greater medicine was given — the Word of God; the Invisible, Incomprehensible, Bodiless, Beginning of Beginning, Light of Light, Source of Life and Immortality, Image of Archetypal Beauty, Immovable Seal, Father's Revelation. This Word put on flesh for the sake of our flesh, and mingled Himself with an intelligent soul for my soul's sake, purifying like by like ... and was made man. Conceived by the Virgin... He came forth then as God with that which he had assumed, one person in two natures, flesh and spirit, and the latter deified the former...

Oh mysterious union.... Existence comes into being; the uncreated is created; the uncontained contained....

What is this mystery?...

I had a share in the image; I did not keep it. He protects of my flesh that He may save the image and make the flesh immortal. He communicates a second communion more marvelous than the first — now God becomes man and man is made God....

Will you deem Him little because He humbled Himself for you?... Because He lit the candle of His own flesh ... and swept the house in search of the coin — the divine image that was lost in human passion. Do you reproach God ... because He gives himself with a towel to wash the feet of His disciples and to show that humiliation is the road to exaltation?... Even now the Word must suffer ... by one group He is honored as God but confused with the Father; by another He is dishonored as mere flesh and severed from the Godhead....

But soon you will see Him in the Jordan river ... and behold the Spirit... that is of one nature with Him: you shall see Him tempted but conquering and served by angels ... betrayed and crucified ... offered as a Lamb and offering as a priest; as a man buried in the grave, as God rising again, and ascending ... to come again in His own glory. What a multitude of festivals in all the mysteries of Christ — my redemption and my return to the Paradise of Adam.

Now then I beg you: adore this birth which loosed you from the pangs of your birth ... honor Bethlehem ... the road to Paradise: worship the manger ... which fed you the Word; bear gifts with the Magi... to the one who died for you; come with shepherds and sing with angels ... let this festival be common to the powers in heaven and the powers on earth.... I am persuaded that the heavenly hosts join in our exultation and keep with us this day of High Fesitival....

Be born with Christ this day ... if He flees into Egypt... be an exile with Him; live every minute of the life of Christ ... teach in the temple and drive out the traders; before Herod ... keep silence for the most part ... put on the purple, take the reed in hand, and be mocked by those who mock the truth ... be crucified with Him ... rise with Him and be glorified with Him and reign with Him. Behold and be beheld by the great God — in trinity worshipped and glorified, and preached as clearly as the chains of my flesh will allow me to confess Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Today the Creator of all things, God the Word, has composed a new book (cf. Isa. 8:1) which surged forth from the heart of the Father to be written, as with a pen, by the Holy Spirit, the language of God. It was given to a man who knew letters but did not read it. For Joseph did not know Mary nor the mystery itself.

Daughter all holy of Joachim and Anne, who escaped the principalities and powers and the burning arrows of the evil one (Eph. 6:16), you who lived in the bridal chamber of the Spirit and was preserved intact to be the bride of God and the mother of God by nature. Daughter all holy, appearing in the arms of her mother but a source of terror to the rebellious forces. Daughter all holy, nourished on her mother's milk but surrounded by troops of angels. Daughter beloved of God, glory of your parents. Generations of generations will call you blessed, as you asserted with truth. Daughter worthy of God, beauty of human nature, rehabilitation of Eve, our first mother. (Text: PG 96.672).

His holy mind, shocked at the novel situation, was in turmoil. His spouse stood, pregnant yet a virgin. She stood large with the child she carried, yet not free from the cause for blame. She stood in concern about her pregnancy, but free from fear about her integrity. She stood dressed as a mother, yet not excluded from the honor of virginity. What was the husband to do in such a case? Was he to accuse her of sin? But he himself was the guardian of her purity. Was he to press a charge of adultery? But he was the herald of her virginity. What was he to do in such circumstances? He thought of putting her away, since he could neither reveal outside what had happened, nor keep it inside. He thought of putting her away, and he told it all to God, because he had nothing to tell to men. (Text: PL 52.588=FOTC 17.233).

For the leaders in the cult of idols are forced to recognize some part of truth and, being liars, to deceive the idolaters who rely on them. In numerous places they observe a very great feast on this same night of the Epiphany in order that those who believe in error should not seek out the truth. This first occurred in Alexandria in what is called the Koreion, that is, a very large temple, the sanctuary of Kore. They keep vigil all night, celebrating their idol in songs, and to the sound of flutes, and at the end of the vigil after cockcrow they descend, carrying torches to a subterranean location and from there carry a wooden statue seated nude on a stretcher, having a golden mark in the shape of a cross on the forehead, and two similar marks on the hands, and two on the knees, the five marks being all of gold.

They carry the statue seven times around the temple in a circle to the sound of flutes and a tambourine and hymns, and then after their festivities they go down again to the subterranean location. And when they are asked what is this mystery, they respond: today at this hour Kore, that is, the virgin, has given birth to Aion. This practice also takes place at Petra, the metropolis of Arabia, the scriptural Edom, and they chant the virgin in the Arabic language — her name in Arabic is Chaaman — that is to say, young maiden or virgin, and her son is called Dousares, that is to say, the only son of the Lord. This also takes place at Elousa on the same night as at Alexandria or at Petra. (Text: GCS 31.285=Talley, op. Cit. 105).

... That is why, in many places down to our own day, the divine prodigy which took place then is reproduced as a testimony for unbelievers. So they testify in many places to springs and rivers changed into wine. So the spring in Cibyra, in the town of Caria, at the hour when the servants drew and he said, give to the steward (Jn. 2:8). And the spring in Gerasa renders the same testimony. We have drunk from the spring of Cibyra and our brothers from the spring located in Gerasa at the martyrium. And many in Egypt render the same testimony about the Nile. So, on the eleventh of the month Tubi in the Egyptian calendar, all draw water and set it aside, in Egypt and in many countries. (Text: ibid. cf. Talley, 112).

My friends, once again Christ and His Mystery ... this holy day of lights has arrived... The baptism of Christ is celebrated-----My Christ, the real light, which gives light to every man ... my purification ... from the darkness and confusion of my sin.... Listen to the Voice of God ... I am the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12). Therefore approach Him ... be enlightened by Him ... It is a season of new birth ... let us be born again; it is a time of reformation ... let us be made again in His image....

Let us not remain what we are ... let us become again what we once were.... The light shines in darkness in this life ... in this flesh ... and is chased by darkness, but not overcome by It... Behold the mystery of this day and feel the power of this mystery ... you will be raised higher than my words can raise you, when the power of the Word multiplies the power of my words. (Text: PG 36.336).

Now having purified the theatre, let us discourse a little about the festival-----God is the subject of this festival.... Therefore, let us call God to mind-----When I speak to you of God, you should be enlightened immediately by one flash of light and by three at the same time ... of Whom ... by Whom ... in Whom ... These words — of, by, in — do not denote a difference of nature ... but characterize the personalities of a nature which is one and unconfused... And the Son of God deigns to become and be called the Son of Man.... At His birth we duly kept festival... with the star we ran ... with the Magi we worshipped ... with the shepherds we were enlightened ... with the angels we were glorified... Now we come to another action of Christ and another mystery ... I cannot restrain my pleasure; I am rapt into God ... Christ is made manifest.... Let us shine forth with Him ... Christ is baptized ... let us descend with Him and ascend with Him... Our festival is of baptism ... let us speak about the different kinds of baptism ... Moses baptized, but it was in water: before that in the cloud and in the sea. This was by way of type or symbol — the sea of water and the cloud of the Spirit as the manna of the bread of life and drink of the divine cup. John also baptized ... not just like the Jews in water, but unto repentance ... Jesus, too, baptized, but in the Spirit — this is the perfect baptism. (How then is He not God by whom you, too, are made God!) I know also of a fourth baptism — that by martyrdom and blood, which Christ Himself also underwent-----Yes and I also know of a fifth baptism — that of penance — a baptism of tears, much more laborious, and received by him who washes his bed every night with tears of repentance (Ps. 6:7); who imitates the repentance of Manasseh, and the humiliation of the Ninevites; who utters the words of the Publican in the temple, and is more justified than the stiff-necked Pharisee; who bends down like the Canaanite woman and asks for mercy and crumbs — the food of a dog, who is very hungry.

Come now; let us venerate this day the baptism of Christ: let us keep the feast ... not by pampering the flesh, but ... rejoicing in the Spirit-----Be like lights in the world ... a quickening force to all other men-----Stand up tall — perfect lights beside that One Great Light. Learn the mystery of the illumination of heaven: be enlightened about the Trinity — see more clearly and more purely ... even now you are receiving the One Ray from the one Godhead in Christ Jesus, our Lord, our might and our glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Yesterday we kept high festival on the illustrious day of the Holy Lights; for it was fitting that rejoicing should be kept for our salvation; and that far more than on weddings, birthdays, namedays, housewarmings, children's registrations, anniversaries, and all other days that people celebrate for their earthly friends.

And now today let us discourse briefly concerning baptism. The Sacred Scripture recognizes three births for us, namely our natural birth, baptism, and that of the resurrection.... Let us discourse about the second, which is now necessary for us and which gives its name to the Feast of Lights. Enlightenment (i.e., baptism) is the splendor of souls, the conversion of life, the question put to the God ward conscience. It is the aid to our weakness, the renunciation of the flesh, the following of the Spirit, the fellowship of the Word, the improvement of the creature, the overwhelming of sin, participation in light, the dissolution of darkness... (Text: ibid. 361).

God is light (1 Jn. 1:5): the highest, the unapproachable, the ineffable, that can neither be conceived in the mind nor uttered by the lips, that gives life to every reasoning creature. He is to the world of thought what the sun is to the world of sense, presenting Himself to our minds in proportion as we are cleansed, and loved in proportion as He is presented to our mind.... That light, I mean, which is contemplated in the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, whose riches is their unity of nature and the sole outleaping of their brightness. A second light is the angel, a kind of outflow or communication of that first light, drawing its illumination from its inclination and obedience thereto.... A third light is man, a light which is visible to external objects. For they call man light because of the faculty of speech in us.... (Text: ibid. 363).

It was light that shone around the shepherds when the eternal light was mingled with the temporal. It was light that was the beauty of the star that preceded to Bethlehem to guide the way of the wise men, and to the escort of the light that is above us, when He came amongst us. Light was Godhead when He was shown on the mountain to His disciples — and a little too strong for their eyes. Light was that vision which blazed forth upon St. Paul, and by wounding whose eyes it healed the darkness of his soul. Light is also the brilliancy of heaven to those who have been purified here, when the righteousness shall shine forth as the Sun. In a special sense, Light is the illumination of baptism ... the great and marvelous sacrament of our salvation. (Text: ibid. 365).

But when, after having invaded all places, he launched his attack upon this unshakable and invulnerable mother of the Churches, the only spark of truth still remaining unquenched, with the purpose of enslaving her, then for the first time he realized that he had planned badly. (Text: PG 36.557).

At these words, the emperor, condemning his own conduct and overcome by the praises of Basil, for even an enemy can admire a man's courage, forbade the employment of force.....

Although his threats had changed to admiration he did not enter into communion with Basil, being ashamed to make the change, but he sought the most expedient means to justify himself.

For the emperor entered the Church with all his retinue. It was the day of Epiphany (in 372 or 373) and the Church was thronged. He took his place among the people and thus gave the appearance of professing unity. Once he was inside, the singing of the psalms struck his ears like thunder, and he observed the sea of people and the orderly behavior, more angelically than human, prevailing in the sanctuary and its precincts. He saw Basil posted, facing his people, standing erect, as the Scripture describes Samuel (1 Sm. 19:20) with body, and eyes, and mind undisturbed, as though nothing unusual had happened, but like a pillar, if I may say so, attached to God and the altar, while those about him stood in fear and reverence....

At this sight dimness and dizziness enveloped the emperor's eyes.... But when the time came for him to present at the divine table the gifts which had to be offered with his own hands, and no one, as was the custom, assisted him, since it was not clear that Basil would receive them, then his feelings were clearly manifested. For he began to stagger, and if one of the ministers of the sanctuary had not lent his hand to support his wavering steps, he would have suffered a lamentable fall. But let this suffice. (Text: ibid. 561).

Now I recognize my own flock. Today I see the familiar figure of my Church turning from the cares of the flesh, and ... crowding within the sacred sanctuary ... like bees: some are busy within, while others outside hum around the hive. My children, never abandon this zeal ... I feel a shepherd's affection ... I am filled with happiness, and work with pleasure at my sermon... Now is the time to remember our holy mysteries ... which purge from our souls and bodies that sin which is hard to cleanse: for my part I rejoice ... over you that are already initiated, and over you that are still Uninitiated.... Therefore, let us leave the other matters of the scriptures for other occasions, and abide by the topic set before us and explain as far as possible the gifts and graces that belong particularly to today's feast for each festival has its own grace and demands its own treatment. (Text: PG 46.577).

Now then ... a few days ago Christ was born ... Today, He is baptized by John ... that He might bring the Spirit down from above and raise man up to heaven.... Baptism, then, is a purification and remission of sin, and a cause of renovation and regeneration.... Water does not bestow this gift; it is bestowed by the command of God and the visitation of the Spirit that comes sacramentally through the water to set us free... Therefore, do not despise this divine washing ... on account of the use of water, for the Spirit that operates through the water is mighty, and wonderful deeds are wrought by the Spirit over material things.... This holy altar by which I stand is stone ... but by the benediction it is made a holy table ... no longer touched by the hands of all, but by the priest alone. This common bread, when the sacramental action consecrates it, becomes the Body of Christ. So with the oil; so with the wine ... before the benediction they are of little value, after the sanctification bestowed by the Spirit, each has its own operation.... The same power of the Word makes the priest venerable and honorable, separated by the new blessing bestowed upon him from community with the rest of men. Yesterday, he was one of the people; today he is suddenly rendered a guide, a president, a teacher of righteousness, an instructor in hidden mysteries... Water likewise renews the man to spiritual regeneration, when the grace from above hallows it ... then it cleanses and illuminates man ... how? how? how? How heaven? How earth? How sea? How every single thing?... Reason, when perplexed, falls back upon this syllable 'how,' like those who cannot walk fall back upon a seat.... Fire, air, earth and water ... we conceal ourselves in water, as Christ did in the earth; and by doing this three times we represent the grace of the resurrection, which was wrought in three days; and this we do while the names of the Three Sacred persons are spoken over us.... Everywhere the ancient Scriptures prefigured the sacrament of regeneration in dark sayings and actions.... Let us recall its types ... for this festival season of necessity demands their recollection: Hagar... wandering in desolation ... is shown by an angel a well of living water, and saves Ishmael: Rebekah, mother of Jacob, is found at the well: Rachel is found at the well... a great stone lay upon it... and none rolled away the stone save Israel, who is mind seeing God. He gave water to the sheep of Rachel; that is he reveals the hidden mystery, and gives living water to the flock of the church ... Moses... from the water; and the Red Sea proclaimed the good tidings of salvation by water...; and Elijah clearly proclaimed the sacramental rite of baptism ... for the fire was kindled by water thrice poured out upon it, so that it is clearly shown that wherever the mystic water is, there, too, is the warm, fiery Spirit burning up the ungodly and warming the faithful. Elisha, too, washes the sick man in the Jordan ... for Jordan alone of rivers receiving in itself the first fruits of sanctification and benediction, conveyed in its banks, as in its own very type, the grace of baptism to the whole world.

These are indications in deeds and acts of regeneration, but there are also prophecies in words and language: Isaiah — Wash away the evil from your souls (Isa. 1:16): David — Draw nigh and be enlightened (Ps. 33:6): Ezekiel — I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be cleansed... and a new spirit will I give you (Ezek. 36:25-27)... And the beauty of Carmel is bestowed upon the soul, which resembles the desert.... For Elijah dwelt in Carmel and the mountain became famous because of him, and since John the Baptist, illustrious in the spirit of Elijah, sanctified the Jordan, therefore, the prophet foretold that the beauty of Carmel would be given to the river; and the glory of Lebanon from the similitude of its lofty trees, he, too, transfers to the river: for as great Lebanon presents a sufficient cause of wonder in the very trees it brings forth and nourishes, so is the Jordan glorified by regenerating men and planting them in the Paradise of God-leaves that will not wither ... and like a good planter, God will rejoice in His own works-----Here we must stop. But you ... must show me the new life that must follow your regeneration ... we must see in you signs of the new-born man ... you must become sober, content... charitable, truthful, courteous, and affable.

I have finished ... spoken enough on this subject of the festival which the yearly circle brings around... Let us conclude with a few words of praise: truly, O Lord, are you the pure and eternal font of happiness .., you cursed us but blessed us; banished us ... but recalled us; stripped away our fig leaves but placed upon us a costly robe; sprinkled us with clean water and cleansed us...; no longer shall Adam in us be confounded by your call nor convicted by his conscience to hide in the thicket of Paradise; nor shall the entrance be inaccessible to those who draw near — Paradise and heaven itself can be walked by man ... now we sing the angel's song ... then let us sing ... let my soul be joyful in the Lord, for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation and has placed upon me a robe of gladness (Isa. 61:10).

Christ has been made manifest to the world. Let all of us believers celebrate the festival together in harmony. Christ is a name that is many names at once: for He is at the same time God and Lord (Jn. 20:28), and Word (Jn. 1:14), and only begotten Son (Jn. 1:18), and king of kings (Rev. 17:14), and power and wisdom (Dan. 2:20), and truly the vine (Jn. 15:1) and cornerstone (Eph. 2:20), and heavenly bread (Jn. 6:51), and fountain of life (Ps. 36:10), and true light (Jn. 1:9), and prince of peace (Isa. 9:5), and father of the age to come (Isa. 9:5).

Come, then, beloved brethren, let us celebrate the feast in a spiritual fashion...

The ineffable grace has been manifested to the world and all obscurity has been dissolved...

What are you doing, Lord? Why do you conceal your divinity through your humanity?...

The Jordan, seeing you, grew frightened and retreated, unable to endure the likeness of divine fire, and does John dare to render service to you? The sea, seeing your divinity, fled into retreat, and does John dare to lay his right hand on your head? Do not, Lord, do not you approach your servant, but rather, Lord, baptize me — a sinner and one who has need of cleansing...

Enlighten the eye of my mind. Regenerate my soul and make me wholly clean and baptized, I who have need of baptism.... Your flawless and exceedingly holy body does not need the washing by which you are baptized by me ... I have need to be baptized by you and do you come to me (Mt. 3:14), you, the undefiled, the stainless, the sinless, the blameless one, who enlightens every man who comes into the world (Jn. 1:9).

I know who you are, for I recognized your glory and divinity before ever I saw the light of day. While still confined in my mother's womb I recognized your greatness when my mother became my mouthpiece and she who gave me birth proclaimed you in song in the words of David ... and I leaped in my mother's womb and spoke the following words to your mother: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?(Lk. 1:42).

Whence is this to me that the master comes to the servant? Whence is this to me that the sun comes to the dust? Whence is this to me that the Creator runs to the object of His creation?...

When John had said such words Jesus replied to him, Let it be so now (Mt. 3:15)... Do not noise abroad the mystery enacted today in the Jordan...

If you do not wash my body in the running waters of the Jordan, the mystery of the Trinity will not be manifested. If I do not descend into the Jordan, the Spirit will not be enkindled. If you do not sanctify the water of the Jordan, the head of the dragon will not be crushed. If you do not immerse my body in the river Jordan, the water of the sea will not be sanctified. Let it be so now (Mt. 3:15).

But John said to him, What are you doing, Lord? The Jordan, seeing you, the sun of the sun, shrank back, and does John, mere clay,... dare to become a sharer in such a mystery? No, master, do not force me to perform what I am unable to do. My eye twitches. The joints of my limbs are in dissolution. My heart is in a flutter. My mind is beside itself. My hand is powerless. I am all fearful and trembling. How can you force me to do what I cannot do?

Jesus replied to him: Let it be so now (Mt. 3:15)....

For this reason I took on all flesh. For this reason I became one of my own creations. For all these reasons I was made manifest to the world. For these reasons I was seen in the likeness of a servant (Phi. 2:6). Take courage, then, and joyfully approach the undertaking.

On hearing those words, John, the Baptist and precursor, like a faithful servant, in fear and trembling performed the liturgy ... and baptized the Lord and Savior....

O! how wonderful! The Son was baptized. The Father testified from above. The Holy Spirit joined in bearing testimony. How truly great is the mystery of the Incarnation, great, and extraordinary, and surpassing all understanding! The Trinity was manifested at the river Jordan. The oneness of substance of the divinity was confirmed there, or rather the divinity in three persons was recognized there. In the presence of the Jews, John was struck with terror. The Jordan was sanctified, while Christ, God of all, was baptized by John in the Jordan, sanctifying all nature.

To Him be power and the glory for all ages. Amen. (Oxford, Bodleain, Barocci 147, ff. 254v-257v; Holkham gr. 22 (olim 69), ff. 361v-365v, Published by permission.).

A few days ago we celebrated the day on which the Lord was born of the Jews. Today we are celebrating the day on which He was adored by the Gentiles. For salvation is of the Jews (Jn. 4:22) but this salvation is even to the ends of the earth (cf. Acts 13:47). Thus, too, on the previous day the shepherds adored. Today, the Magi. Angels announced Him to the shepherds, a star to the Magi. (Text: PL 38.1026=ACW 15.154).

Today's feast is known throughout the whole world. What joy it brings to us, or what lesson the feast has for us on its annual return — the season suggests that we also make this the topic of the sermon which we give at this time each year. The Greek Epiphania, it is clear, can be translated in Latin by the word Manifestatio. It is on this day that the Magi are said to have adored the Lord (Mt. 2:11).

The Lord was also made manifest (Lk. 2:15), and that on the day of His birth, to the shepherds who were informed by an angel. And on that day news of Him was given by a star also to those men still far off in the East and this is the day on which they adored Him. Therefore, the universal Church of the Gentiles adopted this day as a day to be celebrated in a most devout manner; for even these Magi — what were they but the first fruits of the Gentiles?

... It was therefore proper for us, that is, the Church gathered from the Gentiles, to add the celebration of this day, the day on which Christ was made manifest to the first fruits of the Gentiles, to the celebration of that day on which Christ was born of the Jews and to preserve the memory of so great a mystery in a twin festival. (Text: ibid. 1038=ACW 15.180).

Accordingly when it reached my ears on reliable authority (and I already, beloved, felt a brother's affectionate anxiety about your actions) that in what is one of the chief sacraments of the Church, you depart from the practice of the apostles' constitution by administering the sacrament of baptism to greater numbers on the feast of Epiphany than at Easter time, I was surprised that you or your predecessors could have introduced so unreasonable an innovation as to confound the mysteries of the two festivals and believe that there was no difference between the day on which Christ was worshipped by the wise men and that on which He rose from the dead. (Text: PL 54.696=LNPF ser. 2,12.27).

But if anyone thinks that the feast of Epiphany, which in proper degree is certainly to be observed in due honor, claims the privilege because, according to some, the Lord came to John's baptism on the same day, let him know that the grace of that baptism and the reason of it were quite different and is not of equal footing with the power by which they are reborn of the Holy Spirit... For the Lord ... desired to be baptized just as He desired to be circumcised, and to have a victim offered for the purification ... that He might become under the law.... But the sacrament of baptism He founded in His own person ... and He ratified the power of rebirth ... when from His side there flowed out the blood of ransom and the water of baptism.... Therefore, in accordance with the apostolic rule of purging by exorcisms, sanctifying by fasting and instructing by frequent sermons two seasons only are to be observed for baptism, namely Easter and Whitsuntide. (Text: ibid. 701= LNPF ser. 2,12.29).

Do you think that the Evangelist taught that the Chaldaean watchers of the stars, the Magi journeying with the aid of the stars, studying the affairs of the heavens in the darkness of the nights, attributing the causes of birth and death to the movements of the stars, asserting that good or evil comes to men through the decision of these luminous bodies — do you think that the Evangelist taught that it was by the mere natural guidance of a star that they today discovered the birth of the Christ hidden from the ages?

Let no one have such a thought! That is what the world thinks, what the pagans understand, what the reading yields at first sight. But the Gospel text speaks matters not human, but divine; matters not ordinary, but new; matters not deceptive through cleverness, but based upon truth...

Thus when the Magus saw that human cares had come to naught, that his own arts had failed, that the labors of worldly wisdom had been exhausted, that the perspiration of all the sects had congealed and the treasures of all philosophy had been emptied out, that the night of paganism had fled and the clouds of opinions dissolved, that the very shadows of the devils had skulked into hiding, that the star was not, like a comet with its surrounding tail, hiding what it was announcing, covering up what was shining — when the Magus saw all this, he spoke: 'It is a divine decree that I see you in Judaea, resplendent with a new ray, a significant light, and a steady splendor, and there — above the law of the universe, above the arrangement of flesh, above the nature of men — there pointing out the King now born.'

With his error thus dispelled, he follows, he runs, he arrives, he finds, he rejoices, he falls prostrate, he adores. For, not through the star, not through his skill, but through the help of God has he found, in astonishment, God in human flesh. Therefore, brethren, the passage read today does not establish the error of magic, it dissolves it. Let these remarks suffice for today, that with God's help the matters which follow may become clear. (Text: PL 54.612=FOTC 17.265).

The day of those calends which are called the Calends of January, beloved brethren, derived its name from the dissolute and wicked man, Janus. This Janus formerly was the chief leader of the pagans. Ignorant and rustic men feared him as if he were a king, and they began to worship him as a god; while they were afraid of his kingly power, they conferred unlawful honor upon him. Men at that time, truly foolish and ignorant of God, esteemed as gods those whom they perceived to be more exalted among men. Thus it happened that worship of the one true God was carried over to the many names of deities or rather of demons. For this reason they named the day of today's calends after the name of Janus, as was already said, so that they assigned the end of one year and the beginning of another to the man upon whom they wished to confer divine honors. Now because to them the calends of January were said to complete one year and begin another, they placed this Janus, as it were, both at the beginning and at the end, for he was believed to end one year and begin another. From this stems the fact that ancient worshippers of idols themselves fashioned two faces for Janus, one facing the front and the other the rear: one to look at the past year, and the other to see the coming one. Moreover by thus ascribing two faces to him, foolish men have made him a monster, even while they want to make him a god; what is unnatural even in animals they have willed to be a marked characteristic of their god. And so, in the clearest manifestation of their error and in judgment upon it, while wishing, in their empty devotion to images, that he seem a god, they have openly revealed him a demon. (Text: CCL 104.779=FOTC 66.26).

My brethren, seeing that you have gathered together today as for a solemn feast and that you have come in greater numbers than usual, I admonish you in your devotedness to remember what you have just sung so that your voice may not resound while your heart is silent, but, rather, that what you have uttered for one another's ears may reach the ears of God. For this is what you sang: Save us, O Lord our God: and gather us from among the nations: that we may give thanks to Thy holy name (Ps. 106:47). Now, if this feast of the pagans which is celebrated today with such joy of the world and of the flesh, with the singing of meaningless and base songs, with banquets and shameful dances, if these things which the pagans do in the celebration of this false festival do not please you, then you shall be gathered from among the nations.... Many will wrestle in their hearts today with the word which they have heard for I said: 'Do not give gifts, but give to the poor.' It is not enough merely to give — you should give generously. Do you not wish to give more? Well, just give. But you object: 'When I give New Year's gifts, I myself give to myself.' What then? Do you receive nothing when you give to the poor? You surely would not believe what the pagans believe; you surely would not hope for what the pagans hope for. But if you say that you get nothing when you have given to the poor, you have become one of the pagans and without justification you have sung: Save us, O Lord our God: and gather us from among the nations (Ps. 106:47). Do not be unmindful of that passage which says: He that giveth to the poor shall not want (Prov. 28:27). Have you already forgotten what the Lord is going to say to those who have given alms to the poor: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the Kingdom (Mt. 25:34), and what will He say to those who have not given alms: Cast them into everlasting fire (Mt. 25:41)? Here at this moment, those who gladly heard what the Lord said are standing with those who were not so glad to hear it.

Now, I speak to the true Christians. If you believe, hope, and love otherwise (than the pagans do), then live otherwise and gain approval for your distinctive faith, hope, and charity by distinctive actions.... You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk, then, as children of light (Eph. 5:8-9), so that we, too, who preach the word of the Lord to you, may wish you and because of you rejoice in perpetual light. (Text: PL 38.1024=FOTC 38.55).

Our Savior, dearest brethren, was born of the Father as true God before all ages, and at the end of ages the same Son of God was Himself born as true man. For the redemption of the human race He wished to experience the condition of human weakness, He wanted to fulfill all of the precepts of the Law, and on the eighth day, which we commemorate today, He willed to be circumcised in His body. This was not to cleanse His flesh, but to free us from all wickedness and to extend everything that was accomplished by Him to our profit. But someone will say: Why was Christ circumcised, or even presented in the temple according to the Law? We will reply to him that He came, not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Mt. 5:17), in order not to be different from the fathers of whose race He was begotten. Thus the Jews may not excuse themselves and say: You are unlike our fathers, and therefore we are unwilling to believe in you.

What is the circumcision of Christ, dearest brethern, except our chastity, whereby God is delighted in us? For it behooves us to be circumcised, not in body, but in spirit; that is, every vice should be cut out of us so that we may be holy and blameless in his sight (Eph. 1:4), subduing desires of the flesh, growing in the knowledge of God and multiplying good works of every sort (Col 1:10; Text: CCL 104.778=FOTC 66.25).

On the fortieth day after Easter — this is a Thursday — everyone goes to Bethlehem after the sixth hour of the day before, that is Wednesday, to celebrate the vigil... On the following day, Thursday, the feast of the fortieth day, the divine service is celebrated in the prescribed manner — the priests and the bishop delivering sermons appropriate to the day and the place. (Text: SC 296.297=ACW 38.117).

Recently we have celebrated the feasts of the crucifixion, passion, and resurrection, and after this the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. Today we have come to the end of these blessings, to this metropolis of feasts, we have attained to the fruit of the Lord's promise. For if I go away, He said, I will send you another Paraclete (Jn. 14:16), and I will not leave you orphans (Jn. 14:18; Text: PG 50.463).

Four days of superior festivity have been instituted annually in order for our salvation: first, the Nativity, second, the Epiphany, that is, twelve days later; next, the Pasch, on which He suffered, and finally the Ascension Day around Pentecost, which consummated His victory. (Text: CCL 9.304; cf. Cabie, 188-189, Talley 68).

Today's celebration, sufficiently important in itself, is magnified by the joy brought to it by the apposite choice of David's psalms. In one of them he orders you to become a sheep being shepherded by God and lacking in no blessings. To you the good shepherd becomes the grass of pasturage, and the water of repose, nourishment, and shelter, and a beaten track, and a guide, and everything else, usefully allocating his favor for every eventuality. Through all of these things He educates His Church, for it is necessary for you first of all to become a sheep of the good shepherd, learning the way to the pasturage and fountains of divine teachings through good instruction so that you be buried with Him in death in baptism, and not be afraid of such a death.... Having gratified us with such thoughts in one of his psalms, David rouses our soul to greater and more perfect joy in the succeeding psalm. Let me explain, if you please, the thought of it to you, synopsizing it briefly. To the Lord belong the earth and its fullness (Ps. 24:1). What is strange, O man, if the Lord has appeared on earth, if He has lived with men? The earth is His foundation, He has made it. Therefore, there is nothing strange, nothing unbecoming, in the Lord coming unto His own. For He is not in somebody else's world, but in the one which He established, He who founded the earth upon the seas (Ps. 24:2) and provided it with a well-arranged passage of rivers.

What, then, is the reason for His presence among men? In order that He may banish you from the pits of sin and lead you to the mountain, using the chariot of the kingdom, that is, the virtuous way of life, for the ascent. For it is impossible to ascend to that mountain, unless the virtues are your fellow travelers, unless your hands are clean and you are unsullied by any wicked deed, pure in heart, directing your soul to no folly, and mounting no wicked stratagems against your neighbor. Benediction is the reward for this ascent (cf. Ps. 24:5). To this the Lord gives His stored up mercy. This is the generation of those who seek him (Ps. 24:6), of those who ascend on high through virtue, of those seeking the face of the God of Jacob (Ps. 24:6). The rest of this psalm is perhaps more sublime than the teaching of the Gospel itself. For the Gospel tells of the Lord's stay on earth and His ascent to heaven. But this lofty prophet, surpassing himself, as if he were not burdened with the appendage of the body, mingles with the heavenly powers and narrates their words for us, when, in escorting the Lord on His return to heaven, they order the entrances of the earthly angels to be raised, those angels entrusted with the life of mortals, saying: Raise your gates, principalities, and lift up, you eternal gates, for the king of glory will enter (Ps. 24:7)....

You see how David has made our celebration more congenial, in mingling his gracious words with the heartfelt joy of the Church. Accordingly, let us, insofar as we can, imitate the prophet in charity towards God, in gentleness of life, in magnanimity toward those who hate us, so that the teaching of the prophet may escort us in our way of life to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory , for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: PG 46.689).

Today's solemnity has no small festive grace. For on this day, the fortieth after the resurrection, as you heard, dearly beloved, in the present reading, our Lord and Savior, in the presence of His disciples and in their full view ascended bodily into heaven.... Our flesh which was unwilling to reign in paradise reigns in heaven. It was the admiration and exaltation of the angels and the joy of the whole world, but the confusion and veritable damnation of the devil. Even David in the psalm shows this admiration of the angels at the Lord's ascension into heaven when he exclaims in such terms of wonder, saying, Gates, raise your heads, rise, you ancient doors, let the king of glory in (Ps. 24:7; Text: CCL 9A.33).

The Resurrection of the Lord is our hope; the Ascension of the Lord is our exaltation. Now today, we are celebrating the feast of the Ascension. If, therefore, we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord with due ceremony, with faith, devotion, holiness, and reverence, let us ascend with Him and let us have our hearts lifted up to Him. Moreover, though we ascend, let us not be lifted up. (Text: ibid. 1202=FOTC 38.379).

Today, therefore, we celebrate the day of His Ascension. In addition, this day marks a local solemnity for this particular Church. On this day the burial of holy Leontius, the founder of this basilica, took place. However, let the star deign to be obscured by the Sun, and therefore, as I had begun, let me choose to speak about the Lord. This good servant rejoices when the master is praised.

On this day, therefore, that is, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, the Lord ascended into heaven. We did not witness His Ascension, but let us believe. Those who did witness it proclaimed it and filled the entire world (with their preaching). You know that, concerning those who witnessed it and who told us about it, the Scripture had predicted: There are no speeches nor languages, where their voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world (Ps. 19:4-5). Hence, their voices have reached us and have aroused us from sleep. Behold, this day is being celebrated throughout the whole world. (Text: ibid. 1208=FOTC 38.388).

The glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ was completed by His Resurrection and Ascension. We celebrated His Resurrection on Easter Sunday; today we are celebrating His Ascension. Both feasts belong to us, for He rose again to give us a token of our resurrection; He ascended in order to protect us from heaven above. Hence, we have our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, now enthroned in heaven. He paid our price when He hung upon the cross; He gathers what He purchased when He sits enthroned in heaven. As a matter of fact, when He has collected all whom He will gather together throughout all time, He will come at the end of the world just as it is written: God shall come manifestly (Mt. 25:31), not as He came first, in obscurity, but, as the Scripture says, manifestly. For it was fitting that He should come in obscurity so that He might be judged; but He shall come manifestly when He is to pass judgment. (Text: ibid. 1209=FOTC 38.391).

Even now, in truth, how great is His glory because He ascended into heaven, because He sits at the right hand of the Father! But we do not see this with our mortal eyes because we did not see Him hanging on the cross. We cherish all this by faith; we see it with the eyes of our hearts. For on this day, my brethren, as you have heard, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; may our hearts, too, ascend with Him. Let us hearken to the Apostle when he says: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are on the earth (Col.3:l-2). For, just as He ascended into heaven without departing from us, so we, too, are already there with Him although that which He promised us has not yet been accomplished in our body. He has already been exalted above the heavens. Nor must we despair of reaching that perfect and angelic heavenly dwelling because of the fact that He said: No one has ascended into heaven except Him who has descended from heaven: the Son of Man who is in heaven (Jn. 3:13). But this was said on account of the unity by which He is our Head and we are His Body. Although He ascended into heaven, we are not separated from Him. He who descended from heaven does not begrudge it to us; on the contrary, He proclaims it in a certain manner: Be My members if you wish to ascend into heaven (Jn. 15:7). By this word let us be strengthened in the meantime. (Text: ibid. 1210=FOTC 38.393).

In the use of the number forty to designate this period of time, a reference seems to be made to those who are called to grace through Him who came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. For, there are ten precepts of the Law. Now, the grace of Christ has been diffused throughout the world and the world is divided into four parts. Furthermore, when ten is multiplied by four, since those that have been redeemed by the Lord He hath gathered out of the countries, from the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north and from the south (Ps. 107:2-4), the result is forty. Hence, He fasted for forty days before the death of His body as if to say: 'Abstain from the desires of the world,' but He ate and drank during the forty days after the resurrection of His body as if to say: Behold, I am with you ... even to the consummation of the world (Mt 28:20; Text: ibid. 1211=FOTC 38.395).

He associated with them on earth for forty days, coming in and going out, eating and drinking, not because He needed to do so, but in order to manifest the truth. Therefore, on the fortieth day which we celebrate today, while they looked on and followed Him with their eyes, He ascended into heaven.

Then, therefore, they afterwards marveled at the fact that they saw Him ascending and they rejoiced that He went up to heaven, for the precedence of the Head is the hope of the members. Moreover, they heard the angelic message: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus .. . shall come in the same way as you have seen Him going up to heaven (Acts 1:11) what is the significance of He shall come in the same way? He shall come in that same form, so that the Scriptures may be fulfilled: They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced (Zach. 12:10). He shall come in the same way. He shall come to men; He shall come as a Man; but He shall come as the God-Man. He shall come as true God and true Man to make men like unto God. He has ascended as Judge of heaven; He has expressed Himself as Herald of heaven. Let us have a good cause so that we may not fear the judgment that is to come. As a matter of fact, He did ascend; those who announced it to us witnessed it. The people who did not see it believed; some incredulous persons mocked, for not all men have the faith (2 Thess. 3:2). Furthermore, because not all men have the faith and because the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim. 2:19), why do we take exception to the fact that God ascended into heaven? Rather, let us wonder that God descended into hell. Let us wonder at the death of Christ; but let us praise rather than wonder at His resurrection. Ours is the loss; ours is the sin; but the blood of Christ is our redemption. (Text: ibid. 1219=FOTC 38.409).

Therefore, look upon this whole period of time which is presented to us as forty days, my brethren. As long as we are here on earth, during this entire period, our ark is in the flood. As long as Christians are baptized and cleansed through water, the ark seems to float upon the waves just as Noah's ark rested upon the water for forty days. But the Lord, remaining with His disciples for forty days, deigned to indicate that throughout this period faith in the Incarnation of Christ is necessary for all, since it is necessary for the weak. (Text: ibid. 1216=FOTC 38.404).

Today, dearly beloved, marks the close of the forty days which followed the blessed and glorious resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in which by His divine power He restored in three days the true temple of God which had been destroyed by the impiety of the Jews. The number of holy days, ordained by a divine economy, and employed for the benefit of our instruction, is now complete. Its purpose was that the Lord by extending His bodily presence would strengthen with necessary proofs faith in His resurrection.

Therefore, beloved, these days which have elapsed between the resurrection and ascension of the Lord have not gone by aimlessly and leisurely; great mysteries have been confirmed during this period, great truths revealed. During this time the fear of harsh death has been taken away, and the immortality not just of the soul but of the body has been declared. During these days the Holy Spirit has been poured on all the apostles by the Lord breathing on them (cf. Jn. 20:22), and on the blessed apostle, Peter, above the others, to whose care the Lord's flock is entrusted after he is given the keys of the kingdom. It was during these days that the Lord was joined as a third to the two disciples on the way (cf. Lk. 24:13) and, to remove from our eyes all the mists of doubt, He rebuked them for their slowness to believe as they feared and trembled. Their hearts were illuminated and took flame with faith, and those hearts which had been lukewarm became burning when He opened for them the Scriptures. In the breaking of bread also as they sat at table with Him their eyes were opened. The opening of the eyes of those to whom the glory of their nature has been manifested is a cause for greater joy than the opening of the eyes of the princes of this world on whom their crime brings confusion. (SC 74.135).

This faith, increased by the Lord's ascension and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, was not intimidated by chains, or prisons, or exile, or hunger, or fire, or wild beasts, or tortures devised by the cruelty of persecutors. On behalf of this faith not just men but women, not just young men but tender virgins, have contended throughout the world even to the shedding of their blood. This faith has cast out demons, banished diseases, raised the dead. Whence also the blessed apostles themselves, though strengthened by so many miracles and educated by so many discourses, has been terrified by the atrocity of the Lord's passion, and had only accepted the truth of the resurrection with misgivings. But they were so fortified by the Lord's ascension that whatever previously caused them fear was turned into joy. They had concentrated the entire contemplation of their souls on the divinity of the one sitting on the right hand of the Father and the sight of His body no longer hindered them from concentrating their mental agility on that which had not been taken away by descending from the Father, and had not departed by ascending from the disciples. (Text: ibid. 139).

Now days which are healing for the soul, that is, the Rogation Days, are approaching. On these days the wounds of sins which human frailty is wont to incur the rest of the time, with God's help, should be restored to their former health by means of prayers, vigils, fasting, and almsgiving. That is why I beseech and admonish you, brethren, and at the same time I warn you. On these three days, from the fourth to the sixth day of the week, no one should withdraw himself from the assembly in Church, unless perhaps some bodily infirmity does not permit him to come to Church. It ought to be enough for us, brethren, that throughout the space of the entire year we are busy with some bodily advantage or need; at least on these three days let us reflect more carefully on the salvation of our soul. Let each one arrange for a small meal to be prepared for himself as in Lent, and in order that the very fast may be helpful for his soul, he should give what he intended to eat to strangers or to the poor. The man who willingly listens to me and willingly fulfills what I am humbly suggesting will quickly rejoice over the good condition of his soul. But the man who acts otherwise will be doubly guilty, because he has both despised his father who was humbly admonishing him and has not sought a remedy for his soul. We trust in God's mercy, however, that He will deign to inspire your hearts in such a way that you will be able to receive a reward because of your humble obedience. Therefore, dearly beloved, let us live in such a way that the days of healing may benefit us as a healing remedy, not as wounds. May He Himself help and assist us, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: CCL 104.836=FOTC 66.92).

The fortieth day after Epiphany is indeed celebrated here with the greatest solemnity. On that day there is a procession into the Anastasis, and all assemble there for the liturgy; and everything is performed in the prescribed manner with the greatest solemnity, just as on Easter Sunday. All the priests give sermons, and the bishop, too; and all preach on the Gospel text describing how on the fortieth day Joseph and Mary took the Lord to the temple, and how Simeon and Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, saw Him, and what words they spoke on seeing the Lord, and of the offering which His parents brought. Afterwards, when all ceremonies have been performed in the prescribed manner, the Eucharist is then celebrated and the dismissal is given. (Egeria).

Let us all run to meet Him, we who honor and venerate the mystery of the Lord with pious devotion. Let us all go to meet Him with eager minds. Let there be no one who does not share in this meeting, let no one refuse to carry a light.

We add to this the bright shining of candles. In this way we show forth the divine splendor of the coming of Him who makes all things bright, in the abundance of whose eternal light all things are bathed in light when the evil shadows have been driven away. In this way we show the brightness of soul with which we must go to meet Christ.

The most chaste Virgin Mother of God bore in her arms the true light and came to the help of those who were lying in darkness. In the same way we must hurry out to meet Him who is truly light, enlightened by the beams of His brightness and bearing in our hands the light which shines for all men.

Indeed this is the mystery which we celebrate, that the light has come into the world and has given it light when it was shrouded in darkness, and that the day-spring has visited us from on high and given light to those who were sitting in darkness. That is why we go in procession with lamps in our hands and hasten, bearing lights showing both that the light has shone upon us, and signifying the glory which is to come to us through Him. Therefore let us all run together to meet God.

That true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn. 1:9), has come. Brethren, let us all be enlightened, let us all be filled with light.

Let none of us remain a stranger to this brightness, let no one who is filled with it continue in the darkness, but let us all go forth shining with light, let us all go together bright with that light to welcome with old Simeon that everlasting shining light. Rejoicing with Him in our souls, let us sing a hymn of thanks to the Begetter and Father of the light, who has sent the true light and driven away the darkness and made us all to shine with light.

For we too have seen through Him the salvation of God which He has prepared before the face of all peoples, and has shown forth for the glory of us who are the new Israel; and we have been freed at once from that mysterious and ancient sin just as Simeon was released from the bonds of this present life when he had seen Christ.

We have embraced Christ in faith as He came to us from Bethlehem, and have been made the people of God instead of Gentiles, for He is the salvation given us by our God and Father. We have seen God made flesh with our very eyes and we are called the New Israel now that we have seen the visible presence of God and have cradled Him in our minds. That presence we celebrate with a yearly festival: we shall never forget it. (Text: PG 87.3291).

This indeed is called the feast of the Purification nor would anyone be mistaken who called this feast offcasts, or Sabbath of Sabbaths, the holiday of holidays.

Indeed the whole mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is recalled and proclaimed: on this day the child is lifted as Christ and confessed as God; the author of our nature is held high by human hands, presiding, as it were, on a throne. (Text: PG 93.1467).

If, moreover, a woman should give birth to a daughter she shall be unclean for twice seven days. Why the doubled number?

Because an Eve is again born from Eve. A fragile vessel, a weak receptacle, a container pierced through, a leader of disobedience, a collaborator of the serpent. But as you have heard the complaint brought against the woman come now and learn what was done right by her. A woman brought virginity to life. She contained in her womb God whom creation cannot contain. She bore in the flesh Him who fashioned our race. A woman was the first to welcome Jesus from the dead (cf. Mk. 16:9), first to begin the proclamation of the resurrection (cf. Mk. 16:10), first to announce the joy to the disciples. Any woman, Scripture says, who received seed (Lev. 12:2). The Mother of God was indeed a woman. But she did not experience the things of women. Her womb did not know the plow. The virginal vine did not submit to the pruning fork so that the offering was made not for herself but for the whole (human) race. For the sake of us Christ is circumcised. For the sake of us He is also baptized. For us He fulfills the purifications of the law. If He weeps, He washes our nature. If He is scourged, He frees our captivity. If He carries the cross, He relieves us from the yoke of sin. If He is spat upon, He frees Adam from the spit of the curse. (Text: ibid. 1470).

While fasting and sitting on a certain mountain, and giving thanks to the Lord for all His dealings with me, I see the Shepherd sitting down beside me, and saying, 'Why have you come hither (so) early in the morning?' 'Because, sir,' I answered, 'I have a station. "What is a station?' He asked. 'I am fasting, sir,' I replied. 'What is this fasting,' He continued, 'which you are observing?' 'As I have been accustomed, sir,' I reply, 'so I fast. "You do not know,' He says, 'how to fast unto the Lord: this useless fasting which you observe to Him is of no value. "Why sir,' I answered, 'do you say this?" I say to you,' He continued, 'that the fasting which you think you observe is not a fasting. But I will teach you what is a full and acceptable fasting to the Lord. 'Listen,' He continued: 'God does not desire such an empty fasting. For fasting to God in this way you will do nothing for a righteous life; but offer to God a fasting of the following kind: do no evil in your life, and serve the Lord with a pure heart: keep His commandments, walking in His precepts, and let no evil desire arise in your heart; and believe in God. If you do these things, and fear Him, and abstain from every evil thing, you will live unto God; and if you do these things, you will keep a great fast, and one acceptable before God.' (Text: SC 53.225=ANF 2.33).

Some at all events ... think that those days were definitely appointed for fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away (Lk. 5:35); and that these are now the only legitimate days for Christian fasts, the legal and prophetical observances of old having been abolished: for wherever it suits their wishes, they recognize what is the meaning of the Law and the prophets until John (Mt. 11:13). Accordingly for them ... fasting was to be indifferently observed in the New Discipline; it was to be of choice and not of command, according to the times and needs of each individual: such in their opinion was the observance of the apostles who imposed no obligation of definite fasts ... nor were the Stations imposed on the fourth and sixth days binding on all in the same way ... but depended upon the judgment of each, especially as regards the protraction of the fast beyond the last hour of the day. (Text: PL 2.956=ANF 4.103).

But if there is a new creation in Christ, our solemnities, too, will be bound to be new: else, if the apostle has erased all devotion absolutely of seasons, and days, and months, and years (Gal. 4:10), why do we celebrate the Passover by an annual rotation in the first month? Why in the fifty ensuing days do we spend our time in all exultation? Why do we devote to Stations the fourth and sixth days of the week, and to fasts the preparation day? Anyhow, you sometimes continue your Station even over the Sabbath — a day never to be kept as a fast except at the Passover season, according to a reason elsewhere given. With us, at all events, every day likewise is celebrated by an ordinary consecration. And it will not, then, be, in the eyes of the apostle, the differentiating principle — distinguishing (as he is doing) things new and old — which will be ridiculous; but (in this case, too) it will be your own unfairness, while you taunt us with the form of antiquity all the while you are laying against us the charge of novelty. (On Fasting; Text: ibid. 977=ANF 4.112).

Churches of God, which maintain a more ancient custom, should not be cut off ... for this controversy not only concerns the day of the Pasch, but also concerns the very fast of the Pasch and the manner of the celebration. Some think they should fast for one day, others for two days, while others still think they should fast for more. Furthermore there are even those who reckon their day as consisting of forty hours — day and night. This variety in the observance of the fast for the Paschal feast did not originate in our time, but long before us in the days of our ancestors: indeed it is very likely that they did not hold to strict accuracy but rather went their own simple ways ... a good custom for their posterity for they lived in peace and harmony ... and their disagreement about the fast only confirms their agreement about the faith. (Text: SC 41.70).

And so in the night when the fourth day of the week drew on, (Judas) betrayed our Lord to them. But they made the payment to Judas on the tenth of the month, on the second day of the week; wherefore they were accounted by God as though on the second day of the week they had seized Him.... Therefore you shall fast in the days of the Pasch from the tenth, which is the second day of the week; and you shall sustain yourselves with bread and salt and water only, at the ninth hour, until the fifth day of the week. But on the Friday and on the Sabbath fast wholly, and taste nothing...

Especially incumbent on you therefore is the fast of the Friday and of the Sabbath...

Fast on the Friday, because thereon the People killed themselves in crucifying our Savior; and on the Sabbath also, because it is the sleep of our Lord; for it is a day which ought especially to be kept with fasting ... for Moses bound them beforehand with mourning perpetually, in that he set apart and appointed the Sabbath for them. For they deserved to mourn, because they denied their Life, and laid hands upon their Savior and delivered Him to death. Wherefore, already from that time there was laid upon them a mourning for their destruction.

But let us observe and see, brethren, that most men in their mourning imitate the Sabbath; and they likewise who keep Sabbath imitate mourning. For he that mourns kindles no light: neither do the People on the Sabbath, because of the commandment of Moses; for so it was commanded them by him. He that mourns takes no bath: nor yet the People on the Sabbath. He that mourns does not prepare a table; neither do the People on the Sabbath, but prepare and lay for themselves the evening before because they have a presentiment of mourning, seeing that they were to lay hands on Jesus. He that mourns does no work, and does not speak, but sits in sorrow: so, too, the People of the Sabbath; for it was said to the People concerning the mourning on the Sabbath thus: Thou shah not lift thy foot to do any work (Ex. 20:10), and thou shah speak no word out of thy mouth (Deut. 5:14; Cf. Connolly, Didascalia Apostolorum, 189).

Throughout the six days of the Pasch, all the peoples persevere in strict abstinence — I mean they then partake of bread and salt and water towards evening. But the zealous fast completely for two, three or four days together, and some the whole week until cockcrow at dawn on Easter Day. They observe vigils on the six days, and again they hold services the same six days and throughout the whole of Lent, from three in the afternoon until evening. But in some cases they have vigils on Thursday evening until dawn on Friday, and on Saturday evening until dawn on Easter Day. And in some places the Eucharist is celebrated on Thursday at 3 p.m., and so the people are dismissed and continue in the same strict abstinence. But in other places the Eucharist is not celebrated except at dawn on Easter Day. (Text: PG 42.364).

The following day, Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week, which they call here the Great Week. On this Sunday morning, at the completion of those rites which are customarily celebrated at the Anastasis or the Cross from the first cockcrow until dawn, everyone assembles for the liturgy according to custom in the major Church, called the Martyrium. It is called the Martyrium because it is on Golgotha, behind the Cross, where the Lord suffered His Passion, and is therefore a shrine of martyrdom. As soon as everything has been celebrated in the major church as usual, but before the dismissal is given, the archdeacon raises his voice and first says: 'Throughout this whole week, beginning tomorrow at the ninth hour, let us all gather in the Martyrium, in the major Church.' Then he raises his voice a second time, saying: Today let us all be ready to assemble at the seventh hour at the Eleona.' When the dismissal has been given in the Martyrium or major Church, the bishop is led to the accompaniment of hymns to the Anastasis, and there all ceremonies are accomplished which customarily take place every Sunday at the Anastasis following the dismissal from the Martyrium. Then everyone retires to his home to eat hastily, so that at the beginning of the seventh hour everyone will be ready to assemble in the church on the Eleona, by which I mean the Mount of Olives, where the grotto in which the Lord taught is located.

At the seventh hour all the people go up to the church on the Mount of Olives, that is, to the Eleona. The bishop sits down, hymns and antiphons appropriate to the day and place are sung, and there are likewise readings from the Scriptures. As the ninth hour approaches, they move up, chanting hymns, to the Imbomon, that is, to the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven; and everyone sits down there. When the bishop is present, the people are always commanded to be seated, so that only the deacons remain standing. And there hymns and antiphons proper to the day and place are sung, interspersed with appropriate readings from the Scriptures and prayers.

As the eleventh hour draws near, that particular passage from Scripture is read in which the children bearing palms and branches came forth to meet the Lord, saying: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Mt. 21:9; Ps. 118:26). The bishop and all the people rise immediately, and then everyone walks down from the top of the Mount of Olives, with the people preceding the bishop and responding continually with Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Mi. 21:9; Ps. 118:26) to the hymns and antiphons. All the children who are present here, including those who are not yet able to walk because they are too young and therefore are carried on their parents' shoulders, all of them bear branches, some carrying palms; others, olive branches. And the bishop is led in the same manner as the Lord once was led. From the top of the mountain as far as the city, and from there through the entire city as far as the Anastasis, everyone accompanies the bishop the whole way on foot, and this includes distinguished ladies and men of consequence, reciting the responses all the while; and they move very slowly so that the people will not tire. By the time they arrive at the Anastasis, it is already evening. Once they have arrived there, even though it is evening, vespers is celebrated; then a prayer is said at the Cross and the people are dismissed. (Text: SC 296.271=ACW 38.103).

On Thursday whatever is customarily done from the first cockcrow until morning and what is done at the third and sixth hours takes place at the Anastasis. At the eighth hour all the people gather as usual at the Martyrium, earlier, however, than on other days, because the dismissal must be given more quickly. When all the people have assembled, the prescribed rites are celebrated. On that day the sacrifice is offered at the Martyrium, and the dismissal from there is given around the tenth hour. Before the dismissal is given, however, the archdeacon raises his voice, saying: 'At the first hour of the night let us assemble at the church which is on the Eleona, for much toil lies ahead of us on this day's night.' Following the dismissal from the Martyrium, everyone proceeds behind the Cross, where, after a hymn is sung and a prayer is said, the bishop offers the sacrifice and everyone receives Communion. Except on this one day, throughout the year the sacrifice is never offered behind the Cross save on this day alone. The dismissal is given there, and everyone goes to the Anastasis, where a prayer is said, the catechumens as well as the faithful are blessed, as is customary, and the dismissal is given.

Everyone then hurries home to eat, because, immediately after having eaten, everyone goes to the Eleona, to the church where the grotto in which the Lord gathered with His disciples on that day is located. And there, until around the fifth hour of the night, they continually sing hymns and antiphons and read the scriptural passages proper to the place and to the day. Between these, prayers are said. Moreover, they read those passages from the Gospels in which the Lord spoke to His disciples on that day while sitting in the same grotto which lies within this Church. And from here, around the sixth hour of the night, everyone goes up to the Imbomon, singing hymns. That is the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven. There also they sing hymns and antiphons and read scriptural passages proper to the day; and whatever prayers are said, whatever prayers the bishop recites, they will always be proper to the day and to the place.

As soon as it begins to be the hour of cockcrow, everyone comes down from the Imbomon singing hymns and proceeds toward the very place where the Lord prayed, as it is written in the Gospel: And He went as far as a stone's throw and He prayed (Lk. 22:41), and so forth. On that spot stands a tasteful church. The bishop and all the people enter there, where a prayer fitting to the day and the place is said, followed by an appropriate hymn, and a reading of that passage from the Gospel where He said to His disciples: Watch, that you enter not into temptation (Mk. 14:38). The whole of this passage is read there, and a second prayer is then said. Next, everyone, including the smallest children, walk down from there to Gethsemani, accompanying the bishop with hymns. Singing hymns, they come to Gethsemani very slowly on account of the great multitude of people, who are fatigued by vigils and exhausted by the daily fasts, and because of the rather high mountain they have to descend. Over two hundred Church candles are ready to provide light for all the people.

On arriving in Gethsemani a suitable prayer is first said, followed by a hymn, and then the passage from the Gospel describing the arrest of the Lord is read. During the reading of this passage there is such moaning and groaning with weeping from all the people that their moaning can be heard practically as far as the city. And from that hour everyone goes back on foot to the city singing hymns, and they arrive at the gate at the hour when men can begin to recognize one another. From there, throughout the center of the city, all without exception are ready at hand, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, everyone; and on this day especially no one withdraws from the vigil before early morning. It is in this fashion that the bishop is led from Gethsemani to the gate, and from there through the whole city to the Cross.

When they finally arrive before the Cross, it is already beginning to be broad daylight. There then is read the passage from the Gospel where the Lord is led before Pilate, and whatsoever words are written that Pilate spoke to the Lord or to the Jews, all this is read. Afterwards, the bishop addresses the people, comforting them, since they have labored the whole night and since they are to labor again on this day, admonishing them not to grow weary, but to have hope in God who will bestow great graces on them for their efforts. And comforting them as he can, he addresses them saying: 'Go, for the time being, each of you, to your homes; sit there awhile, and around the second hour of the day let everyone be on hand here so that from that hour until the sixth hour you may see the holy wood of the cross, and thus believe that it was offered for the salvation of each and every one of us. From the sixth hour on we will have to assemble here, before the Cross, so that we may devote ourselves to prayers and scriptural readings until nightfall.'...

After this, following the dismissal from the Cross, which occurs before sunrise, everyone now stirred up goes immediately to Sion to pray at the pillar where the Lord was whipped. Returning from there then, everyone rests for a short time in his own house, and soon all are ready. A throne is set up for the bishop on Golgotha behind the Cross, which now stands there. The bishop sits on his throne, a table covered with a linen cloth is set before him, and the deacons stand around the table. The gilded silver casket containing the sacred wood of the cross is brought in and opened. Both the wood of the cross and the inscription are taken out and placed on the table. As soon as they have been placed on the table, the bishop, remaining seated, grips the ends of the sacred wood with his hands, while the deacons, who are standing about, keep watch over it. There is a reason why it is guarded in this manner. It is the practice here for all the people to come forth one by one, the faithful as well as the catechumens, to bow down before the table, kiss the holy wood, and then move on. It is said that someone (I do not know when) took a bite and stole a piece of the holy cross. Therefore, it is now guarded by the deacons standing around, lest there be anyone who would dare come and do that again....

All the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on. No one, however, puts out his hand to touch the cross. As soon as they have kissed the cross and passed on through, a deacon, who is standing, holds out the ring of Solomon and the phial with which the kings were anointed. They kiss the phial and venerate the ring from more or less the second hour; and thus until the sixth hour all the people pass through, entering through one door, exiting through another. All this occurs in the place where the day before, on Thursday, the sacrifice was offered....

When the sixth hour is at hand, everyone goes before the Cross, regardless of whether it is raining or whether it is hot. This place has no roof, for it is a sort of very large and beautiful courtyard lying between the Cross and the Anastasis. The people are so clustered together there that it is impossible for anything to be opened. A chair is placed for the bishop before the Cross, and from the sixth to the ninth hours nothing else is done except the reading of passages from Scripture...

First, whichever psalms speak of the Passion are read. Next, there are readings from the apostles, either from the epistles of the apostles or the Acts, wherever they speak of the Passion of the Lord. Next, the texts of the Passion from the Gospels are read. Then there are readings from the prophets, where they said that the Lord would suffer; and then they read from the Gospels, where He foretells the Passion. And so, from the sixth to the ninth hour, passages from Scripture are continuously read and hymns are sung, to show the people that whatever the prophets had said would come to pass concerning the Passion of the Lord can be shown, both through the Gospel and the writings of the apostles, to have taken place. And so, during those three hours, all the people are taught that nothing happened which was not first prophesied, and that nothing was prophesied which was not completely fulfilled. Prayers are continually interspersed, and the prayers themselves are proper to the day. At each reading and at every prayer, it is astonishing how much emotion and groaning there is from all the people. There is no one, young or old, who on this day does not sob more than can be imagined for the whole three hours, because the Lord suffered all this for us. After this, when the ninth hour is at hand, the passage is read from the Gospel according to Saint John where Christ gave up His spirit. After this reading, a prayer is said and the dismissal is given...

As soon as the dismissal has been given from before the Cross, everyone gathers together in the major church, the Martyrium, and there everything which they have been doing regularly throughout this week from the ninth hour when they came together at the Martyrium, until evening, is then done. After the dismissal from the Martyrium, everyone comes to the Anastasis, and, after they have arrived there, the passage from the Gospel is read where Joseph seeks from Pilate the body of the Lord and places it in a new tomb. After this reading a prayer is said, the catechumens are blessed, and the faithful as well; then the dismissal is given-----

On this day no one raises his voice to say the vigil will be continued at the Anastasis, because it is known that the people are tired. However, it is the custom that the vigil be held there. And so, those among the people who wish, or rather those who are able, to keep the vigil, do so until dawn; whereas those who are not able to do so, do not keep watch there. But those of the clergy who are either strong enough or young enough, keep watch there, and hymns and antiphons are sung there all through the night until morning. The greater part of the people keep watch, some from evening on, others from midnight, each one doing what he can....

On the following day, which is Saturday, there is as usual a service at the third hour and again at the sixth hour. There is not service, however, at the ninth hour on Saturday, for preparation is being made for the Easter vigil in the major church, the Martyrium. (Text: ibid. 278=ACW 38).

When the Lord invites the blest to their inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, He does not include among their good deeds a pilgrimage to Jerusalem:... indeed the inns, hostelries and cities of the East are so given to license and vice that it is not possible to pass through such smoke without at least smarting the eyes.... What advantage, moreover, is had by him who reaches those celebrated spots themselves? He cannot imagine that our Lord is living, in the body, there at the present time ... or that the Holy Spirit is everywhere in Jerusalem, but unable to travel as far as us. Whereas, if it is really possible to infer God's presence from visible symbols, one might more justly consider that He dwells in the Cappadocian nation more than in any of the spots outside it. For how many altars are there here on which the name of the Lord is glorified! One could hardly count so many in all the rest of the world. Again, if the divine grace was more abundant in Jerusalem than elsewhere, sin would not be so much the fashion among those that live there; but as it is, there is no form of uncleanness that is not perpetrated amongst them; rascality, adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, quarrelling, murder, are rampant and rife; and the last kind of evil is so excessively prevalent, that nowhere in the world are people so ready to kill each other as there; where kinsmen attack each other like wild beasts, and spill each other's blood, merely for the sake of lifeless plunder. Well, in a place where such things go on, what proof, I ask, have you of the abundance of divine grace?...

We confess that the Christ who was made manifest is very God, as much before as after our sojourn at Jerusalem; our faith in Him was not increased afterwards any more than it was diminished. Before we saw His grave we believed in His resurrection from the dead; apart from seeing the Mount of Olives, we confessed that His Ascension into heaven was real. We derived only this much of profit from our travelling thither, namely that we came to know by being able to compare them, that our own places are far holier than those abroad. Wherefore, O ye who fear the Lord, praise Him in the places where ye now are. Change of place does not effect any drawing nearer unto God, but wherever you may be, God will come to you, if the chambers of your soul are of such a sort that He can dwell in you and walk in you. But if you keep your inner man full of wicked thoughts, even if you were on Golgotha, or the Mount of Olives, or even on the memorial rock of the resurrection, you will be as far away from receiving Christ into yourself, as one who has not even begun to confess Him. Therefore, my beloved friend, counsel the brethren to be absent from the body to go to our Lord, rather than to be absent from Cappadocia to go to Palestine. (Text: G. Pasquali, ed. Gregorii Nysseni Epistulae, Leiden, 1959, 14-19).

Let us all receive Him gladly, and hold our feast with all honesty. Instead of our garments, let us strew our hearts before Him, in psalms and hymns, let us raise to Him our shouts of thanksgiving; and, without ceasing, let us exclaim, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Mt 21:9; Ps. 118:26) for blessed are they that bless Him, and cursed are they that curse Him. Again I will say it, nor will I cease exhorting you to good: Come, beloved, let us bless Him who is blessed, that we may be ourselves blessed of Him. Every age and condition does this discourse summon to praise the Lord; kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens — and what is new in this miracle, the tender and innocent age of babes and sucklings hath obtained the first place in raising to God with thankful confession the hymn which was of God taught them in the strains in which Moses sang before to the people when they came forth out of Egypt — namely, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Mt 21:9; Ps. 118:26)....

Today, holy David rejoices with great joy, being by babes despoiled of his lyre, with whom also, in spirit, leading the dance, and rejoicing together, as of old, before the Ark of God, he mingles musical harmony, and sweetly lisps out in stammering voice, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Mt 21:9; Ps. 118:26). Of whom shall we inquire? Tell us, O prophet, who is this that cometh in the name of the Lord? He will say it is not my part today to teach you, for He hath consecrated the school to infants, who hath out of the mouth of babes and sucklings perfected praise to destroy the enemy and the avenger, in order that by the miracle of these the hearts of the fathers might be turned to the children, and the disobedient unto the wisdom of the just. Tell us, then, O children, whence is this, your beautiful and graceful contest of song? (Text: PG 18.384=ANF 6.294).

And He was in a village, and a colt was tied there and an ass; it could not be loosed save by the command of the Lord. An apostolic hand loosed it. Such was the means, such the life, such the grace. Be you of such a kind: that you also may loose those that are bound... Now let us ponder who they were, who, discovered in sin, were cast out of paradise, and banished to a village. And see how Life recalls those whom death had driven forth. And so we read, according to Matthew, an ass and a colt (Mt. 21:2-l 1), so that as in the person of two human beings each sex was driven out, in the two animals either sex is recalled. Consequently in the mother ass we have a figure of Eve who erred; in the colt a figure of the people of the Gentiles. And He is seated on the colt of the ass; and, rightly, on which no man ever hath ridden (Lk. 19:30): because no man before Christ had called the people of the Gentiles into the Church. And Mark too has the same: Upon which no man yet hath ridden (Mk. 11:2). It was, however, held fast tied by the bonds of unbelief, in bondage to an evil master, enslaved by falsehood: but he had no just claim to dominion whom guilt, not nature, had made master. And because of this when Lord is said, One only is held true Lord: for there are many gods and many lords; but for us there is but One Lord and One God. And though He is not named as Lord, yet is it indicated, not by conjunction of a person, but through community of nature....

Mark introduces the beast as, bound before the gate without (Mk. 11:4): for whosoever is outside of Christ is without in the way; but he that is in Christ is not outside in the way. In the meeting of two ways, he adds, where he is the certain possession of no one; and there is no stall, no roof, no manger. Unhappy the servitude with none but uncertain rights: for he that has no master will have many. Strangers will tie him fast, to make him theirs. Another frees him, that he may keep him for himself; so he makes acquaintance with harsher gifts than fetters. (Text: PL 15.1795).

He said: You shall find an ass (Mt. 21:2). He foretells that no one will oppose them; and that those who would hear them would say nothing. This was no light condemnation of the Jews, that He persuades men who knew Him not at all, and whom He had not seen, to give up without a word what was theirs, and this through His disciples. Yet this people refused to obey Him when He performed signs and wonders in their presence....

Do not look upon what happened on this occasion as being of slight importance. For who was it persuaded them not to oppose the disciples when their property was taken from them: poor men that they were, and tillers of the soil? What am I saying, not to oppose them? Not even to answer, or, at least, having answered them to fall silent and yield? For both facts are alike wonderful; that they said nothing when their beasts were taken away, and that when they heard that the Lord had need of them they yielded and did not oppose them; especially since they did not see the Lord Himself, but only His disciples. From this He teaches us that He could have restrained the Jews, even against their will, when they were getting ready to lay hands on Him; and could have stricken them dumb. But He willed not to. From this He likewise teaches His disciples, that whatsoever He might ask of them they should give. Even should He bid them give up life itself, even that must not be denied. (Text: PG 58.627).

And when morning was come all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. After this condemnation of Christ, brought about more by the cowardice than the power of Pilate ... the license of the people, obedient to the looks of the priests, heaped many insults on the Lord, and the frenzied mob wreaked its rage on Him, who meekly and voluntarily endured it all. But because, dearly-beloved, the whole story is too long to go through today, let us put off the rest till Wednesday, when the reading of the Lord's Passion will be repeated. (Text: PL 54.322).

For while He was yet with us before He suffered, as we were eating the Passover with Him, He said to us: Today, in this night, one of you will betray me (Mt. 26:21)....

Now this was done on the fourth day of the week. For when we had eaten the Passover on the third day of the week at even, we went forth to the Mount of Olives; and in the night they seized our Lord Jesus. And the next day, which was the fourth of the week, He remained in the house of Caiaphas the high priest....

Fast, therefore, not after the custom of the former people, but according to the New Testament which I have appointed you: that you may be fasting for them on the fourth day of the week, because on the fourth of the week they began to destroy their souls, and apprehended Me. For the night after the third of the week belongs to the fourth of the week, as it is written: There was evening and there was morning, one day (Gen. 1:5).... And so in the night when the fourth day of the week drew on, Judas betrayed our Lord to them. (Cf. Connolly, op. cit.181).

In speaking but lately of the Lord's Passion, we reached the point in the Gospel story, where Pilate is said to have yielded to the Jews' wicked shouts that Jesus should be crucified. And so when all things had been accomplished, which the Godhead, veiled in frail flesh, permitted, Jesus Christ the Son of God was fixed to the cross which He had also been carrying, two robbers being similarly crucified, one on His right hand, and the other on the left: so that even in the incidents of the cross might be displayed that difference which in His judgment must be made in the case of all men; for the believing robber's faith was a type of those who are to be saved, and the blasphemer's wickedness prefigured those who are to be damned. Christ's Passion, therefore, contains the mystery of our salvation, and of the instrument which the iniquity of the Jews prepared for His punishment, the Redeemer's power has made for us the stepping-stone to glory. (Text: PL 54.323).

We are not unaware of the fact that the Church in Rome does not have this custom, whose character and form we follow in all things. Yet it does not have the custom of washing the feet. So note: perhaps on account of the multitude this practice declined. Yet there are some who say, and try to allege in excuse, that this is not to be done in the mystery, nor in baptism, nor in regeneration, but the feet are to be washed as for a guest. But one belongs to humility, the other to sanctification. Finally, be aware that the mystery is also sanctification: If I wash not thy feet, thou shah have no part with me (Jn. 13:8). So I say this, not that I may rebuke others, but that I may commend my own ceremonies. In all things I desire to follow the Church in Rome, yet we, too, have human feeling; what is preserved more rightly elsewhere we, too, preserve more rightly. (Text: PL 16.433=FOTC 44.291).

Concerning the washing of feet, although the Lord commended it as a form of the humility which He had come to teach, the question is raised about the time when such a great practice should best be taught by example, and it coincided with that time at which His teaching made a deeper religious appeal. Many have been unwilling to accept it as a custom, lest it should seem to be a part of the sacrament of baptism. Some have not even shrunk from abolishing it as a custom. But others, in order to promote it at a less conspicuous time, and to separate it from the sacrament of baptism, have chosen to do it either on the third day of the octave — because the number three has such pre-eminence in many sacraments — or on the octave day itself…

I wonder why you wanted me to write you some comments on customs which vary in different places, since there is no obligation about them, and there is one completely safe rule to be followed in such things, namely, when they are not contrary to faith or morals, and they have some effect in encouraging us to a better life, wherever we see them in use, or know that they are used, we do not censure them, but support them by our approval and imitation — all this, of course, unless they might cause harm to others whose faith is weak. (Text: PL 33.220=FOTC 12.289).

What ought to be done on the Thursday of the last week of Lent? Is the Sacrifice to be offered in the morning and again after supper, because it is said, In like manner after He had supped (I Cor. 11:25), or is one to remain fasting and offer it only after supper, or is one to fast and then to sup after the offering as we are used to doing? To this, therefore, I make the answer that, if the authority of the divine Scripture prescribes which of these is to be done, there is no doubt that we should do as we read, and that our discussion should turn not on how it is to be administered, but on how the sacrament is to be understood; likewise, if any of these customs is common to the whole Church throughout the world, it is the most unheard of madness to doubt that such custom is to be followed. But, what you ask belongs to neither of these suppositions. It follows, then, that it is of that third sort which varies according to locality and country. Let each one, then, do what he finds in that church which he attends. (Text: ibid. 202-203 = FOTC 12.257).

He also, who is without ceasing preparing himself for the true life, by abstaining from the pleasures of this life, which lead so many astray, and by chastising his body and bringing it into subjection, is truly and without doubt keeping the day of preparation every day ... yet... we are required by the law of God to keep its festival by eating the bread of affliction or unleavened with bitter herbs by humbling our souls because it is impossible for a man of spirit and flesh to keep the feast with his whole nature: either he does so with his spirit and afflicts his body, or else he does so with his body and his spirit is unable to share in it. (Text: SC 150.222).

About the third hour a gigantic cross formed of light appeared in the sky above holy Golgotha stretching out as far as the holy Mount of Olives. It was not seen by just one or two, but was most clearly displayed before the whole population of the city. Nor did it, as one might have supposed, pass away quickly like something imagined, but was visible to sight above the earth for some hours, while it sparkled with a light above the sun's rays. Of a surety, it would have been overcome and hidden by them, had it not exhibited to those who saw it a brilliance more powerful than the sun, so that the whole population of the city made a sudden concerted rush into the Martyrium, seized by a fear that mingled with joy at the heavenly vision. They poured in, young and old, men and women of every age ... not only Christians but pagans from elsewhere sojourning in Jerusalem, all of them as with one mouth raised a hymn of praise to Christ Jesus our Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, the worker of wonders. (Text: PG 33.1170).

His witness is the holy wood of the cross, seen among us even to this day, and by those who have taken portions of it, from hence filling almost the whole world. His witness is the palm tree in the valley which supplied branches to the children who shouted His praises. Gethsemane is His witness, all but showing Judas still, to those who understand. This holy mount of Golgotha, conspicuous in its elevation, bears witness to Him. The holy sepulcher bears witness, and the stone which lies there even to this day... (Text: ibid. 685).

Jesus truly suffered for all men, for the cross was no illusion ... His death was not imaginary ... He was crucified and we do not deny it ... if I should now deny it, Golgotha here beside us, close to which we are now gathered, refutes me: the wood of the cross, now distributed piecemeal from Jerusalem over all the world, refutes me. I confess the cross.... Since the cross was followed by the resurrection, I am not ashamed to vow it. (Text: ibid. 776).

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master's side. The Gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced His side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord's side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own.... There flowed from His side water and blood (Jn. 19:34). Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from His side, it was from His side that Christ fashioned the Church, as He had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh (Gen. 2:23)! As God then took a rib from Adam's side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from His side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after His own death. (Text: SC 50.160).

How marvelous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the Passion: here is the judgment seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified...

Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judaea under obscure foreshadowings....

Now there is a more sacred anointing for the priesthood, because your cross is the fount of all blessings, and the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonor, life from death. (Text: PL 54.341).

Something strange is happening — there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear...

He has gone to search for our first parent. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached him bearing the cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory. At the sight of Him, Adam, the first man He had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: 'My Lord be with you all.' Christ answered him: 'And with your spirit.' He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, 'Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.' I am your God, who for your sake have become your life. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. (Text: PG 43.461).

Today we celebrate the sepulchral feast of our Savior. He has dissolved the bonds of death among the dead, and filled Hades with His light. He has aroused the dead from sleep. Let us rejoice and dance upon the earth as we contemplate the resurrection and no longer dread corruption or fear that it might prevail over incorruption: Scripture says, You will not let your holy one see corruption (Ps. 16:10). And perhaps the Jews and the Greeks laugh at our philosophy, for the Jews expect another Messiah, and the Greeks shut up their hopes in the tomb, concerning whom the prophet has aptly said: Their sepulchres are their homes forever (Ps. 49:12). But those who now laugh will one day weep (they will weep, I say, looking at the one they have transfixed and injured (Zach. 12:10), but we who are now in tears will temper this suffering with joy....

Death snatched away Christ, our Lord. But it will not retain life by itself. Death devoured Him without recognizing Him, but has vomited forth many with Him. He is now willingly in detention. But tomorrow, having laid waste Hades, He will rise. Yesterday, the sun was darkened at His crucifixion and night descended at midday: today, death lost its power when it received one more dead. Yesterday creation suffered and donned darkness as a mourning garb: today the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light (Isa. 9:1; Text: PG 39.89).

This is the blessed Sabbath of our first creation. Recognize through this Sabbath that other Sabbath, the day of repose which God blessed above all other days. On this day the only begotten Son of God truly rested from all His works, having procured the repose for His flesh through the economy of His death. And returning through His resurrection to His former state He has raised up with Himself everything reposing (in death), having become life, resurrection, dawn, daybreak for all those in darkness and in the shadow of death. (Text: PG 46.601).

Let us now see ... why that calculation is made to ensure that a Sabbath occurs when we celebrate Easter, for that is peculiar to the Christian religion — the Jews only figured the month of new corn and the moon from the fourteenth to the twenty-first day. Because their Pasch, on which the Lord suffered, so fell that there was a Sabbath between His death and resurrection, our fathers have seen fit to make the additional requirement that our feast should be distinguished from the Jewish feast. As we must believe that His action was not without meaning, who is before time, and by whom time was created, and who came in the fullness of time, and who had power to lay down His life and to take it up again; therefore, He awaited His hour, not a chance one, but one appropriate to the mystery which He ordered to be observed when He said: My hour is not yet come (Jn. 2:4), so that the memory of His Passion might be kept by posterity in a yearly observance. (Cf. PL 33.211=FOTC 12.273).

Note, therefore, the three sacred days of His crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Of these three, the cross signifies what we do in this present life, but the burial and resurrection, what we perform by faith and hope. In this present time it is said to man: Take up thy cross and follow me (Mt. 16:24)....

We walk, therefore, in the act of laboring, but in the hope of rest, in the oldness of the flesh, but in the newness of faith. For he says: The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justice; and if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom. 8:10-11). These are the truths which by the authority of the divine Scriptures and the consent of the universal Church, which is spread throughout the world, are commemorated by the yearly celebration of Easter, truly a great sacramental observance, as you now understand. In the Old Testament, no other time is prescribed for keeping the Pasch, except the month of new corn and the days between the fourteenth and the twenty-first of the moon. Since it is clear from the Gospel on what days the Lord was crucified and rested in the tomb and rose again, there is added, through the Councils of the Fathers, the requirement of retaining those same days, and the whole Christian world is convinced that the Pasch should be celebrated in that way. (Text: PL 33.215).

One act, however, I must by no means omit to record, which this admirable prince performed in my own presence. On one occasion, emboldened by the confident assurance I entertained of his piety, I had begged permission to pronounce a discourse on the subject of our Savior's sepulcher in his hearing. With this request he most readily complied, and in the midst of a large number of auditors, in the interior of the palace itself, he stood and listened with the rest. I entreated him, but in vain, to seat himself on the imperial throne which stood near: he continued with fixed attention to weigh the topics of my discourse, and gave his own testimony to the truth of the theological doctrines it contained. After some time had passed, the oration being of considerable length, I was myself desirous of concluding; but this he would not permit, and exhorted me to proceed to the very end. On my again entreating him to sit, he in his turn was displeased and said that it was not right to listen in a careless manner to the discussion of doctrines relating to God; and again, that this posture was good and profitable to himself, since it was reverent to stand while listening to sacred truths. Having, therefore, concluded my discourse, I returned home, and resumed my usual occupations (Eusebius; Text: PG 20.1181= LNPF series 2,1.548).

The eight days of Easter are observed just as at home with us. The liturgy is celebrated in the prescribed manner throughout the eight days of Easter just as it is celebrated everywhere from Easter Sunday to its octave. There is the same decoration, and the same arrangement for these eight days of Easter, as for the Epiphany, both in the major church and in the Anastasis, in the Cross as well as the Eleona, in Bethlehem, and in the Lazarium, too, and indeed everywhere, for this is Easter time.

On that first Sunday, Easter Day, everyone assembles for the liturgy in the major church, in the Martyrium, and on Monday and Tuesday also. But it always happens that, once the dismissal has been given from the Martyrium, everyone comes to the Anastasis singing hymns. On Wednesday everyone assembles for the liturgy in the Eleona; on Thursday, in the Anastasis; on Friday, at Sion; and on Saturday, before the Cross. On Sunday, however, on the octave, that is, they go once again to the major church, to the Martyrium. During the eight days of Easter, everyday after lunch, in the company of all the clergy and the neophytes — I mean those who have just been baptized — and of all the aputactitae, both men and women, and of as many of the people as wish to come, the bishop goes up to the Eleona. Hymns are sung and prayers are said, both in the church which is on the Eleona and where the grotto in which Jesus taught His disciples is located, and at the Imbomon, the place, that is, from which the Lord ascended into heaven. After psalms have been sung and a prayer has been said, everyone comes down from there, singing hymns, and goes to the Anastasis at the hour for vespers. This is done throughout the eight days.

On Easter Sunday, after the dismissal from vespers at the Anastasis, all the people, singing hymns conduct the bishop to Sion. When they have arrived there, hymns proper to the day and the place are sung, and a prayer is said. Then is read the passage from the Gospel describing how on this day and in this very place where there is now this same Church of Sion, the Lord came to His disciples, although the doors were closed, at the time when one of the disciples, namely, Thomas, was not there. When he returned, he said to the other apostles, who had told him that they had seen the Lord: I will not believe, unless I see (Jn. 20:25). After this passage has been read, a prayer is again said, the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed, and everyone returns to his home late, around the second hour of the night.

Then on Sunday, on the octave of Easter, immediately after the sixth hour all the people go up to the Eleona with the bishop. First of all everyone sits down for a time in the church which is there; hymns are sung as well as antiphons proper to the day and to the place. Then, everyone, singing hymns, goes from there up to the Imbomon above; and what was done in the Eleona is done in like manner again here. When it is time, all the people and all the aputactitae, singing hymns, lead the bishop to the Anastasis. They arrive at the Anastasis at the hour when vespers is customarily celebrated, and the vespers service is held both at the Anastasis and at the Cross.

From there, all the people without exception, singing hymns, lead the bishop as far as Sion. When they have arrived there, hymns proper to the place and to the day are sung as usual. Then they read the passage from the Gospel where, on the octave of Easter, the Lord came into where the disciples were, and He reproved Thomas because he had not believed. The whole passage from Scripture is then read. After a prayer has been said and the catechumens and the faithful have been blessed according to custom, then everyone returns to his home at the second hour of the night, just as on Easter Sunday.

When it is Easter week, during the eight days from Easter Sunday to its octave, as soon as the dismissal has been given from the church, everyone, singing hymns, goes to the Anastasis. Soon a prayer is said, the faithful are blessed, and the bishop stands up. Leaning on the inner railing, which is in the grotto of the Anastasis, he explains everything which is accomplished in baptism. At this hour no catechumen goes into the Anastasis; only the neophytes and the faithful who wish to hear the mysteries enter the Anastasis. Indeed, the doors are closed, lest any catechumen come that way. While the bishop is discussing and explaining each point, so loud are the voices of praise that they can be heard outside the church. And he explains all these mysteries in such a manner that there is no one who would not be drawn to them, when he heard them thus explained.

A portion of the population in this province knows both Greek and Syriac; another segment knows only Greek; and still another, only Syriac. Even though the bishop may know Syriac, he always speaks Greek and never Syriac; and, therefore, there is always present a priest who, while the bishop speaks in Greek, translates into Syriac so that all may understand what is being explained. Since whatever scriptural texts are read must be read in Greek, there is always someone present who can translate the readings into Syriac for the people, so that they will always understand. So that those here who are Latins, those consequently knowing neither Greek nor Syriac, will not be bored, everything is explained to them, for there are other brothers and sisters who are bilingual in Greek and Latin and who explain everything to them in Latin. But this above all is very pleasing and very admirable here, that whatever hymns and antiphons are sung, whatever readings and prayers are recited by the bishop, they are said in such a manner as to be proper and fitting to the feast which is being observed and to the place where the service is being held. (Text: SC 296.292=ACW 38.114).

After Easter's holy day of salvation, you will come every day, starting Monday, immediately after the assembly into the holy place of the resurrection, where, God willing, you will hear other lectures. In these you will be instructed again in the reasons for everything that has been done, reasons warranted by proofs from the Old and the New Testaments; first concerning what is done immediately before baptism; then how you were cleansed by the Lord in the bath of water by means of the word (Eph. 5:26); how like priests you have become partakers of the name of Christ; and how the seal of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit has been given to you. You will be instructed concerning the mysteries at the altar of the New Testament, those mysteries first instituted here in Jerusalem. You will hear what the Sacred Scriptures have delivered to us, and of the efficacy of these mysteries; how you must approach them, when and how to receive them; and, last of all, how you must behave in word and deed worthily of the grace received, that all of you may be able to enjoy life everlasting. These points will, God willing, be the burden of our talks. (Text: PG 33.1056=FOTC 64.138).

It has long been my wish, true-born and long-desired children of the Church, to discourse to you upon these spiritual, heavenly mysteries. On the principle, however, that seeing is believing, I delayed until the present occasion, calculating that after what you saw on that night I should find you a readier audience now when I am to be your guide to the brighter and more fragrant meadows of this second Eden. In particular, you are now capable of understanding the diviner mysteries of divine, life-giving baptism. The time being now come to spread for you the board of more perfect instruction, let me explain the significance of what was done for you on that evening of your baptism. (Text: ibid. 1065=FOTC 64.153).

We have given a daily sermon on morals, when the deeds of the patriarchs or the precepts of the Proverbs were read, in order that, being informed and instructed by them, you might become accustomed to enter upon the ways of our forefathers and to pursue their road, and to obey the divine commands, whereby, renewed by baptism, you might hold to that manner of life which befits those who are washed.

Now time warns us to speak of the mysteries and to set forth the very purpose of the sacraments. If we had thought that this should have been taught those not yet initiated before baptism, we would be considered to have betrayed rather than to have portrayed the mysteries; then there is the consideration that the light of the mysteries will infuse itself better in the unsuspecting than if some sermon had preceded them. (Text: PL 16.389=FOTC 44.5).

Therefore, this renewal of our life is in a sense a passing from death to life, which begins by faith, that we may rejoice in hope and be patient in tribulation, while still our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). Because of this very beginning of new life, because of the new man which we are ordered to put on, and to put off the old, purging out the old leaven, that we may be a new dough, for Christ our Pasch is sacrificed (I Cor. 5:7), because of this newness of life, the first month among the months of the year is selected for this celebration. It is called the month of the new corn, because, truly, in the whole time of the world, the third period has now come, and therefore, we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord for three days. For, the first period was before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace, where we have now the revealing of a mystery previously hidden in prophetic obscurity. This is also signified in the lunar number: because the number seven in Scripture commonly has a mystic connection with some sort of perfection, the Pasch is celebrated in the third week of the moon, that is, a day which falls between the fourteenth and the twenty-first. (Text: ibid. 206).

Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I will be glorified with Him. Yesterday I died with Christ; today I will return to life with Him. Yesterday I was buried with Christ; today I will rise with Him from the tomb.

Let us then carry our first fruits to Him who has suffered and risen for us. Do you think perhaps that I am talking of gold, silver, garments, or precious stones? Insubstantial earthly goods, transitory, tied to earth, owned for the most part by the wicked, the slaves of materialism and the prince of this world? No, let us offer ourselves: it is the most precious and dearest gift in the eyes of God. Give to His image what resembles it most. Recognizing our greatness, honor our model, understanding the force of this mystery and the reasons for Christ's death....

Give all, offer all, to Him who has given Himself for us as a prize and ransom. We will give nothing as great as ourselves if we have grown by the power of this mystery and have become for Him all which He has become for us… (Text: PG 35.396).

Today ... there are no travelers on the strees: today the sea is free of sailors and seamen. The laborer has left hoe and plough aside, and dressed up in his Sunday best to celebrate:

The stores are closed. Riots have disappeared, like winter when summer appears. Disturbances, crowds, and the agitations of life have subsided in the peace of the feast. The poor man is decked out like the rich man; the rich man appears in greater splendor than usual. The elder runs like a youngster to share in the joyous occasion. The man who is ill is strengthened in his weakness; the child by a change of clothes celebrates the feast in external appearance since he cannot yet understand what it is all about. The virgin rejoices exceedingly in spirit, for she sees the remembrance of her own hope so splendidly honored; the married woman rejoices as she keeps festival with her entire household. For now she herself, her husband, children, servants and all join in the festivities. And just as a swarm of bees, new and recently born, emerging fresh from the hive or the shelter, fly into the air and daylight and attach themselves in a body to a branch of a tree, so on this feast whole families swarm to the family hearth. And truly by imitation, today is rightly compared to the last day; for both are rallying points for men, the last day for the whole world, today for individuals. To speak more truly, in respect to what pertains to joy and happiness, today is more pleasant than the last day, since it will be necessary on the last day to see some weeping because their sins are uncovered. But today's joy admits of no sad faces. For the just man is joyful, and the man whose conscience is not clear hopes for forgiveness from his contrition and all grief sleeps today. For there is no one so overwhelmed with pain that he does not get relief from the splendor of the feast. (Text: PG 46.456).

Now since you are celebrating the holy Pasch, you should know, brethren, what the Pasch is. Pasch means the crossing-over; and so the festival is called by this name. For it was on this day that the children of Israel crossed over out of Egypt, and the Son of God crossed over from this world to His Father. What gain is it to celebrate the Pasch unless you imitate Him whom you worship; that is, unless you cross over from Egypt, that is, from the darkness of evil-doing to the light of virtue, and from the love of this world to the love of your heavenly home?

For there are many who celebrate this holy festival, and honor this solemnity, and yet do so unworthily and because of their own wickedness: because they will not cross over from this world to their Father; that is, they will not cross over from the desires of this world, and from bodily delights, to the love of heaven. O unhappy Christians, who still remain in Egypt, that is, under the power of the devil, and taking delight in this evil!

Because of these things I warn you, brethren, that you must celebrate the Pasch worthily, that is, that you cross over. (Text: PL 17.672).

Where is death? Seek it in Jesus Christ, for it exists no longer. It was in Him but it exists no longer. O life, the death of death! Take courage and it will die also in you. What has begun in our Head will continue in His members. Death will die also in us. When? At the end of the world. At the resurrection of the dead in which we believe without the slightest doubt. He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mk. 16:16).

Read what follows — it is formidable: He who does not believe shall be condemned (Mk. 16:16). Death will die in us but it will be victorious in those who are condemned. There will be everlasting death where death itself does not die because the torments will be everlasting. In us, however, death will die and will exist no more.

I am going to cite some words of those who have vanquished death. Reflect on them, sing them in your heart, and they will provide an objective for your hope and a meaning to your faith and good works. Hear the victorious words to be repeated when death will be no more, when death will perish in us as it has already perished in Christ our head. This corruptible body, says St. Paul, must put on incorruption and this mortal body must put on immortality. Then shall be fulfilled the Scripture saying, Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:53). As I have said already, death will die in us. Death is swallowed up in victory. That is the death of death. (Text: PL 38.1114).

This is called 'today' because, like a living, unfailing splendor, it does not cease to inflame the world in perpetual light and because this unceasing flame seems to be one uninterrupted day. A thousand years are in your sight as one day (Ps. 4), writes the prophet. Yes, Christ is clearly this one day, because the eternity of divinity in Him is one.

It is our 'today': the past, by reason of antiquity, does not escape Him; and the future, which is unknown, has no secrets for Him. But like a sovereign light, He contains all things, He knows all things, He is ever present and possesses all things. Before Him the past cannot escape, and the future cannot hide. And when God said to his Son, Today I have begotten you (Heb. 1:5; Ps. 2:7), understand that this 'today' is not the time in His humanity when He was born of the Virgin Mary, nor in His divinity when He proceeded from the mouth of God, His Father, but the time when He rose from the dead. He has raised up the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:14), says the apostle Paul, as also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, this day have I begotten you (Acts 13:33; Ps. 2:7). Truly, then, this is our 'today' when He rises from the dense night of hell to illumine men like a bright light. That is rightly called day which the black deed of the Jews could not obscure. And nothing could be better than for us today to accept the light; He has restored day and salvation to all the dead; by the presence of life today He has raised up men long dissolved in death. (Text: PL 57.606).

In my last sermon, dearly beloved, we called on you, not unreasonably, if I may say so, to share the cross of Christ in such a way that the very life of the faithful might incorporate the Paschal mystery and that what is honored in the feast might be celebrated in your mortal lives. You yourselves testify to the utility of this approach, and from your devotion you have learned how profitable to soul and body are extended fasts, more frequent prayers, and more generous almsgiving. Practically everybody has profited from this exercise and has stored in the depths of his conscience some genuine cause for rejoicing. These gains, however, must be jealously guarded. Any relaxation of our efforts may afford the devil in his envy a chance to rob us of God's grace.

Since, then, our objective in the observance of Lent was to experience something of the cross of Christ at the time of His Passion, we should strive likewise to be found sharers in His resurrection and to pass from death to life, even in our present mortal state. For everyone who changes by any conversion from one state to another, the last word is not to be what he was, and the first, to be what he was not. But it makes a difference for what one lives or dies. Because it is death which is the cause of life, and life, the cause of death. Nowhere except in this transitory life are both objectives pursued, and the differences of our eternal retributions depend on the quality of our passing actions. We must die, then, to the devil, and live to God. (Text: SC 74.123).

This feast which we name the Pasch is called ... Passover, by the Hebrews as the Gospel testifies, saying, before the feast of the Pasch, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should pass over from this world to the Father (In. 13:1). But to which of the two natures is this passing over reserved except to ours since the Father is inseparably united with the Son and the Son to the Father? But because the Word and the Flesh constitute but one person the nature assumed is not separated from the nature assuming it, and the honor given to Him who is going to be elevated is called an increase for Him who is elevated according to the word of the apostle already quoted: For this reason God elevated Him and gave Him a name which is above every other name (Phil. 2:9). In this, of course, it is the elevation of man assumed by the Word which is taught, so that just as the divinity remains inseparable from Him in his sufferings, so the humanity remains coeternal with the divinity in glory. For this sharing in His ineffable gift the Lord Himself was preparing a blessed passing over for His faithful when, with His Passion imminent, He prayed not only for His apostles and disciples, but also for the whole Church, saying, I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words will believe in me, so that they all may be one, as you Father are one in me and I in you, they also may be one in us (Jn. 17:20-21)...

You, however, rightly rejoice, on this festival, and your joy is wholesome because you admit no falsehood in the truth, either concerning Christ's nativity according to the flesh, or His Passion and death. Or have you any doubts about His bodily resurrection, since you recognize without any separation from His divine nature, Christ truly born from the Virgin's womb, true wood of the cross, true in the burial of His flesh, true in the glory of resurrection, true on the right hand of the majesty of His Father. (Text: ibid. 133).

Let us, beloved, love with all our hearts this glorious resurrection, which was first made known to us by a Figure, and then made known in deed; and for love of it let us be prepared to die. See how in the resurrection of our Author we have come to know His ministering angels as our own fellow citizens. Let us hasten on to that great assembly of these fellow citizens. Let us, since we cannot see them face to face, join ourselves to them in heart and desire. Let us cross over from evil-doing to virtue, that we may merit to see our Redeemer in Galilee. (Text: PL 76.1173).

Listen to me, especially you who are now reborn to a new life and for that reason are called infants, while I explain, as I promised, what it is that you see before you here on the altar. Pay attention also you, the faithful, who are long accustomed to view this sacred rite, because it is for your benefit, too, that we recall these things, otherwise you might forget them. The food you see here on the Lord's table, you are accustomed to see on your own tables at home, as far as outward appearances go. It has the same appearance, but not the same worth.

The Apostle has shown us briefly what this bread is. Now consider the matter more carefully and see how it comes about. How is bread made? Wheat is threshed, ground, moistened, and baked. By moistening, the wheat is purified, and by baking it is made firm. In what does your threshing consist? You also underwent a form of threshing, by fasting, by the Lenten observances, by night watches, by exorcisms. You were ground when you were delivered from the devil by exorcism. But moistening cannot be done without water; as a consequence, you were immersed. Baking is troublesome yet necessary. What, then, is the baking process? The fire of temptations of which no life is free. And how is this beneficial? The furnace trieth the potter's vessels, and the trial of affliction just men (Isa. 48:10). As one loaf results from combining the individual kernels and mixing the same together with water, so also the one body of Christ is represented in the grains of wheat, so also is the blood represented in the grapes. For wine pours forth from the wine press out of what were formerly many individual grapes, now flowing together as one liquid to become wine. Hence both in the bread and in the chalice the sacrament of unity is present.

At the table of the Lord you hear the words, Dominus vobiscum, the Lord be with you. We are wont to say these words when we greet you from our place in the apse and also when we begin our prayers, because our well-being demands that the Lord be with us, since without Him we are nothing. Recall, moreover, the words that resounded in your ears, the ones you say when you are gathered at the altar of God. For we summon you, as it were, and admonish you, declaring, Sursum cor, lift up your heart. Do not let it sink to the earth, for the heart would decay on the earth, but lift it heavenward. But whereto lift the heart? What do you respond? Whereto lift the heart? Habemus ad dominum, we have lifted it up to the Lord. To keep one's heart aloft is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. In what way can it be bad? It is bad for those of whom it is said, When they were lifted up thou hast cast them down (Ps. 73:18). To lift up the heart, but not to the Lord, is not virtue but arrogance. Therefore, when we say, 'Lift up your heart,' you reply, since in itself this could be nothing but arrogance, 'We have lifted it up to the Lord.' And thus it becomes a worthy deed and not a mark of pride. But because it is praiseworthy to elevate the heart to God, is that a matter of our own doing? Do we accomplish this by our own powers? Do we who were but dust raise it up toward heaven? By no means! He did so Himself, He deigned to do so, He stretched forth His hand, He lavished His grace, He lifted up what was fallen. Thus when we say, 'Lift up your heart,' and you make the response, 'We have lifted it up to the Lord,' lest you arrogate to yourselves the elevation of your heart, I added the words, Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro, let us give thanks to the Lord our God. These mystery-laden words are short in measure but great in their content. What we proclaim is very tersely put, yet it issues from the depths of our being. You utter these sentiments quickly, without the aid of a book, without reading them, without use of many words. Yet always remember what you are and in whom you must place your confidence, so that you may finally attain the joys which God has promised. (Text: PLS 2.554).

Today we must all exclaim with blessed David: Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord or show forth all his praises? (Ps. 106:2). Today we have come to a longed-for and salutary festival: it is the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, a day which has seen the end of the war and the conclusion of peace, a day when our reconciliation has been sealed, a day when death has been destroyed and the devil vanquished. Today is the day when men are united to angels, and mortals join in chanting hymns with the angelic powers. Today is the day that the devil's tyranny is abolished, the bonds of death are broken, and the triumph of hell is annihilated. Today is the day that the word of the prophet can be repeated: O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory? (1 Cor. 15:55).

Today Jesus Christ our Lord has broken the gates of brass and has caused the very person of death to disappear. Did I say 'the very person of death?' He has even changed its name. Death is no longer called 'death' but 'repose' and 'sleep.' Before the coming of Jesus Christ and the economy of the cross, the name death had a fearful ring. The first man, Adam, heard his condemnation in the sentence: On whatever day you eat of the fruit of this tree you will die the death (Gen. 2:17). And blessed Job called it by this name, saying, Death is rest for man (Job 3:23). The prophet David also said, The death of sinners is worst (Ps. 34:22). Not only is this separation of the soul from the body called death, but even hell. Listen to the words of the patriarch Jacob, You will lead with sorrow my white head to hell (Gen. 42:38). And again, hear another prophet: hell has opened its abyss (Isa. 5:14). And another prophet: he will deliver me from the depths of hell (Ps. 86:13). And you will find many other passages of the Old Testament calling departure from this life death and hell. But since Jesus Christ our God was offered for us in sacrifice and rose from the dead, our loving Lord has removed these names and introduced a new and extraordinary convention into human life. For departure from this life is no longer called death but repose and sleep.

What is the proof of this? Jesus Christ himself says, Lazarus, our friend, sleeps. But I go that I may wake him from sleep (Jn. 11:11). Just as it is easy for us to awaken and rouse a sleeping man, so it was easy for the Lord of us all to raise a man from the dead. And since His remark appeared novel and strange, and the apostles failed to comprehend it, He put it in clearer terms in deference to their weakness.

And the blessed Paul, the teacher of the world, writing to the Thessalonians said: But we would not, brethren, have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep, lest you should grieve, even as the others who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). Elsewhere he says, Hence they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have they perished? (1 Cor. 15:18). And again, we who live, who survive until the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep (1 Thess. 4:15). And further, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so we ought also believe that with him God will bring those who have fallen asleep through Jesus (1 Thess. 4:14).

You see death everywhere called 'repose' and 'sleep,' and what was dreaded before Jesus Christ is become easy to accept since His resurrection. You see the illustrious triumph of this resurrection? By it we have received a host of blessings. By it the wiles of the devil have lost their effectiveness. By it we laugh at death. By it we overlook the present life. By it we hasten to the prospect of future blessings. By it, though still clothed in a mortal body, we can, if we wish, enjoy the same privileges as the incorporeal angels.

Today we celebrate a great triumphal victory. Today our Lord has erected a trophy over vanquished death, destroyed the tyranny of the devil, and opened to us through His resurrection the way to salvation. Let us all then rejoice, exult and be glad. For though our Lord alone was victor and erected the trophy, we should share in His joy and happiness. It is for our salvation that He has accomplished all these things. And He has triumphed over the devil by the devil's own devices. He has taken the devil's own weapons and waged the contest with them. Listen to how He did this.

A virgin, a tree, and death had been the instruments of our defeat. For Eve was a virgin; she had not yet known Adam when she was seduced by the devil. The tree was the tree of knowledge, and death was the penalty it imposed on Adam. You see how a virgin, a tree and death became the instruments of our fall? Now see how they next became the instruments of our victory. Mary takes the place of Eve. The tree of the cross replaces the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Lord's death replaces the death of Adam. Do you see how the devil is defeated by the very weapons of his prior victory? The devil had vanquished Adam by means of a tree. Christ vanquished the devil by means of the tree of the cross. The tree sent Adam to hell. The tree of the cross has recalled men from there. The tree had shown Adam laid prostrate, naked and low. The tree of the cross manifested to all the victorious Christ, naked and nailed on high. Adam's death sentence passed on to his successors. Christ's death gave life even to His predecessors. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord or show forth all his praises? (Ps. 106:2). Through death we men have become immortal. Through a fall we have risen. Through a defeat we have emerged as victors.

Do not, then, dishonor this feast, I beg you, but assume sentiments worthy of the favors bestowed on us by the grace of Jesus Christ. Let us not give ourselves up to excesses of drinking and eating, but, considering the liberality of our common Mother who gives equal honor to rich and poor, slaves and freemen, who confers her gifts equally upon all, let us strive to recognize the blessings of God who bears us testimony of so much love. We cannot recognize them better than by a life which is agreeable to Him, by increased carefulness. There is no need, then, on this feast which we solemnize, of riches and great expense, but only of a right will and a pure heart. Today there are no physical advantages: all is spiritual — the preaching of the word, the hallowed prayers, the priests' blessings, participation in the divine mysteries, peace and concord, and, finally, all the spiritual gifts worthy of the generosity of God. Joyfully, then, let us celebrate the day on which the Lord has risen. Yes, He has risen and with Himself He has raised up the whole earth. He has risen after breaking the bonds of death; He has raised us after having broken the bonds of our crimes. (Text: PG 52.765).

In this present life the subject of our meditation should be the praise of God, because divine praise is another name for eternity: but we cannot or will not praise God in eternity if we do not prepare ourselves in time by the discipline of prayer: praise in eternity, prayer in time. Then our praise will be marked by joy; now our prayer is marked by groans ... for this reason there are two seasons, even here on earth, two sacraments ... one of temptation and tribulation, the other ... of rest and exultation: in other words there is the season before Easter and the season after Easter. The season before Easter signifies the tribulations in which we now are; the season after Easter signifies the bliss in which we shall then be. The fast we keep before Easter is a sacrament of the present, life: the festival we keep after Easter is a sacrament of the life to come. Thus we spend Lent in fast and prayer, but we spend Pentecost in festival and praise: the one is before the Lord's resurrection; the other is after the resurrection. The baptism of the Lord invites us to accept this present life of trial, in which we must work and suffer and die; but the resurrection of the Lord invites us to hope for the life that is to come, when He shall come who shall make every recompense, evil for evil and good for good. (Text: CCL 40.2165).

We begin the holy fast on the fifth day of Pharmuthi (March 31), and adding to it according to the number of those six holy and great days, which are the symbol of the creation of this world, let us rest and cease (from fasting) on the tenth day of the same Pharmuthi (April 5), on the holy Sabbath of the week. And when the first day of the holy week dawns and rises upon us, on the eleventh day of the same month (April 6), from which again we count all the seven weeks one by one, let us keep feast on the holy day of Pentecost — on that which was at one time to the Jews, typically, the feast of weeks, in which they granted forgiveness and settlement of debts; and indeed that day was one of deliverance in every respect. Let us keep the feast on the first day of the great week, as a symbol of the world to come, in which we here receive a pledge that we shall have everlasting life hereafter. Then, having passed hence, we shall keep a perfect feast with Christ, while we cry out and say, like the saints, 'I will pass to the place of the wondrous tabernacle, to the house of God; with the voice of gladness and thanksgiving, the shouting of those who rejoice' whence pain and sorrow and sighing have fled, and upon our heads gladness and joy shall have come to us! May we be judged worthy to be partakers in these things.

Let us remember the poor, and not forget kindness to strangers; above all, let us love God with all our soul, and might, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. So may we receive those things which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, which God hath prepared for those that love Him, through His only Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; through whom, to the Father alone by the Holy Spirit be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: PG 1366=LNPF, ser 2,4.509).

We begin the fast of forty days on the thirteenth of the month Phamenoth (March 9). After we have given ourselves to fasting in continued succession, let us begin the holy Paschal week on the eighteenth of the month Pharmuthi (April 13). Then resting on the twenty-third of the same month Pharmuthi (April 18), and keeping the feast afterwards on the first of the week, on the twenty-fourth (April 19), let us add to these the seven weeks of the great Pentecost, wholly rejoicing and exulting in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom to the Father be glory and dominion in the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

The brethren which are with me salute you. Salute one another with a holy kiss.

Here ended the second Festal Letter of the holy lord Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. (ibid. 1371=LNPF ser. 2, 4.512).

When the season of Lent is at hand, it is observed in the following manner. Now whereas with us the forty days preceding Easter are observed, here they observe the eight weeks before Easter. This is the reason why they observe eight weeks: On Sundays and Saturdays they do not fast, except on the one Saturday which is the vigil of Easter, when it is necessary to fast. Except on that day, there is absolutely no fasting here on Saturdays at any time during the year. And so, when eight Sundays and seven Saturdays have been deducted from the eight weeks — for it is necessary, as I have just said, to fast on one Saturday — there remain forty-one days which are spent in fasting, which are called here eortae, that is to say, Lent.

On each day of each week this is what is done. On Sunday, at the first cockcrow, the bishop inside the Anastasis reads from the Gospel the passage of the resurrection of the Lord, as is done on every Sunday throughout the year; and all the same ceremonies are performed until daybreak at the Anastasis and at the Cross as are preformed on every other Sunday during the year. Afterwards, in the morning, as always happens on Sunday, everyone assembles for the liturgy in the major church called the Martyrium, on Golgotha behind the Cross, where the rites customarily performed on Sunday are accomplished. When the dismissal has been given from the church, everyone chanting hymns goes to the Anastasis, as is always done on Sundays. By the time these ceremonies are completed, the fifth hour is at hand. The usual vespers service takes place at its regular hour at the Anastasis and the Cross, just as it does in all holy places. On Sundays there is no service at the ninth hour.

On Monday one also goes to the Anastasis at cockcrow, where everything is done just as it always is until morning. Once again at the third hour everyone returns to the Anastasis, where the ritual customarily observed at the sixth hour throughout the year is now celebrated, for during Lent a service has been added, so that they go at the third hour as well. At the sixth hour and at the ninth hour and at vespers those services take place which customarily are celebrated throughout the year in these holy places. The same ritual is celebrated in exactly the same manner on Tuesday as on Monday.

On Wednesday, while it is still night, they go to the Anastasis, where the usual ritual is observed until morning; and the third and sixth hours are observed as usual. But as it is always the custom at the ninth hour throughout the year on Wednesdays and Fridays to assemble for the liturgy in the church of Sion at this hour — for in these parts on Wednesdays and Fridays they always fast, even the catechumens, unless the day happens to be the feast of a martyr — they consequently assemble for the liturgy at Sion at the ninth hour. If by chance during Lent the feast day of a martyr occurs on a Wednesday or a Friday, they do not assemble for the liturgy at Sion at the ninth hour. During Lent, as I have already said, on Wednesday everyone assembles for the liturgy at Sion at the ninth hour as is customary throughout the year, and whatever ritual is customarily observed at that time takes place, except for the offering of the sacrifice. So that the people will know the law, the bishop and a priest preach assiduously. When the dismissal has been given, the people, chanting hymns, lead the bishop from there to the Anastasis. They come from there in such a way that it is already the hour of vespers when they enter the Anastasis. Hymns and antiphons are sung, prayers are said, and the vespers service takes place at the Anastasis and the Cross. The vespers service during Lent is always held later than it is on other days throughout the year.

On Thursday everything is done just as on Monday and Tuesday. On Friday everything is done as on Wednesday; and so everyone goes to Sion at the ninth hour, and the bishop is likewise led back from there to the Anastasis to the accompaniment of hymns. But on Friday they celebrate the vigil in the Anastasis from the hour when they have returned from Sion singing hymns until morning, that is, from the hour of vespers until the beginning of morning on the following day, which is Saturday. The sacrifice is offered early in the Anastasis that the dismissal may be given before sunrise. All during the night psalms with responses and antiphons are sung alternately; there are readings from Scripture; and all this continues until morning. The divine service which takes place on Saturdays at the Anastasis — I mean, of course, the offering of the sacrifice — is celebrated before sunrise, so that at the hour when the sun begins to rise, the divine service has taken place at the Anastasis. This is how the ritual is celebrated every week during Lent. (Text: SC 296.256=ACW 38.97).

The fasts before Easter will be found to be differently observed among different people. Those at Rome fast three successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. Those in Illyrica and all over Greece and Alexandria observe a fast of six weeks, which they term 'the forty days' fast.' Others commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting three to five days only, and that at intervals, yet call that time 'the forty days' fast.' It is indeed surprising to me that thus differing in the number of days, they should both give it one common appellation; but some assign one reason for it, and others another, according to their several fancies. One can see also a disagreement about the manner of abstinence from food, as well as about the number of days. Some wholly abstain from things that have life: others feed on fish only of all living creatures: many, together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that according to Moses, these were likewise made out of the waters. Some abstain from eggs, and all kinds of fruits: others partake of dry bread alone; still others eat not even this: while others, having fasted till the ninth hour, afterwards take any sort of food without distinction. And among various nations there are other usages, for which innumerable reasons are assigned. Since however no one can produce a written command as an authority, it is evident that the apostles left each one to his own free will in the matter, to the end that each might perform what is good not by constraint or necessity. Such is the difference in the churches on the subject of fasts. (Text: PG 67.633).

The resurrection of Christ has caused a double Spring to rise on the world. How 'double'? Because along with the Spring visible to our senses has arisen the intelligible Spring. The intelligible Sun, Christ, the lamp of souls, illuminator of the darkness, traversing the Passion like Winter, traversing Hades, death, and the tomb like somber clouds, has shown us in the resurrection a brilliant light and a radiant rising. Since the spring of the resurrection has arisen and since Christ, like the sun, has caused souls to rise by the wood of the cross, the vernal shower of baptism has come and has caused the newly-illuminated to be as resplendent as the flowers of Spring. (Text: SC 187.74).

From the grain ... let us pass to an examination of trees, noting how winter brings death to them each year. When their fruits are gathered the leaves fall and the trees remain bare and devoid of beauty. But when the moment of spring comes they are covered in beautiful blossoms and are clothed again with shady leaves. It is a sight to delight the eyes of man, a concert hall full of tuneful birds sitting among the branches. (Text: PG 46.669).

The life of reptiles leads me to the same conclusion, for their dynamic spark is dead in winter when they lie completely motionless in their holes for six months. But when the appointed time comes, and thunder reverberates through the world, they hear its sound like some signal of life, and quickly leap up and return to their customary ways after this long interval. What does this mean? Let the one who criticizes and judges the works of God tell me why he admits that thunder restores the serpents from virtual death and yet denies that men are revived at the sound of God's trumpet as the Scripture says: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise (I Cor. 15:52; Text: ibid. 672).

"It is not the natural custom of spring to shine forth all at once but there come as preludes of spring the sunbeam gently warming earth's frozen surface, and the bud half hidden beneath the clod, and breezes blowing over the earth so that the fertilizing and generative power of the air penetrates deeply into it. One may see the fresh and tender grass, the return of birds which winter had banished and many such tokens which are rather signs of spring than spring itself. (Text: PG 46.1044).

What flower in spring is so bright, what voices of singing birds so sweet, what breezes that soothe the calm sea so light and mild, what glebe so fragrant to the husbandmen, whether it be teeming with green blades or waving with fruitful ears, as is the spring of the soul lit up with peaceful beams from the radiance which shone in your letter which raised our life from despondency to gladness. (Text. PG 46.1040).

Gone is the hateful threat of winter, the bad weather and darkness have vanished, the rains and sharp winds have subsided. Spring days are here again, summoning the farmer from his torpor and inactivity to work. The meadows are bedecked with flowers. Trees on mountainside and in gardens begin to sprout new buds, as from nature's womb. Fields are clothed with green. All this is a monument of God's providence. (Text: PG 77.429).

Spring is especially suitable for the Pasch. It is the time when the earth is warmed by the pure, placid rays of the sun. Trees bud. Grass comes to greenness. Among the flowers laughing in the meadows is the lily. The bee emerges from the hive and pursues its gathering of honey unimpeded by rain. Beasts leave their places of hibernation, lambs frisk. The knife for pruning the vines is sharpened.

The many-headed dragon, the devil, is winter's darkness. Christ is the Sun emerging with light to scatter his reign of darkness.

Let us really rejoice and be glad in it, because we have seen what we desired, because we have grasped what we sought, because we have contemplated what we awaited, because the Christian spring has dawned, because the flowers of the saints have blossomed, because the lilies of the newly-illuminated have matured, because the children of the (baptismal) bath have been resplendent. Truly, this is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24; Text: PG 77. 429).

At what season does the Savior rise? Is it in summer or at another time? The winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning has come (Cant. 2:12). Is not the land now full of flowers, and are not the vines being pruned? You see how he said also that the winter was past. For in this month (Xanthicus), spring is already come. This is the time, the first month among the Hebrews in which is celebrated the feast of the Pasch, formerly the figurative Pasch, but now the true. This is the season of the creation of the world; for God then said: Let the earth bring forth vegetation, yielding seed according to its kind and according to its likeness (Gen. 1:11). Now, as you see, every herb is in seed. At that time God made the sun and the moon and gave them courses of equal day and night; just a few days ago we had the equinox. Then God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). Man received the image but obscured the likeness by his disobedience. His loss of grace and his restoration took place in the same season. At this season created man, by his disobedience, was cast out of Paradise; then, he, who believed by his obedience, was brought in. Salvation came about in the same season as the Fall, when the flowers appeared, and the time of pruning was come (cf. Cant. 2:12).

Just consider the spring, and the various kinds of flowers, so alike and yet so diverse, the deep red of the rose and the pure white of the lily. (Text: PG 33.836=FOTC 64.37).

... the year, has the stamp of a world coming to birth, as the splendor of the springtime shines forth all the more clearly because of the winter's ice and darkness now past. The shape of the circles of years to come has been given form by the first dawn of the world. Based on that precedent, the succession of years would tend to arise, and at the commencement of each year new seedlings would be produced, as the Lord God has said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb and such as may seed, and the fruit tree, yielding fruit after its kind. And immediately the earth produced the green herb and the fruit-bearing tree (Gen. 1:11). By this very fact both the constant mildness of divine Providence and the speed in which the earth germinates favor for us the hypothesis of a vernal period. For, although it was in the power of God to ordain creation at any time whatsoever and for earthly nature to obey, so that amid winter's ice and frost earth might bear and produce fruits under the fostering hand of His celestial power, He refrained. It was not in His eternal plan that the land held fast in the rigid bonds of frost should suddenly be released to bear fruits and that blooming plants should mingle with frosts unsightly.

Wherefore, in order to show that the creation of the world took place in the spring, Scripture says: This month shall be to you the beginning of months, it is for you the first in the

months of the year (Ex. 12:2), calling the first month the springtime. It was fitting that the beginning of the year be the beginning of generation and that generation itself be fostered by the gentler breezes. The tender germs of matter would be unable to endure exposure to the bitter cold of winter or to the torrid heat of summer.

At the same time, one may note, since it belongs here by right, that the entrance into this generation and into this way of life seems to have occurred at the time when the regular transition from this generation to regeneration takes place.

The sons of Israel left Egypt in the season of spring and passed through the sea, being baptized in the cloud and in the sea (I Cor. 10:1), as the Apostle said. At that time each year the Pasch of Jesus Christ is celebrated, that is to say, the passing over from vices to virtues, from the desires of the flesh to grace and sobriety of mind, from the unleavened bread of malice and wickedness to truth and sincerity (1 Cor. 5:8). Accordingly, the regenerated are thus addressed: This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it is for you the first in the months of the year (Ex. 12:2; Text: PL 14.128=FOTC 42.12).

For the prescribed forty days coincide in time with that season of the year when nature experiences a thaw; it is the business of fasting to produce a thaw in our soul. This is not a coincidence. God is sketching His will for us through the living motions of nature. The earth during the appointed forty days rids itself of winter's harshness and is cut through by the plough that it might become suitable for earthly crops. We, during the forty days, give up the harshness of sin; fasting digs up our earth to render it receptive to heavenly seeds. And just as this is the season for the young twig of a tree to become fruitful and for new branches to produce buds so also at this time man's lifeless hope revives and lost faith is restored for glory. Nature adorns herself with blossoms and seems to honor the great feast day with her splendor. We, likewise, should now produce roses from our thorns, that is, justice instead of sin, compassion in place of sternness, and instead of avarice, liberality. Only by fasting can we be free of the thorns of our sins. For fasting produces chastity, humility and moderation — the blossoms of our life which blossoms Christ finds fragrant. (Text: CCL 23.276).

Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). For though there are no seasons which are not full of divine blessings, and though access is ever open to us to God's mercy through His grace, yet now all men's minds should be moved with greater zeal to spiritual progress, and animated by larger confidence, when the return of the day, on which we were redeemed, invites us to all the duties of godliness: that we may keep the super-excellent mystery of the Lord's Passion with bodies and hearts purified. These great mysteries do indeed require from us such unflagging devotion and unwearied reverence that we should remain in God's sight always the same, as we ought to be found on the Easter feast itself. But because few have this constancy, and, because so long as the stricter observance is relaxed in consideration of the frailty of the flesh, and so long as one's interests extend over all the various actions of this life, even pious hearts must get some soil from the dust of the world, the Divine Providence has with great beneficence taken care that the discipline of the forty days should heal us and restore the purity of our minds, during which the faults of other times might be redeemed by pious acts and removed by chaste fasting. (Text: PL 54.275= LNPF. Ser. 2, 12.155).

Let works of piety, therefore, be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their hardships, by the orphans in their destitution, and by solitary widows in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one's income is small, whose heart is big: and the measure of one's mercy and goodness does not depend on the size of one's means. Wealth of good will is never rightly lacking, even in a slender purse. Doubtless the expenditure of the rich is greater, and that of the poor smaller, but there is no difference in the fruit of their works, where the purpose of the workers is the same. (Text: ibid. 270=LNPF ser. 2, 12. 155).

Stand, therefore, dearly-beloved, as the Apostle says, having the loins of your mind girt in truth, and your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:14). Relying, therefore, dearly-beloved, on these arms, let us enter actively and fearlessly on the contest set before us: so that in this fasting struggle we may not rest satisfied with only this end, that we should think abstinence from food alone desirable. For it is not enough that the substance of our flesh should be. reduced, if the strength of the soul be not also developed. When the outer man is somewhat subdued, let the inner man be somewhat refreshed; and when bodily excess is denied to our flesh, let our mind be invigorated by spiritual delights. Let every Christian scrutinize himself, and search severely into his inmost heart: let him see that no discord cling there, no wrong desire be harbored. Let chasteness drive incontinence far away; let the light of truth dispel the shades of deception; let the swellings of pride subside; let wrath yield to reason; let the darts of ill-treatment be shattered, and the chidings of the tongue be bridled; let thoughts of revenge fall through, and injuries be given over to oblivion. In fine, let every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted be removed by the roots (Mt. 15:13). For then only are the seeds of virtue well nourished in us, when every foreign germ is uprooted from the field of wheat. (Text: ibid. 267=LNPF ser. 2, 12.153).

On all days and seasons, indeed, dearly beloved, some marks of the divine goodness are set, and no part of the year is destitute of sacred mysteries .... For as the Easter festival approaches, the greatest and most binding of fasts is kept, and its observance is imposed on all the faithful without exception; because no one is so holy that he ought not to be holier, nor so devout that he might not be more devout. (Text: ibid. 302).

For this reason I exhort you, dearest brethren, to rise rather early for the vigils, and above all to come to terce, sext and none. Let no one withdraw himself from the holy office unless either infirmity or public service or at least great necessity keeps him occupied. Let it not be enough for you that you hear the divine lessons in church, but read them yourselves at home or look for someone else to read them and willingly listen to them when they do. Remember the thought of our Lord, brethren, when He says: If he were to gain the whole world and destroy himself in the process, what can a man offer in exchange for his very self (Mt 16:26)? Above all keep in mind and always fear greatly what is common knowledge: The burdens of the world have made them miserable. Therefore busy yourself in your home in such a way that you do not neglect your soul. Finally, if you cannot do more, at least labor as much on behalf of your soul as you desire to labor for the sake of your body ... for ... by fasting, reading, and prayer in these forty days we ought to store up for our souls provisions, as it were, for the whole year. Although through the mercy of God you frequently and devoutly hear the divine lessons throughout the entire year, still during these days we ought to rest from the winds and the sea of this world by taking refuge, as it were, in the haven of Lent, and in the quiet of silence to receive the divine lessons in the receptacle of our heart. Devoting ourselves to God out of love for eternal life, during these days let us with all solicitude strive to repair and compose in the little ship of our soul whatever throughout the year has been broken, or destroyed, or damaged, or ruined by many storms, that is, by the waves of sins. And since it is necessary for us to endure the storms and tempests of this world while we are still in this frail body, as often as the enemy wills to lead us astray by means of the roughest storms or to deceive us by the most voluptuous pleasures, with God's help may he always find us prepared against him....

Therefore, I beseech you again and again. During these holy days of Lent if you cannot cut off the occupations of this world, at least strive to curtail them in part. By fleeing from this world, through an expedient loss and a most glorious gain you may take away from earthly occupations a few hours in which you can devote yourselves to God. For this world either laughs at us or is laughed at by us; either we yield to it and are despised, or we despise it in order to obtain eternal rewards. Thus you either reject and despise the world, or you yield to it and are pursued or even trampled upon by it. But it is better for you to despise the world and by trampling upon it to make a step for yourself whereby you may ascend on high. If, in accord with your usual practice, you both willingly heed and strive faithfully to fulfill, dearest brethren, the truths which we are suggesting for the salvation of all by presuming upon your obedience, you will celebrate Easter with joy and will happily come to eternal life. (Text: CCL 104. 792=FOTC 66.42).

Come let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us (Ps. 95:6); and again: Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning (Joel 2:12). If we notice carefully, dearest brethren, the holy days of Lent signify the life of the present world, just as Easter prefigures eternal bliss. Now just as we have a kind of sadness in Lent in order that we may rightly rejoice at Easter, so as long as we live in this world we ought to do penance in order that we may be able to receive pardon for our sins in the future and arrive at eternal joy. Each one ought to sigh over his own sins, shed tears, and give alms in such a way that with God's help he may always try to avoid the same faults as long as he lives. Just as there never has been, is not now, and never will be a soul without slight sins, so with the help and assistance of God we ought to be altogether without serious sins.

Now in order that we may obtain this, if burdens of the world keep us occupied at other times, at least during the holy days of Lent let us reflect on the law of the Lord, as it is written, by day and by night (Ps. 1:2). Let us so fill our hearts with the sweetness of the divine law that we leave no place within us devoid of virtues so that vices could occupy it. Just as at the time of the harvest or vintage, brethren, enough is gathered so that the body may be fed, so during the days of Lent as at a time of spiritual harvest or vintage we ought to gather the means whereby our soul may live for ever. (Text: ibid. 799= FOTC 66.49).

Willingly listen to the divine lessons in church, as you usually do, and read them over again in your own homes. If anyone is so busy that he cannot take time for holy Scripture before lunch, he should not be ashamed to read over something of it at his own little meal. In this way just as the body is fed with food, so the soul is refreshed by the word of God; then the whole man, that is, both the exterior and the interior, may rise up satisfied from the holy and salutary feast. For if only the body is refreshed, but the soul is not fed on the word of God, the handmaid is satisfied but the mistress is tormented by hunger, and your holy selves know how wrong this is. For this reason, as I have already said, you ought to read and listen to the sacred lessons with such eagerness that you may be able to speak about them and teach them to others both in your own homes and elsewhere, wherever you are. As you, like clean animals, masticate the word of God by continuous reflection, you may be able both to procure useful flavor for yourselves, that is, their spiritual meaning, and with God's help give it to others. (Text: ibid. 801=FOTC 66.51-52).

It is good to fast, brethren, but it is better to give alms. If anyone can do both, those are two good acts; but if he cannot, the almsgiving is better. If there is no possibility of fasting, almsgiving without fasting is enough for a man, but fasting without almsgiving does not suffice at all. Therefore if a man cannot fast, almsgiving without fasting is good; but if he can do so, fasting along with almsgiving is no good unless it happens that a man is so poor that he possesses nothing at all that he can give. For such a man good will is sufficient, if he has nothing to give, according to what is written: Glory to God in high heaven, peace on earth to men of good will (Lk. 2:14).

Who will there be who can excuse himself, when our Lord promises that He would give a reward even for a cup of cold water? Now why did He say cold water? Perhaps so no poor man could excuse himself because of lack of wood or say in truth that he had no vessel in which to heat the water. Finally through the blessed prophet, dearest brethren, the Lord exhorts and admonishes us to almsgiving in such a way that almost no one is so poor that he can excuse himself. For thus he speaks: This is the fasting that I wish, says the Lord: sharing your bread with the hungry (Isa. 58:6). He did not say that he should give it all, because perhaps that poor man had nothing else, but sharing it, he says. This means that even if your poverty is so great that you have nothing but one loaf, nevertheless break off some of it and give it to the poor. Sheltering the oppressed and the homeless (Isa. 58:7), he also says. If anyone is so poor that he has no food to give to the poor, at least he should prepare a little bed for the stranger in some corner of his house. What are we going to say to this, brethren? What excuse will we be able to offer if we have roomy, spacious homes but scarcely ever condescend to receive a stranger? We do not know, or rather do not believe, that Christ is received in all strangers, as He Himself said: I was a stranger, and you welcomed me (Mt. 25:35), and As often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me (Mt. 25:40)....

Therefore, as we suggested above, dearest brethren, let an abundance of almsgiving make our fasts acceptable, for fasting without almsgiving is like a lamp without oil. Just as a lamp which is lit without oil can smoke but cannot give light, so fasting without almsgiving pains the body, to be sure, but does not illuminate the soul with the light of charity. As for our present course of action, brethren, let us in the meantime fast in such a way that we lavish our lunches upon the poor, so that we may not store up in our purses what we intended to eat, but rather in the stomachs of the poor. Truly the hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ. (Text: ibid. 804=66.54).

Now I believe that through the inspiration of God as the special feasts approach, you, dear people, always observe chastity even with your own wives several days before that. Nevertheless, although it is unnecessary, at the sight of your dear selves I even remind you of what I believe you are doing. If with God's help you observe chastity throughout Lent and even to the end of Eastertide, then at that sacred Paschal feast when you are clothed with the brightness of charity, purified by almsgiving, adorned by prayer, vigils, and fasts as with heavenly, spiritual pearls, at harmony not only with your friends but also with your enemies, when you approach the altar of the Lord with a secure and easy conscience, you will be able to receive His Body and Blood, not to your judgment, but as a remedy. (Text; ibid. 806=66.57).

The beginning of the fast of forty days is on the fifth of Phamenoth (March 1); and when, as I have said, we have first been purified and prepared by those days, we begin the holy week of the great Easter on the tenth of Pharmuthi( April 1), in which, my beloved brethren, we should use more prolonged prayers, and fastings, and watchings, that we may be enabled to anoint our lintels with precious blood, and to escape the destroyer. Let us rest, then, on the fifteenth of the month of Pharmuthi (April 10), for on the evening of that Saturday we hear the angels' message, Why seek ye the Living One among the dead? He is risen (Lk. 24:5). Immediately afterwards that great Sunday receives us, I mean on the sixteenth of the same month Pharmuthi (April 11), on which our Lord, having risen, gave us peace towards our neighbors. (Cyril of Alexandria; Text: PG 26.1376=LNPF ser. 2, 4.515).

The forty-day fast of Lent draws its authority from the Old Testament, from the fasts of Moses and Elias, and from the Gospel, because the Lord fasted that many days, showing that the Gospel is not at variance with the Law and the Prophets. The Law is personified by Moses, the prophets by Elias, between whom the Lord appeared transfigured on the mountain, making manifest what the Apostle said of Him: being witnessed by the law and the prophets (Rom. 3:21). In what part of the year, then, could the observance of Lent be more appropriately instituted than that adjoining, so to speak, and touching on the Lord's Passion? In it is portrayed this toilsome life, with its need of self-conquest, to be achieved by withdrawing from the friendship of the world, a deceitful and flattering friendship, always displaying and strewing about its counterfeit enticements. And I think that life itself is represented by the number forty, because the number ten, in which is the perfection of our happiness ... is made known in time to the world, because the world is divided by four winds, made up of four elements, and goes through the changes of

four seasons annually; but four times ten makes forty, and forty, composed of its parts, is added to ten and becomes fifty, which is the reward of labor and self-restraint. Not without reason did the Lord Himself remain on this earth forty days after his resurrection, when He conversed with His disciples in this life, and when He had ascended into heaven, after a space of ten days, He sent the promised Holy Spirit on the perfected day of Pentecost. There is another mystery connected with the fiftieth day, in the fact that seven times seven makes forty-nine, and when there is a return to the beginning, which is the octave, identical with the first, fifty is complete; and these days after the Lord's resurrection form a period, not of labor, but of peace and joy. That is why there is no fasting and we pray standing, which is a sign of resurrection. This practice is observed at the altar on all Sundays, and the Alleluia is sung, to indicate that our future occupation is to be no other than the praise of God, as it is written: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they shall praise thee for ever and ever (Ps. 84:5).

But, the fifty-day period is also praised in Scripture, not only in the Gospel, because the Holy Spirit came on the fiftieth day, but even in the Old Testament. Therein, fifty days are numbered from the celebration of the Pasch by the killing of a lamb, to the day on which the Law was given on Mount Sinai to the servant of God, Moses. This Law was written with the finger of God (Ex. 31:18), and this finger of God the New Testament explicitly identifies with the Holy Spirit...

A lamb is slain, the Pasch is celebrated, and after fifty days the Law, written with the finger of God, is given in fear: Christ is slain, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7), as the Prophet Isaiah testifies, the true Pasch is celebrated, and after fifty days the Holy Spirit, who is the finger of God, is given in love. He is opposed to men who seek their own, who therefore bear a hard yoke and a heavy burden, who do not find rest to their souls, because charity is not self-seeking (1 Cor. 13:5)....

Read Exodus, and see how many days after the celebration of the Pasch the Law was given. God spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai on the third day of the third month. Notice, therefore, one day after the beginning of that same third month, and see what He says, among other things: Go down, testify to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and the third day, and let them wash their garments, and let them be ready against the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:10). The Law, then, was obviously given on the third day of the third month. Now count the days from the fourteenth of the first month, when the Pasch was kept, to the third day of the third month: you will have seventeen of the first month, thirty of the second, three of the third, which makes fifty. The Law in the Ark is sanctification in the body of the Lord, through whose resurrection future rest is promised to us, to be attained by the charity breathed into us by the Holy Spirit. But, as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (Jn. 7:39). Hence, that prophecy was sung: Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place, thou and the ark which thou hast sanctified (Ps. 132:8). Where there is rest, there is also sanctification. So, we have now received a pledge that we may love and desire it. To the repose of the other life, to which we pass over from this life — according to the meaning of Pasch — all are called in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19; Text: PL 33.217=FOTC 12.283).

We, as has been handed down to us, ought to abstain from genuflecting not merely on Resurrection Day ... but for the duration of Pentecost, whose celebration is marked by the same character of joy. (Text: CCL 1.271).

That is why three seasons of the year have been prefigured as a model for the Savior himself, so that the mysteries announced about Him beforehand might be accomplished: on the Pasch, to show that He himself was the true lamb who would be immolated and would be shown as the true Pasch ... and at Pentecost to signify beforehand the kingdom of the heavens, He himself having first ascended into the heavens and offering man as a present to God. (Text: PG 83.173).

We who are risen with Christ ... are always living in the season of Pentecost, especially, when going up to the upper chamber like the apostles in Jerusalem ... If you recall, the Law orders an offering of first fruits to be made on the day of Pentecost. On this day the shadow was clearly given to the Jews, but the reality was reserved for us. On the day of Pentecost after the sacrifice of prayer was offered, the Church of the Apostles received the first fruits of the coming of the Holy Spirit. This was truly an innovation ... that is why they were said to be full of new wine. (Text: GCS 6. 291-291).

... all of Pentecost reminds us of the resurrection which we await in the world to come.... For that one and first day, if seven times multiplied by seven, completes the seven weeks of the Holy Pentecost; for beginning at the first, Pentecost ends with the same, making fifty revolutions through the same intervening days. And so it is a symbol of eternity, beginning as it does and ending, as in a circling course, at the same point. On this day the rulers of the Church have trained us to pray in the upright position and by this exercise to lift up our minds to the future and to rise above the present. Moreover, whenever we fall on our knees and rise again we show by that very act the weight of our sins that brings us down to the earth and the kindness of the Creator that lifts us up to Heaven. (Text: SC 17.486).

Each one of these events took place during a most important festival, I mean the august and holy solemnity of Pentecost, which is distinguished by a period of seven weeks, and sealed with that one day on which the holy Scriptures attest the ascension of our common Savior into heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit among men. In the course of this feast the emperor received the privileges I have described; and on the last day of all, which one might justly call the feast of feasts, he was removed about midday to the presence of his God, leaving his mortal remains to his fellow mortals, and carrying into fellowship with God that part of his being which was capable of understanding and loving him. Such was the close of Constantine's mortal life. Let us now attend to the circumstances which followed this event. (Text: PG 20.1220).

The Gospel relates that after His resurrection He breathed on them. But though He bestowed His grace then, He was to lavish it yet more generously; and He says to them, I am ready to give it even now, but the vessel cannot yet hold it: for a while therefore receive you as much grace as you can bear; and look forward for yet more; but remain in the city of Jerusalem, until you be clothed with power from on high (Lk. 24:49). Receive it in part now; then, you shall wear it in its fullness. For he who receives, often possesses the gift but in part; but he who is clothed, is completely enfolded by his robe. Fear not, He says, the weapons and darts of the devil; for you shall bear with you the power of the Holy Spirit. But remember what was lately said, that the Holy Spirit is not divided, but only the grace which is given by Him.

Jesus, therefore, went up into heaven, and fulfilled the promise. For He said to them, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter (Jn. 14:16). So they were sitting, looking for the coming of the Holy Spirit; and when the day of Pentecost was fully come (Acts 2:1), here, in this city of Jerusalem ... on the day of Pentecost, I say, they were sitting, and the Comforter came down from heaven, the Guardian and Sanctifier of the Church, the ruler of souls, the pilot of the tempest-tossed, who leads the wanderers to the light, and presides over the combatants, and crowns the victors. (Text: PG 33.984).

On the feast of Pentecost, which falls on Sunday, the day on which there is the greatest strain on the people, everything is done exactly according to custom from the first cockcrow. The vigil is held in the Anastasis, so that the bishop may read the passage from the Gospel which is always read on Sundays, that of the resurrection of the Lord. Afterwards, the customary ritual is carried out in the Anastasis, just as it is throughout the year. As soon as it is morning, all the people assemble for the liturgy in the major Church, in the Martyrium, where everything customarily done is accomplished. The priests preach and afterwards the bishop. All the prescribed rites are accomplished, that is, the sacrifice is offered in the manner in which it is customarily done on Sundays. On this one day, however, the dismissal is moved up in the Martyrium, so that it is given before the third hour.

As soon as the dismissal has been given in the Martyrium, all the people without exception, singing hymns, lead the bishop to Sion, but in such a manner that they are in Sion at precisely the third hour. When they arrive, there is read from the Acts of the Apostles that passage in which the Holy Spirit came down so that all tongues might be heard and all might understand what was being said. Afterwards the divine service is celebrated in the prescribed manner. Now the priests read there from the Acts of the Apostles that passage which is read because this is the place on Sion — the church now is something else — where at an earlier time, after the Passion of the Lord, the multitude was gathered with the apostles, and where that which we mentioned above was done. Afterwards, the divine service is celebrated in the prescribed manner, and the sacrifice is offered. Then, just before the people are dismissed, the archdeacon raises his voice to say: 'Today, immediately after the sixth hour, let us all be ready at the Imbomum on the Eleona.' All the people then return home, each one to rest in his own house.

Immediately after lunch, everyone, insofar as is possible, goes up to the Mount of Olives, that is, to the Eleona, with the result that not a single Christian remains in the city for they have all gone. As soon as they have climbed the Mount of Olives, the Eleona, that is, they go first of all to the Imbomum, that is, to the place from which the Lord ascended into heaven. The bishop sits down there, and the priests and all the people, too. Passages from Scripture are read, hymns are interspersed and sung, and also antiphons proper to the day itself and the place are sung. The prayers which are interspersed are said in such a manner that they fit both the day and the place. Then the passage from the Gospel is read which speaks of the Ascension of the Lord; then there is the reading from the Acts of the Apostles which speaks of the Ascension of the Lord into heaven after the resurrection. When this has been done, the catechumens are blessed and then the faithful. Then at the ninth hour everyone comes down from there and goes, singing hymns, to the church which is also on the Eleona, that is to say in that grotto where the Lord sat teaching the apostles. By the time they arrive there it is already past the tenth hour. Vespers is held there, a prayer is said, the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed.

Then all the people without exception come down from there singing hymns, everyone together with the bishop singing hymns and antiphons proper to the day itself. And in this fashion they make their way slowly and easily to the Martyrium. When they reach the city gate, it is already night, and around two hundred church candles are brought out for the people. Since it is quite far from the city gate to the major church or Martyrium, it is definitely around the second hour of the night when they arrive, because they move slowly and easily all the way so that the people will not be tired out from walking. And when the great doors which are on the market street side are opened, then all the people, singing hymns, enter the Martyrium with the bishop.

After they have entered the church, hymns are sung, a prayer is said, and the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed. From there, everyone, singing hymns, then goes to the Anastasis. When they have arrived at the Anastasis, in like manner hymns and antiphons are sung, a prayer is said, and the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed. And the same thing is done at the Cross.

Then all the Christian people without exception, singing hymns, lead the bishop to Sion. When they get there, appropriate passages from Scripture are read, psalms and antiphons as well are sung, and a prayer is said. The catechumens are blessed and then all the faithful, and the dismissal is given. Once the dismissal has been given, everyone comes forth to kiss the bishop's hand. Everyone then returns to his own home around midnight. And so a great deal of toil is borne on this day, for the vigil at the Anastasis starts with the first cockcrow, and from then on throughout the whole day there is no stopping. Everything that is celebrated is drawn out to the point that only at midnight, after the dismissal has been given at Sion, does everyone return to his home. (Text: SC 26696.298=ACW 38.118).

Let us reason a little about the festival ... spiritually... Seven was a sacred number among the Jews ... the Sabbath of Israel. The veneration given to this sacred number gave rise to the feast of Pentecost, for seven multiplied by seven is fifty less one day, and this one day was borrowed from the world to come, at once eight and first, one and indestructible. This is the Sabbath of weeks as distinct from the Sabbath of days and that Sabbath of years, called Jubilees, and among the Hebrews it gave rise to Pentecost ... a day called holy among them.... And if you read for yourself you may take note of many numbers which contain a meaning deeper than appears on the surface. But let us come to an instance which is most useful to us on the present occasion; the Hebrews honor the day of Pentecost, and we also honor it; just as there are other rites of the Hebrews which we observe ... they were by way of type observed by them, and by us they are celebrated by way of sacrament. And now having said so much by way of preface about the day, let us proceed to what we have to say further. (Text: PG 36.428).

We are keeping the feast of Pentecost and of the coming of the Spirit, and the appointed time of the Promise, and the fulfillment of our hope. And how great, how august, is the Mystery. The dispensations of the Body of Christ are ended; that of the Spirit is beginning. And what were the things pertaining to the Christ? The Virgin, the Birth, the Manger, the Swaddling, the Angels glorifying Him, the Shepherds running to Him, the course of the Star, the Magi worshipping Him and bringing Gifts, Herod's murder of the children, the Flight of Jesus into Egypt, the Return from Egypt, the Circumcision, the Baptism, the Witness from Heaven, the Temptation, the Stoning for our sake, the Betrayal, the Nailing, the Burial, the Resurrection, the Ascension... Such are the mysteries of Christ...

As regards the Spirit ... may the Spirit be with me, and grant me the gift of speech that I may do justice to this season. He will be with me as my Lord ... for He blows where He wills and on whom He wills and to what extent that He wills. Thus we are inspired both to think and to speak of the Spirit.... Now that I have to some extent prepared you let us return to the subject of the Spirit and hope that you will follow me.

The Holy Spirit always did exist; exists now; and always will exist ... sanctifying, not being sanctified; deifying, not being deified... Life and Lifegiver; Light and Lightgiver; absolute

Good, and Spring of Goodness; the Right, the Princely Spirit; the Lord, the Sender, the Separator; Builder of His own Temple; leading, working as He wills; distributing His own Gifts; the Spirit of Adoption, of Truth, of Wisdom, of Understanding, of Knowledge, of Godliness, of Counsel, of Fear (which are ascribed to Him) by whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified; and by whom alone He is known; one class, one service, worship, power, perfection, sanctification. Why make a long discourse of it? All that the Father hath the Son hath also, except the being unbegotten; and all that the Son hath the Spirit hath also, except the Generation. And these two matters do not divide the Substance, as I understand it, but rather are divisions within the Substance.

Are you laboring to bring forth objections? Well, so am I to get on with my discourse. Honor the day of the Spirit; restrain your tongue if you can a little. It is the time to speak of other tongues — reverence them or fear them, when you see that they are of fire. Today let us teach dogmatically; tomorrow we may discuss. Today let us keep the feast; tomorrow will be time enough to behave ourselves unseemly — the first mystically, the second theatrically; the one in the Churches, the other in the marketplace;

Now the first of these manifests Him — the healing of the sick and casting out of evil spirits, which could not be apart from the Spirit; and so does that breathing upon them after the resurrection, which was clearly a divine inspiration; and so too the present distribution of the fiery tongues, which we are now commemorating. But the first manifested Him indistinctly, the second more expressly, this present one more perfectly, since He is no longer present only in energy, but as we may say, substantially, associating with us, and dwelling in us. For it was fitting that as the Son had lived with us in bodily form — so the Spirit, too, should appear in bodily form; and that after Christ had returned to His own place, He should have come down to us — Coming because He is the Lord; Sent, because He is not a rival God. For such words no less manifest the unanimity than they mark the separate individuality.

And therefore He came after Christ, that a Comforter should not be lacking unto us; but another Comforter, that you might acknowledge His co-equality. For this word another marks an Alter Ego, a name of equal lordship, not of inequality. For another is not said, I know, of different kinds, but of things consubstantial. And He came in the form of tongues because of His close relation to the Word. And they were of fire, perhaps because of His purifying Power. (Text: ibid. 436).

This Spirit shares with the Son in working both the creation and the resurrection, as may be shown by this Scripture; By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the power of them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6).... You shall send forth your spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth (Ps. 104:30).

This Spirit is the author of our spiritual rebirth or regeneration, and here is the proof.

No one can see or enter into the kingdom, except he be born again of the Spirit (Jn. 3:3), and be cleansed from the first birth, which is a mystery of the night, by a remolding of the day and of the Light, by which everyone singly is created anew. This Spirit, for He is most wise and most loving (Wis. 1:6), if He takes possession of a shepherd makes him a Psalmist, subduing evil spirits by his song (1 Sam. 16:23), and proclaims him King; if he possess a gathered and scraper of sycamore fruit, He makes him a prophet. Call to mind David and Amos. If He possess a goodly youth, He makes him a judge of elders, even beyond his years, as Daniel testifies, who conquered the lions in their den (cf. Dan. 6:22). If He takes possession of fishermen, He makes them catch the whole world in the nets of Christ, taking them up in the meshes of the Word. Look at Peter and Andrew and the sons of Thunder, thundering the things of the Spirit. If of publicans, He makes gain of them for discipleship, and makes them merchants of souls; witness Matthew, yesterday a publican, today an evangelist. If of zealous persecutors, He changes the current of their zeal, and makes them Pauls instead of Sauls, and as full of piety as He found them of wickedness. And He is the Spirit of meekness, and yet is provoked by those who sin. Let us therefore make proof of Him as gentle, not as wrathful, by confessing His dignity; and let us not desire to see Him implacably wrathful. He too it is who has made me today a bold herald to you; — if without rest to myself, God be thanked; but if with risk, thanks to Him nevertheless; in the one case, that He may spare those that hate us; in the other, that He may consecrate us, in receiving this reward of our preaching of the Gospel, to be made perfect by blood. (Text: ibid. 444).

They spoke with strange tongues, and not those of their native land; and the wonder was great, a language spoken by those who had not learnt it. And the sign is to them that believe not, and not to them that believe, that it may be an accusation of the unbeliever as it is written, With other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and not even so will they listen to Me, saith the Lorrf (Isa. 28:11). But they heard. (Acts 2:11) Here stop a little and raise a question, how you are to divide the words. For the expression has an ambiguity, which is to be determined by the punctuation. Did they each hear in their own dialect so that, if I may say, one sound was uttered, but many were heard; the air being thus beaten and, so to speak, sounds being produced more clear than the original sound; or are we to put the stop after 'they heard,' and then to add them speaking in their own languages (Acts 2:11) to what follows, so that it would be speaking in languages their own to the hearers, which would be foreign to the speakers? I prefer to put it this latter way; for on the other plan the miracle would be rather of the hearers than of the speakers; whereas in this it would be on the speakers' side; and it was they who were reproached for drunkenness, evidently because they by the Spirit wrought a miracle in the matter of the tongues.

But the old confusion of tongues was laudable, when men who were of one language in wickedness and impiety, were building the tower; by the confusion of their language the unity of their intention was broken up, and their undertaking destroyed; so much more worthy of praise is the present miraculous one. For being poured from One Spirit upon many men, it brings them again into harmony. (Text: ibid. 448).

But let us end this festival now ... enough has been said ... about the earthly festival: later on we shall keep this festival spiritually and forever and understand it more purely and more clearly ... in the Word Himself, God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the true festival and rejoicing of the saved. (text: ibid. 452).

The enemies of the glory of the Spirit fail to see the tongues of fire the divine Scriptures (cf. Acts 2:12-15) which enlightens what is hidden in darkness and mock those who speak with tongues, accusing them of being filled with sweet new wine. But, in spite of their charges against us, I would advise you, brethren, not to fear their rebuke and not to be intimidated by their deprecatory remarks. Would that they could share in this sweet wine, this newly pressed wine which issues from the winepress which the Lord has trodden in the Gospel so that He might give you to drink of the blood of His own grape. Would that they might be filled also with this sweet wine, called nouveau which the innkeepers have not debased by diluting it with the waters of heresy. They could be completely filled with the Spirit, by which those filled with the spirit throw off by foaming the density and slime of lack of faith. But people of that sort cannot receive in themselves the sweet new wine in that they still carry around old wineskins which are unable to contain this new wine but break out in heresy. But now, brethren, as the Prophet says, come, let us rejoice with the Lord, drinking the sweet drink of piety as Esdras recommends (III Esdr. 9:52) and illuminated in the choirs of the apostles and prophets let us rejoice with the gift of the Spirit and exult on that day which the Lord has made, in Christ. (Text: PG 46.700. See R. Cabié, La Pentecote, Paris, 1969, 224).

Today we have come to the culmination of blessings, to that very heaven of feasts — the first fruits of the Lord's promise.

What, then, I ask, of those feasts of salvation ... and the power of the Spirit to dispense through them.

Through the Spirit we are liberated from slavery; we are called to liberty; we are led to adoption; we are fashioned anew; we lay aside the grave and fetid burden of sin.

And through the same Spirit we see the choirs of priests and the orders of teachers.

From this new Spirit — the source of all that decorates the Church of God — flows forth the glory of revelation and the grace of healing. (Text: PG 50. 463).

Since the Lord is going to come on the day of judgment before the fire burns (cf. Ps. 50:3), and fire has always the same intensity, or even burns with greater intensity in the summer, why does He say, pray that your flight be not in winter unless perhaps that he who flees to the mountains should not fear the cold and ice, the storms and the hail of sin, but should rather hope for the serenity of the light summer lest our faltering footsteps should totter on the slippery surface of the body.

Whence also the soul, with sureness of foot, rooted firmly on the ground joyfully says: Winter is past, the time for pruning has come (Cant. 2:11). Because in winter the winds strip the trees of their foliage and the rigors of the cold brings the affliction of death to the tender leaves. In spring, however, the seeds rise and the renewal of summer causes nature to green and sprout. The Pasch occurs in spring when I am saved. In summer there is Pentecost when we celebrate the glory of the resurrection as an image of the future. (Text: SC 52.67).

The Pasch happened at the beginning of Spring ... and Pentecost at the beginning of Summer ... hence the living waters of Spring and the living waters of Summer: many see a reference to baptism of water and baptism of the Spirit in the living waters of Spring and the living waters of Summer; that is to say, at Pasch and Pentecost these waters should be distributed to those who thirst when the Scripture will be fulfilled: Wash and be clean (Isaiah 1:16; Text: PL 25.1528).

"When the marriage feast has ended and the time of the Passion and Resurrection has passed, then at that time the friends of the bridegroom will fast.... Some think this is the reason the fast should be held as soon as the forty days of the Pasch are over ... but to us the days of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit indicate immediately a time of festivity and joy. (Text: PL 26.57).

Would that we could fast at all times, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 13:3), Paul did, even on the days of Pentecost and Sundays, and his fellow believers likewise. Nor do I say this because I personally believe that the fast should be observed on the feast days, or because I want to suppress the feriae which make up the fifty days, but let each province abound in its own good sense. (Text: CSEL 55).

Your question is not without point and deserves to elicit a full response giving the truth in its entirety. After the Ascension of our Lord which took place on the fortieth day after the resurrection the apostles returned from Mount Olivet where He had granted them the sight of His return to the Father, as the reading in the Acts of the Apostles testifies. They entered Jerusalem and awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit for ten days. At the end of this period, that is, on the fiftieth day they received the Spirit with joy. Thus the number fifty consecrated to the present feast is obviously fulfilled.

We also read this number figuratively preshadowed in the Old Testament. There the priests were ordered to offer to the Lord the bread of first fruits at the end of seven weeks (cf. Deut. 16:9). But the true bread of first fruits was really offered to God on that day by the preaching of the apostles to the crowd (cf. Acts 2). This bread was produced by the institution of the new doctrine on which the five thousand were generously nourished and satisfied and the new people of the Christians was offered to God as the first fruits of the Jews.

That is why these ten days should be celebrated with equal solemnity and joy as the previous forty. The tradition of this feast has been handed down to us by Christians of the apostolic age and should be observed in the same spirit. And so we should not genuflect in prayer during these days because kneeling is a sign of penitence and grief. And so we should preserve the same solemnity in all details on these (fifty) days as we do on Sundays on which our elders have handed down that we should not keep the fast or kneel out of reverence for the Lord's resurrection. (Text: SC 64.94).

Then, having strengthened His disciples and having sojourned with them for forty days, He ascended into heaven in their sight (Acts 1:3); and when fifty days from His resurrection had been accomplished, He sent to them the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:1), for so He had promised, that through the love poured forth in their hearts (Rom. 5:5) by Him, they might be able to fulfill the law not only without its being a burden but even with delight. Now this Law was given to the Jews in ten commandments, which they call the Decalogue. And these again reduced to two, namely, that we should love God with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole mind; and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. For that on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the prophets the Lord Himself has both said in the Gospel and made manifest by His own example. For in the case of the people of Israel likewise, from the day on which they first celebrated the Passover in a figure by killing and eating a sheep, with the blood of which their doorposts were marked to preserve them unharmed — from that day, I say, the fiftieth day was completed when they received the Law written by the finger of God, by which name we have already said that the Holy Spirit is typified; as after the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, who is the true Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), on the fiftieth day the Holy Spirit Himself was sent to the disciples, no longer, however, typifying the hardness of their hearts by tables of stone; but when they were gathered together in one place in Jerusalem itself, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and they began with tongues (Act 2:2), so that all who had come to them recognized each his own tongue; then preaching Christ with all confidence, they wrought many signs in His name, so that, as Peter was passing by, his shadow touched a certain dead man, and he rose again. (Text: PL 40.340=ACW 2.72).

That will be the seventh day, just as if the first day in the whole era were the time from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David, as the Gospel of Matthew divides it; the fourth, from David to the transmigration into Babylon; the fifth, from the transmigration to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sixth day, therefore, begins with the coming of the Lord, and we are living in that sixth day. Hence, just as in Genesis ... man was fashioned in the image of God on the sixth day, so in our time, as if on the sixth day of the entire year, we are born again in baptism so that we may receive the image of our Creator. But, when that sixth day will have passed, rest will come after the judgment, and the holy and just ones of God will celebrate their Sabbath. After the seventh day, however, when the glory of the harvest, the brightness and the merit of the saints have appeared on the threshing floor, then we shall go to that life and rest of which the Scripture says: Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him (I Cor. 2:9). Then we return, as if to the beginning, for just as when seven days have passed, the eighth becomes the first of a new week, so after the seven periods of this transitory world have been spent and completed, we shall return to that immortal blessedness from which man fell. Hence, octaves complete the sacraments of the newly baptized. Hence, too, the number seven multiplied by seven gives forty-nine and with one added it returns to the beginning and becomes fifty, the number of days which we celebrate in symbolic fashion up to the feast of Pentecost. The same number is reached in a different way according to that division whereby the tenfold reward is added to the number forty. Both methods of calculation lead to the same number, fifty. (Text: PL 38.1197=FOTC 38.370).

Attend to this, my brethren: someone may ask me: 'Why did the Lord give the Holy Spirit twice?' Many men have said many things and , as men, they have asked questions. Within the bounds of faith they have had their discussions, one saying one thing, another stating something else, but both keeping within the rule of truth. If I should say that I know why the Lord gave the Holy Spirit twice, I would be lying to you. I do not know why He did this. He who says that He knows what he does not know is rash; he who denies that he knows what he knows is ungrateful. Therefore, I confess to you that I am still seeking the reason why the Lord gave the Holy Spirit twice; I desire to arrive at a more definite conclusion. May the Lord help me because of the instancy of your prayers and, because He deigns to grant favors, may He not be silent in your regard. Hence, I do not know the answer. Nevertheless, although I do not yet know what to think and although I do not yet hold any definite view as to your question, still I hold it as certain that He did give the Holy Spirit twice. Therefore I shall not be silent as to why I hold to this. If my view is correct, may the Lord confirm it; if there is another theory which seems closer to the truth, may the Lord grant me that knowledge.

Hence, I think (but this is merely my own view) that the Holy Spirit was given twice for the purpose of commending to us the two precepts of charity. For, though there are two precepts, there is only one love... One love and two precepts; one Spirit and two bestowals of the Spirit. (Text: ibid. 1222=FOTC 38.416).

Blessed, therefore, are they that suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:10). This eighth maxim, which harks back to the first, and announces the perfected man, is perhaps expressed in the type in the Old Testament by circumcision on the eighth day and by the resurrection of the Lord after the Sabbath which is at once the eighth day of the week and the first; also by the celebration of the octave which we keep on occasion of the rebirth of the renewed man; and by the very name Pentecost. For to the number seven multiplied seven times — making forty-nine — an eighth is added, as it were, so that we have fifty and in a way a return to the beginning. It was on this day that the Holy Spirit was sent by whom we are brought into the kingdom of heaven. (Text: CCL 35.12=ACW 5.21).

The hearts of all Catholics, dearly beloved, realize that today's solemnity deserves to be honored among the most important feasts. One cannot exaggerate the esteem in which this day should be held, which the Holy Spirit has consecrated by the incomparable miracle of the gift of Himself. This day is the tenth from the day when the Lord ascended higher than the heavens ... and the fiftieth from the day of His resurrection, when indeed it began. In itself it contains great revelations of divine realities, of mysteries, both old and new ... for grace was hidden in the Law, and the Law is fulfilled through grace. In times past the Hebrew nation ... was delivered by the sacrifice of a lamb; on the fiftieth day afterwards the Law was given on Mount Sinai: similarly, Christ, the true Lamb of God, was first slain; then on the fiftieth day after the resurrection the Holy Spirit came down on the apostles. In this way all can see that the beginnings of the Old Testament were a type of the beginnings of the Gospel ... for indeed the second Covenant was made by the same spirit that had begun the first. Hence the testimony: while the days of Pentecost were fulfilled ... they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4; Text: SC 74. 144-145).

Today's festival, dearly-beloved, which is celebrated throughout the whole world, has been hallowed by that advent of the Holy Spirit, which on the fiftieth day after the Lord's resurrection, descended on the apostles and the multitude of believers; the Lord Jesus had promised that He should come to fill with greater largess the hearts of those dedicated to Him, increasing and not just beginning.

The magnificence of the Holy Spirit is never separate from the omnipotence of the Father and the Son and whatever the divine order accomplishes proceeds from the providence of the whole Trinity. Therefore, what the Father enlightens the Son enlightens and the Holy Spirit enlightens: and while there is one Person of the Sent, another of the Sender, and another of the Promiser, both the Unity and the Trinity are at the same time' revealed to us, so that the essence which possesses equality and does not admit of singularity is understood to belong to the same substance but not the same Person...

When, therefore, we fix our minds on confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us keep far from our thoughts the forms of things visible, and the limitation of things born in time and space. Let that which is extended in space, that which is enclosed by limit, and whatever is not always everywhere and entire be banished from the heart. The conception of the Triune Godhead must put aside the idea of interval or of grade, and if a man has attained any worthy thought of God, let him not dare to withhold it from any Person therein, as if to ascribe with more honor to the Father that which he does not ascribe to the Son and the Spirit. It is not true godliness to put the Father before the Only-begotten: insult to the Son is insult to the Father: what is detracted from the one is detracted from both...

What the Father has the Son also has, and what the Father and the Son have, the Holy Spirit also has, because the whole Trinity together is One God. But this faith is not the discovery of earthly wisdom nor the conviction of man's opinion: the Only-begotten Son has taught it Himself. (Text: ibid. 157).

Therefore, after the days of holy rejoicing, which we have devoted to the celebration of the Lord rising from the dead and then ascending into heaven, and after receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, a fast is ordained as a wholesome and needful practice, so that, if perchance through neglect or disorder even amid the joys of the festival any undue license has broken out, it may be corrected by the remedy of strict abstinence, which must be the more scrupulously carried out in order that what was on this day divinely bestowed on the Church may abide in us. For, being made the temple of the Holy Spirit, and watered with a greater supply than ever of the Divine Stream, we ought not to be conquered by any lust nor held in bondage by any vice....

Therefore, on Wednesday and Friday let us fast, and on Saturday let us keep vigil in the presence of the most blessed apostle, Peter, by whose prayers we surely trust to be set free from spiritual foes and bodily enemies; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: SC 200.28).

The solemn season of Pentecost, hallowed by the coming of the Holy Spirit, is also a time for baptism, being, as it were, the sequel and completion of the Paschal feast. And while other festivals are held on other days of the week, this festival (of Pentecost) always occurs on a Sunday, which is marked by the Lord's resurrection: inviting those, who have been cut off from the Easter feast by disabling sickness, or length of journey, or difficulties of sailing, to gain the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the Only-begotten of God Himself wished no difference to be felt between Himself and the Holy Spirit in the Faith of believers and in the efficacy of His works....

When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the Truth (Jn. 16:13).

Thus, since Christ is the truth, and the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth, and the name of 'Comforter' appropriate to both, the two festivals are not dissimilar, where the sacrament is the same. (Text: PL 54.699).

Brethren, I believe that you know the reason why this Pentecost day should be celebrated with no less joy than we devoted to the Pasch and why we should have recourse to the observance of this solemnity with the same devotion with which we discharged the responsibilities of that other festival. We did then as we do now; we fasted on the vigil, we celebrated and spent the whole night in prayer. And so a similar joy should follow a similar observance.... (Text: CCL 23.160).

During these days of Pentecost we do not fast because the Lord is with us; sons of the bridegroom, we cannot fast ... rather, we are refreshed during Pentecost because He remains with us. (Text: ibid. 178).

Today, dearest brethren, everything that has been read to us comes together along with the solemn feast. The psalm says: Give me back the joy of your salvation, and with a perfect spirit sustain me. (Ps. 51:14). Moreover, the Gospel says: The Spirit of truth comes (Jn. 16:13), while a passage in the Acts of the Apostles tells us: All were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). Now everything has been fulfilled and made perfect. The psalm asked the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel promised that He would come, and the passage in the Acts related that He had already come. Therefore in the texts nothing is lacking to the order of the divine happenings, because there is a plea in the prophet, a promise in the Gospel, and fulfillment in the Acts. Concerning the same Holy Spirit, the blessed Apostle Paul also gives witness when he says: To one is given wisdom in discourse, to another the power to express knowledge, another receives faith through the same Spirit. But it is one and the same Spirit, who produces all these gifts, distributing them to each as He wills (1 Cor. 12:8). However, after the effort of the vigils, it is not necessary for you to be wearied still more by a longer sermon: whoever desires to hear a fuller sermon on the divinity of the Holy Spirit may come to church early tomorrow. (Text: CCL 104.841=FOTC 66.98).

Four greater feast days have been established for our salvation annually: first in order is the Nativity, secondly, the day of Christ's Epiphany, that is to say, twelve days later. Next, the day on which He suffered, the Pasch, and finally, the day on which He ascended into heaven around Pentecost, which is, of course, the consummation of His victory. Anyone who does not know and omits one of these days can also be doubtful about the other days, not having the fullness of truth, because, in accordance with the four seasons of each year Christ our Lord has been for us the source of different joys, namely, first, the Nativity, second, the Epiphany, third, the day on which He suffered, rose, and appeared, and fourth, the day of His Ascension into heaven. (Text: CCL 9.304, Cabié, 188-189).

In the course of the year four fasts are celebrated in the Church: the first at Christmas, the second at Easter, the third at Ascension, and the fourth at Pentecost. In fact we should fast at the birth of our Lord and Savior, then likewise at Easter during Lent. It is the same at the Ascension into heaven, forty days after Easter, and the ten days which follow, up to Pentecost, or later; that is what the blessed apostles did after the Ascension, persevering in fasting and in prayer (Acts 1:14), as the Scripture says. They deserved at Pentecost to receive the fullness of the Spirit and the perfection of His power to such an extent that, when the Divine Spirit was poured upon them, armed with heavenly weapons, they laid aside all doubts which they held previously, they set forth. Thereupon they set forth to become invincible teachers and glorious martyrs of the Lord Himself. (Text: ibid. 312, Cabié 248).

And while all seasons are opportune for this duty, beloved, yet this present season is specially suitable and appropriate, at which our holy Fathers, being divinely inspired, sanctioned the fast of the tenth month, that when all the ingathering of the crops was complete, we might dedicate to God our reasonable service of abstinence, and each might remember so to use His abundance as to be more abstinent in himself and more open-handed towards the poor. For forgiveness of sins is most efficaciously prayed for with almsgiving and fasting, and supplications that are winged by such aids mount swiftly to God's ears: since as it is written, the merciful man doeth good to his own soul (Prov. 11:17), and nothing is so much a man's own as that which he spends on his neighbor. For that part of his material possessions with which he ministers to the needy, is transformed into eternal riches, and such wealth is begotten of this bountifulness as can never be diminished or in any way destroyed, for blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them (Mt. 5:7), and He Himself shall be their chief Reward, who is the model of His own command (Text: PL 54.177).

The transcendent power of God's grace, dearly beloved, is indeed daily effecting in Christian hearts the transference of our every desire from earthly to heavenly things. But this present life also is passed through the Creator's aid and sustained by His providence, because He who promises things eternal is also the giver of things temporal. Therefore, we ought to give God thanks for the hope of future happiness towards which we run by faith, because He raises us up to a perception of the happiness in store for us; so, for those things which we receive in the course of every year, God should be honored and praised, who from the beginning gave fertility to the earth and laid down laws of bearing fruit for every germ and seed, will never forsake His own decrees but will as Creator ever continue His kind administration of the things that He has made. Whatever therefore the cornfields, the vineyards and the olive groves have borne for man's purposes, all this God in His bounteous goodness has produced: for under the varying condition of the elements He has mercifully aided the uncertain toils of the husbandmen so that wind, and rain, cold and heat, day and night might serve our needs. For men's methods would not have sufficed to give effect to their works, had not God given the increases to their wonted plantings and waterings. And hence it is but godly and just that we, too, should help others with that which the Heavenly Father had mercifully bestowed on us. For there are full many, who have no fields, no vineyards, no olive groves, whose wants we must provide out of the store which God had given, that they too with us may bless God for the richness of the earth and rejoice at its possessors having received things which they have shared also with the poor and the stranger. (Text: ibid. 176).

But there are three things which most belong to religious actions, namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, in the exercising of which while every time is accepted, yet that ought to be more zealously, which we have received as hallowed by tradition from the apostles: even as this tenth month brings round again to us the opportunity when according to the ancient practice we may give more diligent heed to those three things of which I have spoken. For by prayer we seek to propitiate God, by fasting we extinguish the lusts of the flesh, by alms we redeem our sins: and at the same time God's image is throughout renewed in us, if we are always ready to praise him, unfailingly intent on our purification and unceasingly active in cherishing our neighbor. This threefold round of duty, dearly beloved, brings all other virtues into action: it attains to God's image and likeness and unites us inseparably with the Holy Spirit. Because in prayer faith remains steadfast; in fasting life remains innocent; in almsgiving the mind remains kind. On Wednesday and Friday, therefore, let us fast: and on Saturday let us keep vigil with the most blessed Apostle Peter, who will deign to aid our supplications and fast and alms with his own prayers through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. (Text: ibid. 171).

Whenever the Savior would instruct His disciples about the Advent of God's kingdom and the end of the world's times, He said, Take heed lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and care of this life (Lk. 21:34). And assuredly, dearly beloved, we acknowledge that this precept applies more especially to us, to whom undoubtedly the day denounced is near, even though hidden. For the advent of which it behooves every man to prepare himself, lest it find him given over to gluttony, or entangled in cares of this life. (Text: ibid. 185).

Through the divine mercy, beloved brethren, the day on which we long to celebrate with joy the birthday of our Lord and Savior is almost at hand. Therefore I pray and advise that with God's help we labor as much as we can, so that on that day we may be able to approach the altar of the Lord with a pure and upright conscience, a clean heart, and a chaste body. Then we may merit to receive His Body and Blood, not to our judgment, but as a remedy for our souls. Truly our life depends upon the Body of Christ, as the Lord Himself said: If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (Jn. 6:53). Therefore, a man should change his life, if he wants to receive life, for if he does not change his life, he will receive it to his own judgment. Then he is corrupted by it more than he is healed; he is killed rather than given life. For thus the Apostle spoke: He who eats and drinks without recognizing the body and blood of the Lord, eats and drinks a judgment on himself (1 Cor. 11:29).

Although it is fitting for us to be adorned and distinguished by good works at all times, still on the day of the Lord's birth in particular, our good deeds, as He Himself said in the Gospel, ought to shine before men (cf. Mt. 5:16; Text: CCL 104.763=FOTC 66.7).

Beloved brethren, as we are about to begin with sincerest devotion a holy and desirable, glorious and excellent feast, that is, the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, with His help we ought to prepare ourselves with all our strength. Let us carefully examine all the recesses of our soul, lest perchance there be some hidden sin within us to confound and gnaw at our conscience and to offend the eyes of the divine majesty. Although Christ our Lord arose from the dead after His Passion and ascended into heaven, nevertheless, as we believe, He considers and carefully notices how each one of His servants strives to prepare and dispose himself to celebrate His birthday without avarice, anger, pride, or dissipation. In proportion to the way He sees each one adorned with good works, in that measure He will dispense to him the grace of His mercy. If He sees a man clothed with the light of charity, adorned with the pearls of justice or mercy, chaste, humble, merciful, kind and prudent, through the ministry of His priests He will dispense His Body and Blood to such a man, not to His judgment, but as a remedy. But if He sees anyone adulterous, drunk, avaricious and proud, I am afraid that He may say to him what He Himself said in the Gospel: My friend, how is it you came in here not having a wedding garment (Mt. 22:12)? (Text: ibid. 767=FOTC 66.11).

Since the Lord's birthday is approaching, let us with Christ's help prepare ourselves for the nuptials and heavenly banquet by being clear of all dissipation and adorned with good works. Let us give alms to the poor, attend vigils more promptly, pray or chant the psalms standing in church; observe peace with all men, and recall to harmony those whom you know are at variance. If with the help of Christ you are willing to fulfill these things faithfully, you will be able to approach the Lord's altar in this life with an easy conscience and in the future life will happily arrive at eternal bliss. (Text: ibid. 769=66.14).

c. 24. These apostles sanctioned religious observance for Sunday, because on that day our Redeemer rose from the dead. And so this day is called the Lord's Day because on it, abstaining from mundane tasks and worldly attractions, we only give attention to divine worship, giving thereby to this day, honor and reverence because of the hope of our resurrection which we have on it.

For just as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day, so also we hope to do at the end of time. Whence also, standing on the Lord's Day we pray, which is a sign of future resurrection. This the universal Church does, which has been established in the pilgrim state of mortality, awaiting the end of the world what has been shown beforehand in the body of Jesus Christ, Who is the firstborn from the dead.

c. 25. The Sabbath was given to the first people to be celebrated in bodily leisure, so that it might be a figure for rest, whence also the etymology of the word 'Sabbath' is rest. The Lord's Day, however, was announced, not to the Jews but to the Christians, through the Lord's resurrection, and from that it began to be held as a festivity. For this is the first day which after seven is found to be the eighth. Whence also, in Ecclesiastes, to signify the two Testaments, it is said: these are seven, and those eight (cf. Eccles. 11:2).

For at first it was handed down that only the Sabbath should be celebrated because it was before the rest of the dead. For there was no resurrection of anyone who once raised from the dead will never die again; death has no more power over him (cf. Rom. 6:9). But after such a resurrection took place in the Lord's body, so that it would precede in the head of the Church what the body of the Church hoped for as its end, the Lord's Day, that is the eighth day which also is the first, succeeded as a feast.

It is apparent, however, that this day is a solemn one in the sacred Scriptures; for this is the first day of the age in which the angels were created, and this is also the day on which Christ rose from the dead. On that day also the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles from the heavens, and on this same day the manna was first given from the heavens in the desert. For so said the Lord: For six days you will collect manna; on the seventh, however, you will collect double (cf. Exod. 16,5). On the sixth day is the day of preparation which is placed prior to the Sabbath. The Sabbath, however, is the seventh day, which is succeeded by the Lord's Day, on which the manna first came from heaven.

Whence let the Jews understand that already then our Sunday was preferred to the Jewish Sabbath; already then it was indicated that on their Sabbath no grace would descend on them from heaven, but on our Sunday instead, the day on which our Lord first rained manna.

c. 26. The day of our Lord's birth [Christmas] of votive solemnity was instituted for this reason that on it Christ wished to be born corporeally for the redemption of the world, coming forth from the virgin's womb, which was under the Father's order. This was why He assumed flesh. After our first parent had fallen through the envy of the devil, seduced by vain hope, he was immediately exiled and lost. He transmitted to all his descendants the first root of evil and of sin. The whole race of mortals increased more steadily in evil, their crimes spread far and wide and, what was worse, we became a slave to the cults of every idol. God, then, wishing to end sin, by Word, by the Law and the prophets, by signs, by plagues, by prodigies consulted man's interests. But since the world even when thus admonished did not recognize its erring ways, God sent His own Son, so that He might put on flesh and manifest Himself to humanity, and heal sins. He came thus to humanity because through Himself He could not gain their recognition. He assumed human nature, but did not thereby lose His divinity. And so, at the same time God and man, equal in divine nature to the Father and in human nature made mortal in humanity for Him.

This, then, is the great solemnity of the Lord's nativity. This is the new and glorious festivity of this day, the coming of God to humankind. Therefore, this day, in that Christ was born on it, is called the Nativity. We are accustomed to observe it annually as in solemn festivity as each year rolls around so that it may be recalled to memory that Christ was born on that day.

c. 27. The apostles marked off the day of Epiphany for a solemn festival because on that day the Savior was manifested by a star, when the Magi found Christ lying in a manger, and in adoration offered Him gifts appropriate to the Trinity: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, as to a King, to God, and to one destined to suffer. And so therefore they sanctified this day with an annual celebration that the world might recognize the Lord whom the heavenly elements showed forth. Seeing, then, that on that day this same Jesus was washed in the baptism of the Jordan and, when the heavens opened, declared by the testimony of the Holy Spirit coming down on Him that He was the Son of God (cf. Mt. 3:17). This day is named in Greek, Epiphany and in Latin, it is called Apparition or Showing Forth. For three reasons, then, this day took this name; either because on that occasion in His baptism Christ was manifested to His peoples, or because on that day with the appearance of the star He was revealed to the Magi, or because with His first miracle, turning water into wine, He was manifested to many.

Cassian reports, however, that among the Egyptians the Nativity and Epiphany are celebrated as a one day festival, and not as two, as is done in the Western provinces.

c. 28. Palm Sunday is celebrated as a feast because on that day our Lord and Savior, as the Prophet foretold, is said to have gone toward Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Then a multitude of people advancing with palm branches went to meet him, exclaiming: Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, King of Israel (Zach. 9, Mt. 21, Jn. 12).

Victory is signified by the palm branches, the victory in which the Lord was to overcome death by Himself dying and triumphing over the devil, the prince of death, with the trophy of the cross.

The ass on which He sat as He approached Jerusalem indicates the simple hearts of the Gentiles. With Him sitting and directing it leads to a vision of peace. On this day the Creed is handed over to the instructed candidates for baptism on account of the approaching solemnity of the Pasch. This is given so that they may recognize the faith which they confess in that they are hastening toward the reception of God's grace. And so, ordinary people call that day Capitilavium (Washing the Head) because it is customary on that day to wash the heads of infants who are to be anointed lest they approach the anointing with heads blackened by the ashes of Lent.

c. 29. The Lord's Supper, that is on the last Thursday of Lent, when our Lord and Savior, after completing the Pasch in prototype, passed over to the true Pasch. First, He gave to His apostles the mystery of His body and blood (cf. Mt. 26), when, after the heavenly sacraments, the deceitful disciple, the traitor Judas accepted a price from the Jews and sold Christ's blood (cf. Jn. 13). And so on that day the Savior, rising from supper, washed the feet of His disciples in order to commend a form of humility which He had come to teach and He Himself subsequently explained. And this was particularly appropriate that He should teach by demonstration what He forewarned the disciples to observe. That is why on this same day the altars, walls, and pavements of the temple consecrated to the Lord are washed, and the vessels consecrated to the Lord are purified. On this day too the sacred chrism is produced because, two days before the Pasch, Mary is said to have anointed the Lord's head and feet. Whence also the Lord said to His disciples: You know that after two days will be the Pasch, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified (Mt. 26:2).

c. 30. The Parasceve (Preparation), that is the Friday of Holy Week is kept as a holy day because on that day Christ fulfilled the mystery of the cross, on account of which He had come into this world so that we might be healed by the mystery of the wood of the cross because we had been smitten in Adam by the wood of the tree of knowledge. Because of this triumph, human weakness offers an annual celebration to Christ throughout the world because of the fact that He thought fit to redeem humanity by the blood of His passion and, with the overthrow of death by the cross, to absolve the sin of the world.

That substance of the divinity did not endure the injury of the cross, but only the human nature which had been assumed. For the passion pertained to the body, but the divinity remained outside of injury's way. A three-fold reason for the Lord's passion is offered. The first reason is that Christ was offered a victim for the redemption of the world and that the ancient enemy is caught, as it were, by the hook of the cross so that he might disgorge those whom he had swallowed up, and lose the booty which he held, vanquished, not by power but by justice, not by domination but by reason.

The second reason is that schooling in life should be given to men who were going to follow. For Christ ascended the cross to give us an example of suffering and resurrection: of suffering, to strengthen our patience; of resurrection, to arouse our hope, so that He might show us two lives in the flesh: one, laborious; the other, blessed. The troublesome one which we must endure, and the happy one which we must hope for.

The third reason for assuming the cross is that He by the foolish, as it was regarded, preaching of the cross, might crush the haughty and inflated worldly wisdom so that man might think that God's folly is wiser than men, and His weakness more powerful than men (cf. 1 Cor. 1:25).

The apostle Paul teaches that we ought to have the eyes of the heart illuminated to see how great is the breadth, and length, and heighth and depth of the cross (cf. Eph. 3:18). Its breadth is the transverse beam on which the arms are extended; its length is from the transverse down to the earth; its depth is what is hidden, fixed in the earth, by which sign of the cross the whole life of the saints is described.

For man is told, Take up your cross and follow me. Then indeed the flesh is crucified when our members are mortified on earth — fornication, uncleanness, luxury et cetera. Whenever the exterior man is corrected so that the interior man may daily be renewed there is a passion of the cross. And these deeds, although they are good, are nevertheless laborious, but their reward is rest. And so it is said, rejoicing in hope, so that, thinking of future rest we may work with joy even in our labors.

The breadth of the cross in its transverse beam, where the hands are nailed, signifies this joy. By the hands the work is signified, by the breadth, the joy of the work, because sadness leads to troubles. Furthermore, through the breadth of the cross to which the head is affixed, the expectation of eternal retribution from the sublime justice of God is signified. And so that these very good works are believed, must be done, not on account of God's earthly and temporal benefits, but rather because of that which faith hopes for above, which is achieved through charity.

And finally through the length of the cross, on which the whole body is extended, that tolerance is signified, so that we may remain magnanimous, whence also those who endure are called magnanimous. By the cross's depth, however, that is the part of the cross which is fixed hidden in the earth, but from which everything that can be seen rises, are indicated the inscrutable judgments of God. Concerning these, man is called by a hidden will to the participation of so much grace, one in one way, another in another.

c. 31. The feast of Easter Saturday is celebrated for the reason that on that day the Lord reposed in the tomb. Whence also in the Hebrew language the word Sabbath means rest, either because God rested on that day when the world had been created, or because on that day our Lord and redeemer rested in the tomb. This day comes between the death and resurrection of Christ, signifying a certain rest of souls from all toil and labor, and from all trouble after death, by which a transition is made through the resurrection of the flesh to that life which our Lord, Jesus Christ deigned to show us in advance by His own resurrection.

c. 32. Now indeed the Paschal mystery, which at present most clearly is celebrated in the mystery of our Savior, at first was held in a figurative way in the Old Testament. There the people of God celebrated the Pasch in Egypt by killing the lamb (cf. Exod. 12). This figure was brought to full realization by Christ who was led like a lamb to the slaughter. When we anoint our doorposts with His blood, that is, when we sign our brows with the sign of the cross, we are liberated from the destruction of this life, as from the Egyptian captivity. We celebrate the mystical day of this resurrection not only to celebrate His resurrection which occurred on this day, but also for the other sacraments which are signified through it.

Because, as the apostle says, He died on account of our sins and He rose for our justification, the passover from death to life was made sacred in that passion and resurrection of the Lord. For the very word, 'Pasch' is not Greek, but Hebrew, and is derived, not from 'passion' (the Greek verb pathein means 'to suffer'), but from the Hebrew word which means passover. And this is very well expressed by the evangelist when the Pasch was celebrated by the Lord with His disciples: Jesus, when His hour was come that He was to pass over from this world to His Father (cf. Jn. 13:1). . It is, then, a passing over from this mortal life to an immortal one, from death to life, that is indicated in the Lord's passion and resurrection. This passing over is now done by us through faith, which is given to us in the remission of sins, when we are buried with Christ in baptism, as it were, passing from the dead, from worse to better things, from bodily to spiritual, from the way of the present life to the hope of future resurrection and glory.

On account, therefore, of this beginning of a new life, to which we pass over, and on account of the new man which we are ordered to put on, and to put off the old, purging out the old yeast so that we may be a new sowing, since Christ our Pasch has been immolated; because of this newness of life, therefore, the first month of the months of the year is assigned to this celebration, for this is called the month of the new. And so, since in the whole span of time the third phase has now appeared, so the resurrection is for three days.

The first phase of time was what preceded the law, the second was under the law, and the third is what is under grace, when already the mystery is shown forth which was hidden in the enigma of the prophets. This also is signified in the lunar number. Because the number seven is wont to appear as a mystical number as a sign of a certain perfection, the Pasch is celebrated in the third week of the moon, that is, a day which shall occur between the fourteenth and the twenty-first.

But it is not only on account of the third period of time, because from there begins the third week, but also on account of the very conversion of the moon. Because the moon is converted from the lower to the higher parts, and we assume the same likeness from the moon, to pass over from visible to invisible things, from bodily to spiritual mysteries, so that more and more we die to this world, and our life is hidden with Christ, and we convert the whole light of our study, which verges on lower things to higher things, to that eternal contemplation of the immutable truth.

And so the Pasch is observed unto the twenty-first, because of the number seven, which is often a figure to signify the universe, which is also assigned to the Church itself, on account of its universal appearance; and so, in the Apocalypse, John the apostle wrote to the seven Churches. The Church, still constituted in this mortal flesh because of this mortality, is often called in scriptures by the name of the moon. That the annual celebration of the day of the Pasch does not occur on the same day each year as happens in the case of the day on which the Lord is believed to have been born so happens on account of the Lord's Day and the moon.

It is obvious, then, on what day Christ was crucified, and was buried, and rose again. The observance of these days was added by the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea and the whole of the Christian world was persuaded that the Pasch should be celebrated in this way so that we might await not only the Paschal moon but also the Lord's Day, on which He rose from the dead. Whence it is that the Pasch does not occur on the same day each year. For the Jews only observe the new month and the moon. But our Fathers thought that Sunday should be added, so that our feast should be different from that of the Jews.

c. 33. The solemnity of our Lord's ascension is celebrated because on that day, after the world's victory, after hell's retreat, Christ is said to have ascended into heaven, as the scripture says: He ascended into heaven, He captured His captive, He gave gifts to men (Ps. 68:19). This festivity is celebrated in the turn of the year's revolution to recall to memory that the humanity of the Lord's assumed flesh was placed at the right hand of the Father. We believe His body to be in heaven as it was when it ascended, which the voice of the angel proclaimed, saying: He will return, just as you saw Him go up into the heavens (Acts 1:11), that is, in the same kind and substance of body, the arrival of which gave bodily immortality, but did not take away its nature.

The right hand of the Father at which the same Son is believed to sit, is not a bodily one, for it is not lawful to talk of God in these terms. But the right hand of the Father is perpetual beatitude which is promised to the saints in the resurrection, that is to the universal Church, which is the body of Christ. Likewise His left hand is rightly understood as wretchedness and perpetual punishment which will be given to the impious.

c. 34. The beginning and origin of the feast of Pentecost must be sought a little further back. For the day of Pentecost received its origin when the voice of God was heard above on Mount Sinai and the law was given to Moses (cf. Exod. 20). In the New Testament Pentecost began with the arrival of the Holy Spirit which Christ promised, whom He said would not come unless He had ascended into heaven.

Then, when Christ entered the gate of heaven, after an interval of ten days, suddenly the place shook as the apostles were praying, and when the Holy Spirit descended on them they were so inflamed that they spoke the wonderful things of God in all the languages of all nations (cf. Acts 2). Therefore the arrival of the Holy Spirit from heaven on the apostles in a variety of tongues transmitted a solemnity to posterity, and for this reason Pentecost is celebrated and the day itself is held sacred.

This Gospel festival is in harmony with the feast of the Law; for then, after the lamb was immolated and a period of fifteen days had elapsed, the law was given to Moses, written with the finger of God; now after Christ was immolated, who like a sheep was led to the slaughter, the true Pasch is celebrated, and after an interval of fifty days the Holy Spirit was given which is the finger of God over one hundred and twenty disciples, constituted from a number in the Mosaic law, seeing that this feast occupies another mystery.