My current preoccupation in my Lectio Divina is on the nature of truth. Having sat on a couch with Christ next to me, my thoughts seem to drift towards very esoteric thinking no one wants to hear or read. It is the nature of truth. What is absolute truth? Why original sin means no one has the truth absolutely, and where can immutable truth be found? The occasion for my thinking about this comes from another blog on Christ saying, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.” This blog contains my reflections on the necessity for the truth to be immutable and indefatigable. At least for me, this is an abrupt departure from my understanding of TRUTH. TRUTH, like FAITH, is the power to be at one with my human nature.

THE INDEFATIGABLE NATURE OF TRUTH

• Absolute, immutable truth is impossible for any human (except Christ) because of Original Sin.
• There is only truth in the Divine Nature, and humans don’t live in that playground.
• Truth in the Divine Nature is what it is (e.g. I am the one who is).
• Truth in the Divine Nature is absolute, immutable, indefatigable, and does not exist in the realm of that which exists from the Alpha to the Omega.
• Truth in the Divine Nature does not admit to corruption, as does the truth that exists due to the original sin of Adam and Eve.
• Truth in the Divine Nature does not admit to change or intelligent progression; it is.
• Truth in the Divine Nature is able to overshadow Human Nature with what is true.
• What comes from the Divine Nature is absolute, i.e., pure knowledge (the Life), pure love(the Way), and pure service (energy or the Truth).
• Being absolute and reaching to overshadow Human Nature, this is the absolute truth. Humans are subject to the corruption of original sin (matter and mind).
• Anything God overshadows humans with (Faith to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father) is not human but comes from God. The Commandments are absolute. The Gospels and Epistles are authorized by the Church and are absolute; the times we place ourselves in the presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and just “be present to the manifest ability of the Sacred,” is absolute.
• Absolute truth comes from God (energy) and is beyond human interpretation.

THE SETI OF HUMAN TRANSLATION FROM HUMAN CORRUPTIBILITY TO DIVINE INCORRUPTIBILITY

• Divine Truth is.
• Humans can pick up the waves of Divine Truth if they know how.
• In Baptism, we are all given how to be one with Divinity, but not all use it because of the corrupting influence of original sin on human truth. Baptism gives us access to the code that humans can use to apply against reality to see what will help them become more human and less their false selves (capacitas dei).
• Each person has reason and the freedom to choose what they consider good for them.
• Divine truth intersects with humanity in the person of Christ, who tells us (the mind) and shows us (the heart) the one thing that can help us translate absolute truth into human truths that are good for our humanity.
• To choose human truth over Divine Truth is sinful (sinful, meaning I totally missed the point of life, and the train has left the station without me).
• God tells us and shows us through Jesus, both Divine, and Human in nature, what will help us walk through the minefields of life without losing a foot or two. Belief means I walk in the WAY, use the TRUTH, and live THE LIFE intended before the Fall in Genesis. I only know this because God shared it with me. (Philippians 2:5)
• Whatever comes from God is absolute truth. Whatever comes from humans is based on what they choose to be true for them. Truth becomes relative without God.

THE PLUNGE FROM HUMANITY TO SPIRITUALITY

• Everything physical, mental, and spiritual has intelligent progress for humans. God began all of this with a thought, a word, the idea of sharing with us. The problem is that humans have reason and free will, and we can say YES and NO to God.
• Scriptures record how the Israelites, then the Church, moved from their false selves to their true selves (conversio morae). Christ became human to show us HOW TO do it and become a ransom for many.
• The problem any human has is that to go from what we are as a human to what we need to evolve into demands that we totally die to self (abandonment of all that went before to take the plunge into a pool of water where we don’t know how deep it is. Jesus stands beside us with a hand on our shoulder and says, “Don’t be afraid. I just jumped, and the water is fine.”
• Unless each person dies to self, religion becomes various things, from holding onto statements that affect the peripherals, being a single source critic, and being a country club Catholic.
• The Church is living the cross each day using the power of the Holy Spirit. To do this, we must, like any good relationship, want to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the transformer of hearts from false self to new self in Christ.

Something strange, almost imperceptible, has happened to me, since becoming a Lay Cistercian and dying to my false self each day.

Being in the presence of Christ each day, and each hour has had an effect on me. Like being present to nuclear radiation where you can’t see it, but you will die if exposed, being present to the Truth of the Holy Spirit has, without me doing anything, transformed me from my false self to my true self.

Being in the presence of Christ in Eucharistic Adoration, in Lectio Divina, Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharist, Rosary, Reading Scripture, and other Cistercian practices means I become more like Christ, the transformer for me to transform to my true self, without frying my neurons in the presence of pure energy.

I am not the person I was at the beginning of my Lay Cistercian journey, nine years ago. Imperceptibly, I have changed, not because of my good works but because my good works from God have allowed me to go places no human thinks to go–deeper into the heart of Christ.

As a Penitent Lay Cistercian, I have been aware that my life in the world has been a total failure and that my interactions with people, ideas, and ways of thinking have all been sinful and self-center. In prayer, I have apologized to everyone I have ever met (that is a chore) and prayed for their forgiveness. The TRUTH of the Holy Spirit has allowed me to seek mercy for all the many insults, slanders, and shady dealings I have had with people. TRUTH means I am more aware that I must convert those parts of my life that have remained glossed over in my greed to get on with life. Lectio Divina has opened up the TRUTH and slowed me down so I could seek forgiveness for situations I had forgotten. The penitent Lay Cisrcian is one who daily has eyes lowered (custos oculi) in prayer as they realize, more and more, who God is and how much they missed loving him as Christ loved us as we creep blindly down life’s rocky path.

Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the Life.

THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

When I am in the presence of the Holy Spirit in that upper room and just wish to sit on the couch and be next to the heart of Christ, the power of TRUTH permeates the room and also me. Humans don’t permeate anything. God’s energy which is TRUTH, overshadows me. Strange things happen to me as a result of my simply wanting to be in the presence of Christ. First, there is enlightenment within and throughout my being. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. What this does for me is shed light on my past life, where I was less than loving others as Christ so that I can return to those situations and convert them into what they should be. I know more now than I did ten years ago when I first began to stick my toe in the swimming pool of contemplation. I look back now and realize I did not love others as Christ loved me, even though I considered myself saved, sanctified, and ready for heaven. Now, I have humility more than before and allow God’s will to be done in whatever time I have left. What I can do is to convert these situations that come up and put love when I did not do it before. This is reparation for sins of omission more than commission, but they still need conversion. With Lectio Divina. I now have a light in the darkness of my past that causes me to make straight, crooked ways. It is also part of my trying to become more and more human using the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.

Secondly, using the light of TRUTH, I can see things as an adopted son of the Father, linkages with the Old Testament, and ways of discerning how all of this seemingly confusing tangle of beliefs and “isms” make sense. Genesis has been a big part of my enlightenment of mind and spirit. In the Garden of Eden (before the Fall), God took Adam and Eve into a big orchard with many trees. In the middle of this orchard was one tree that God said was the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the apple in the tree did not get us into trouble, but it was the pair on the ground). My reflections on this seemingly insignificant event tell me that knowledge of good and evil (the basis for my being human and not a butterfly) is the nature of God alone and not humanity. Humans are free to choose what is good or evil (in reality, no one chooses anything they think is bad for them). The point is, God is the absolute TRUTH and shows us how to become human, but we must obey God’s will. Here comes the kicker. Genesis is about Adam and Eve having the right to choose but choosing an outcome that would not allow them to evolve or have intelligent progression as nature intended. God tells Adam and Eve, that if they eat this fruit, they will surely die. This all sounds too modern and contemporary to me. They ate it. I eat it. There are consequences for doing this, such as original sin (death, pain, suffering, anxiety, murder, confusion of tongues, betrayal, and the seven deadly sins).

I acknowledge what is TRUTH and, as a Lay Cistercian, measure myself daily against Chapter 4 of the Rule of Benedict. I also daily convert my thinking from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of heaven (my analogy) through Lectio Divina, and using the Cistercian Charisms of Silence, Solitude, Work, Prayer, and Community as I know them to me in my life so far. Am I perfect? Just the opposite. I realize what I have done in my past life as a result of my pride and insensitivity to others and seek atonement from God. TRUTH has allowed me to see myself as I am (and move away from that false self to newness of life through, with, and in Christ. This is the TRUTH.

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If you are facing the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven and Michael and Alex Trebek are there, one with a flaming sword to keep out those that don’t belong, what would be the one question asked and what is the correct answer? The problem is, there is only one correct question and one correct answer? One gets but one chance.

To be fair, Michael will allow you three questions to help you( this is God’s Jeopardy) before Final Jeopardy.

What are your three questions?

What is your final Jeopardy question and answer? Your life depends upon it.

When watching the latest movie the film, Wednesday, I had this feeling of wondering why I am filling time watching some bizarre series of stories about Ghouls and Goblins, other than I really like it. Is there more to life? Of course, I told myself, there is. But, despite my mental convictions that God exists and talks with me, I have these rational doubts that sweep in waves over my Faith-belief convictions and daily threaten to knock my center off its precarious perch as The Christ Principle. (Philippians2:5)

When asking or answering any questions about God, my assumption has been, and still is, that we cannot prove God exists using God’s measurements. Paradoxically, the only way to know God is through God’s measurements. So, are we orphans condemned to live out our lives in a foreign land? Quite simply, I don’t have either the capability to know what God’s measurement is (other than my human approximations ((guess)) as to its properties) or the capacity to know if, if I could cram pure energy into our human frame of existence (lifetime of successes and failure as to what it means to be fully human as nature intended). I know that I know, but that means that what I know must be consistent with my human nature. Knowing anything about God must come from within the parameters of my experiences of what it means to be human. This means the languages I must use to discover what and who God is are English, scientific inquiry as I know it, philosophy of people like Erick Fromm, Martin Buber, Martin Heidegger, and more recently, Steven Hawking, Enrico Fermi, Einstein, Joel Barker, Dr. Scott Hahn, and my personal avatars, Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Denny.

Having said that, each individual approaches the question of who God is with the totality of who they are and are becoming. Each of us has one center of our life, one 100% on the dart board of meaning, that informs everything else because it is that principle that, if we take it away, none of the other values makes sense. I have freely chosen, as I do each day, to place The Christ Principle at my center. Living in the condition of mental and material corruptibility means my center will automatically fall off its perch if I don’t keep it there 24/7. If I am looking at who God is with who I am now, it might seem that God is what each person seeks to attain. That means billions upon billions of ways to look at God. So, how can I prove to myself that a divergent God exists?

An atheist doesn’t have God as any part of their approach to what life means, so, quite logically, they don’t believe. They can’t. They don’t have the assumptions that, let’s say a Catholic has. To make this more complex, all Christians don’t have the same assumptions about who God is because each one relates to God from their unique human experiences. I like the saying: I am not you; you are not me; God is not me, and I, most certainly, am not God. The implications of what I am proposing may not seem much more than talking with a mouthful of marbles, but, I assure you, they are profound. To prove God humans must be God. To prove what it means to be human to the fullest extent that nature intended (Before The Fall), I must at least be human to have the capability and the capacity to make sense of something that doesn’t fit the human paradigm. The problem is, there are so many “I’s” that we each have reason and free will to choose what we think God is. Who God is must be given to humans by God. There is a problem. God sends us messages like SETI sends and receives messages through the language of radio waves, but we may not pick them up and interpret them. God has to tell us. In the Old Testament God spoke through people, events, dreams, intelligent design to move to ever more complex life, and the prophets, but the people were stiffnecked. So, God became human so that humans would have no excuses. Jesus (both divine and human nature) would tell and show people how to communicate with God and to accept adoption as adopted sons and daughters of the Father (we are not God but fully human as our nature intended). Naturally, this good news would not make sense without the assumptions (Faith) that are mightly contradictory to human reasoning and free will. We are called to baptism so that we can die to our false selves over and ever each day. Automatically, we are at odds with the world. We struggle not only with the pull exerted by original sin to acknowledge that Satan is Lord of the earth and we should fall down in worship of the Devil. Remember the three temptations of Christ in the desert? They tempt the humanity of Christ to betray the divinity by offering the false promise of what it means to be fully human.

ACT YOUR NATURE

To answer this to my satisfaction, let me share with you some of my more bizarre thoughts or hypotheses about God that have presented themselves to me in my Lectio Divina sessions.

• There are at least four natures: Divine Nature, Human Nature, Animal Nature, Physical Nature
• The nature of God is unknown to humans, only to God.
• Humans have developed reason and the ability to choose what is good for them, through intelligent progression.
• God is pure energy, composed of pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service.
• God’s nature is 100% of what it should be (whatever that is).
• God wants to share Divine Nature with humans to the extent that humans can reach their full potential as nature intended. To do this humans need a boost from God.
• Humans are asked if they want to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father through Baptism.
• Belief is the assent to the Father that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• Humans have no power to praise God except through the energy of Eucharist, Penance, Prayer, putting yourself in a position to receive energy from God (as you are capable to receive it) in Cistercian Contemplative practices and charisms (to name only one way).
• Loving others as Christ loved us means dying to the world’s notion of what love is to embrace the cross and carry it daily.
• Heaven on earth begins with Baptism and continues forever.
• Humans must know God through human reasoning and free will. Christ came to show us how to do that without becoming frustrated.
• Humans are given gifts at Baptism, a map (Scriptures and the Writings of Early Church Father and Magisterium in each age), a compass (The Christ Principle or the opportunity to place Christ as your only center), a golden thread with which you can thread through anything that God deems a treasure to take with you to heaven. It includes family, friends, teachers, church members, sunsets and sunrises, the smell of the air on a frosty day, all the times you prayed, went to Mass and the Sacraments, your situations where you had in you the mind of Christ Jesus, the times your Guardian Angel helped you, all the times the Devil tempted you to go against your human nature and you called upon the name of the Lord, all the pets you had in your lifetime, any animals that you helped, all those poor you treated as Christ would have, all the lessons that you learned about how to love others as Christ loved you, plus many more.
• Animals act their nature naturally.
• The physical universe uses the Laws of Physics (as much as we know about them).

My contention is that humans can only mature within their nature, which is one of the reasons Christ had to become human to tell us and show us how to access the way, the truth, and life, life that fulfills our humanity in allowing us to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father and heir to the kingdom of heaven.

The Divine Equation, so named because it comes from God through Christ with the power of the Holy Spirit, gives those who can see with the eyes of Faith informed by reason and hear with the ear of the heart. Don’t spend time trying to prove something humans could not even understand if they could prove it.

Love others as Christ loved you. Relax and slow down. After all, your inheritance begins now on earth where you can store up values that God treasures. Heaven is a place to enjoy all those treasures of the mind and heart.

Allow your heart to feel the heartbeat of Christ as you sit next to him on a park bench in the dead of winter and just be there. Proofs are for the pusillanimous and no sign will be given to you but the sign on Jonah.

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I like to watch the odd movie that comes out of the myriad of flicks produced these days. The Harry Potter movies are ones that I enjoy, not because I espouse witchcraft at all, but because it has a remarkable insight into good and evil and their consequences. The context of the series is one of fantasy and story-telling that are ways to set forth the human condition and how good triumphs over evil.

In the recesses of my Lectio Divina meditations, these movies have me thinking about how our age likes to make choices that are easy rather than what is right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rTDTboKbZU

FALLACIES

What we choose can easily be what is fantasy rather than what is real. We choose what makes us happy. We are indeed defined by the choices we make. For those that have the Christ Principle as the center of their lives, we measure all things in terms of the death and resurrection of Christ over the corruption of matter and mind. Not all agree on what the center of their lives might be. What you place there as the one defining principle upon which all others depend will be the consequence of the choices. Scripture tells us that the wages of sin are death while the cross’s choice is everlasting life now and eternally.

Fallacies that some people (practicing Catholics, the misinformed, and the intentionally hostile) hold to be true.

FALACIE ONE: EVERYONE IS GOD, SO WHATEVER I WANT TO DO IS CORRECT. Everyone wants to be their own god. We pay the price for having reason and the freedom to choose what makes us happy. When I am consciously trying to convert my morals from my false self (corruptible)to my true, intended self (incorruptible), being God is what I am trying to avoid. Unfortunately, it is part of what makes me human. For me, this is why God gave humans a free choice, other than we are made in God’s image and likeness, i.e., to give back to the Father the only gift we can possibly give that allows us to claim our inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of the Father. That short phrase, “thy will be done,” that we recite in the Our Father is loaded with meaning, a lifetime of knowing and loving with all our hearts, leading to serving others. With so many human people, therefore, possessing reason and the ability to choose what they consider good for them, it is no wonder there are so many “gods” floating around, actually believing that they are infallible in faith and morals. If they are Baptized, they claim to have a direct pipeline to the Holy Spirit, and everything they say must be true because God told them so. Alas, what is lacking is both humility and obedience to a higher power than themselves. If they are not Baptized, some think they possess the knowledge to determine what love is, usually what gives them pleasure. Alas, they lack the perspective of The Christ Principle, the sign of contradiction that says when we empty ourselves of the products of “the flesh” (Galatians 5) and put on the cloak of “the Spirit,” we fulfill our role as adopted sons and daughters of the Father. The rise of relativism. The World’s corruption means everyone is a potential teacher of how to be fully human. Read the three temptations of Christ in the desert with this idea in mind.

In my reflections in my Lectio, I use the notion of false teachers to help me refocus on The Christ Principle, the only way, the only truth, that leads to an incorruptible life now and in the life to come. False teachers seek to seduce the faint of heart away from the challenge of taking up their cross daily, in favor of a cotton candy approach to Faith. You don’t need to worry about being saved, you don’t need to fight to keep corruption from overtaking your Faith, and you certainly don’t need to move from your false self to your true self in Christ Jesus by praying daily for God’s mercy and forgiveness. My Lay Cistercian Way, based on Cistercian interpretations of the Rule of St. Benedict, is based on learning to love in a School of Love with Christ as the HeadMaster, follows the cross daily. The Devil wanted Christ to accept his teachings of convenience and what is easy rather than what is a struggle and is correct according to God’s will.

What terrifies me is that so many, beginning with myself, are inundated with this corruption of morals. Jesus repulsed the temptations of Satan to become like Adam and Eve and instead listened to His Father, who is His true teacher of the humanity of Jesus, while at the same time being true God.

The Temptation of Jesus.

1^* a Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

2^b He fasted for forty days and forty nights,^* and afterwards he was hungry.

3The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.”

4^* He said in reply, “It is written:^c

‘One does not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’”

5^* Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,

6and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:

‘He will command his angels concerning you’

and ‘with their hands they will support you,

lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”^d

7Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”^e

8Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,

9and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”^*

10At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written:

‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship

and him alone shall you serve.’”^f

11Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/4

PROFOUND REFLECTIONS ON THE ATTEMPTED MORAL CORRUPTION OF JESUS

Jesus, according to our collective belief, is both God and Human in nature in one body. These temptations are actually three that tempt the humanity of Christ with the actual archetypes of what it means to be God, i.e., the kingdom, the power, and the glory.

The Devil (Lord of Darkness) wants Christ to relegate to Satan his freedom to choose who is the center of his life, the one choice each of us must make constantly and guard against the corruption of matter and the mind. Christ’s humanity actually tells Satan that God is the center of His life, “For yours is the kingdom, power, and the glory, forever.”

These temptations are actually an extension of the choice of Adam and Eve. Christ, the Second Adam, is in the desert (the world), not the Garden of Eden.

This story is a very sophisticated example of the wages of sin, the results of what would happen if we accept that the Devil is the Lord of our life instead of Christ.

This is the deepest and most important of all lessons Christ has to tell his disciples (and each of us). The number three denotes a red flag of what it means to be human, as humanity itself in the person of Christ grapples with the most fundamental of choices that come from the corruption of our human nature, Who is God? Is God a power outside of myself which I recognize and give consent and assent, or do I give my free choice to say YES to the moral corruption of Satan as it seeks to infiltrate into my incorruptible spirit?

Number three indicates that this story is deeply embedded into our humanity and one that we must struggle to maintain throughout our lifetime. It is no accident that the two gifts God left each one who confesses that Jesus is Lord are: the Eucharist (Himself, body and blood, and soul and divinity) as food to nourish us against the bruises and cuts that come from our daily battle to seek God; and also, repentance for the forgiveness of our sins. Christ, who is real and present each moment, each day, walks with us as He carried the cross so many years ago. He helps us lift our cross but won’t stop us from being bruised and battered (sometimes even shed our blood) as we walk the path chosen for us before time began.

The cost of discipleship that comes from Baptism is that we must suffer, die, and rise again and again with the martyrdom of living each day, knowing that our nature is good but wounded. Like Christ, but will overcome evil and the three temptations of Satan but not without being banged around a bit.

This story is an archetype of the effects of the original sin of Adam and Eve. Each day, as St. Benedict says in Chapter 4 of his Rule, we must prefer nothing to the love of Christ.

Christ deflected this fallacy back to Satan, and his humanity conquered the temptation of being an adopted son of Satan or one that has God as Father, God as Son, and God as Spirit?

Scriptures are stories (John 20:30-31) that help us believe that Jesus is Messiah so that we might have everlasting life in His name. The Old Testament answers the question in Genesis 2-3, “What is evil and what is good? Keeping the law means being in an unbreakable relationship with God .” (See Deuteronomy 6:5) The New Testament or New Paradigm takes the results from the Old Testament and asks a new question based on the Old Paradigm, “Love others as I have loved you.” Christ, Son of the Father, becomes one of us to show us how to love as the Father loves Him. (Matthew 22:38)

Jesus was exhausted by this conflict with evil, just as we are. It takes spiritual energy (which we replenish with our Lay Cistercian practices and charisms), so we might rearm ourselves with the energy from the Holy Spirit and keep up our guard for another round until we die.

Anyone who thinks taking up the cross each day is easy had better check to see if their cross is made from balsa wood.

FALLACY TWO: CHRISTIANITY, AND ESPECIALLY THE CHURCH, IS CORRUPT AND FULL OF SIN, SO HOW CAN IT BE HOLY AT THE SAME TIME? Critics of Christ always point to the corruption of the Church as one way to prove the duplicity and double standard among those that profess to be Catholic. What seems like a “Gotcha” might be more interesting in light of the following ideas:

The Church means the Church Universal, those who have died in the peace of Christ and are triumphant in Heaven; also, those who have died needing more purification of their lives to be able to stand before the Throne of the Lamb; and still others who suffer the martyrdom of the ordinary each day on earth as they await the death of the Lord until He comes again. Usually, critics of the Faith have already stated their objections to the Church and then seek to justify it through Scriptures, fuzzy logic, and straw men (and women) to make their point. It is impossible to even have a rational, much less a spiritual conversation with those who don’t admit any position but their own to be true. Objections, of course, are not challenged by anyone. They use universal statements such as “All priests are pedophile priests and the Church is therefore corrupt”. Jesus ran into this when even he could not cure the sick because of the lack of Faith of those present, although, and this is significant, they were healed when he laid hands on them.

FALLACY THREE: YOU CANNOT PROVE GOD EXISTS WITH REASON ALONE. Because proving God means I must use God’s measurements and equations, I agree that humans have neither the capacity nor the capacity to provide God’s existence. If I was God, I would have pure energy that would enable me to possess pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service. Humans don’t have any language that even begins to approximate who God is, yet, God sent His Only Begotten Son Down to earth to become human (Philippians 2:5) expressly to TEACH us what God is using stories, parables, similes, examples, and the inspiration of those who wrote down what Jesus did and said. Read John 20:30-31 to find out why we have Scripture in the first place. Read Faith must be informed by reason, to use what limited capabilities we have to know anything about God.

what the Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas says about God in his Summa Theologica. If you read this, you are dabbling in the Big League of Spirituality. If you don’t get all of it, you are not alone.

First Part (Prima Pars)

Sacred Doctrine

GENERAL: The nature and extent (1) of sacred doctrine.

The One God

EXISTENCE: The existence (2) of God.
ESSENCE: We cannot know what God is, but only what He is not. So to study Him, we study what He has not—such as composition and motion. His simplicity (3) or lack of composition. His perfection: and because everything in so far as it is perfect is called good, we shall speak of His goodness (6)—and goodness in general (5)—as well as His perfection (4). His infinity (7) and omnipresence (8). His immutability (9), and His eternity (10) following on His immutability. His unity (11). How God is known by us (12). The names of God (13).
OPERATIONS (INTELLECT): God’s knowledge (14). The ideas (15), exist in His knowledge. Truth (16) in God, for knowledge, is of things that are true. Falsity (17) in God. The life of God (18), since to understand belongs to living beings.
OPERATIONS (WILL): God’s will (19). In our own wills, we find both the passions (such as joy and love), and the habits of the moral virtues (such as justice and fortitude). Hence we shall first consider the love (20) of God, and secondly His justice and mercy (21).
OPERATIONS (INTELLECT AND WILL): Providence (22), in respect to all created things; for in the science of morals, after the moral virtues themselves, comes the consideration of prudence, to which providence belongs. Predestination (23) and the book of life (24).
POWER: The power of God (25), the principle of the divine operation as proceeding to the exterior effect. The divine beatitude (26)

The Blessed Trinity

ORIGIN: The question of origin or procession (27). The relations of origin relations of origin (28).
THE PERSONS IN GENERAL: The signification (29) of the word “person”. The number (30) of the persons, and what is involved in the number of persons, or is opposed thereto; as diversity, and similitude, and the like (31). Our knowledge (32) of the persons.
FATHER: The person of the Father (33).
SON: The person of the Son, to whom three names are attributed: Son (see 33), the idea of which is gathered from the idea of Father; Word (34) and Image (35).
HOLY GHOST: The person of the Holy Ghost, Who is called three things: Holy Ghost (36), Love (37) and Gift (38).
THE THREE COMPARED: The person in reference to the essence (39), with the relations or properties (40), or to the notional acts (41). The equality and likeness (42) of the persons. Their mission (43).

Creation

PRODUCTION: The first cause (44) of beings. Creation (45), which is the mode of emanation of creatures from the first cause. The beginning of the duration (46) of creatures.
DISTINCTION: The distinction of things in general(47). The distinction of good and evil: evil (48) and its cause (49). The distinction of creatures—spiritual (or angels), corporeal, and man (which is both)—is outlined below.

The Angels (Spirit)

SUBSTANCE: Their substance is considered absolutely (50), and in relation to corporeal things, such as bodies (51) and locations (52). Their local movement (53).
INTELLECT: His power (54) and medium (55) of knowledge. The immaterial (56) and material (57) objects known. The manner (58) whereby he knows them.
WILL: The will itself (59) and its movement, which is love (60).
ORIGIN: How they were brought into natural existence (61) and perfected in grace (62). How some of them became wicked: Their sins (63) and punishment (64).

The Six Days (Matter)

CREATION: The work of creation (65).
DISTINCTION: The ordering (66) of creation towards distinction. The work of distinction in itself: The first (67), second (68) and third (69) days.
ADORNMENT: The fourth (70), fifth (71), sixth (72) and seventh (73) days.
GENERAL: All seven days (74) in common.

Man (Spirit and Matter)

ESSENCE: The nature of the soul in itself (75), and its union with the body (76).
POWER: The powers of the soul in general (77) Those powers which are a preamble to the intellect (78). The intellectual (79) powers. The appetitive powers in general (80), and specifically: sensuality (81), the will (82) and free-will (83).
OPERATIONS: We consider the will in the second part of this work, which deals with morals. Here we treat of the acts of the intellect. How the soul, when united to the body, understands corporeal things beneath it: Specifically, through what (84) does it know them? How (85) does it know them? What (86) does it know in them? When united to the body, how does the soul know itself (87)? When united to the body, how does it know immaterial substances (88) which are above it? And how does the soul understand when separated from the body (89)?
ORIGIN (PRODUCTION): The production of man’s soul (90) and body (91), and the production of the woman (92).
ORIGIN (END): The end (93) of man’s production, inasmuch as he is “the image and likeness of God”.
ORIGIN (FIRST MAN): The state of Adam’s soul: His intellect (94); the righteousness (95) of his will and the use of righteousness as regards his dominion over things (96). The state of Adam’s body: Preservation of the individual (97) and of the species (98) through generation. The state of the offspring’s body (99), virtue (100) and knowledge (101).
ORIGIN (HOME): His home, which is paradise (102).

The Government of Creatures

GENERAL: The government of things in general (103) and the specific effects (104) of this government.
GOD: How God (105) changes creatures.
SPIRITS: How an angel acts on another angel, through enlightenment (106) and speech (107); the hierarchies of good (108) and evil (109) spirits. How an angel acts on a bodily creature (110). How an angel acts on man by his natural power (111) and as a minister of God (112). The guardianship (113) of the good angels and the assaults (114) of the demons.
BODIES: How bodies change: the action (115) of the bodily creature, and fate (116), which is ascribed to certain bodies.
MAN: How man—who is both body and spirit—changes in general (117). The production of man from man as to the soul (118) and to the body (119).

The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas
Second and Revised Edition, 1920
Literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province
Online Edition Copyright © 2017 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat. F. Innocentius Apap, O.P., S.T.M., Censor. Theol.
Imprimatur. Edus. Canonicus Surmont, Vicarius Generalis. Westmonasterii.
APPROBATIO ORDINIS
Nihil Obstat. F. Raphael Moss, O.P., S.T.L. and F. Leo Moore, O.P., S.T.L.
Imprimatur. F. Beda Jarrett, O.P., S.T.L., A.M., Prior Provincialis Angliæ

MARIÆ IMMACULATÆ – SEDI SAPIENTIÆ

http://www.newadvent.org

QUOTES FROM ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

“For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

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“We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“It is only God who creates. Man merely rearranges.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“Of all the pursuits open to men, the search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable, and more full of joy.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“There is within every soul a thirst for happiness and meaning.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life, a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“A man’s heart is right when he wills what God wills.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

“When the devil is called the god of this world, it is not because he made it, but because we serve him with our worldliness.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

Heavy title, don’t you think, with an even heavier implication for contemplative practice? Here are some rapid responses to the question of absolute truth (only found in the divine nature). They are linked together unless I get a senior moment and go off the planet.

• God is the only absolute truth there is.
• God is pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service all interacting to form pure energy.
• How does one share with us what God alone knows humans need to become adopted sons of the Father?
• Humans have a default that means we must choose each moment between what is easy and what is right.
• God knows that what is right is to learn what it means to be human, love others to the best of our abilities, and seek what is authentic truth (to know, love and serve God in this world and be happy with God in the next).
• Philippians 2:5 is key to my realization of the WHY of creation.
• Human nature does not automatically choose what is good for it.
• Humans are human in nature and subject to the daily variables of doubts, successes, pain, and lack of how to become fully human.
• How does a God who is not our nature communicate with us, like me talking with a bacterium?
• There are three types of nature: animal, human, and divine.
• God helps out, giving us the Divine Equation (the questions and answers to how to be fully human) and then provides the key against which these answers are absolutely true.
• God has a problem. How can God share this fantastic invitation to be an adopted son or daughter and still be consistent with our human nature to choose YES or NO to anything for any reason?
• The great gift we can give back to the Father is through Jesus using the energy of the Holy Spirit.
• Humans just don’t have enough power to lift anything up to God to say thank you.
• Jesus became human so that, together in the Eucharist and in prayer, we can go back to the Father and say, “Thanks, let it be done to me according to your word.”
• Christ is the key that opens the lock to what it means to be fully and authentically human as God intended before the Fall from grace by Adam and Eve.
• Christ came to tell us (Scripture) and show us (The Church Universal) how to walk through the minefields of life without getting blown to bits by Satan.
• All we have to do is say YES, I see it, I want to love as you loved us, and I want to sit on a bench in the middle of winter and long to be next to your heart, both beating in sync.
• I hope that your words to me have the power that I feel they have within me to lift me up on my last day.
• One thing I seek is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, now and in the fulfillment of what nature intended for my humanity.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who will be at the end of the ages. –Cistercian doxology

My Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditations take the form of looking at the totality of my life from the viewpoint of The Christ Principle. When I do that, old behaviors that I still practice, have not been excised (not exorcized, although I am an ordained exorcist). Since my acceptance as a Lay Cistercian, I have been constantly trying to move from my false self to my true self. The consequences of this mindset, in my case, have been for me to diminish or drop some practices that I formerly thought were important. Here are twenty such old thoughts that don’t fit in my new skin.

The Question About Fasting.^o

33And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.”

34^* Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests^* fast while the bridegroom is with them?

35But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

36^* And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.

37Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.

38Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

39[And] no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”^*

A commentary adds:

* [5:39] The old is good: this saying is meant to be ironic and offers an explanation for the rejection by some of the new wine that Jesus offers: satisfaction with old forms will prevent one from sampling the new.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/5

My reflection on the image of new wine requiring new skins is much deeper than I had thought. Jesus is always the new wine, in each age, in each of us; this is The Christ Principle we freely choose to place at our center. Once there, the rest of my life is a struggle to keep it as my center because of the corruption of matter and mind (everything deteriorates).

For me, I require daily conversion, which means Christ growing and me abandoning those practices that keep me from being fully human as nature intended. When I read websites that criticize the Holy Father and denigrate his personality, I am reminded of how much the Israelites complained about God leading them out in the desert only to have them die of starvation. This is an example of the Church today that whines about single issues in the Church (old wine) and uses the adage “We never did it that way before.” The Christ Principle makes all things new for the Church and also for me as I face whatever it is each day that challenges my Faith. I am the old skin (in my case, my skin is 81.10 years old) and I must move from my false self (old skin) to my new skin (new skin) so that The Christ Principle won’t go sour. In light of this analogy, I offer twenty chunks of old skin that I have abandoned in favor of new skins.

1. I don’t bother myself with who is right or wrong about religion.
2. I gave up being held hostage by the notion that I have to prove my Faith to anyone.
3. I no longer fear the punishment of Hell but rather have significantly become aware of “the fear of the Lord,” as found in Chapter 7 of the Rule of Benedict.
4. I am at more and more at peace with whatever comes my way each day.
5. I don’t view life as a problem but as an opportunity to seek God where I am and as I am.
6. I am growing more and more comfortable with Lectio Divina over longer periods of time (without losing too much focus).
7. I have abandoned trying to establish a Lay Cistercian group in Tallahassee in favor of letting the Holy Spirit guide us to make it what it should be.
8. I am probing ever deeper into the Mystery of Faith each day by going to my upper room (Matthew 6:5), locking the door, and just waiting for Christ.
9. My wife thinks I have lost the wheels to my wheelbarrow and am pushing something impossible uphill. Maybe so, but I do it with a smile in my heart.
10. Each day, I find new ways to link everything in my life worth anything to the love of Christ. Example: I use to sit in silence and solitude on a park bench in the middle of winter and yearn to be next to the heart of Christ. Now, after years and years of conversio morae, I can actually feel the heartbeat of Christ in my Lectio Divina meditations. My astonishment is that I can grow deeper (capacitas dei) and am challenged to sync my heartbeats with what I hear the heartbeats of Christ to be. {Not my will, but Thine be done on earth as it is in Heaven).
11. I can now sit in my chair and suffer the daily and sometimes hourly taunts of my laziness from those I love, being overweight (less and less so), being in La-La land with my Lay Cistercian practices, my writings being useless and a waste of time, my going to Conyers, Georgia for the Gathering Day as an attempt on my part to gain attention, without responding back (St. Benedict says, Do not return evil for evil but rather return good for evil.) Unfortunately, I still have to take my daily Prozak to help out.
12. I still take my medications for cardiac arrest (2007), leukemia (CLL type) in remission, cardiac pacemaker (2015), and other natural supplements, but am not manic about it as much. I am thankful for my medical practitioners. This reminds me I must also be faithful to placing Christ in my heart at the beginning of each day.
13. I find that sometimes three to four hours per day, I sit with the television off, just meditating on things relating to what I will write in my blogs or how I need to be open to the Holy Spirit dousing me with so many ideas that are linked to what I knew in the past, that I can’t stand the joy it brings.
14. I can better understand how atheists and agnostics need proof of the Resurrection but, in my thinking, no proof will be given to them but the sign of Jonah. This seeking proof is at the basis of a generation that not only does not believe but does not care.
15. I am more at peace over prayer being as I can rather than as I should. My prayer is a whole day seeking god in whatever comes my way.
16. I seek to grow deeper in linking the Scriptures I read with the past and the writings of the Church Fathers.
17. I am simply astounded by my Gathering Days at Conyers, Georgia (Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit-Trappist) each month by the deep spirituality of all members, mostly female members. I am humbled each time we meet.
18. I am beginning to realize that The Church is not the center of my life. The Christ Principle (Philippians 2:5) is the center of my life. Christ is the center of the Church’s life as evidenced through the writings of the Catholic Catechism and the Magisterium of the Church (those beliefs that come down through the ages that are part of the Mystery of Faith).
19. I realize that each day, I must pray that I do not enter into temptation and seek to keep Christ as my center. It takes work. This is another way of saying that “I must take up my cross daily and follow in the footsteps of Christ.”
20. Awareness of the Holy Spirit brings TRUTH. Adoption by the Father brings LIFE. Trudging the path of my unique life using the Christ Principle is THE WAY.

“That in all things, God be glorified.” St. Benedict

Church tradition is not looking back and guessing what people actually said, but rather looking forward and reading the primary sources. I offer this section from http://www.newadvent.org for your spiritual reading and edification without my comments. It has helped me.

Church History (Book III)

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Chapter 1. The Parts of the World in which the Apostles preached Christ.

1. Such was the condition of the Jews. Meanwhile, the holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour were dispersed throughout the world. Parthia, according to tradition, was allotted to Thomas as his field of labor, Scythia to Andrew, and Asia to John, who, after he had lived some time there, died at Ephesus.

2. Peter appears to have preached in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion. And at last, having come to Rome, he was crucified head-downwards; for he had requested that he might suffer in this way. What do we need to say concerning Paul, who preached the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and afterwards suffered martyrdom in Rome under Nero? These facts are related by Origen in the third volume of his Commentary on Genesis.

Chapter 2. The First Successor to St. Peter in Rome.

1. After the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter, Linus was the first to obtain the episcopate of the church at Rome. Paul mentions him, when writing to Timothy from Rome, in the salutation at the end of the epistle.

Chapter 3. The Epistles of the Apostles.

1. One epistle of Peter, that called the first, is acknowledged as genuine. And this the ancient elders used freely in their own writings as an undisputed work. But we have learned that his extant second Epistle does not belong to the canon; yet, as it has appeared profitable to many, it has been used with the other Scriptures.

2. The so-called Acts of Peter, however, and the Gospel which bears his name, and the Preaching and the Apocalypse, as they are called, we know have not been universally accepted, because no ecclesiastical writer, ancient or modern, has made use of testimonies drawn from them.

3. But in the course of my history I shall be careful to show, in addition to the official succession, what ecclesiastical writers have from time to time made use of any of the disputed works, and what they have said in regard to the canonical and accepted writings, as well as in regard to those which are not of this class.

4. Such are the writings that bear the name of Peter, only one of which I know to be genuine and acknowledged by the ancient elders.

5. Paul’s fourteen epistles are well known and undisputed. It is not indeed right to overlook the fact that some have rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed by the church of Rome, on the ground that it was not written by Paul. But what has been said concerning this epistle by those who lived before our time I shall quote in the proper place. In regard to the so-called Acts of Paul, I have not found them among the undisputed writings.

6. But as the same apostle, in the salutations at the end of the Epistle to the Romans, has made mention among others of Hermas, to whom the book called The Shepherd is ascribed, it should be observed that this too has been disputed by some, and on their account cannot be placed among the acknowledged books; while by others it is considered quite indispensable, especially to those who need instruction in the elements of the faith. Hence, as we know, it has been publicly read in churches, and I have found that some of the most ancient writers used it.

7. This will serve to show the divine writings that are undisputed as well as those that are not universally acknowledged.

Chapter 4. The First Successors of the Apostles.

1. That Paul preached to the Gentiles and laid the foundations of the churches from Jerusalem round about even unto Illyricum, is evident both from his own words, Romans 15:19 and from the account which Luke has given in the Acts.

2. And in how many provinces Peter preached Christ and taught the doctrine of the new covenant to those of the circumcision is clear from his own words in his epistle already mentioned as undisputed, in which he writes to the Hebrews of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 1 Peter 1:1

3. But the number and the names of those among them that became true and zealous followers of the apostles, and were judged worthy to tend the churches founded by them, it is not easy to tell, except those mentioned in the writings of Paul.

4. For he had innumerable fellow-laborers, or fellow-soldiers, as he called them, and most of them were honored by him with an imperishable memorial, for he gave enduring testimony concerning them in his own epistles.

5. Luke also in the Acts speaks of his friends, and mentions them by name.

6. Timothy, so it is recorded, was the first to receive the episcopate of the parish in Ephesus, Titus of the churches in Crete.

7. But Luke, who was of Antiochian parentage and a physician by profession, and who was especially intimate with Paul and well acquainted with the rest of the apostles, has left us, in two inspired books, proofs of that spiritual healing art which he learned from them. One of these books is the Gospel, which he testifies that he wrote as those who were from the beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered unto him, all of whom, as he says, he followed accurately from the first. Luke 1:2-3 The other book is the Acts of the Apostles which he composed not from the accounts of others, but from what he had seen himself.

8. And they say that Paul meant to refer to Luke’s Gospel wherever, as if speaking of some gospel of his own, he used the words, according to my Gospel.

9. As to the rest of his followers, Paul testifies that Crescens was sent to Gaul; but Linus, whom he mentions in the Second Epistle to Timothy 2 Timothy 4:21 as his companion at Rome, was Peter’s successor in the episcopate of the church there, as has already been shown.

10. Clement also, who was appointed third bishop of the church at Rome, was, as Paul testifies, his co-laborer and fellow-soldier.

11. Besides these, that Areopagite, named Dionysius, who was the first to believe after Paul’s address to the Athenians in the Areopagus (as recorded by Luke in the Acts) is mentioned by another Dionysius, an ancient writer and pastor of the parish in Corinth, as the first bishop of the church at Athens.

12. But the events connected with the apostolic succession we shall relate at the proper time. Meanwhile let us continue the course of our history.

Chapter 5. The Last Siege of the Jews after Christ.

1. After Nero had held the power thirteen years, and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and six months, Vespasian, who had become distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea and received the title of Emperor from the armies there. Setting out immediately, therefore, for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the war against the Jews to his son Titus.

2. For the Jews after the ascension of our Saviour, in addition to their crime against him, had been devising as many plots as they could against his apostles. First Stephen was stoned to death by them, and after him James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded, and finally James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Saviour, died in the manner already described. But the rest of the apostles, who had been incessantly plotted against with a view to their destruction, and had been driven out of the land of Judea, went unto all nations to preach the Gospel, relying upon the power of Christ, who had said to them, Go and make disciples of all the nations in my name.

3. But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.

4. But the number of calamities which everywhere fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, the thousands of men, as well as women and children, that perished by the sword, by famine, and by other forms of death innumerable — all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets, Daniel 9:27 stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire — all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.

5. But it is necessary to state that this writer records that the multitude of those who were assembled from all Judea at the time of the Passover, to the number of three million souls, were shut up in Jerusalem as in a prison, to use his own words.

6. For it was right that in the very days in which they had inflicted suffering upon the Saviour and the Benefactor of all, the Christ of God, that in those days, shut up as in a prison, they should meet with destruction at the hands of divine justice.

7. But passing by the particular calamities which they suffered from the attempts made upon them by the sword and by other means, I think it necessary to relate only the misfortunes which the famine caused, that those who read this work may have some means of knowing that God was not long in executing vengeance upon them for their wickedness against the Christ of God.

Chapter 6. The Famine which oppressed them.

1. Taking the fifth book of the History of Josephus again in our hands, let us go through the tragedy of events which then occurred.

2. For the wealthy, he says, it was equally dangerous to remain. For under pretense that they were going to desert, men were put to death for their wealth. The madness of the seditions increased with the famine and both the miseries were inflamed more and more day by day.

3. Nowhere was food to be seen; but, bursting into the houses men searched them thoroughly, and whenever they found anything to eat they tormented the owners on the ground that they had denied that they had anything; but if they found nothing, they tortured them on the ground that they had more carefully concealed it.

4. The proof of their having or not having food was found in the bodies of the poor wretches. Those of them who were still in good condition they assumed were well supplied with food, while those who were already wasted away they passed by, for it seemed absurd to slay those who were on the point of perishing for want.

5. Many, indeed, secretly sold their possessions for one measure of wheat, if they belonged to the wealthier class, of barley if they were poorer. Then shutting themselves up in the innermost parts of their houses, some ate the grain uncooked on account of their terrible want, while others baked it according as necessity and fear dictated.

6. Nowhere were tables set, but, snatching the yet uncooked food from the fire, they tore it in pieces. Wretched was the fare, and a lamentable spectacle it was to see the more powerful secure an abundance while the weaker mourned.

7. Of all evils, indeed, famine is the worst, and it destroys nothing so effectively as shame. For that which under other circumstances is worthy of respect, in the midst of famine is despised. Thus women snatched the food from the very mouths of their husbands and children, from their fathers, and what was most pitiable of all, mothers from their babes. And while their dearest ones were wasting away in their arms, they were not ashamed to take away from them the last drops that supported life.

8. And even while they were eating thus they did not remain undiscovered. But everywhere the rioters appeared, to rob them even of these portions of food. For whenever they saw a house shut up, they regarded it as a sign that those inside were taking food. And immediately bursting open the doors they rushed in and seized what they were eating, almost forcing it out of their very throats.

9. Old men who clung to their food were beaten, and if the women concealed it in their hands, their hair was torn for so doing. There was pity neither for gray hairs nor for infants, but, taking up the babes that clung to their morsels of food, they dashed them to the ground. But to those that anticipated their entrance and swallowed what they were about to seize, they were still more cruel, just as if they had been wronged by them.

10. And they devised the most terrible modes of torture to discover food, stopping up the privy passages of the poor wretches with bitter herbs, and piercing their seats with sharp rods. And men suffered things horrible even to hear of, for the sake of compelling them to confess to the possession of one loaf of bread, or in order that they might be made to disclose a single drachm of barley which they had concealed. But the tormentors themselves did not suffer hunger.

11. Their conduct might indeed have seemed less barbarous if they had been driven to it by necessity; but they did it for the sake of exercising their madness and of providing sustenance for themselves for days to come.

12. And when any one crept out of the city by night as far as the outposts of the Romans to collect wild herbs and grass, they went to meet him; and when he thought he had already escaped the enemy, they seized what he had brought with him, and even though oftentimes the man would entreat them, and, calling upon the most awful name of God, adjure them to give him a portion of what he had obtained at the risk of his life, they would give him nothing back. Indeed, it was fortunate if the one that was plundered was not also slain.

13. To this account Josephus, after relating other things, adds the following: The possibility of going out of the city being brought to an end, all hope of safety for the Jews was cut off. And the famine increased and devoured the people by houses and families. And the rooms were filled with dead women and children, the lanes of the city with the corpses of old men.

14. Children and youths, swollen with the famine, wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, and fell down wherever the death agony overtook them. The sick were not strong enough to bury even their own relatives, and those who had the strength hesitated because of the multitude of the dead and the uncertainty as to their own fate. Many, indeed, died while they were burying others, and many betook themselves to their graves before death came upon them.

15. There was neither weeping nor lamentation under these misfortunes; but the famine stifled the natural affections. Those that were dying a lingering death looked with dry eyes upon those that had gone to their rest before them. Deep silence and death-laden night encircled the city.

16. But the robbers were more terrible than these miseries; for they broke open the houses, which were now mere sepulchres, robbed the dead and stripped the covering from their bodies, and went away with a laugh. They tried the points of their swords in the dead bodies, and some that were lying on the ground still alive they thrust through in order to test their weapons. But those that prayed that they would use their right hand and their sword upon them, they contemptuously left to be destroyed by the famine. Every one of these died with eyes fixed upon the temple; and they left the seditious alive.

17. These at first gave orders that the dead should be buried out of the public treasury, for they could not endure the stench. But afterward, when they were not able to do this, they threw the bodies from the walls into the trenches.

18. And as Titus went around and saw the trenches filled with the dead, and the thick blood oozing out of the putrid bodies, he groaned aloud, and, raising his hands, called God to witness that this was not his doing.

19. After speaking of some other things, Josephus proceeds as follows: I cannot hesitate to declare what my feelings compel me to. I suppose, if the Romans had longer delayed in coming against these guilty wretches, the city would have been swallowed up by a chasm, or overwhelmed with a flood, or struck with such thunderbolts as destroyed Sodom. For it had brought forth a generation of men much more godless than were those that suffered such punishment. By their madness indeed was the whole people brought to destruction.

20. And in the sixth book he writes as follows: Of those that perished by famine in the city the number was countless, and the miseries they underwent unspeakable. For if so much as the shadow of food appeared in any house, there was war, and the dearest friends engaged in hand-to-hand conflict with one another, and snatched from each other the most wretched supports of life.

21. Nor would they believe that even the dying were without food; but the robbers would search them while they were expiring, lest any one should feign death while concealing food in his bosom. With mouths gaping for want of food, they stumbled and staggered along like mad dogs, and beat the doors as if they were drunk, and in their impotence they would rush into the same houses twice or thrice in one hour.

22. Necessity compelled them to eat anything they could find, and they gathered and devoured things that were not fit even for the filthiest of irrational beasts. Finally they did not abstain even from their girdles and shoes, and they stripped the hides off their shields and devoured them. Some used even wisps of old hay for food, and others gathered stubble and sold the smallest weight of it for four Attic drachmæ.

23. But why should I speak of the shamelessness which was displayed during the famine toward inanimate things? For I am going to relate a fact such as is recorded neither by Greeks nor Barbarians; horrible to relate, incredible to hear. And indeed I should gladly have omitted this calamity, that I might not seem to posterity to be a teller of fabulous tales, if I had not innumerable witnesses to it in my own age. And besides, I should render my country poor service if I suppressed the account of the sufferings which she endured.

24. There was a certain woman named Mary that dwelt beyond Jordan, whose father was Eleazer, of the village of Bathezor (which signifies the house of hyssop). She was distinguished for her family and her wealth, and had fled with the rest of the multitude to Jerusalem and was shut up there with them during the siege.

25. The tyrants had robbed her of the rest of the property which she had brought with her into the city from Perea. And the remnants of her possessions and whatever food was to be seen the guards rushed in daily and snatched away from her. This made the woman terribly angry, and by her frequent reproaches and imprecations she aroused the anger of the rapacious villains against herself.

26. But no one either through anger or pity would slay her; and she grew weary of finding food for others to eat. The search, too, was already become everywhere difficult, and the famine was piercing her bowels and marrow, and resentment was raging more violently than famine. Taking, therefore, anger and necessity as her counsellors, she proceeded to do a most unnatural thing.

27. Seizing her child, a boy which was sucking at her breast, she said, Oh, wretched child, in war, in famine, in sedition, for what do I preserve you? Slaves among the Romans we shall be even if we are allowed to live by them. But even slavery is anticipated by the famine, and the rioters are more cruel than both. Come, be food for me, a fury for these rioters, and a bye-word to the world, for this is all that is wanting to complete the calamities of the Jews.

28. And when she had said this she slew her son; and having roasted him, she ate one half herself, and covering up the remainder, she kept it. Very soon the rioters appeared on the scene, and, smelling the nefarious odor, they threatened to slay her immediately unless she should show them what she had prepared. She replied that she had saved an excellent portion for them, and with that she uncovered the remains of the child.

29. They were immediately seized with horror and amazement and stood transfixed at the sight. But she said, This is my own son, and the deed is mine. Eat for I too have eaten. Be not more merciful than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But if you are too pious and shrink from my sacrifice, I have already eaten of it; let the rest also remain for me.

30. At these words the men went out trembling, in this one case being affrighted; yet with difficulty did they yield that food to the mother. Forthwith the whole city was filled with the awful crime, and as all pictured the terrible deed before their own eyes, they trembled as if they had done it themselves.

31. Those that were suffering from the famine now longed for death; and blessed were they that had died before hearing and seeing miseries like these.

32. Such was the reward which the Jews received for their wickedness and impiety, against the Christ of God.

Chapter 7. The Predictions of Christ.

1. It is fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction of our Saviour in which he foretold these very events.

2. His words are as follows: Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

3. The historian, reckoning the whole number of the slain, says that eleven hundred thousand persons perished by famine and sword, and that the rest of the rioters and robbers, being betrayed by each other after the taking of the city, were slain. But the tallest of the youths and those that were distinguished for beauty were preserved for the triumph. Of the rest of the multitude, those that were over seventeen years of age were sent as prisoners to labor in the works of Egypt, while still more were scattered through the provinces to meet their death in the theaters by the sword and by beasts. Those under seventeen years of age were carried away to be sold as slaves, and of these alone the number reached ninety thousand.

4. These things took place in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, in accordance with the prophecies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power saw them beforehand as if they were already present, and wept and mourned according to the statement of the holy evangelists, who give the very words which he uttered, when, as if addressing Jerusalem herself, he said:

5. If you had known, even you, in this day, the things which belong unto your peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall cast a rampart about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, and shall lay you and your children even with the ground.

6. And then, as if speaking concerning the people, he says, For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And again: When you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is near.

7. If any one compares the words of our Saviour with the other accounts of the historian concerning the whole war, how can one fail to wonder, and to admit that the foreknowledge and the prophecy of our Saviour were truly divine and marvellously strange.

8. Concerning those calamities, then, that befell the whole Jewish nation after the Saviour’s passion and after the words which the multitude of the Jews uttered, when they begged the release of the robber and murderer, but besought that the Prince of Life should be taken from their midst, it is not necessary to add anything to the account of the historian.

9. But it may be proper to mention also those events which exhibited the graciousness of that all-good Providence which held back their destruction full forty years after their crime against Christ — during which time many of the apostles and disciples, and James himself the first bishop there, the one who is called the brother of the Lord, were still alive, and dwelling in Jerusalem itself, remained the surest bulwark of the place. Divine Providence thus still proved itself long-suffering toward them in order to see whether by repentance for what they had done they might obtain pardon and salvation; and in addition to such long-suffering, Providence also furnished wonderful signs of the things which were about to happen to them if they did not repent.

10. Since these matters have been thought worthy of mention by the historian already cited, we cannot do better than to recount them for the benefit of the readers of this work.

Chapter 8. The Signs which preceded the War.

1. Taking, then, the work of this author, read what he records in the sixth book of his History. His words are as follows: Thus were the miserable people won over at this time by the impostors and false prophets; but they did not heed nor give credit to the visions and signs that foretold the approaching desolation. On the contrary, as if struck by lightning, and as if possessing neither eyes nor understanding, they slighted the proclamations of God.

2. At one time a star, in form like a sword, stood over the city, and a comet, which lasted for a whole year; and again before the revolt and before the disturbances that led to the war, when the people were gathered for the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone about the altar and the temple that it seemed to be bright day; and this continued for half an hour. This seemed to the unskillful a good sign, but was interpreted by the sacred scribes as portending those events which very soon took place.

3. And at the same feast a cow, led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple.

4. And the eastern gate of the inner temple, which was of bronze and very massive, and which at evening was closed with difficulty by twenty men, and rested upon iron-bound beams, and had bars sunk deep in the ground, was seen at the sixth hour of the night to open of itself.

5. And not many days after the feast, on the twenty-first of the month Artemisium, a certain marvelous vision was seen which passes belief. The prodigy might seem fabulous were it not related by those who saw it, and were not the calamities which followed deserving of such signs. For before the setting of the sun chariots and armed troops were seen throughout the whole region in mid-air, wheeling through the clouds and encircling the cities.

6. And at the feast which is called Pentecost, when the priests entered the temple at night, as was their custom, to perform the services, they said that at first they perceived a movement and a noise, and afterward a voice as of a great multitude, saying, ‘Let us go hence.’

7. But what follows is still more terrible; for a certain Jesus, the son of Ananias, a common countryman, four years before the war, when the city was particularly prosperous and peaceful, came to the feast, at which it was customary for all to make tents at the temple to the honor of God, and suddenly began to cry out: ‘A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people.’ Day and night he went through all the alleys crying thus.

8. But certain of the more distinguished citizens, vexed at the ominous cry, seized the man and beat him with many stripes. But without uttering a word in his own behalf, or saying anything in particular to those that were present, he continued to cry out in the same words as before.

9. And the rulers, thinking, as was true, that the man was moved by a higher power, brought him before the Roman governor. And then, though he was scourged to the bone, he neither made supplication nor shed tears, but, changing his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, he answered each stroke with the words, ‘Woe, woe unto Jerusalem.’

10. The same historian records another fact still more wonderful than this. He says that a certain oracle was found in their sacred writings which declared that at that time a certain person should go forth from their country to rule the world. He himself understood that this was fulfilled in Vespasian.

11. But Vespasian did not rule the whole world, but only that part of it which was subject to the Romans. With better right could it be applied to Christ; to whom it was said by the Father, Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. At that very time, indeed, the voice of his holy apostles went throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

Chapter 9. Josephus and the Works which he has left.

1. After all this it is fitting that we should know something in regard to the origin and family of Josephus, who has contributed so much to the history in hand. He himself gives us information on this point in the following words: Josephus, the son of Mattathias, a priest of Jerusalem, who himself fought against the Romans in the beginning and was compelled to be present at what happened afterward.

2. He was the most noted of all the Jews of that day, not only among his own people, but also among the Romans, so that he was honored by the erection of a statue in Rome, and his works were deemed worthy of a place in the library.

3. He wrote the whole of the Antiquities of the Jews in twenty books, and a history of the war with the Romans which took place in his time, in seven books. He himself testifies that the latter work was not only written in Greek, but that it was also translated by himself into his native tongue. He is worthy of credit here because of his truthfulness in other matters.

4. There are extant also two other books of his which are worth reading. They treat of the antiquity of the Jews, and in them he replies to Apion the Grammarian, who had at that time written a treatise against the Jews, and also to others who had attempted to vilify the hereditary institutions of the Jewish people.

5. In the first of these books he gives the number of the canonical books of the so-called Old Testament. Apparently drawing his information from ancient tradition, he shows what books were accepted without dispute among the Hebrews. His words are as follows.

Chapter 10. The Manner in which Josephus mentions the Divine Books.

1. We have not, therefore, a multitude of books disagreeing and conflicting with one another; but we have only twenty-two, which contain the record of all time and are justly held to be divine.

2. Of these, five are by Moses, and contain the laws and the tradition respecting the origin of man, and continue the history down to his own death. This period embraces nearly three thousand years.

3. From the death of Moses to the death of Artaxerxes, who succeeded Xerxes as king of Persia, the prophets that followed Moses wrote the history of their own times in thirteen books. The other four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the regulation of the life of men.

4. From the time of Artaxerxes to our own day all the events have been recorded, but the accounts are not worthy of the same confidence that we repose in those which preceded them, because there has not been during this time an exact succession of prophets.

5. How much we are attached to our own writings is shown plainly by our treatment of them. For although so great a period has already passed by, no one has ventured either to add to or to take from them, but it is inbred in all Jews from their very birth to regard them as the teachings of God, and to abide by them, and, if necessary, cheerfully to die for them.

These remarks of the historian I have thought might advantageously be introduced in this connection.

6. Another work of no little merit has been produced by the same writer, On the Supremacy of Reason, which some have called Maccabaicum, because it contains an account of the struggles of those Hebrews who contended manfully for the true religion, as is related in the books called Maccabees.

7. And at the end of the twentieth book of his Antiquities Josephus himself intimates that he had purposed to write a work in four books concerning God and his existence, according to the traditional opinions of the Jews, and also concerning the laws, why it is that they permit some things while prohibiting others. And the same writer also mentions in his own works other books written by himself.

8. In addition to these things it is proper to quote also the words that are found at the close of his Antiquities, in confirmation of the testimony which we have drawn from his accounts. In that place he attacks Justus of Tiberias, who, like himself, had attempted to write a history of contemporary events, on the ground that he had not written truthfully. Having brought many other accusations against the man, he continues in these words:

9. I indeed was not afraid in respect to my writings as you were, but, on the contrary, I presented my books to the emperors themselves when the events were almost under men’s eyes. For I was conscious that I had preserved the truth in my account, and hence was not disappointed in my expectation of obtaining their attestation.

10. And I presented my history also to many others, some of whom were present at the war, as, for instance, King Agrippa and some of his relatives.

11. For the Emperor Titus desired so much that the knowledge of the events should be communicated to men by my history alone, that he endorsed the books with his own hand and commanded that they should be published. And King Agrippa wrote sixty-two epistles testifying to the truthfulness of my account. Of these epistles Josephus subjoins two. But this will suffice in regard to him. Let us now proceed with our history.

Chapter 11. Symeon rules the Church of Jerusalem after James.

1. After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem which immediately followed, it is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James.

2. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph.

Chapter 12. Vespasian commands the Descendants of David to be sought.

He also relates that Vespasian after the conquest of Jerusalem gave orders that all that belonged to the lineage of David should be sought out, in order that none of the royal race might be left among the Jews; and in consequence of this a most terrible persecution again hung over the Jews.

Chapter 13. Anencletus, the Second Bishop of Rome.

After Vespasian had reigned ten years Titus, his son, succeeded him. In the second year of his reign, Linus, who had been bishop of the church of Rome for twelve years, delivered his office to Anencletus. But Titus was succeeded by his brother Domitian after he had reigned two years and the same number of months.

Chapter 14. Abilius, the Second Bishop of Alexandria.

In the fourth year of Domitian, Annianus, the first bishop of the parish of Alexandria, died after holding office twenty-two years, and was succeeded by Abilius, the second bishop.

Chapter 15. Clement, the Third Bishop of Rome.

In the twelfth year of the same reign Clement succeeded Anencletus after the latter had been bishop of the church of Rome for twelve years. The apostle in his Epistle to the Philippians informs us that this Clement was his fellow-worker. His words are as follows: With Clement and the rest of my fellow-laborers whose names are in the book of life.

Chapter 16. The Epistle of Clement.

There is extant an epistle of this Clement which is acknowledged to be genuine and is of considerable length and of remarkable merit. He wrote it in the name of the church of Rome to the church of Corinth, when a sedition had arisen in the latter church. We know that this epistle also has been publicly used in a great many churches both in former times and in our own. And of the fact that a sedition did take place in the church of Corinth at the time referred to Hegesippus is a trustworthy witness.

Chapter 17. The Persecution under Domitian.

Domitian, having shown great cruelty toward many, and having unjustly put to death no small number of well-born and notable men at Rome, and having without cause exiled and confiscated the property of a great many other illustrious men, finally became a successor of Nero in his hatred and enmity toward God. He was in fact the second that stirred up a persecution against us, although his father Vespasian had undertaken nothing prejudicial to us.

Chapter 18. The Apostle John and the Apocalypse.

1. It is said that in this persecution the apostle and evangelist John, who was still alive, was condemned to dwell on the island of Patmos in consequence of his testimony to the divine word.

2. Irenæus, in the fifth book of his work Against Heresies, where he discusses the number of the name of Antichrist which is given in the so-called Apocalypse of John, speaks as follows concerning him:

3. If it were necessary for his name to be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the revelation. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, at the end of the reign of Domitian.

4. To such a degree, indeed, did the teaching of our faith flourish at that time that even those writers who were far from our religion did not hesitate to mention in their histories the persecution and the martyrdoms which took place during it.

5. And they, indeed, accurately indicated the time. For they recorded that in the fifteenth year of Domitian Flavia Domitilla, daughter of a sister of Flavius Clement, who at that time was one of the consuls of Rome, was exiled with many others to the island of Pontia in consequence of testimony borne to Christ.

Chapter 19. Domitian commands the Descendants of David to be slain.

But when this same Domitian had commanded that the descendants of David should be slain, an ancient tradition says that some of the heretics brought accusation against the descendants of Jude (said to have been a brother of the Saviour according to the flesh), on the ground that they were of the lineage of David and were related to Christ himself. Hegesippus relates these facts in the following words.

Chapter 20. The Relatives of our Saviour.

1. Of the family of the Lord there were still living the grandchildren of Jude, who is said to have been the Lord’s brother according to the flesh.

2. Information was given that they belonged to the family of David, and they were brought to the Emperor Domitian by the Evocatus. For Domitian feared the coming of Christ as Herod also had feared it. And he asked them if they were descendants of David, and they confessed that they were. Then he asked them how much property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered that they had only nine thousand denarii, half of which belonged to each of them.

4. And this property did not consist of silver, but of a piece of land which contained only thirty-nine acres, and from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor.

5. Then they showed their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies and the callousness produced upon their hands by continuous toil as evidence of their own labor.

6. And when they were asked concerning Christ and his kingdom, of what sort it was and where and when it was to appear, they answered that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly and angelic one, which would appear at the end of the world, when he should come in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and to give unto every one according to his works.

7. Upon hearing this, Domitian did not pass judgment against them, but, despising them as of no account, he let them go, and by a decree put a stop to the persecution of the Church.

8. But when they were released they ruled the churches because they were witnesses and were also relatives of the Lord. And peace being established, they lived until the time of Trajan. These things are related by Hegesippus.

9. Tertullian also has mentioned Domitian in the following words: Domitian also, who possessed a share of Nero’s cruelty, attempted once to do the same thing that the latter did. But because he had, I suppose, some intelligence, he very soon ceased, and even recalled those whom he had banished.

10. But after Domitian had reigned fifteen years, and Nerva had succeeded to the empire, the Roman Senate, according to the writers that record the history of those days, voted that Domitian’s honors should be cancelled, and that those who had been unjustly banished should return to their homes and have their property restored to them.

11. It was at this time that the apostle John returned from his banishment in the island and took up his abode at Ephesus, according to an ancient Christian tradition.

Chapter 21. Cerdon becomes the Third Ruler of the Church of Alexandria.

1. After Nerva had reigned a little more than a year he was succeeded by Trajan. It was during the first year of his reign that Abilius, who had ruled the church of Alexandria for thirteen years, was succeeded by Cerdon.

2. He was the third that presided over that church after Annianus, who was the first. At that time Clement still ruled the church of Rome, being also the third that held the episcopate there after Paul and Peter.

3. Linus was the first, and after him came Anencletus.

Chapter 22. Ignatius, the Second Bishop of Antioch.

At this time Ignatius was known as the second bishop of Antioch, Evodius having been the first. Symeon likewise was at that time the second ruler of the church of Jerusalem, the brother of our Saviour having been the first.

Chapter 23. Narrative Concerning John the Apostle.

1. At that time the apostle and evangelist John, the one whom Jesus loved, was still living in Asia, and governing the churches of that region, having returned after the death of Domitian from his exile on the island.

2. And that he was still alive at that time may be established by the testimony of two witnesses. They should be trustworthy who have maintained the orthodoxy of the Church; and such indeed were Irenæus and Clement of Alexandria.

3. The former in the second book of his work Against Heresies, writes as follows: And all the elders that associated with John the disciple of the Lord in Asia bear witness that John delivered it to them. For he remained among them until the time of Trajan.

4. And in the third book of the same work he attests the same thing in the following words: But the church in Ephesus also, which was founded by Paul, and where John remained until the time of Trajan, is a faithful witness of the apostolic tradition.

5. Clement likewise in his book entitled What Rich Man can be saved? indicates the time, and subjoins a narrative which is most attractive to those that enjoy hearing what is beautiful and profitable. Take and read the account which runs as follows:

6. Listen to a tale, which is not a mere tale, but a narrative concerning John the apostle, which has been handed down and treasured up in memory. For when, after the tyrant’s death, he returned from the isle of Patmos to Ephesus, he went away upon their invitation to the neighboring territories of the Gentiles, to appoint bishops in some places, in other places to set in order whole churches, elsewhere to choose to the ministry some one of those that were pointed out by the Spirit.

7. When he had come to one of the cities not far away (the name of which is given by some ), and had consoled the brethren in other matters, he finally turned to the bishop that had been appointed, and seeing a youth of powerful physique, of pleasing appearance, and of ardent temperament, he said, ‘This one I commit to you in all earnestness in the presence of the Church and with Christ as witness.’ And when the bishop had accepted the charge and had promised all, he repeated the same injunction with an appeal to the same witnesses, and then departed for Ephesus.

8. But the presbyter taking home the youth committed to him, reared, kept, cherished, and finally baptized him. After this he relaxed his stricter care and watchfulness, with the idea that in putting upon him the seal of the Lord he had given him a perfect protection.

9. But some youths of his own age, idle and dissolute, and accustomed to evil practices, corrupted him when he was thus prematurely freed from restraint. At first they enticed him by costly entertainments; then, when they went forth at night for robbery, they took him with them, and finally they demanded that he should unite with them in some greater crime.

10. He gradually became accustomed to such practices, and on account of the positiveness of his character, leaving the right path, and taking the bit in his teeth like a hard-mouthed and powerful horse, he rushed the more violently down into the depths.

11. And finally despairing of salvation in God, he no longer meditated what was insignificant, but having committed some great crime, since he was now lost once for all, he expected to suffer a like fate with the rest. Taking them, therefore, and forming a band of robbers, he became a bold bandit-chief, the most violent, most bloody, most cruel of them all.

12. Time passed, and some necessity having arisen, they sent for John. But he, when he had set in order the other matters on account of which he had come, said, ‘Come, O bishop, restore us the deposit which both I and Christ committed to you, the church, over which you preside, being witness.’

13. But the bishop was at first confounded, thinking that he was falsely charged in regard to money which he had not received, and he could neither believe the accusation respecting what he had not, nor could he disbelieve John. But when he said, ‘I demand the young man and the soul of the brother,’ the old man, groaning deeply and at the same time bursting into tears, said, ‘He is dead.’ ‘How and what kind of death?’ ‘He is dead to God,’ he said; ‘for he turned wicked and abandoned, and at last a robber. And now, instead of the church, he haunts the mountain with a band like himself.’

14. But the Apostle rent his clothes, and beating his head with great lamentation, he said, ‘A fine guard I left for a brother’s soul! But let a horse be brought me, and let some one show me the way.’ He rode away from the church just as he was, and coming to the place, he was taken prisoner by the robbers’ outpost.

15. He, however, neither fled nor made entreaty, but cried out, ‘For this did I come; lead me to your captain.’

16. The latter, meanwhile, was waiting, armed as he was. But when he recognized John approaching, he turned in shame to flee.

17. But John, forgetting his age, pursued him with all his might, crying out, ‘Why, my son, do you flee from me, your own father, unarmed, aged? Pity me, my son; fear not; you have still hope of life. I will give account to Christ for you. If need be, I will willingly endure your death as the Lord suffered death for us. For you will I give up my life. Stand, believe; Christ has sent me.’

18. And he, when he heard, first stopped and looked down; then he threw away his arms, and then trembled and wept bitterly. And when the old man approached, he embraced him, making confession with lamentations as he was able, baptizing himself a second time with tears, and concealing only his right hand.

19. But John, pledging himself, and assuring him on oath that he would find forgiveness with the Saviour, besought him, fell upon his knees, kissed his right hand itself as if now purified by repentance, and led him back to the church. And making intercession for him with copious prayers, and struggling together with him in continual fastings, and subduing his mind by various utterances, he did not depart, as they say, until he had restored him to the church, furnishing a great example of true repentance and a great proof of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.

Chapter 24. The Order of the Gospels.

1. This extract from Clement I have inserted here for the sake of the history and for the benefit of my readers. Let us now point out the undisputed writings of this apostle.

2. And in the first place his Gospel, which is known to all the churches under heaven, must be acknowledged as genuine. That it has with good reason been put by the ancients in the fourth place, after the other three Gospels, may be made evident in the following way.

3. Those great and truly divine men, I mean the apostles of Christ, were purified in their life, and were adorned with every virtue of the soul, but were uncultivated in speech. They were confident indeed in their trust in the divine and wonder-working power which was granted unto them by the Saviour, but they did not know how, nor did they attempt to proclaim the doctrines of their teacher in studied and artistic language, but employing only the demonstration of the divine Spirit, which worked with them, and the wonder-working power of Christ, which was displayed through them, they published the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven throughout the whole world, paying little attention to the composition of written works.

4. And this they did because they were assisted in their ministry by one greater than man. Paul, for instance, who surpassed them all in vigor of expression and in richness of thought, committed to writing no more than the briefest epistles, although he had innumerable mysterious matters to communicate, for he had attained even unto the sights of the third heaven, had been carried to the very paradise of God, and had been deemed worthy to hear unspeakable utterances there.

5. And the rest of the followers of our Saviour, the twelve apostles, the seventy disciples, and countless others besides, were not ignorant of these things. Nevertheless, of all the disciples of the Lord, only Matthew and John have left us written memorials, and they, tradition says, were led to write only under the pressure of necessity.

6. For Matthew, who had at first preached to the Hebrews, when he was about to go to other peoples, committed his Gospel to writing in his native tongue, and thus compensated those whom he was obliged to leave for the loss of his presence.

7. And when Mark and Luke had already published their Gospels, they say that John, who had employed all his time in proclaiming the Gospel orally, finally proceeded to write for the following reason. The three Gospels already mentioned having come into the hands of all and into his own too, they say that he accepted them and bore witness to their truthfulness; but that there was lacking in them an account of the deeds done by Christ at the beginning of his ministry.

8. And this indeed is true. For it is evident that the three evangelists recorded only the deeds done by the Saviour for one year after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, and indicated this in the beginning of their account.

9. For Matthew, after the forty days’ fast and the temptation which followed it, indicates the chronology of his work when he says: Now when he heard that John was delivered up he withdrew from Judea into Galilee. Matthew 4:12

10. Mark likewise says: Now after that John was delivered up Jesus came into Galilee. Mark 1:14 And Luke, before commencing his account of the deeds of Jesus, similarly marks the time, when he says that Herod, adding to all the evil deeds which he had done, shut up John in prison. Luke 3:20

11. They say, therefore, that the apostle John, being asked to do it for this reason, gave in his Gospel an account of the period which had been omitted by the earlier evangelists, and of the deeds done by the Saviour during that period; that is, of those which were done before the imprisonment of the Baptist. And this is indicated by him, they say, in the following words: This beginning of miracles did Jesus; and again when he refers to the Baptist, in the midst of the deeds of Jesus, as still baptizing in Ænon near Salim; John 3:23 where he states the matter clearly in the words: For John was not yet cast into prison.

12. John accordingly, in his Gospel, records the deeds of Christ which were performed before the Baptist was cast into prison, but the other three evangelists mention the events which happened after that time.

13. One who understands this can no longer think that the Gospels are at variance with one another, inasmuch as the Gospel according to John contains the first acts of Christ, while the others give an account of the latter part of his life. And the genealogy of our Saviour according to the flesh John quite naturally omitted, because it had been already given by Matthew and Luke, and began with the doctrine of his divinity, which had, as it were, been reserved for him, as their superior, by the divine Spirit.

14. These things may suffice, which we have said concerning the Gospel of John. The cause which led to the composition of the Gospel of Mark has been already stated by us.

15. But as for Luke, in the beginning of his Gospel, he states himself the reasons which led him to write it. He states that since many others had more rashly undertaken to compose a narrative of the events of which he had acquired perfect knowledge, he himself, feeling the necessity of freeing us from their uncertain opinions, delivered in his own Gospel an accurate account of those events in regard to which he had learned the full truth, being aided by his intimacy and his stay with Paul and by his acquaintance with the rest of the apostles.

16. So much for our own account of these things. But in a more fitting place we shall attempt to show by quotations from the ancients, what others have said concerning them.

17. But of the writings of John, not only his Gospel, but also the former of his epistles, has been accepted without dispute both now and in ancient times. But the other two are disputed.

18. In regard to the Apocalypse, the opinions of most men are still divided. But at the proper time this question likewise shall be decided from the testimony of the ancients.

Chapter 25. The Divine Scriptures that are accepted and those that are not.

1. Since we are dealing with this subject it is proper to sum up the writings of the New Testament which have been already mentioned. First then must be put the holy quaternion of the Gospels; following them the Acts of the Apostles.

2. After this must be reckoned the epistles of Paul; next in order the extant former epistle of John, and likewise the epistle of Peter, must be maintained. After them is to be placed, if it really seem proper, the Apocalypse of John, concerning which we shall give the different opinions at the proper time. These then belong among the accepted writings.

3. Among the disputed writings, which are nevertheless recognized by many, are extant the so-called epistle of James and that of Jude, also the second epistle of Peter, and those that are called the second and third of John, whether they belong to the evangelist or to another person of the same name.

4. Among the rejected writings must be reckoned also the Acts of Paul, and the so-called Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of Peter, and in addition to these the extant epistle of Barnabas, and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles; and besides, as I said, the Apocalypse of John, if it seem proper, which some, as I said, reject, but which others class with the accepted books.

5. And among these some have placed also the Gospel according to the Hebrews, with which those of the Hebrews that have accepted Christ are especially delighted. And all these may be reckoned among the disputed books.

6. But we have nevertheless felt compelled to give a catalogue of these also, distinguishing those works which according to ecclesiastical tradition are true and genuine and commonly accepted, from those others which, although not canonical but disputed, are yet at the same time known to most ecclesiastical writers — we have felt compelled to give this catalogue in order that we might be able to know both these works and those that are cited by the heretics under the name of the apostles, including, for instance, such books as the Gospels of Peter, of Thomas, of Matthias, or of any others besides them, and the Acts of Andrew and John and the other apostles, which no one belonging to the succession of ecclesiastical writers has deemed worthy of mention in his writings.

7. And further, the character of the style is at variance with apostolic usage, and both the thoughts and the purpose of the things that are related in them are so completely out of accord with true orthodoxy that they clearly show themselves to be the fictions of heretics. Wherefore they are not to be placed even among the rejected writings, but are all of them to be cast aside as absurd and impious.

Let us now proceed with our history.

Chapter 26. Menander the Sorcerer.

1. Menander, who succeeded Simon Magus, showed himself in his conduct another instrument of diabolical power, not inferior to the former. He also was a Samaritan and carried his sorceries to no less an extent than his teacher had done, and at the same time reveled in still more marvelous tales than he.

2. For he said that he was himself the Saviour, who had been sent down from invisible æons for the salvation of men; and he taught that no one could gain the mastery over the world-creating angels themselves unless he had first gone through the magical discipline imparted by him and had received baptism from him. Those who were deemed worthy of this would partake even in the present life of perpetual immortality, and would never die, but would remain here forever, and without growing old become immortal. These facts can be easily learned from the works of Irenæus.

3. And Justin, in the passage in which he mentions Simon, gives an account of this man also, in the following words: And we know that a certain Menander, who was also a Samaritan, from the village of Capparattea, was a disciple of Simon, and that he also, being driven by the demons, came to Antioch and deceived many by his magical art. And he persuaded his followers that they should not die. And there are still some of them that assert this.

4. And it was indeed an artifice of the devil to endeavor, by means of such sorcerers, who assumed the name of Christians, to defame the great mystery of godliness by magic art, and through them to make ridiculous the doctrines of the Church concerning the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. But they that have chosen these men as their saviours have fallen away from the true hope.

Chapter 27. The Heresy of the Ebionites.

1. The evil demon, however, being unable to tear certain others from their allegiance to the Christ of God, yet found them susceptible in a different direction, and so brought them over to his own purposes. The ancients quite properly called these men Ebionites, because they held poor and mean opinions concerning Christ.

2. For they considered him a plain and common man, who was justified only because of his superior virtue, and who was the fruit of the intercourse of a man with Mary. In their opinion the observance of the ceremonial law was altogether necessary, on the ground that they could not be saved by faith in Christ alone and by a corresponding life.

3. There were others, however, besides them, that were of the same name, but avoided the strange and absurd beliefs of the former, and did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, inasmuch as they also refused to acknowledge that he pre-existed, being God, Word, and Wisdom, they turned aside into the impiety of the former, especially when they, like them, endeavored to observe strictly the bodily worship of the law.

4. These men, moreover, thought that it was necessary to reject all the epistles of the apostle, whom they called an apostate from the law; and they used only the so-called Gospel according to the Hebrews and made small account of the rest.

5. The Sabbath and the rest of the discipline of the Jews they observed just like them, but at the same time, like us, they celebrated the Lord’s days as a memorial of the resurrection of the Saviour.

6. Wherefore, in consequence of such a course they received the name of Ebionites, which signified the poverty of their understanding. For this is the name by which a poor man is called among the Hebrews.

Chapter 28. Cerinthus the Heresiarch.

1. We have understood that at this time Cerinthus, the author of another heresy, made his appearance. Caius, whose words we quoted above, in the Disputation which is ascribed to him, writes as follows concerning this man:

2. But Cerinthus also, by means of revelations which he pretends were written by a great apostle, brings before us marvelous things which he falsely claims were shown him by angels; and he says that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ will be set up on earth, and that the flesh dwelling in Jerusalem will again be subject to desires and pleasures. And being an enemy of the Scriptures of God, he asserts, with the purpose of deceiving men, that there is to be a period of a thousand years for marriage festivals.

3. And Dionysius, who was bishop of the parish of Alexandria in our day, in the second book of his work On the Promises, where he says some things concerning the Apocalypse of John which he draws from tradition, mentions this same man in the following words:

4. But (they say that) Cerinthus, who founded the sect which was called, after him, the Cerinthian, desiring reputable authority for his fiction, prefixed the name. For the doctrine which he taught was this: that the kingdom of Christ will be an earthly one.

5. And as he was himself devoted to the pleasures of the body and altogether sensual in his nature, he dreamed that that kingdom would consist in those things which he desired, namely, in the delights of the belly and of sexual passion, that is to say, in eating and drinking and marrying, and in festivals and sacrifices and the slaying of victims, under the guise of which he thought he could indulge his appetites with a better grace.

6. These are the words of Dionysius. But Irenæus, in the first book of his work Against Heresies, gives some more abominable false doctrines of the same man, and in the third book relates a story which deserves to be recorded. He says, on the authority of Polycarp, that the apostle John once entered a bath to bathe; but, learning that Cerinthus was within, he sprang from the place and rushed out of the door, for he could not bear to remain under the same roof with him. And he advised those that were with him to do the same, saying, Let us flee, lest the bath fall; for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.

Chapter 29. Nicolaus and the Sect named after him.

1. At this time the so-called sect of the Nicolaitans made its appearance and lasted for a very short time. Mention is made of it in the Apocalypse of John. They boasted that the author of their sect was Nicolaus, one of the deacons who, with Stephen, were appointed by the apostles for the purpose of ministering to the poor. Clement of Alexandria, in the third book of his Stromata, relates the following things concerning him.

2. They say that he had a beautiful wife, and after the ascension of the Saviour, being accused by the apostles of jealousy, he led her into their midst and gave permission to any one that wished to marry her. For they say that this was in accord with that saying of his, that one ought to abuse the flesh. And those that have followed his heresy, imitating blindly and foolishly that which was done and said, commit fornication without shame.

3. But I understand that Nicolaus had to do with no other woman than her to whom he was married, and that, so far as his children are concerned, his daughters continued in a state of virginity until old age, and his son remained uncorrupt. If this is so, when he brought his wife, whom he jealously loved, into the midst of the apostles, he was evidently renouncing his passion; and when he used the expression, ‘to abuse the flesh,’ he was inculcating self-control in the face of those pleasures that are eagerly pursued. For I suppose that, in accordance with the command of the Saviour, he did not wish to serve two masters, pleasure and the Lord.

4. But they say that Matthias also taught in the same manner that we ought to fight against and abuse the flesh, and not give way to it for the sake of pleasure, but strengthen the soul by faith and knowledge. So much concerning those who then attempted to pervert the truth, but in less time than it has taken to tell it became entirely extinct.

Chapter 30. The Apostles that were Married.

1. Clement, indeed, whose words we have just quoted, after the above-mentioned facts gives a statement, on account of those who rejected marriage, of the apostles that had wives. Or will they, says he, reject even the apostles? For Peter and Philip begot children; and Philip also gave his daughters in marriage. And Paul does not hesitate, in one of his epistles, to greet his wife, whom he did not take about with him, that he might not be inconvenienced in his ministry.

2. And since we have mentioned this subject it is not improper to subjoin another account which is given by the same author and which is worth reading. In the seventh book of his Stromata he writes as follows: They say, accordingly, that when the blessed Peter saw his own wife led out to die, he rejoiced because of her summons and her return home, and called to her very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, and saying, ‘Remember the Lord.’ Such was the marriage of the blessed, and their perfect disposition toward those dearest to them. This account being in keeping with the subject in hand, I have related here in its proper place.

Chapter 31. The Death of John and Philip.

1. The time and the manner of the death of Paul and Peter as well as their burial places, have been already shown by us.

2. The time of John’s death has also been given in a general way, but his burial place is indicated by an epistle of Polycrates (who was bishop of the parish of Ephesus), addressed to Victor, bishop of Rome. In this epistle he mentions him together with the apostle Philip and his daughters in the following words:

3. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the last day, at the coming of the Lord, when he shall come with glory from heaven and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis, and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and moreover John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and being a priest wore the sacerdotal plate. He also sleeps at Ephesus.

4. So much concerning their death. And in the Dialogue of Caius which we mentioned a little above, Proclus, against whom he directed his disputation, in agreement with what has been quoted, speaks thus concerning the death of Philip and his daughters: After him there were four prophetesses, the daughters of Philip, at Hierapolis in Asia. Their tomb is there and the tomb of their father. Such is his statement.

5. But Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, mentions the daughters of Philip who were at that time at Cæsarea in Judea with their father, and were honored with the gift of prophecy. His words are as follows: We came unto Cæsarea; and entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we abode with him. Now this man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

6. We have thus set forth in these pages what has come to our knowledge concerning the apostles themselves and the apostolic age, and concerning the sacred writings which they have left us, as well as concerning those which are disputed, but nevertheless have been publicly used by many in a great number of churches, and moreover, concerning those that are altogether rejected and are out of harmony with apostolic orthodoxy. Having done this, let us now proceed with our history.

Chapter 32. Symeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, suffers Martyrdom.

1. It is reported that after the age of Nero and Domitian, under the emperor whose times we are now recording, a persecution was stirred up against us in certain cities in consequence of a popular uprising. In this persecution we have understood that Symeon, the son of Clopas, who, as we have shown, was the second bishop of the church of Jerusalem, suffered martyrdom.

2. Hegesippus, whose words we have already quoted in various places, is a witness to this fact also. Speaking of certain heretics he adds that Symeon was accused by them at this time; and since it was clear that he was a Christian, he was tortured in various ways for many days, and astonished even the judge himself and his attendants in the highest degree, and finally he suffered a death similar to that of our Lord.

3. But there is nothing like hearing the historian himself, who writes as follows: Certain of these heretics brought accusation against Symeon, the son of Clopas, on the ground that he was a descendant of David and a Christian; and thus he suffered martyrdom, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, while Trajan was emperor and Atticus governor.

4. And the same writer says that his accusers also, when search was made for the descendants of David, were arrested as belonging to that family. And it might be reasonably assumed that Symeon was one of those that saw and heard the Lord, judging from the length of his life, and from the fact that the Gospel makes mention of Mary, the wife of Clopas, who was the father of Symeon, as has been already shown.

5. The same historian says that there were also others, descended from one of the so-called brothers of the Saviour, whose name was Judas, who, after they had borne testimony before Domitian, as has been already recorded, in behalf of faith in Christ, lived until the same reign.

6. He writes as follows: They came, therefore, and took the lead of every church as witnesses and as relatives of the Lord. And profound peace being established in every church, they remained until the reign of the Emperor Trajan, and until the above-mentioned Symeon, son of Clopas, an uncle of the Lord, was informed against by the heretics, and was himself in like manner accused for the same cause before the governor Atticus. And after being tortured for many days he suffered martyrdom, and all, including even the proconsul, marveled that, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, he could endure so much. And orders were given that he should be crucified.

7. In addition to these things the same man, while recounting the events of that period, records that the Church up to that time had remained a pure and uncorrupted virgin, since, if there were any that attempted to corrupt the sound norm of the preaching of salvation, they lay until then concealed in obscure darkness.

8. But when the sacred college of apostles had suffered death in various forms, and the generation of those that had been deemed worthy to hear the inspired wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then the league of godless error took its rise as a result of the folly of heretical teachers, who, because none of the apostles was still living, attempted henceforth, with a bold face, to proclaim, in opposition to the preaching of the truth, the ‘knowledge which is falsely so-called.’

Chapter 33. Trajan forbids the Christians to be sought after.

1. So great a persecution was at that time opened against us in many places that Plinius Secundus, one of the most noted of governors, being disturbed by the great number of martyrs, communicated with the emperor concerning the multitude of those that were put to death for their faith. At the same time, he informed him in his communication that he had not heard of their doing anything profane or contrary to the laws — except that they arose at dawn and sang hymns to Christ as a God; but that they renounced adultery and murder and like criminal offenses, and did all things in accordance with the laws.

2. In reply to this Trajan made the following decree: that the race of Christians should not be sought after, but when found should be punished. On account of this the persecution which had threatened to be a most terrible one was to a certain degree checked, but there were still left plenty of pretexts for those who wished to do us harm. Sometimes the people, sometimes the rulers in various places, would lay plots against us, so that, although no great persecutions took place, local persecutions were nevertheless going on in particular provinces, and many of the faithful endured martyrdom in various forms.

3. We have taken our account from the Latin Apology of Tertullian which we mentioned above. The translation runs as follows: And indeed we have found that search for us has been forbidden. For when Plinius Secundus, the governor of a province, had condemned certain Christians and deprived them of their dignity, he was confounded by the multitude, and was uncertain what further course to pursue. He therefore communicated with Trajan the emperor, informing him that, aside from their unwillingness to sacrifice, he had found no impiety in them.

4. And he reported this also, that the Christians arose early in the morning and sang hymns unto Christ as a God, and for the purpose of preserving their discipline forbade murder, adultery, avarice, robbery, and the like. In reply to this Trajan wrote that the race of Christians should not be sought after, but when found should be punished. Such were the events which took place at that time.

Chapter 34. Evarestus, the Fourth Bishop of the Church of Rome.

1. In the third year of the reign of the emperor mentioned above, Clement committed the episcopal government of the church of Rome to Evarestus, and departed this life after he had superintended the teaching of the divine word nine years in all.

Chapter 35. Justus, the Third Bishop of Jerusalem.

1. But when Symeon also had died in the manner described, a certain Jew by the name of Justus succeeded to the episcopal throne in Jerusalem. He was one of the many thousands of the circumcision who at that time believed in Christ.

Chapter 36. Ignatius and His Epistles.

1. At that time Polycarp, a disciple of the apostles, was a man of eminence in Asia, having been entrusted with the episcopate of the church of Smyrna by those who had seen and heard the Lord.

2. And at the same time Papias, bishop of the parish of Hierapolis, became well known, as did also Ignatius, who was chosen bishop of Antioch, second in succession to Peter, and whose fame is still celebrated by a great many.

3. Report says that he was sent from Syria to Rome, and became food for wild beasts on account of his testimony to Christ.

4. And as he made the journey through Asia under the strictest military surveillance, he fortified the parishes in the various cities where he stopped by oral homilies and exhortations, and warned them above all to be especially on their guard against the heresies that were then beginning to prevail, and exhorted them to hold fast to the tradition of the apostles. Moreover, he thought it necessary to attest that tradition in writing, and to give it a fixed form for the sake of greater security.

5. So when he came to Smyrna, where Polycarp was, he wrote an epistle to the church of Ephesus, in which he mentions Onesimus, its pastor; and another to the church of Magnesia, situated upon the Mæander, in which he makes mention again of a bishop Damas; and finally one to the church of Tralles, whose bishop, he states, was at that time Polybius.

6. In addition to these he wrote also to the church of Rome, entreating them not to secure his release from martyrdom, and thus rob him of his earnest hope. In confirmation of what has been said it is proper to quote briefly from this epistle.

7. He writes as follows: From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and by sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards that is, a company of soldiers who only become worse when they are well treated. In the midst of their wrongdoings, however, I am more fully learning discipleship, but I am not thereby justified.

8. May I have joy of the beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray that I may find them ready; I will even coax them to devour me quickly that they may not treat me as they have some whom they have refused to touch through fear. And if they are unwilling, I will compel them. Forgive me.

9. I know what is expedient for me. Now do I begin to be a disciple. May nothing of things visible and things invisible envy me; that I may attain unto Jesus Christ. Let fire and cross and attacks of wild beasts, let wrenching of bones, cutting of limbs, crushing of the whole body, tortures of the devil — let all these come upon me if only I may attain unto Jesus Christ.

10. These things he wrote from the above-mentioned city to the churches referred to. And when he had left Smyrna he wrote again from Troas to the Philadelphians and to the church of Smyrna; and particularly to Polycarp, who presided over the latter church. And since he knew him well as an apostolic man, he commended to him, like a true and good shepherd, the flock at Antioch, and besought him to care diligently for it.

11. And the same man, writing to the Smyrnæans, used the following words concerning Christ, taken I know not whence: But I know and believe that he was in the flesh after the resurrection. And when he came to Peter and his companions he said to them, Take, handle me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit. And immediately they touched him and believed.

12. Irenæus also knew of his martyrdom and mentions his epistles in the following words: As one of our people said, when he was condemned to the beasts on account of his testimony unto God, I am God’s wheat, and by the teeth of wild beasts am I ground, that I may be found pure bread.

13. Polycarp also mentions these letters in the epistle to the Philippians which is ascribed to him. His words are as follows: I exhort all of you, therefore, to be obedient and to practice all patience such as you saw with your own eyes not only in the blessed Ignatius and Rufus and Zosimus, but also in others from among yourselves as well as in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles; being persuaded that all these ran not in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are gone to their rightful place beside the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not the present world, but him that died for our sakes and was raised by God for us.

14. And afterwards he adds: You have written to me, both you and Ignatius, that if any one go to Syria he may carry with him the letters from you. And this I will do if I have a suitable opportunity, either I myself or one whom I send to be an ambassador for you also.

15. The epistles of Ignatius which were sent to us by him and the others which we had with us we sent to you as you gave charge. They are appended to this epistle, and from them you will be able to derive great advantage. For they comprise faith and patience, and every kind of edification that pertains to our Lord. So much concerning Ignatius. But he was succeeded by Heros in the episcopate of the church of Antioch.

Chapter 37. The Evangelists that were still Eminent at that Time.

1. Among those that were celebrated at that time was Quadratus, who, report says, was renowned along with the daughters of Philip for his prophetical gifts. And there were many others besides these who were known in those days, and who occupied the first place among the successors of the apostles. And they also, being illustrious disciples of such great men, built up the foundations of the churches which had been laid by the apostles in every place, and preached the Gospel more and more widely and scattered the saving seeds of the kingdom of heaven far and near throughout the whole world.

2. For indeed most of the disciples of that time, animated by the divine word with a more ardent love for philosophy, had already fulfilled the command of the Saviour, and had distributed their goods to the needy. Then starting out upon long journeys they performed the office of evangelists, being filled with the desire to preach Christ to those who had not yet heard the word of faith, and to deliver to them the divine Gospels.

3. And when they had only laid the foundations of the faith in foreign places, they appointed others as pastors, and entrusted them with the nurture of those that had recently been brought in, while they themselves went on again to other countries and nations, with the grace and the co-operation of God. For a great many wonderful works were done through them by the power of the divine Spirit, so that at the first hearing whole multitudes of men eagerly embraced the religion of the Creator of the universe.

4. But since it is impossible for us to enumerate the names of all that became shepherds or evangelists in the churches throughout the world in the age immediately succeeding the apostles, we have recorded, as was fitting, the names of those only who have transmitted the apostolic doctrine to us in writings still extant.

Chapter 38. The Epistle of Clement and the Writings falsely ascribed to him.

1. Thus Ignatius has done in the epistles which we have mentioned, and Clement in his epistle which is accepted by all, and which he wrote in the name of the church of Rome to the church of Corinth. In this epistle he gives many thoughts drawn from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and also quotes verbally some of its expressions, thus showing most plainly that it is not a recent production.

2. Wherefore it has seemed reasonable to reckon it with the other writings of the apostle. For as Paul had written to the Hebrews in his native tongue, some say that the evangelist Luke, others that this Clement himself, translated the epistle.

3. The latter seems more probable, because the epistle of Clement and that to the Hebrews have a similar character in regard to style, and still further because the thoughts contained in the two works are not very different.

4. But it must be observed also that there is said to be a second epistle of Clement. But we do not know that this is recognized like the former, for we do not find that the ancients have made any use of it.

5. And certain men have lately brought forward other wordy and lengthy writings under his name, containing dialogues of Peter and Apion. But no mention has been made of these by the ancients; for they do not even preserve the pure stamp of apostolic orthodoxy. The acknowledged writing of Clement is well known. We have spoken also of the works of Ignatius and Polycarp.

Chapter 39. The Writings of Papias.

1. There are extant five books of Papias, which bear the title Expositions of Oracles of the Lord. Irenæus makes mention of these as the only works written by him, in the following words: These things are attested by Papias, an ancient man who was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book. For five books have been written by him. These are the words of Irenæus.

2. But Papias himself in the preface to his discourses by no means declares that he was himself a hearer and eye-witness of the holy apostles, but he shows by the words which he uses that he received the doctrines of the faith from those who were their friends.

3. He says: But I shall not hesitate also to put down for you along with my interpretations whatsoever things I have at any time learned carefully from the elders and carefully remembered, guaranteeing their truth. For I did not, like the multitude, take pleasure in those that speak much, but in those that teach the truth; not in those that relate strange commandments, but in those that deliver the commandments given by the Lord to faith, and springing from the truth itself.

4. If, then, any one came, who had been a follower of the elders, I questioned him in regard to the words of the elders — what Andrew or what Peter said, or what was said by Philip, or by Thomas, or by James, or by John, or by Matthew, or by any other of the disciples of the Lord, and what things Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I did not think that what was to be gotten from the books would profit me as much as what came from the living and abiding voice.

5. It is worth while observing here that the name John is twice enumerated by him. The first one he mentions in connection with Peter and James and Matthew and the rest of the apostles, clearly meaning the evangelist; but the other John he mentions after an interval, and places him among others outside of the number of the apostles, putting Aristion before him, and he distinctly calls him a presbyter.

6. This shows that the statement of those is true, who say that there were two persons in Asia that bore the same name, and that there were two tombs in Ephesus, each of which, even to the present day, is called John’s. It is important to notice this. For it is probable that it was the second, if one is not willing to admit that it was the first that saw the Revelation, which is ascribed by name to John.

7. And Papias, of whom we are now speaking, confesses that he received the words of the apostles from those that followed them, but says that he was himself a hearer of Aristion and the presbyter John. At least he mentions them frequently by name, and gives their traditions in his writings. These things, we hope, have not been uselessly adduced by us.

8. But it is fitting to subjoin to the words of Papias which have been quoted, other passages from his works in which he relates some other wonderful events which he claims to have received from tradition.

9. That Philip the apostle dwelt at Hierapolis with his daughters has been already stated. But it must be noted here that Papias, their contemporary, says that he heard a wonderful tale from the daughters of Philip. For he relates that in his time one rose from the dead. And he tells another wonderful story of Justus, surnamed Barsabbas: that he drank a deadly poison, and yet, by the grace of the Lord, suffered no harm.

10. The Book of Acts records that the holy apostles after the ascension of the Saviour, put forward this Justus, together with Matthias, and prayed that one might be chosen in place of the traitor Judas, to fill up their number. The account is as follows: And they put forward two, Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias; and they prayed and said. Acts 1:23

11. The same writer gives also other accounts which he says came to him through unwritten tradition, certain strange parables and teachings of the Saviour, and some other more mythical things.

12. To these belong his statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth. I suppose he got these ideas through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not perceiving that the things said by them were spoken mystically in figures.

13. For he appears to have been of very limited understanding, as one can see from his discourses. But it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man; as for instance Irenæus and any one else that may have proclaimed similar views.

14. Papias gives also in his own work other accounts of the words of the Lord on the authority of Aristion who was mentioned above, and traditions as handed down by the presbyter John; to which we refer those who are fond of learning. But now we must add to the words of his which we have already quoted the tradition which he gives in regard to Mark, the author of the Gospel.

15. This also the presbyter said: Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, he followed Peter, who adapted his teaching to the needs of his hearers, but with no intention of giving a connected account of the Lord’s discourses, so that Mark committed no error while he thus wrote some things as he remembered them. For he was careful of one thing, not to omit any of the things which he had heard, and not to state any of them falsely. These things are related by Papias concerning Mark.

16. But concerning Matthew he writes as follows: So then Matthew wrote the oracles in the Hebrew language, and every one interpreted them as he was able. And the same writer uses testimonies from the first Epistle of John and from that of Peter likewise. And he relates another story of a woman, who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which is contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. These things we have thought it necessary to observe in addition to what has been already stated.

About this page

Source. Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm&gt;.

To find out what makes humans fulfill their humanity as nature intended, I focused my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) on nature, as in animal nature, human nature, and divine nature. These are my assumptions as I move forward and ask the following questions. Is there a natural physical boundary in the reality we find ourselves? What makes humans, for example, means I cannot be of divine nature or of animal nature. It also means that each such nature has its own characteristics. Humans, again, have the intelligence to know what is good for them and the freedom to choose that good.

Sin, in this context, means that what my human intelligence thinks is good for me is actually bad for me. Humans don’t often see the consequences of their decisions. Groups of humans (society) make laws over the years to regulate behavior. They choose what society considers moral or not, depending on who is in charge. This would be fine for humanity, except the divine nature is there to help humans in their intelligent progression toward fulfillment. God’s natural laws are the result of being 100% of his nature (and we can only speculate what they might be based on the teachings of Jesus).

Animal nature guides animal morality to be what it is. Animals don’t have a choice not to be what they are. There is an intelligent progression at work to fulfill them as their nature intended.

Humans are not animals in that they have a reason for a reason and the ability to choose their destiny beyond what their nature dictates. There is a problem for humans. We don’t have an infallible human nature to automatically tell us what is good or bad for us. We must learn what it means to be human on an individual basis based on trial and error over the centuries. The problem with societal decisions is they are the whims of the moment and not based on solid principles of behavior that always lead to allow me, the individual, to know the truth. I choose this life or that life experience until I find one that accommodates and agrees with the sum total of what I know to this point. Some decisions are good, and some are not so good (murder, envy, drunkenness, adultery, jealousy, to name a few, as in Galatians 5).

Divine nature is not human or animal nature. It is the reason for animal and human nature. It is therefore, the measurement that informs our nature to be what it is. Humans can never be of divine nature, but divine nature can accommodate us to allow us to know, love, and serve on this earth to become fully human. By itself, human nature has no power to move us forward toward our destiny. We do have the power of Adam, and Even, that is to say, YES or NO to what divine nature invites us to become, one that is, in many ways, not logical or reasonable. God send Jesus to tell us AND show us how to walk through this sometimes insane human nature without being blown up.

Human nature does not tell us how to fulfill our humanity. We fumbled around, stepping on our toes until God graced Abraham and got the process started that would lead to Jesus as Messiah allowing humans who are baptized to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

I am probably rambling on about more than you want to know. Here are some fragments from the basket of my Lectio Divina about our human nature.

WHY NOT?

• Stephenson 2-5, the largest star (we know about), can create tremendous energy, but cannot create a human. Why not?
• Black holes are so powerful that we can know about them and some of their properties because of science, but they don’t know about us. Why not?
• Humans have reason for a reason. Why don’t mules have human reasoning? Why not?
• Butterflies are the result of caterpillars. What makes them able to have other butterflies but not make other humans? Why not?
• The mind is a terrible thing to waste, so the saying goes. Why can’t I wish to be a horse and not become one? Is something stopping me, or can I be whatever my mind wishes? Why not?
• Why are humans limited to being just human nature and not animal or divine nature? Why not?
• Can I can the laws of nature by just wishing it so? Why not?
• Why are humans incapable of lifting themselves up to a higher nature by their own power? Why not?
• Why do we need divine nature to fulfill our human intelligent progression as nature intended? Do you have the power to make yourself God? Why not?
• Why are you unfilled as a human being unless your heart rests in the divine nature? Why?

I am not you; you are not me; God is not us; and we, most certainly are not God. Act your nature.

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Perhaps it is due to what I drink in the water, but I have had an inordinate number of short, intense bursts of insights into Hell. Rather than psychoanalyze them ad nausea, I just offer them here. All of my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditations are usually the result of what I have read in Scripture, but now days might be the result of watching a YouTube or two, or the Murtaugh Murders or Peter Zeihan’s brilliant analyses of geopolitical events happening in our time. (www. zeihan.com) I recommend his blog commentaries.

The thing about Hell, as I look at it, is that it can’t be much worse than what we are going through in our times as you read this. Each day, the headlines announce wars, earthquakes, the hypocrisy and bastardization of authentic religion by ever-fragmenting groups of self-styled believers, the dissolution of objective truth about God and the marvels of what it means to be human to that of a weak oatmeal gruel, and morality is like cotton candy, no nutrition but taste good.

• Perhaps we are in Hell and don’t know it. Maybe we are also in Heaven, but don’t know it. Remember, these thoughts are just my ideas. I am in search of hypotheses that are consistent with what I know about my Catholic Faith, my life experiences unique to me alone, and the sum total of what I have learned about the obsession of what it means to be fully human as my nature intended. What is going on now in the world can’t be what nature intended because we humans go against so much of the nobility of the human spirit. Granted, there are noble gestures in times of crises, but it looks like humanity is sliding down a slippery slope of thinking that God does not exist, but that the very question of a god is not relevant to the purpose of life itself.
• Humans are the products of intelligent design. In the transition from animality to rationality, there was no book to give them directions other than trial and error. That we even asked the question about what is good or evil for us means we are different from butterflies and bees. Animal nature has its purpose. Human nature has its purpose. Our nature as adopted sons and daughters is different from our secular or worldly life. All of this progresses, inexorably, without us being able to stop it, trying to discern the meaning of what is like to be human using the tools that I alone possess.
• I am not sure, but perhaps Hell or Heaven is the finality of what we have discovered about the meaning of life while we live. For me, there are four lessons: The Genesis Principle: What does it mean to be fully human? It is the Christ Principle: What does it mean to love with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole strength, and your neighbor as yourself? It is the Principle of Truth: Jesus is the key to unlocking the door of faith to free us to be what nature intended. The Holy Spirit is the advocate that presents THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE as we each can accept it based on what we have collected in our lifetimes. We take this to Heaven, or to Hell, depending on what we choose to be our center. My energy is not strong enough to sustain my center (Philippians 2:5) from trying to move off point. Each day, I must resolve to do God’s will as I encounter it and do Cistercian practices and interiorize the charisms (humility, obedience, hospitality, and love for others to name a few). The last lesson is the one which I must learn as a result of my Baptism. THE PRINCIPLE OF ADOPTION: What does it mean for me to be an adopted son or daughter of the Father? I answer this with what I have learned from the previous three lessons. Jesus is my Magister Noster (Teacher) supplying both the questions I need and also the correct and truthful answers through the Holy Spirit.
• Constant in my daily prayers is to do restitution for my sins. This is part of what it means for me to be a penitential person, not just during Lent, but as a mindset. Sin has consequences, however slight it might sound. It is the callous way I treated people when I look back on my conversations with people, the pride I had, and the lack of genuine love as Christ had. It is called conversio morae by Cistercians and others but means I recognize that my past needs reconversion. If I do penance for my past offenses, forgiven though they are, then my past will not be hostage to my present. I can abandon my life, with all its imperfections and lack of love to sit next to the heart of Christ in Lectio Divina. I try to listen with the ear of my heart (St. Benedict) and feel the heartbeat of Christ so that my heart can slowly be in sync with His Sacred Heart.

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Hell is one of those elephant-in-the-room topics that humans would rather not discuss. It is easier to dismiss Hell than Faith, although humans know sparsely little of both. Here are my thoughts, limited as they are, about why there is a hell as the logical consequence of our freedom to choose.

During Lent, my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) tends to mirror my focus on penance and repentance. Hell is the consequence of the absence of pure knowledge, pure love, and pure service (energy). Hell is not the opposite of love as much as it is the abject absence of what is good.

A LAY CISTERCIAN REFLECTS ON HELL, LACK OF FINALITY, AND CONSEQUENCES OF POOR CHOICES

• Hell is a condition that has no finality. Humans live in a condition of finality in all that they do.
• While we live on earth, Hell is the choice we make that God’s will is NOT done, but rather our own (The Genesis Principle).
• Hell, after we die, is the state where we live out what we choose while we lived on earth.
• Hell is not the punishment of God on humans for choosing poorly, but rather the consequences of selecting what makes us less than human as the center of our lives (power, hatred, lust, jealousy, envy, money, lust).
• Like any mortal sin, it must be a mortal offense (adultery, murder, and offering incense to Cesaer) that I know is wrong but choose it anyway.
• No one goes to Hell unless they condemn themselves by hatred, preferring to go to Hell rather than serve God.
• Hell is a place of torment, although each age attributes what that is as the consequence of not being able to sit on a park bench in the middle of winter and be near the heart of Christ.
• Although Christ became sin for us, taking on the nature of a slave (Philippians 2:5-12), I spend my whole life trying to dispel the Ruler of the Earth (Satan) and replace it with the Ruler of Heaven (Christ). As a Lay Cistercian, I do this by two means (among many): capacitas dei, growing in Christ each day by focusing on filling my cup up with Christ, and conversio morae, daily preferring nothing to the love of Christ.
• Original Sin is the condition on earth (not Hell) that pulls me towards my default nature, i.e., to love myself rather than abandon myself to the will of God. Unless the grain of wheat dies to itself, it remains just a grain of wheat.
• Reason alone does not provide the energy to lift me up each day to make all things new. Like plowing the field, if I want to harvest corn, I must pray and fast to prepare the soil for God’s word to take root.
• Hell as a final judgment is found in Matthew 25. There is a separation of the good from the bad. Good here is what God thinks is good; bad here means I did not listen to the prophets, the Scriptures, the Church, and my heart and chose what could never fulfill me as a human being.
• Hell is a lack of fulfillment as a human being.
• Hell is the uncompleted symphony.
• Hell is a golf course with any balls or holes.
• Hell is the torment of knowing that you committed sin (which we all do) but did not recognize that Heaven is God’s playground and He makes the rules.
• Hell is hatred in the heart without a chance for conversion.
• Hell on earth is choosing my will be done rather than God’s.
• Hell is the finality of what is not final, the lack of truth, the infidelity of trust, and the duplicity of what Satan thinks are proper.
• Hell is hell.

Read the Seven Penitential Psalm and Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict. https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/seven-penitential-psalms-songs-of-suffering-servant

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When I was baptized on September 29, 1940, I became an adopted son(daughter) of the Father. Naturally, I did not know what was happening, but, consistent with my human nature, I received seven gifts from the Holy Spirit, gifts I still use to this day.

My Holy Spirit (notice how the Holy Spirit has become my go-to person when I am weary and heavily burdened) has a neat way of keeping me humble (fear of the Lord) and obedient (conversio morae) to what God is telling me if I but can listen with the ear of the Heart.

I share with you some of those gifts I have used to help me walk through the minefields of worldly temptations and false promises.

A MAP — Jesus gave me a map of sorts to help me move from my false self to that of one which elevates my humanity to what it is intended by its nature. This map is one that Christ gave me at Baptism, although it is a book, The Sacred Scriptures. The thing about a map is one needs to know how to interpret it. Because humans are tainted with original sin, everyone can say what it means and think it comes from God. Not so. Everyone receives a map at birth. Baptism is the time when we get the code to interpret it. Of course, I couldn’t use it until I had endured the effects of original sin through all those years. This code is The Christ Principle, the stone rejected by the builders who have become the cornerstone. This map has primacy for each one to die to self so that we can rise again and again with Christ. Not everyone knows how to read it correctly. That is the purpose of the Church, which does not look back to the time of the Apostles and ask, “What does the bible mean?” but instead views what people meant in each age as this gathering of diverse believers moved forward, sometimes with great peril and confusion about the way, what is accurate, and what life will get us to heaven.

A CANDLE– I have always been associated with candles, although I cannot say I have been aware of their presence. The Holy Spirit has provided me with a single candle, one that lasts a lifetime. When this candle burns down to nothing, my life will have been concluded, and a new candle is lit before it goes out. This is the Lumen Christi, the light of Christ. It is the eternal flame that is indeed infinite. Christ lit my candle at Baptism in my heart, and it is fueled by me each time I receive the Eucharist, seek forgiveness for my sinfulness, or place myself in the presence of Christ, the eternal light. Christ has only one request of me; don’t let your light go out, even in the midst of the winds of unbelief and the rain of false beliefs. This candle burns as the eternal vigil light next to each tabernacle as a sign that we continue to wail for Christ, the second Elijah, to come again in glory. This is the light that shines inside each believer as a result of Faith so that people may see your good works and glorify their Heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:16)

A PAIR OF GLASSES — At Baptism, there is the equivalent of a polar shift, where I must plunge into the unknown (unless I am an infant) and come up with a whole new perspective on life. I am now a pilgrim in my former physical and mental universe. All words, all events, each day becomes one where my reconsecrated purpose is to seek God where I am, as I am. When I look out at reality, I now struggle each day to “have in me the mind of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5) The Holy Spirit has given me a gift at Baptism, one made operational through my Lay Cistercian spiritual blanket of practices, a pair of glasses with which I can see not only the physical and mental universes (the World) but also what is invisible to the eye but accessible through Faith. I use these glasses in my Lectio Divina, Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharist, Penance, and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to go to a level of abandonment impossible for those who do not see, such as the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

A SHOVEL — Aa a newly Baptized person, the Holy Spirit gives me a shovel to dig away the dirt of unbelief. Once Christ has accepted me, I begin the lifelong task of keeping Christ-centered in my life. Original Sin, although Baptism has removed this stain and allowed me to begin to gradually practice what it means to be an adopted son (daughter) of the Father, does not take away the toil and struggle to keep my Christ Principle centered. The Devil works 24/7 to wear down my resolve to love others as Christ has loved me. This shovel allows me to dig down (up) deeper into what I call vertical prayer. There are layers upon layers of depths to sitting next to Christ in my upper room (Matthew 6:5) and just being there with Christ. Even just sitting there next to Christ is part of the intelligent progression of time and finality. I now realize that sitting next to Christ in silence and solitude, I dig deeper with my shovel to discover that Christ’s heartbeat and my heartbeat are one. This is giving to the Father the gift of my free will, my heart, my obedience, my silence, and my consecration through Lay Cistercian promises to become more like Christ and less like my false self. Shovels are indispensable.

CREDIT CARD — God’s credit card is a gift I receive at Baptism. I use it throughout my lifetime to buy gas, and food, to fix things broken, and to help me when I need roadside service or go to the hospital (the Sacraments). I am unable to transverse the dangers posed by Original Sin by myself. I need God’s credit card to provide me with the energy that my human nature is not designed to produce. This comes from doing good works (Chapter 4 of St. Benedict’s Rule) so that I have the strength to give glory to the Father, through the Son, with the energy of the Holy Spirit. This is the card I stick in the gates of heaven to gain admittance. It records all the thoughts and things I do each day to try to become more human as my nature intended.

There are more gifts, to be sure, but these are five that I use frequently.

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Growing old has its own set of peculiarities that seem to infiltrate my Lay Cistercian Way. Here are some observations from an old, temple of the Holy Spirit.

1. There is a stage beyond retirement that I have slipped into. Before I was just retired, now I am only tired.
2. People around me use words in different ways. I keep telling my wife that I do not have, at age 82, the stamina that I once had. She just called me lazy.
3. I now pray as I can, not as I should.
4. Prayer is not limited to a chronological time ( 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. for Liturgy of the Hours), but rather it is from the beginning of the day to its end. My day is a chance to tell God that I seek His will to be done in whatever comes my way.
5. Abandonment has become more important to me in my old age. Letting go of everything except the love of Christ is my new quest.
6. I realize that I used to go to Church to pray in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Now, I realize that my Temple of the Holy Spirit contains the Arc of the Covenant and I am in constant praise and adoration of the Father, through, with, and in Christ with the power of the Holy Spirit.
7. I no longer waste my time trying to prove God (which humans can’t do), we can only try to discern God’s presence through Scripture, the Church’s Tradition, and HOPE in the resurrection to newness of life.
8. As my body fails, my spirit seems to be expanding (capacitas dei), as I am faithful to “listening with the ear of the heart.”
9. I realize that Church is not, nor ever was, a building or a set of rules for me to follow as if doing prayers was the depths of my devotion. I seek to penetrate the mystery of the martyrdom of ordinary living by transforming my view of what it means to be human using The Christ Principle as the key.
10. I realize that there are six questions I must answer before I die. Christ provides not only the questions but is the way, leading to the truth, and ultimately the life as an adopted son (daughter) of the Father on earth while I live and continue on forever.
11. Faith is a plunge into the ocean from a high cliff. Christ says, “You can jump, it is safe. I did it and you will come up from the water in the way that your human needs to fulfill its destiny as nature intended. Follow me. Do what I have taught you.”
12. Faith without reason is unreasonable.
13. Seek first, each day, the kingdom of heaven, and all else will be given to you.
14. It is not how many times I pray or how many rosaries I recite that get me to heaven. It is using prayer to give glory to the Father, through the son, in union with the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages.
15. I am the absolute worst person in the world when it comes to loving God as I should. I do penance and restitution for my past sins and failures to be what a human should be. With Christ, I can rise above all that.
16. Faith is a process of trying, failing, succeeding, and failing. Original Sin is the condition whereby I am confronted by not only good but also false prophets and ways of thinking that seek to lead me astray.
17. The Christ Principle is the center of my life, but I must spend the rest of my life trying to keep it as my center. I call that the Rule of Revolving Centers. Losing Faith means I stop the struggle to take up my cross to keep Christ as my center.
18. “One thing I seek is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

This Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) yesterday was an unexpected voyage into the syncretic world of looking at Lent through the lenses of a totally different venue. In this case, the profile of a sinking boat came to mind. Here are some of my ideas on Lent as a time to bring the boat of your life into drydock and scrape off the barnacles, patch up the holes, and repaint. If you think Lent is a time of leisure, think again. It is a time when there is intense work on your part (my part) to clean up my act to prepare to put on the new robes of Faith at the Easter Vigil.

Original Sin, the condition into which we are born and rescued by Baptism, is like the water in which we float our boats. If we gather together, we do so as a flotilla, headed to the same destination (The Christ Principle). Salt water causes corrosion. My boat suffers from the effects of the Original Sin (the ocean( just by floating in the water. Barnacles can sometimes cover the hull, and my boat can carry an unwanted and unknown burden. Then there is the hole in the boat. As a human who lives on the sea of intelligent progression from the beginning to the end of time, my time on the waves is, so far, eighty-two years. I am lucky. The Church has a tradition of Lenten penance and reparation for sin that allows me to follow the readings daily at Eucharist from my false self to my true self. This is called conversio morae, or daily conversion of life. I must realize what is going on with original sin and what I must do to maintain my Faith experience of Baptism. Lent is my spiritual drydock, where I pull my boat out of the water to examine the hull and clean up my act. Not that I might have a lot of work to do, but imagine if I let this go each year without re-conversion and re-abandonment. The accumulation is horrific, and I won’t even notice if I don’t look. This looking is called Advent and Lent so that I can clean up my hull from the effects of the original sin (Galatians 5) and replace them with new paint, new habits, and newness of life in Christ Jesus.

Humans, by nature, seem to want to do what is always easy versus with is right. It takes work (carrying your cross each day) to scrape the weight of our baggage off of our hulls, to repaint it with the waters of Baptism once more. Each day, I must be aware of this need for conversion, each year, I must go into dry dock with the Liturgy of the Church and scrape off my barnacles (sins and failings) and repurpose my boat with fixing holes (Sacrament of Reconciliation) and repainting it with the Eucharist.

They drydock in vain and do not go to The Christ Principle as the shipyard of the soul. Christ is the contractor who provides the traditions in the Church to help individuals gain the strength (grace) to do the work of penance (scraping the hull) and renewal (Eucharist and Reconciliation). The shipyard is owned by the Father, who offers us this opportunity to come apart and rest our souls next to the heart of Christ and gain more and more awareness of the implications of our Baptismal commitment and covenant. The Holy Spirit provides the energy to clean up what human tools and detergents could never accomplish, making all things new in Christ Jesus. We approach the Resurrection each year with the baggage of the past year, the wear and tear of the original sin our resolve to love others as Christ loved us. We slough off what holds us back and put on new life (paint our hulls) with the healing powers of the Holy Spirit.

Penance is the daily cross of each of us who bears the sign of the cross on our foreheads. Lent is a liturgical season when ALL OF US do penance together and say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

As we do each time we attend and receive the Eucharist, we lift up our hearts to the Father through, with, and in Jesus, with the power of the Holy Spirit so that glory is to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who will come at the end of the ages.

Here are some things I do daily (not just in Lent) to ensure that my resolve to “have in me the mind of Christ Jesus,” will not corrode with the saltwater of the original sin.

• Morning Offering when I wake up.
• Liturgy of the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, and Evening Prayer (www.divineoffice.org)
• Lectio Divina (three times a day, if I can)
• Eucharist (as my health permits)
• Read Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict (www.https://christdesert.org/rule-of-st-benedict/
• Read Seven Penitential Psalms as much as possible (https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/seven-penitential-psalms-songs-of-suffering-servant)

Pray as you can, when you can.

Without commentary, here are the words from the Holy Father, Pope Paul VI on Divine Revelation. I found it quite inspiring.

DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION
DEI VERBUM
SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON NOVEMBER 18, 1965

PREFACE

1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: “We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love.

(1)CHAPTER I

REVELATION ITSELF

2. In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, the man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation. (2)

3. God, who through the Word creates all things (see John 1:3) and keeps them in existence, gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities (see Rom. 1:19-20). Planning to make known the way of heavenly salvation, He went further and from the start manifested Himself to our first parents. Then after their fall His promise of redemption aroused in them the hope of being saved (see Gen. 3:15) and from that time on He ceaselessly kept the human race in His care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation (see Rom. 2:6-7). Then, at the time He had appointed He called Abraham in order to make of him a great nation (see Gen. 12:2). Through the patriarchs, and after them through Moses and the prophets, He taught this people to acknowledge Himself the one living and true God, provident father and just judge, and to wait for the Savior promised by Him, and in this manner prepared the way for the Gospel down through the centuries.

4. Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, “now at last in these days God has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). For He sent His Son, the eternal Word, who enlightens all men, so that He might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost being of God (see John 1:1-18). Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as “a man to men.” (3) He “speaks the words of God” (John 3;34), and completes the work of salvation which His Father gave Him to do (see John 5:36; John 17:4). To see Jesus is to see His Father (John 14:9). For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal.

The Christian dispensation, therefore, as the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away and we now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 Tim. 6:14 and Tit. 2:13).

5. “The obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26; see 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) “is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals,” (4) and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him. To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving “joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it.” (5) To bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts.

6. Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind. (6)

As a sacred synod has affirmed, God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20); but teaches that it is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of error, even in this present state of the human race. (7)

CHAPTER II

HANDING ON DIVINE REVELATION

7. In His gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what He had revealed for the salvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations. Therefore Christ the Lord in whom the full revelation of the supreme God is brought to completion (see 2 Cor. 1:20; 3:13; 4:6), commissioned the Apostles to preach to all men that Gospel which is the source of all saving truth and moral teaching, (1) and to impart to them heavenly gifts. This Gospel had been promised in former times through the prophets, and Christ Himself had fulfilled it and promulgated it with His lips. This commission was faithfully fulfilled by the Apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by observances handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The commission was fulfilled, too, by those Apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing. (2)

But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors, “handing over” to them “the authority to teach in their own place.”(3) This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2).

8. And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time. Therefore the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15), and to fight in defense of the faith handed on once and for all (see Jude 1:3) (4) Now what was handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.

This tradition which comes from the Apostles develop in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. (5) For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her.

The words of the holy fathers witness to the presence of this living tradition, whose wealth is poured into the practice and life of the believing and praying Church. Through the same tradition the Church’s full canon of the sacred books is known, and the sacred writings themselves are more profoundly understood and unceasingly made active in her; and thus God, who spoke of old, uninterruptedly converses with the bride of His beloved Son; and the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel resounds in the Church, and through her, in the world, leads unto all truth those who believe and makes the word of Christ dwell abundantly in them (see Col. 3:16).

9. Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.(6)

10. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42, Greek text), so that holding to, practicing and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops and faithful a single common effort. (7)

But the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, (8) has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, (9) whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed.

It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God’s most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.

CHAPTER III

SACRED SCRIPTURE, ITS DIVINE INSPIRATION AND INTERPRETATION

11. Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For holy mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (see John 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-20, 3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.(1) In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him (2) they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, (3) they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. (4)

Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings (5) for the sake of salvation. Therefore “all Scripture is divinely inspired and has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error, for reformation of manners and discipline in right living, so that the man who belongs to God may be efficient and equipped for good work of every kind” (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Greek text).

12. However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, (6) the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words.

To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to “literary forms.” For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. The interpreter must investigate what meaning the sacred writer intended to express and actually expressed in particular circumstances by using contemporary literary forms in accordance with the situation of his own time and culture. (7) For the correct understanding of what the sacred author wanted to assert, due attention must be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns men normally employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one another. (8)

But, since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was written, (9) no less serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out. The living tradition of the whole Church must be taken into account along with the harmony which exists between elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes to work according to these rules toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture, so that through preparatory study the judgment of the Church may mature. For all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God. (10)

13. In Sacred Scripture, therefore, while the truth and holiness of God always remains intact, the marvelous “condescension” of eternal wisdom is clearly shown, “that we may learn the gentle kindness of God, which words cannot express, and how far He has gone in adapting His language with thoughtful concern for our weak human nature.” (11) For the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men.

CHAPTER IV

THE OLD TESTAMENT

14. In carefully planning and preparing the salvation of the whole human race the God of infinite love, by a special dispensation, chose for Himself a people to whom He would entrust His promises. First He entered into a covenant with Abraham (see Gen. 15:18) and, through Moses, with the people of Israel (see Ex. 24:8). To this people which He had acquired for Himself, He so manifested Himself through words and deeds as the one true and living God that Israel came to know by experience the ways of God with men. Then too, when God Himself spoke to them through the mouth of the prophets, Israel daily gained a deeper and clearer understanding of His ways and made them more widely known among the nations (see Ps. 21:29; 95:1-3; Is. 2:1-5; Jer. 3:17). The plan of salvation foretold by the sacred authors, recounted and explained by them, is found as the true word of God in the books of the Old Testament: these books, therefore, written under divine inspiration, remain permanently valuable. “For all that was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).

15. The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom, to announce this coming by prophecy (see Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 1 Peter 1:10), and to indicate its meaning through various types (see 1 Cor. 10:12). Now the books of the Old Testament, in accordance with the state of mankind before the time of salvation established by Christ, reveal to all men the knowledge of God and of man and the ways in which God, just and merciful, deals with men. These books, though they also contain some things which are incomplete and temporary, nevertheless show us true divine pedagogy. (1) These same books, then, give expression to a lively sense of God, contain a store of sublime teachings about God, sound wisdom about human life, and a wonderful treasury of prayers, and in them the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way. Christians should receive them with reverence.

16. God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New. (2) For, though Christ established the new covenant in His blood (see Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25), still the books of the Old Testament with all their parts, caught up into the proclamation of the Gospel, (3) acquire and show forth their full meaning in the New Testament (see Matt. 5:17; Luke 24:27; Rom. 16:25-26; 2 Cor. 14:16) and in turn shed light on it and explain it.

CHAPTER V

THE NEW TESTAMENT

17. The word of God, which is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe (see Rom. 1:16), is set forth and shows its power in a most excellent way in the writings of the New Testament. For when the fullness of time arrived (see Gal. 4:4), the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us in His fullness of graces and truth (see John 1:14). Christ established the kingdom of God on earth, manifested His Father and Himself by deeds and words, and completed His work by His death, resurrection and glorious Ascension and by the sending of the Holy Spirit. Having been lifted up from the earth, He draws all men to Himself (see John 12:32, Greek text), He who alone has the words of eternal life (see John 6:68). This mystery had not been manifested to other generations as it was now revealed to His holy Apostles and prophets in the Holy Spirit (see Eph. 3:4-6, Greek text), so that they might preach the Gospel, stir up faith in Jesus, Christ and Lord, and gather together the Church. Now the writings of the New Testament stand as a perpetual and divine witness to these realities.

18. It is common knowledge that among all the Scriptures, even those of the New Testament, the Gospels have a special preeminence, and rightly so, for they are the principal witness for the life and teaching of the incarnate Word, our savior.

The Church has always and everywhere held and continues to hold that the four Gospels are of apostolic origin. For what the Apostles preached in fulfillment of the commission of Christ, afterwards they themselves and apostolic men, under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, handed on to us in writing: the foundation of faith, namely, the fourfold Gospel, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.(1)

19. Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held, and continues to hold, that the four Gospels just named, whose historical character the Church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ, while living among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day He was taken up into heaven (see Acts 1:1). Indeed, after the Ascension of the Lord the Apostles handed on to their hearers what He had said and done. This they did with that clearer understanding which they enjoyed (3) after they had been instructed by the glorious events of Christ’s life and taught by the light of the Spirit of truth. (2) The sacred authors wrote the four Gospels, selecting some things from the many which had been handed on by word of mouth or in writing, reducing some of them to a synthesis, explaining some things in view of the situation of their churches and preserving the form of proclamation but always in such fashion that they told us the honest truth about Jesus.(4) For their intention in writing was that either from their own memory and recollections, or from the witness of those who “themselves from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word” we might know “the truth” concerning those matters about which we have been instructed (see Luke 1:2-4).

20. Besides the four Gospels, the canon of the New Testament also contains the epistles of St. Paul and other apostolic writings, composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by which, according to the wise plan of God, those matters which concern Christ the Lord are confirmed, His true teaching is more and more fully stated, the saving power of the divine work of Christ is preached, the story is told of the beginnings of the Church and its marvelous growth, and its glorious fulfillment is foretold.

For the Lord Jesus was with His apostles as He had promised (see Matt. 28:20) and sent them the advocate Spirit who would lead them into the fullness of truth (see John 16:13).

CHAPTER VI

SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

21. The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body. She has always maintained them, and continues to do so, together with sacred tradition, as the supreme rule of faith, since, as inspired by God and committed once and for all to writing, they impart the word of God Himself without change, and make the voice of the Holy Spirit resound in the words of the prophets and Apostles. Therefore, like the Christian religion itself, all the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture. For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. Consequently these words are perfectly applicable to Sacred Scripture: “For the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4:12) and “it has power to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32; see 1 Thess. 2:13).

22. Easy access to Sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful. That is why the Church from the very beginning accepted as her own that very ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament which is called the septuagint; and she has always given a place of honor to other Eastern translations and Latin ones especially the Latin translation known as the vulgate. But since the word of God should be accessible at all times, the Church by her authority and with maternal concern sees to it that suitable and correct translations are made into different languages, especially from the original texts of the sacred books. And should the opportunity arise and the Church authorities approve, if these translations are produced in cooperation with the separated brethren as well, all Christians will be able to use them.

23. The bride of the incarnate Word, the Church taught by the Holy Spirit, is concerned to move ahead toward a deeper understanding of the Sacred Scriptures so that she may increasingly feed her sons with the divine words. Therefore, she also encourages the study of the holy Fathers of both East and West and of sacred liturgies. Catholic exegetes then and other students of sacred theology, working diligently together and using appropriate means, should devote their energies, under the watchful care of the sacred teaching office of the Church, to an exploration and exposition of the divine writings. This should be so done that as many ministers of the divine word as possible will be able effectively to provide the nourishment of the Scriptures for the people of God, to enlighten their minds, strengthen their wills, and set men’s hearts on fire with the love of God. (1) The sacred synod encourages the sons of the Church and Biblical scholars to continue energetically, following the mind of the Church, with the work they have so well begun, with a constant renewal of vigor. (2)

24. Sacred theology rests on the written word of God, together with sacred tradition, as its primary and perpetual foundation. By scrutinizing in the light of faith all truth stored up in the mystery of Christ, theology is most powerfully strengthened and constantly rejuvenated by that word. For the Sacred Scriptures contain the word of God and since they are inspired, really are the word of God; and so the study of the sacred page is, as it were, the soul of sacred theology. (3) By the same word of Scripture the ministry of the word also, that is, pastoral preaching, catechetics and all Christian instruction, in which the liturgical homily must hold the foremost place, is nourished in a healthy way and flourishes in a holy way.

25. Therefore, all the clergy must hold fast to the Sacred Scriptures through diligent sacred reading and careful study, especially the priests of Christ and others, such as deacons and catechists who are legitimately active in the ministry of the word. This is to be done so that none of them will become “an empty preacher of the word of God outwardly, who is not a listener to it inwardly” (4) since they must share the abundant wealth of the divine word with the faithful committed to them, especially in the sacred liturgy. The sacred synod also earnestly and especially urges all the Christian faithful, especially Religious, to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the “excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:8). “For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”(5) Therefore, they should gladly put themselves in touch with the sacred text itself, whether it be through the liturgy, rich in the divine word, or through devotional reading, or through instructions suitable for the purpose and other aids which, in our time, with approval and active support of the shepherds of the Church, are commendably spread everywhere. And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together; for “we speak to Him when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine saying.” (6)

It devolves on sacred bishops “who have the apostolic teaching”(7) to give the faithful entrusted to them suitable instruction in the right use of the divine books, especially the New Testament and above all the Gospels. This can be done through translations of the sacred texts, which are to be provided with the necessary and really adequate explanations so that the children of the Church may safely and profitably become conversant with the Sacred Scriptures and be penetrated with their spirit.

Furthermore, editions of the Sacred Scriptures, provided with suitable footnotes, should be prepared also for the use of non-Christians and adapted to their situation. Both pastors of souls and Christians generally should see to the wise distribution of these in one way or another.

26. In this way, therefore, through the reading and study of the sacred books “the word of God may spread rapidly and be glorified” (2 Thess. 3:1) and the treasure of revelation, entrusted to the Church, may more and more fill the hearts of men. Just as the life of the Church is strengthened through more frequent celebration of the Eucharistic mystery, similar we may hope for a new stimulus for the life of the Spirit from a growing reverence for the word of God, which “lasts forever” (Is. 40:8; see 1 Peter 1:23-25).

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NOTES

Preface

Article 1:

1. cf. St. Augustine, “De Catechizandis Rudibus,” C.IV 8: PL. 40, 316.

Chapter I

Article 2:

2. cf. Matt. 11:27; John 1:14 and 17; 14:6; 17:1-3; 2 Cor 3:16 and 4, 6; Eph. 1, 3-14.

Article 4:

3. Epistle to Diognetus, c. VII, 4: Funk, Apostolic Fathers, I, p. 403.

Article 5:

4. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 3, “On Faith:” Denzinger 1789 (3008).

5. Second Council of Orange, Canon 7: Denzinger 180 (377); First Vatican Council, loc. cit.: Denzinger 1791 (3010).

Article 6:

6. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 2, “On Revelation:” Denzinger 1786 (3005).

7. Ibid: Denzinger 1785 and 1786 (3004 and 3005).

Chapter II

Article 7:

1. cf. Matt. 28:19-20, and Mark 16:15; Council of Trent, session IV, Decree on Scriptural Canons: Denzinger 783 (1501).

2. cf. Council of Trent, loc. cit.; First Vatican Council, session III, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 2, “On revelation:” Denzinger 1787 (3005).

3. St. Irenaeus, “Against Heretics” III, 3, 1: PG 7, 848; Harvey, 2, p. 9.

Article 8:

4. cf. Second Council of Nicea: Denzinger 303 (602); Fourth Council of Constance, session X, Canon 1: Denzinger 336 (650-652).

5. cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 4, “On Faith and Reason:” Denzinger 1800 (3020).

Article 9:

6. cf. Council of Trent, session IV, loc. cit.: Denzinger 783 (1501).

Article 10:

7. cf. Pius XII, apostolic constitution, “Munificentissimus Deus,” Nov. 1, 1950: A.A.S. 42 (1950) p. 756; Collected Writings of St. Cyprian, Letter 66, 8: Hartel, III, B, p. 733: “The Church [is] people united with the priest and the pastor together with his flock.”

8. cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 3 “On Faith:” Denzinger 1792 (3011).

9. cf. Pius XII, encyclical “Humani Generis,” Aug. 12, 1950: A.A.S. 42 (1950) pp. 568-69: Denzinger 2314 (3886).

Chapter III

Article 11:

1. cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 2 “On Revelation:” Denzinger 1787 (3006); Biblical Commission, Decree of June 18,1915: Denzinger 2180 (3629): EB 420; Holy Office, Epistle of Dec. 22, 1923: EB 499.

2. cf. Pius XII, encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu,” Sept. 30, 1943: A.A.S. 35 (1943) p. 314; Enchiridion Bible. (EB) 556.

3. “In” and “for” man: cf. Heb. 1, and 4, 7; (“in”): 2 Sm. 23,2; Matt.1:22 and various places; (“for”): First Vatican Council, Schema on Catholic Doctrine, note 9: Coll. Lac. VII, 522.

4. Leo XIII, encyclical “Providentissimus Deus,” Nov. 18, 1893: Denzinger 1952 (3293); EB 125.

5. cf. St. Augustine, “Gen. ad Litt.” 2, 9, 20:PL 34, 270-271; Epistle 82, 3: PL 33, 277: CSEL 34, 2, p. 354. St. Thomas, “On Truth,” Q. 12, A. 2, C.Council of Trent, session IV, Scriptural Canons: Denzinger 783 (1501). Leo XIII, encyclical “Providentissimus Deus:” EB 121, 124, 126-127. Pius XII, encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu:” EB 539.

Article 12:

6. St. Augustine, “City of God,” XVII, 6, 2: PL 41, 537: CSEL. XL, 2, 228.

7. St. Augustine, “On Christian Doctrine” III, 18, 26; PL 34, 75-76.

8. Pius XII, loc. cit. Denziger 2294 (3829-3830); EB 557-562.

9. cf. Benedict XV, encyclical “Spiritus Paraclitus” Sept. 15, 1920:EB 469. St. Jerome, “In Galatians’ 5, 19-20: PL 26, 417 A.

10. cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chapter 2, “On Revelation:” Denziger 1788 (3007).

Article 13:

11. St. John Chrysostom “In Genesis” 3, 8 (Homily l7, 1): PG 53, 134; “Attemperatio” [in English “Suitable adjustment”] in Greek “synkatabasis.”

Chapter IV

Article 15:

1. Pius XI, encyclical ‘Mit Brennender Sorge,” March 14, 1937: A.A.S. 29 (1937) p. 51.

Article 16:

2. St. Augustine, “Quest. in Hept.” 2,73: PL 34,623.

3. St. Irenaeus, “Against Heretics” III, 21,3: PG 7,950; (Same as 25,1: Harvey 2, p. 115). St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “Catech.” 4,35; PG 33,497. Theodore of Mopsuestia, “In Soph.” 1,4-6: PG 66, 452D-453A.

Chapter V

Article 18:

1. cf. St. Irenaeus, “Against Heretics” III, 11; 8: PG 7,885, Sagnard Edition, p. 194.

Article 19:

(Due to the necessities of translation, footnote 2 follows footnote 3 in text of Article 19.)

2. cf. John 14:26; 16:13.

3. John 2:22; 12:16; cf. 14:26; 16:12-13; 7:39.

4. cf. instruction “Holy Mother Church” edited by Pontifical Consilium for Promotion of Bible Studies; A.A.S. 56 (1964) p. 715.

Chapter VI

Article 23:

1. cf. Pius XII, encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu:” EB 551, 553, 567. Pontifical Biblical Commission, Instruction on Proper Teaching of Sacred Scripture in Seminaries and Religious Colleges, May 13, 1950: A.A.S. 42 (1950) pp. 495-505.

2. cf. Pius XII, ibid: EB 569.

Article 24:

3. cf. Leo XIII, encyclical “Providentissmus Deus:” EB 114; Benedict XV, encyclical “Spiritus Paraclitus:” EB 483.

Article 25:

4. St. Augustine Sermons, 179,1: PL 38,966.

5. St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, Prol.: PL 24,17. cf. Benedict XV, encyclical “Spiritus Paraclitus:” EB 475-480; Pius XII, encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu:” EB 544.

6. St. Ambrose, On the Duties of Ministers I, 20,88: PL l6,50.

7. St. Irenaeus, “Against Heretics” IV, 32,1: PG 7, 1071; (Same as 49,2) Harvey, 2, p. 255.

What follows are some answers I gave to the website Quora.com. I must not have enough to do in my old age.

Profile

Most recent

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian3m

What is the best way for a pope to say goodbye without causing controversy?

Wave.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian4m

When did priests stop being in the confessional during mass?

When they stopped bi-locating.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian4m

What is the definition of infallibility? Does it mean that the Pope can do no wrong? If so, why have there been so many popes that have done bad things (like having children)?

The only infallible thing in life is my wife. Don’t give up your day job.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian5m

Is Barack Obama running for Pope?

Yes, if he wants to challenge Donald Trump in 2024.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian7m

What happened to all the bishops (or popes) named “Peter”?

They were crucified upside down.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian7m

What are some of the things prohibited in the Vatican City?

Don’t put your used chewing gum on the bottom of a chair.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian8m

Where is the Blessed Sacrament kept in a church?

In the Ark of the Covenant.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian10m

Why is Barack Obama running for Pope?

Because he doesn’t have to pay taxes.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian10m

Is the Pope running for King of England?

Only if his knees hold out. He only has one lung, you know.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian11m

Is the catechism of the Catholic Church infallible, or can it be changed? Has it ever changed in the history of the Church?

No. The only thing infallible is my wife, which I don’t have the luxury of challenging.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian12m

Can the Catholic Church be traced back to the apostles?

Yes.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian13m

What does the Catholic Church say about Mary’s “full of grace” status?

Mary’s cup of grace was so full of the Holy Spirit’s energy that not one more drop could she sustain without her cup running over. Mary was, on earth, what humans will be in heaven when they fulfill their evolution as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.…

(more)

Catholic Apologetics · 

Following

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Michael Conrad15m

How many Anglican cathedrals were stolen from the Catholic Church?

All of them.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian16m

What is the Catholic Church’s stance on using crystal or glass pendulums?

Don’t drop them.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian16m

Will the Catholic Church need to change in order to stay relevant?

I would argue that you must change from your false self to your new self as an adopted son (daughter) in order to stay relevant.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian18m

What is the Catholic Church’s stance on female cardinals?

Be good to them and feed them, when it is cold.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian19m

If God is really all powerful, all knowing, and truly loving, then why does evil exist?

Evil exists because God is really all-powerful, all-knowing, and truly loving. You have a chance to say NO.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian20m

What is the Catholic Church’s political affiliation?

Independent

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian21m

As a Catholic, what do you dislike the most about Catholicism?

That is does not mitigate attacks against it from the misinformed, misquoted, and misaligned recalcitrants.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian22m

Was the Catholic Church in the 11th century?

Yes.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian22m

Why did King Constantine hand over his power and authority to the church (pope) instead of electing another king?

It was the other way around. The Church was assumed into the monarcy, with all of its unintended consequences.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian25m

What is the Catholic Church’s stance on people who leave the faith?

Good luck. Hope you find whatever it is you are looking for.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian26m

Is the Catholic Catechism’s idea “human nature is assumed, not absorbed” a false doctrine? Is it contrary to science?

If you don’t know what you don’t know, they what you know is not what you think you know.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian27m

Is it wrong to hate rich people?

No, if they are Democrats or Republicans.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian29m

What is a man’s place according to the Catholic religion?

To do what his wife tells him,

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian29m

Can you create a shadow that follows you?

Yes, if the SON is strong enough to cast a shadow.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Why am I afraid of people?

You should be.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What is the next election for pope emeritus?

It will be on the Twelfth of Never.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Do Catholics think the Pope is a holy person? Why?

Probably most of them don’t know his name.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What makes a man’s life complete?

A good book, a glass of Sangria, and a copy of The Divine Equation would do it for me.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Does the pope ever meet with people outside of Vatican City?

Probably when he goes on his daily jog in the Vatican Gardens.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What isn’t a sin but should be?

Answering inane questions on Quora.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

How many times can the Pope be called “His Holiness” in his lifetime?

As many as there are sands on the seashores.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Why is the pope considered “infallible” if it is undeniable that they fail, like any human?

You need to get out more.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

How do I start a relationship with my boyfriend’s 16-year-old daughter?

If you are in your 80s, I would tread cautiously and check with your cardiologist.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

If you had to convince someone that God exists, what would you say to them?

If you got to prove it, you will lose it.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Can a retired cardinal become a pope?

Only papabili can become pope, a title of honor.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

If God could see into our hearts, what would he think of us as human beings?

Bless your soul.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Who was the first woman appointed as Archbishop by Pope Francis?

Hillary Clinton

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What should someone know before returning to the Catholic church?

Don’t join if you are not willing to die to your false self and take up your cross daily.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Does the pope own 51% of GM?

Yes. He bought it with Confederate Dollars.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Where does the Catholic Church’s money go?

That’s easy. Look at the financial statements of each parish.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What makes God angry with us, and how do we avoid it?

God detests those who say one thing and do another.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Would the Catholic Church lose followers if a black pope was elected?

No.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Does everybody need God?

No. God does not.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

How rich is the Holy See?

Depends. If you sell all properties of all churches and give everyone a dollar. It would take 98% of that to distribute it plus greed, graft, plundering, and admin costs. Plus, it would take well over two hundred years of people working 7 days a week to identify each person and give them a check.…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Can money or material goods make someone happy?

Yes, but you can’t take it with you.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What is the meaningfulness of death?

That’s All, Folks!

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

What is the difference between churches that teach there is only one way to heaven and churches that say it is up to each individual’s interpretation?

If you don’t know where you are going, any direction will get you there.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian17h

Have you ever seen Tom Holland?

Not recently.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

Do we create our own heaven after we die?

Before we die.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

What would happen if there really is a God?

You should be frightened.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

Why are Christians afraid of death? Shouldn’t they be happy to die to go to heaven?

I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of those who obfuscate reality with trite and trivial tomfoolery.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

How do you know that God exists if no one ever hears or sees him directly?

How do you know John of Forde exists, if you don’t know he exists. Does existence depending on your knowing? Faith does not depend on believing. You need to get out more.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

What is the craziest thing that a god has ever told you?

That I must die to all I hold as reasonable and rational to re-emerge as one who has discovered a new reality, a dimension of evolution that exists within reality but not without knowing the key. I know the Divine Equation, which gives me the key, which unlocks dimensions I have never fathomed.…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

Will you be forgiven for calling Jesus’s work the work of the devil?

Just called ignorant, that’s all.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian23h

How do you feel about going to church? Do you want to continue going or would you like to stop?

If Church is like the building. I get cold or hot when I go. If Church is a way of discovering the depths of my humanity (which it is for me), why would you not want to go as much as possible?

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSun

Can a man die by his own hand and be saved by the Creator?

That depends on whether he lets go and you fall.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSun

Is Christopher Hitchens the atheist pope?

Yes, yes, if he believes elephants can fly.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSun

Can dark matter and God both exist?

Only in the shade.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How can I stop being an atheist? I want to stop not believing in God.

Look at this photo each day for ten days. No exceptions. …

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can you lose your faith without realizing it?

With no even a whimper.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How do you prove that God is unreal?

In the same way, you would prove that God is real.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can anything be forgiven by both God and a human being?

Your question, I hope.

Catholic Spirituality · 

Following

Answered by 

Michael ConradSat

The author Tom Holland says in his book ‘Millennium’ that the Vatican believes that the year 2036 is when Jesus will return?

Don’t give up your day job.

2

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Do we have free will? If so, what does that mean for our actions/choices?

I am the center of the universe.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What does it mean to be like God, according to the Bible?

Have the free will to make your choices of what is good for you or bad for you.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is the definition of imagination? Who is the most imaginative person in science?

I like three people. The late Steven Hawking and his foray into the cosmology of the future using his brilliant mind. Enrico Fermi, asks the question, “Where is everybody?” Henri Teilhard de Chardin posited that time contains spheres of evolution from the lithosphere, biosphere, noosphere, and Christos…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can you believe in anything whether it exists or not?

Sure, I believe in that the Democratic Party is leading us to a more prosperous life, even though it isn’t.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What indirect evidence would be sufficient for you to believe in the existence of God?

I realize that I know that I know. Why is that? Butterflies don’t have that. They act their nature. My nature is human but there is a wrinkle. For me to fulfill what my nature intends, I must die to my false self to rise with Christ to a new life of meaning, now, and forever. None of this makes sense…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How can one lead a fulfilling and balanced life?

Die to everything you thought you knew about what it means to be human and put on the garment of faith, hope, and love from Christ, where you discover you did not give up anything but rather have moved to the next level of human evolution, to be an adopted son or daughter, capable of leading a fulfill…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How do we prove for certain that we have God on our side?

ex fructibus congnoscetis

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How can I develop unwavering and absolute faith in God?

Die and go to heaven.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why does God have to have a human appearance?

God does not have a human appearance in God’s divine nature. Anthropomorphic representation is a human literary to show that something is similiar to God that we can understand.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What causes a lack of faith in our own decisions?

A lack of faith.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Do people who believe in God always have religious experiences?

If vegetarians eat vegetables what do humanitarians eat?

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What should we pray for if our faith in God is strong?

Mercy.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What would happen if we voted to end democracy?

Autocracy.

1

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why would God create us to be something other than himself?

Creation begets the essence of its nature. Dogs from dogs, butterflies from butterflies. Humans from God.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can a human being create anything without the help of God?

Sure, pancakes.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How do you explain a religious person’s faith in God if there is no proof that God exists?

Your assumption is that there is no proof that God exists (for you). Either it is or is not. If it is provable (but not by mere human measurements), you have no argument. If it is not provable, then why do you hold an assumption that something exists that you don’t believe exists.…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can God create a person who is perfect?

Yes, two of them.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

If God exists, does that mean atheists are fake?

No one is fake who uses their reason and free will authentically.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is the closest thing to experiencing God?

Answering your question.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is beyond the creation of God?

The nothingness of God.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What are some circumstances when we shouldn’t rely on God?

When I am having brain surgery and need a top-notch surgeon.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How do you prove consciousness exists in another person?

It depends on whether they are awake or not.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is the definition of a conversation with God?

Sit in the upper room of your consciousness in silence and solitude, wait, and listen with the “ear of your heart.”…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How does the Bible describe God?

God is.

1

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why didn’t Jesus preach to non-Jews?

He did. You need to get out more.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is the three-fold ministry of the Church?

To know, to love, and to serve others as Christ served us.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Did God give us a lot of laws in the Bible?

Only one.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Is fear a tool of the devil?

I only know you can dig your way to Hell using this tool on a sustained basis.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

In the book of job, why didn’t God just destroy Satan?

That would not be a Hollywood ending.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why is the Pope running for President of the United States?

Because he is a member of the Politics of Absurdity Party.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Is a pope equivalent to Jesus? Why is he called “father”?

Ask your dad that.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Do gods exist outside of fiction in our world?

Probably not outside of the assumptions you hold as to what is real.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Is a deal with the devil even real?

The devil wants you to think it is real.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

How much do you give for a baptism?

I have to die to all that the world holds as meaningful and accept the cross of contradiction as my key to looking at reality. That is what I give each day.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Religion: Why do good people go to hell?

They want to do so, knowing full well who God is.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why are so many Christians arguing that Jesus was not a Jew?

Name one.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can someone who was never baptized be saved by God?

Heaven is God’s playground and God can allow anyone God wants to play in the sandbox.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Did Joseph Stalin ever have sex?

It is the same answer as “Did you ever have sex?” Don’t give up your day job.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Am I going to Hell if I don’t receive Holy Communion at least once in a year?

No, but you may be in jeopardy of not going to heaven.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

If the Bible was fake all along, why would it exist?

Now, what would be the odds of that happening?

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why hasn’t the devil won against God?

Let me let you in on a secret. The Devil thinks he has won.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Where does the real God live?

Yes.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

On a scale of 1-10, how sure are you that there is a God?

1 for my reason; 10 with my faith; I believe, help my unbelief. —St. Thomas Aquinas.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Is it possible to have faith and belief without religion?

Yes, if you can have hydrogen and oxygen without water.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Where do I have to go to receive God’s Holy Spirit?

You must go to the place no human wants to enter, the sanctum of your inner room, where you lock the door from the inside and wait for the Holy Spirit to show up, only to realize that the Holy Spirit has been there, waiting for you from before time was a tick and not a tock. I do this multiple times a…

(more)

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What does it take for a believer to have the Holy Spirit?

An unlocked door. Matthew 6:8.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Why should anybody like to prove the existence of God?

I don’t.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What do atheists do to get rid of sins?

What sins? No God, no Ten Commandments, no moral compass against which humans can discern the way, the truth, and so life that is the fulfillment of our humanity, the next step in our evolution as a species.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is the Pope’s authority over Catholics?

A chief rabbi.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Is it worse to be a bad Christian or an atheist?

No doubt, those who say they believe in something (or no God) but are one thing in their minds while another thing in their hearts is the worst, be it Christian or atheist.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

Can a Catholic be a Stalinist?

Yes, if you can become a murderer.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianSat

What is the most dangerous thing to do in Hell?

Learn to sweat.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What is the difference between limbo and hell?

One is a dance and the other is heartburn.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What is a church called that isn’t a cathedral?

a church

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Does true love exist before marriage?

Sure. Your mom and dad had it while you were growing up.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Is Pope Francis the first engineer to be selected as Pope?

No. All Popes are pontifex maximus.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What are some reasons why people might not want to go to Hell?

You have to work in the kitchen washing the dirty dishes of the damned.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Who controls the Catholic Church?

Here is the board of directors. God is CEO. Christ is COO. Holy Spirit is CFO.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Is George Carlin the atheist pope?

Only if he has a sense of humor.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What is the best way to see Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica?

Go there.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

As an atheist, what would you say to a ghost if you met one?

Boo

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

As Catholic Christians, do you prefer a progressive Catholic church like Pope Francis or a conservative one like Pope Benedict XVI? Why?

Wrong questions tend to have wrong answers. What should you be asking?

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Do atheists have faith in anything?

Sure. Lots of things. Love. Happiness. Fidelity. Family Values. Finding Meaning in life. The nobility of the human spirit. and many more.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Who was the first pope to visit Rome?

Peter. He died there, too.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Is Stephen Hawking the atheist pope?

Sure, if he knows how to look at the one place humans are afraid to look.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Is Steven Weinberg the atheist pope?

Sure, if he goes to confession each week and asks God to have mercy on him.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What is blind faith? Is it expected by God?

Does Stephenson 2–18 have blind faith?

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Can you get to heaven by faith alone?

Yes. But the problem is the product of Faith is some form of energy.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Who said that you should only believe in what you have to believe in?

No one that I would want to call my friend.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What is the Catholic Church’s stance on being overweight?

You are full of grace.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Who founded the Roman Church?

No one. Christ founded the Catholic Church, however.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

Is Ricky Gervais the atheist pope?

Only if he is infallible.

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianFeb 9

What is the most important food for a healthy brain?

Scientific inquiry and logic.

Here is a resource that I discovered that lists Saints and their accomplishments and when they lived. Sometimes we forget that these people actually existed way back when.

https://devotiontoourlady.com/january-martyrs.html

When you think about football, as an example of only one sporting venue, of all the college players, very few get selected to play Professional Football. Still, fewer are selected by the football press to be in the Football Hall of Fame. You can tell that this is a select group of gents. They got there because of their merit and how they played the game, overcoming adversity, and injury, to excel at the sport with the talent they possessed. We honor them, and rightly so, because of their prowess and endurance in a sport, we consider grueling and unforgiving for the rest of us.

Since the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Twelve and those in the upper room, followers of Christ have measured themselves and others against their understanding of what it means to be a true disciple of the Master, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. How people took this message of adoption by God into their hearts and lived it out, became a source of inspiration and devotion to those who lived immediately after Christ. People wanted to be like those who loved others as Christ loved us. The crucible of a lifetime of struggle against the adversity of the world and its allurements to be fully human is different for each of us, just there is but One Lord, One Baptism, and One Faith. All of us who have had the sign of the cross traced on our foreheads in Baptism are saints. Our destiny as citizens of heaven is, excuse the duplication, heaven. When I die, I join the Church Triumphant or Church Purgative waiting to be found worthy to enter and claim my inheritance. Each of us has a lifetime of trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and succeeding sometimes to have in us the mind of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:5) Some of us do a better job than others and become examples to emulate but more importantly, those saints who are in heaven rooting us on to stay the course, keep true to the authentic teaching of the Church, and fulfill our destiny as humans as nature intended before the Fall.

Those we emulate and hold up to because of their inspiration and teaching, we gravitate toward. When that inertia becomes noticeable to a wider gathering, a universal gathering of gatherers, the Church Universe, it sometimes offers these unique individuals for us to consider as Saints (upper case).

Characteristic of Saints

They must be sinners, except Mary, Mother of God, who is sinless from the moment of her conception. This is not due to Mary but the Holy Spirit who so completely filled her cup of humanity, one that takes the rest of us a lifetime to fill, so completely that not a drop more of God’s energy could fill that unique cup.

Saints are ones we can ask to join us in intercession (we don’t pray to anyone but God, directly) along with our prayers.

Saints and saints are alive and can pray for us as we pray to Christ for mercy and forgiveness.

The Church Universal creates Saints through a process called canonization (not being shot out of a canon).

MEN AND WOMEN SAINTS

https://www.catholic.org/saints/female.php

https://www.ecatholic2000.com/saints/clist.shtml

https://www.catholic.org/saints/martyr.php

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Achilles%27%20heel#citations

“When the hero Achilles was an infant, his sea-nymph mother dipped him into the river Styx to make him immortal. But since she held him by one heel, this spot did not touch the water and so remained mortal and vulnerable, and it was here that Achilles was eventually mortally wounded. Today, the tendon that stretches up the calf from the heel is called the Achilles tendon. But the term Achilles’ heel isn’t used in medicine; instead, it’s only used with the general meaning “weak point”—for instance, to refer to a section of a country’s borders that aren’t militarily protected, or to a Jeopardy contestant’s ignorance in the Sports category.”

In today’s Lectio Divina meditation, (Philippians 2:5), I kept wondering about the word “vulnerable,” as applied to my seeming inability to keep focused on The Christ Principle. Granted, the fact that I am testing positive for Covid might be considered a free pass. In all actuality, it is because of my vulnerability to Covid that I associated this topic with all those topics that give my Baptism a chance to earn its way by fighting against the Lord of the Earth (the Devil). One Achilles heel is that when praying to God to keep me from the clutches of the Lord of the Earth, I shift the responsibility for my protection to God. This leaves me vulnerable as I underestimate the craftiness of Satan to use my spirituality against me. Do you see the subtlety of this vulnerability? I can never let my guard down because of my humanity.

KEEPING THE DEVIL LOCKED OUT

I remember all those scary Dracula movies where the vampire can’t enter the house unless there is an open window, or someone just invites him in. In real life, it is also like that. I must invite Satan into my space. The Achilles heel is one such place where there is a “weak spot.” Here are some of the vulnerabilities that come to mind when I look around my life experiences and why they are so deceptive to the weak of heart and faith. I take responsibility for these opinions because they come from my Lectio Divina. You make your own conclusions. Here are some characteristics that come to mind, when I use the words “Achilles heel.”

Characteristics:

• Everyone has an Achilles heel. It is part of the inheritance from Original Sin.
• Denying our vulnerabilities makes us vulnerable to the seduction of the Lord of the Earth (Satan).
• We may have more than one vulnerability.
• St. Paul called this his “thorn of the flesh,” but it may be physical, mental, or physical.
• Achilles’ heels are neither good nor bad, but rather part of what it means to be human.
• You don’t get rid of Achilles heels as much as you do convert them from your false self to your true self.

VARIOUS ACHILLES HEELS

HUMANS– The Achilles Heel of all humans (except Jesus and Mary) is death. All of us must succumb to this most terminal of vulnerabilities. Jesus became human nature not to keep us from dying as nature intends all living things to undergo but to show us how death is but a stage not the terminus of human existence.

JESUS — Jesus took on the imperfections of human nature as well as its nobility by emptying being God because of love for all of us. (Philippians 2:5). Jesus, who knew no sin became sin for the ransom of many.

SCIENCE– The Achilles Heel of Science in general is the mindset that all reality is what you can see and thus prove with scientific theories. This is not to say that the scientific approach is wrong as much as it is incomplete because it does not admit what is invisible to the eye. You don’t see what you don’t think is possible, thus a flawed Achilles Heel.

ORIGINAL SIN– This Achilles Heel is one that admits that humans have the ability to choose but what they choose is always correct for them, simply because they choose it. We have to learn what it means to be human, which, according to the world means doing what feels right, but may not lead to being fully human. God gives us what it means to fulfill our humanity but humans, because of their stubbornness and contrariness don’t want to be told what to do. The irony is that only when humans deny what they think is right can they be open to what God tells them is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and so THE LIFE.

THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL– The Church as it comes down through the ages may be seduced into thinking either that keeping the law is fidelity or abandoning what the world says is trendy and all the rage. The Achilles Heel is not realizing that only the cross and Christ’s admonition to love one another as He has loved us, will save its followers from descending into the Hell of thinking I am God, I speak for the Holy Spirit, I am the pope, I am one whose opinion is without error (infallibility). Factions are fiction.

MY LIFE– My Achilles Heel is pride in thinking God does what I want. It is only when I have “fear of the Lord,” as St. Benedict wrote in Chapter 7 of his Rule, that I realize humility is my great downfall. Each day, I must challenge life to transform it into one which says “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

ATHEISTS — The Achilles Heel for atheists is they have not tried what they so eloquently protest against. G. K. Chesterton writes, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has never been tried at all.”

PROTESTANTS –– In their zeal to love Christ, many have assumed that all the Catholic Church teaches is bad, just because of some abuses from individuals. The Achilles Heel means the alternative is the heresy of the individual. No one can tell me what to tack on the doors of the Whittenburg Cathedral. Factions are the unintended consequences of such believers, as sincere as they might be.

POLITICIANS AND SUPREME COURT JUSTICES — The Achilles Heel for any politician is the untenable position of agreeing to moral principles that contradict what they hold personally as a matter of personal conviction. This is schizophrenic morality and dissonance of behavior.

I actually don’t worry about any of these because I have trouble enough with my own Achilles Heels and trying to convert my life (conversio morae) from my false self to my new self in Christ Jesus.

There are four sources of energy for me that I try to remain faithful to becoming.

• The Cross — This is the sign of my adoption as a son (daughter) of the Father and distinguishes me from the world.
• The Eucharist — Recognizing the sign of contradiction in the real presence and partaking of it as much as possible means I have the energy of God (Grace) to sustain me.
• The Scriptures – Using the road map that the authors wrote as inspired by God is a way I know I am on the path.
• Penance — I must recognize that I am a sinner in need of redemption and require daily presence before Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

uiodg

If you have Faith, do you need proof?

There are two different kinds of proofs: one to measure the visible universe primarily and emotions and the human condition, as a backup; then there is a proof that is the opposite of all of that and cannot measure what cannot be measured but instead hinted at. We look at the hints and deduce this and that conclusion depending on our individual assumptions. Religion, to be authentic, is not able to be measured with the measurements (proofs) of scientific inquiry (which I use as appropriate to view visible reality). Faith means you are jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet in pitch back hoping that your parachute works and that you don’t end up in a tree or something bad. Christ jumps out before you and says, “Geronimo! Let’s go.” It doesn’t make sense but Christ has told you I am your parachute and I am the way, so that you know what is true, and therefore have authentic life. Everyone must jump out of this plane to get to heaven (Faith and Baptism). It is not reasonable if you don’t know about Jesus and you just stand at the door, facing pitch darkness, with no one to tell you anything.

Faith only comes from God and is God’s energy overshadowing us (Mary, Pentecost, the upper room, when I am adopted as God’s son (daughter). Belief only comes from me and my assent to Faith (Be it done unto me according to your word).

Christ could not work some miracles because of their lack of Faith (no covenant relationship) so you don’t believe what isn’t believable. Belief, our saying to the Father, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” is needed to complete the circuit so that electricity flow. In prayer, it takes two to tango.

Faith always reaches down from divinity to human; Belief always reaches up or lifts up our minds and hearts to God. Philippians 2:5-12 is my favorite passage to keep me focused that God is God (humility) and I am me, and I am not God.

Faith is when I sit on my park bench in the dead of winter in silence and solitude, waiting and hoping (belief) for Christ to show up so my heart can be warmed up by the heart of Christ. I realize that Christ has always been there (Faith) waiting for me (Love) as I long to be with Our Blessed Lord (Hope).

The Real Presence

I want to share with you a wonderful resource about the writings of the writers of those in the first few centuries after Christ. I like this because, not only is it our heritage from primary sources, but it bolsters the Scripture and how early Christians used it to love others as Christ loved them. http://www.churchfathers.org/ As far as I can tell, this site is authentic, but always be careful to find out from where these sites originate. Blessings are with you. This group is about The Real Presence, but there are many more topics for you to explore. That in all things, may God be glorified. –St. Benedict

Irenaeus

“He took from among creation that which is bread, and gave thanks, saying, ‘This is my body.’ The cup likewise, which is from among the creation to which we belong, he confessed to be his blood. He taught the new sacrifice of the new covenant, of which Malachi, one of the twelve [minor] prophets, had signified beforehand: ‘You do not do my will, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; for great is my name among the Gentiles, says the Lord Almighty [Mal. 1:10–11]. By these words he makes it plain that the former people will cease to make offerings to God; but that in every place sacrifice will be offered to him, and indeed, a pure one, for his name is glorified among the Gentiles” (Against Heresies 4:17:5 [A.D. 189]).

Ignatius of Antioch

“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible” (Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]).

“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2–7:1 [A.D. 110]).

Justin Martyr

“We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).

Irenaeus

“If the Lord were from other than the Father, how could he rightly take bread, which is of the same creation as our own, and confess it to be his body and affirm that the mixture in the cup is his blood?” (Against Heresies 4:33–32 [A.D. 189]).

“He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own body, from which he gives increase unto our bodies. When, therefore, the mixed cup [wine and water] and the baked bread receives the Word of God and becomes the Eucharist, the body of Christ, and from these the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they say that the flesh is not capable of receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life—flesh which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is in fact a member of him?” (ibid., 5:2).

Clement of Alexandria

“’Eat my flesh,’ [Jesus] says, ‘and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children” (The Instructor of Children 1:6:43:3 [A.D. 191]).

Tertullian

“[T]here is not a soul that can at all procure salvation, except it believe whilst it is in the flesh, so true is it that the flesh is the very condition on which salvation hinges. And since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service. The flesh, indeed, is washed [in baptism], in order that the soul may be cleansed . . . the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands [in confirmation], that the soul also may be illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds [in the Eucharist] on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may be filled with God” (The Resurrection of the Dead 8 [A.D. 210]).

Hippolytus

“‘And she [Wisdom] has furnished her table’ [Prov. 9:2] . . . refers to his [Christ’s] honored and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper [i.e., the Last Supper]” (Fragment from Commentary on Proverbs [A.D. 217]).

Origen

“Formerly there was baptism in an obscure way . . . now, however, in full view, there is regeneration in water and in the Holy Spirit. Formerly, in an obscure way, there was manna for food; now, however, in full view, there is the true food, the flesh of the Word of God, as he himself says: ‘My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink’ [John 6:55]” (Homilies on Numbers 7:2 [A.D. 248]).

Cyprian of Carthage

“He [Paul] threatens, moreover, the stubborn and forward, and denounces them, saying, ‘Whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. All these warnings being scorned and contemned—[lapsed Christians will often take Communion] before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest, before the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, [and so] violence is done to his body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord” (The Lapsed 15–16 [A.D. 251]).

Council of Nicaea I

“It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist to the presbyters [i.e., priests], whereas neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer [the Eucharistic sacrifice] should give the Body of Christ to them that do offer [it]” (Canon 18 [A.D. 325]).

Aphraahat the Persian Sage

“After having spoken thus [at the Last Supper], the Lord rose up from the place where he had made the Passover and had given his body as food and his blood as drink, and he went with his disciples to the place where he was to be arrested. But he ate of his own body and drank of his own blood, while he was pondering on the dead. With his own hands the Lord presented his own body to be eaten, and before he was crucified he gave his blood as drink” (Treatises 12:6 [A.D. 340]).

Cyril of Jerusalem

“The bread and the wine of the Eucharist before the holy invocation of the adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, but the invocation having been made, the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ” (Catechetical Lectures 19:7 [A.D. 350]).

“Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that; for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by the faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy of the body and blood of Christ. . . . [Since you are] fully convinced that the apparent bread is not bread, even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and that the apparent wine is not wine, even though the taste would have it so, . . . partake of that bread as something spiritual, and put a cheerful face on your soul” (ibid., 22:6, 9).

Ambrose of Milan

“Perhaps you may be saying, ‘I see something else; how can you assure me that I am receiving the body of Christ?’ It but remains for us to prove it. And how many are the examples we might use! . . . Christ is in that sacrament, because it is the body of Christ” (The Mysteries 9:50, 58 [A.D. 390]).

Theodore of Mopsuestia

“When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood’; for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not regard [the elements] merely as bread and cup, but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit” (Catechetical Homilies 5:1 [A.D. 405]).

Augustine

“Christ was carried in his own hands when, referring to his own body, he said, ‘This is my body’ [Matt. 26:26]. For he carried that body in his hands” (Explanations of the Psalms 33:1:10 [A.D. 405]).

“I promised you [new Christians], who have now been baptized, a sermon in which I would explain the sacrament of the Lord’s Table. . . . That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ” (Sermons 227 [A.D. 411]).

…

“What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice is the blood of Christ. This has been said very briefly, which may perhaps be sufficient for faith; yet faith does not desire instruction” (ibid., 272).

Council of Ephesus

“We will necessarily add this also. Proclaiming the death, according to the flesh, of the only-begotten Son of God, that is Jesus Christ, confessing his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, we offer the unbloody sacrifice in the churches, and so go on to the mystical thanksgivings, and are sanctified, having received his holy flesh and the precious blood of Christ the Savior of us all. And not as common flesh do we receive it; God forbid: nor as of a man sanctified and associated with the Word according to the unity of worth, or as having a divine indwelling, but as truly the life-giving and very flesh of the Word himself. For he is the life according to his nature as God, and when he became united to his flesh, he made it also to be life-giving” (Session 1, Letter of Cyril to Nestorius [A.D. 431]).

Here are some ideas from a broken-down, old Lay Cistercian. uiodg The following is found in what I wrote on Quora.com. Be careful, it is the Mirror of Arisad of the Internet.

What is meant by the eternal power of God.

The energy of God is pure energy, the power of Being 100% of your nature. Humans have neither the capacity nor the capability of comprehending what that is so God sent Jesus (Son of God) to tell us and show us that all we have to do is be baptized in water and the spirit and thus make us adopted sons and daughters of the Father and heirs to the kingdom of heaven on earth as it is in heaven. God has the power to lift us up to another level of our evolution, as God did when we went from animality to rationality. Reason alone does not permit us to push ourselved up to the next level. Only the eternal or pure energy of God can lift us up (Faith), but we must ask for it (Belief).

Does God exist because people created religion, therefore creating God?

Who else would create religion but humans, and who else could tell us that we are adopted sons and daughters of the father and that the key to our next phase of evolution is to deny everything you know that you learned and take a step into the unknown because you want to be fully human and love as much as our nature may permit? Of course, when God became human, Christ gave us the glasses to see the opposite of what the world sees, and a map to avoid stepping on the landmines of rationalism and idolatry of self as god. I must still walk THE WAY, but now I have THE TRUTH and aim towards THE LIFE of what it means to be fully human as my nature intended before the Fall. Don’t give us your day job.

Do all philosophies have their own idea about God?

Each human also has their own ideas about God which may or may not be influenced by one or more languages or philosophies. Personally, within my lifetime, mine is scientific inquiry for what I can see, existential phenomenological and psychological writers such as Abraham Maslow, plus Martin Buber, Steven Hawking, Francis Thompson, Erich Fromm, Carl Jung, Heidigger, the Four Gospels and Letters of St. Paul, Torah and Wisdom of the Rabbis, Joel Barker, Aidan Kavanaugh, O.S.B., Father Cassian Russell, O.C.S.O., Aristotle, Plato, The Pantheon of Roman and Greek Gods, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, David, Twelve Apostles, Canon of Roman Pontiffs, Eusebius, Ignatius of Antioch, John of Forde, Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Benedict of Nursia, The Little Prince by Exupere, The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin, the Summa Theological by Thomas Aquinas, the writings of Marcus Aurelius, the sayings of Lao Tse, the writings and sayings of the Prophets in the Old Testament, including Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Song of Songs, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Dr. Billy Graham, Peter Zeihan, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, that help me peer into invisible reality that my physical reality informs, just to name a fraction. Each human has this concoction of ideas rolling around in their head. Using all of this, we form choices as to What is the purpose of life? What my purpose in life is? What does reality look like? How does it all fit together? How can I love fiercely? You know you are going to die: now what? I can get both the questions and answer from the totality of my life experiences (I am not you; you are not me; God is not us; We, most certainly, are not God) outside of myself or within myself. Inside myself is risky because I need a key, an absolutely immutable cornerstone on which to measure what I observe to be true against what is truth. Since each person can be their own religion, their own god, their own objective truth, their own church, their own pope, and no one can tell them what to do, you can see how there is a Tower of Babel among thoughts about religion, about what is right or wrong, about why there does not seem to be a God we can see. Yet, we have a reason for a reason and a choice for a reason. The problem comes when I choose a reality outside my secular reasoning to deal with what I can’t see but what my heart and head tell me is there. This gap, for lack of a better word, is Faith (not opinion but a living reality outside of my ability to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell). This was such a conundrum that God sent Jesus to tell us AND SHOW us how to walk through the minefields of corruptible matter and mind to reach the true purpose of what it means to be human (to be an adopted son or daughter of the Father and to go home to that which nature intended for us before there was time and matter). I am a Lay Cistercian and follow the practices and the charisms of the Cistercian Way (silence, solitude, prayer, work, and community) to make real what I have just tried to describe, however painfully inadequate.

Michael Conrad

Does the Pope ever ask for forgiveness?

Daily. So do I, even hourly, if I can remember. This is reparation for my sins, not that I go around committing sins every day, but rather for just being plain dumb and an asshole to people I have met in my lifetime.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian58m

Would God give you water if you were dehydrated in hell?

I don’t know. I do know that, if you go out to play 18 holes on the Championship Lucifer Links, Satan won’t give you any balls.

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Have all popes been holy?

All popes are sinners, but some of them have risen above their pride, lust, envy, and prevarication to move from their false selves to their true selves. The first forty popes were put to death because they would not renounce Jesus as Lord. When the papacy deep dived into concupiscence, they were wicked a…

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What is the definition of a three-headed, four-armed god?

My cousin Louie.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay Cistercian1h

What role could the church have in a secular world?

The sign of contradiction. It doesn’t make sense without knowing the key. You have reason for a reason. You have choice for a reason. There are three questions that you must identify and choose wisely. 1. What does it mean to be human? What is good for me and what is bad for me? 2. What does it mean…

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Catholic Apologetics

Does God have a mother?

1 answer · Last followed 1h

Answer

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Can too much truth be harmful sometimes?

Yes, as in telling your wife you are having an affair.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Why do nuns cover their hair?

Some do, and some don’t. Heritage.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How much alcohol should a 13-14-year-old be allowed to drink?

None. Alcohol is for disinfecting wounds.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What things do you usually bring with you to church?

My sins.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Is Catholicism the oldest religion?

No atheism is.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How much power do the Pope and the Catholic Church really have?

All power that Christ has, yet no power to do anything, if you say NO.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Can you prove that the flying spaghetti monster isn’t God?

Yes, because he is on the sauce.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What challenges does the current Pope face when governing as leader of Vatican City?

Greed, Mistrust, Factions, Jealousy, Envy, Lust, Lying, Drunkenness, Murder, Pride, and Hatred, just to name a few.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Can anything God does be classified as bad?

He made mosquitoes.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Where would the Flying Spaghetti Monster scale be?

In Amsterdam.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Do all diocesan bishops have authority over all parish priests?

yes according to Canon Law.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How much power does the Pope have in Vatican City and around the world?

The power of suggestion.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Is former KGB agent Comrade Bishop Kirill the Antichrist? Are the members of the Russian Orthodox Church simply pawns of Comrade Kirill?

When your political party is on top, you can lord it over others. When your political party is against your teachings, you are a martyr to your cause. Sic transeat gloria mundi.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Do you get treated like a god in your country?

More like the devil.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Is the pope the head of the Orthodox Church?

no

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What is the source of morality for non-religious people?

The state, whatever that happens to be at the time.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Former KGB Agent Comrade Bishop Kirill has endorsed the Ukrainian invasion and the killing of Ukrainians. Is the Russian Orthodox Church just an extension of the Kremlin? Are church members just fools?

Some are.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What is a non-universal value or belief?

One which you hold.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Is it dangerous to accept rides from strangers?

Mary did this in Luke 1–2.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Am I an alcoholic if I only drink two beers a day?

No, but you can be a two-beer-a-day drunk.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How can we tell if a cardass is telling the truth or lying?

Do you mean a Cardassian?

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

“Comrade Bishop Kirill is an embarrassment to the Orthodox Church and does not represent the teachings of Christ. We ask the world to forgive us for not denouncing his support of Putin and the killing of Ukrainians. Is this what members should say?

Politics is an intoxicating religion.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Did Martin Luther ever say anything positive about Catholicism or the Catholic Church?

Although not Lutheran, I don’t think Luther hated any individuals but rather the perceived corruption that surrounded the times. Others have reformed the Catholic Church (Francis, Dominic, Benedict, Bernard, St. Theresa, Ignatius, St. Don Bosco, etc… up to this very day). without changing doctrine. M…

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Why do Democrats compulsively lie?

For the same reason as Republicans do. Lying begets lying. Hatred only increases hatred. Vengence is mine, says the Lord. Is God democrat or republican? If either one, then I know I am in hell.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What did Pope Leo say to Attila the Hun so that he would not sack Rome? What are the most realistic theories?

What would your mother think if she saw you destroying people’s lives?

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Why do some people say the current Pope is a communist?

They also say that Putin is a Christian.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Do atheists have a high regard for people of faith?

I suppose some do and some don’t. How about you?

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Do atheists chase money for life?

I suppose some do and some don’t. How about you?

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

To any Protestants and any Catholics out there. What is the difference between your faiths and do you have any friends belonging to the other faith?

I have friends who belong to other faiths whom I respect. I have friends who don’t hold there is a god, whom I respect. I have friends who are fellow believers and brothers and sisters in Jesus, whom I respect.

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1

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Do Catholic monks make any money from donations?

yes. Eating costs money.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What do you think about drinking a lot of alcohol?

If you do that, you won’t be able to grasp my answer.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Are there any benefits to attending weekly services at a Catholic Church?

You fill up on the bread of heaven.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How do you feel when you enter a church, and why?

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1

Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Can a deacon celebrate the Eucharist without a priest?

no.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Did you leave the Catholic Church because of Pope Francis?

No, I reaffirmed my faith because of him and his teaching that we must be what we believe.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Why don’t LDS go to other churches and call them liars?

Because you must get the beam out of your eye before you can tell your neighbor to remove the speck in his or hers.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What do you do at mass in the Catholic Church?

Listen with the ear of the heart to the love Christ has for me, then, together, we go to the Father with fitting praise and glory on earth as it is in heaven.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How do you address a female reverend?

I usually ask them what they want me to call them out of respect for them being human, being female, being a person who preaches the gospel.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Does God think about someone who leaves their religion for another one?

Good luck.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What are some of the changes that Pope Francis has made to Catholic teaching?

1. Embrace the cross and die to yourself to rise to a new life as an adopted son or daughter of the Father. Do your faith and don’t whine about trivia. 2. If you want to be the greatest, serve others. 3. Love others as christ loves us. 4. Convert yourself daily from your false self to that of a new creation.…

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What do you do if you are not Catholic and take communion?

Say “Thank you,” to Jesus.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Are papal infallibility and impeccability related?

Not in the slightest. One is from God the Holy Spirit, the other is a result in me of orignal sin.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How has Pope Francis impacted Roman Catholic doctrine?

The pope does not make doctrine, Jesus does. As the teacher of honor (Magister Noster), he interprets the long and crusty history of the church and provides insights.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Does Papal infallibility mean that popes can never make mistakes according to Church doctrine?

No human, except Christ, was infallible. The Holy Spirit is infallible in what the pope says when speaking on faith and morals and as head of the church universal on earth. That only happened twice. The rest of the time, the pope is like us, sinners all.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What is the difference between creationism and monkey evolution?

One has a tale.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How is Pope Francis considered one of the most liberal popes in history?

False questions have false answers. There are three measures for any pope (or any baptized person)1. Do you live the sign of the cross made on your forehead at Baptism? 2. Do you long to have your heart next to the heart of Christ in Lectio Divina, Holy Eucharist, and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament…

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What do you think of Pope Francis’ words “we must learn to step aside and say goodbye”?

“Time to say goodbye,” is the song, not so?

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Is Pope Francis too liberal? Did he depart too much from Pope Emeritus Benedict’s policies?

Is God liberal or conservative? Depends on how each individual views, God, don’t you think?

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Is Pope Francis a false prophet?

Only for those whose heart seeks hatred, vengance, jealousy, obfuscation, and factioning.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Why is Pope Francis controversial?

He has reintroduced the cross and its consequences (as did Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen). I don’t follow the Pope, I follow the same Jesus that the Pope does.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

Do Anglican bishops have the authority to ordain priests?

I honestly don’t know, which is the point.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What’s the state of the church today?

Some say it is bad; some say it is good. I say that it is the enigma of a group in each age being sinners all who have to pass on the very presence of God to each person that is of goodwill.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

What has been Pope Francis’ impact on American Catholicism?

I speak only for myself. The impact for me is recognizing that I must die to self to rise to a new life (each day.) The Cross is the key to salvation and The Christ Principle is the Cross.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianTue

How is the church holy if there are sinners (RC)?

How can you go to heaven, if all there are in heaven are sinners (repentant). Everyone in the church is a sinner. “If you say you are without sin, you are liar.” Only sinners go to heaven. Baptism is the washing away of original sin; penance is washing away sin after Baptism but we must continue to…

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianMon

Do you think Pope Francis would resign before he reaches 90?

I’m thinking.

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianMon

How does salvation work for souls that are in Hell?

“Abandon Hope all Ye that Enter.”

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianMon

How many chances does God give you to make it right?

70 times 7

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Michael Conrad

Worked at Professed Lay CistercianMon

What is the most difficult question for atheists?

What assumptions you do use to justifiy what seems like complete nonsense to reason?

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I watched this as part of my Spiritual Awareness Renewal time. I recommend it to you. Listen, with the ear of your heart.

I wanted to share with you what I myself read about the early church. I offer no commentary.

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05617b.htm

Introduction.

1. We have discussed in the preceding book those subjects in ecclesiastical history which it was necessary to treat by way of introduction, and have accompanied them with brief proofs. Such were the divinity of the saving Word, and the antiquity of the doctrines which we teach, as well as of that evangelical life which is led by Christians, together with the events which have taken place in connection with Christ’s recent appearance, and in connection with his passion and with the choice of the apostles.

2. In the present book let us examine the events which took place after his ascension, confirming some of them from the divine Scriptures, and others from such writings as we shall refer to from time to time.

Chapter 1. The Course pursued by the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ.

1. First, then, in the place of Judas, the betrayer, Matthias, who, as has been shown was also one of the Seventy, was chosen to the apostolate. And there were appointed to the diaconate, for the service of the congregation, by prayer and the laying on of the hands of the apostles, approved men, seven in number, of whom Stephen was one. He first, after the Lord, was stoned to death at the time of his ordination by the slayers of the Lord, as if he had been promoted for this very purpose. And thus he was the first to receive the crown, corresponding to his name, which belongs to the martyrs of Christ, who are worthy of the meed of victory.

2. Then James, whom the ancients surnamed the Just on account of the excellence of his virtue, is recorded to have been the first to be made bishop of the church of Jerusalem. This James was called the brother of the Lord because he was known as a son of Joseph, and Joseph was supposed to be the father of Christ, because the Virgin, being betrothed to him, was found with child by the Holy Ghost before they came together, Matthew 1:18 as the account of the holy Gospels shows.

3. But Clement in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes writes thus: For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem.

4. But the same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, relates also the following things concerning him: The Lord after his resurrection imparted knowledge to James the Just and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one. But there were two Jameses: one called the Just, who was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and was beaten to death with a club by a fuller, and another who was beheaded. Paul also makes mention of the same James the Just, where he writes, Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother. Galatians 1:19

5. At that time also the promise of our Saviour to the king of the Osrhœnians was fulfilled. For Thomas, under a divine impulse, sent Thaddeus to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of the religion of Christ, as we have shown a little above from the document found there.

7. When he came to that place he healed Abgarus by the word of Christ; and after bringing all the people there into the right attitude of mind by means of his works, and leading them to adore the power of Christ, he made them disciples of the Saviour’s teaching. And from that time down to the present the whole city of the Edessenes has been devoted to the name of Christ, offering no common proof of the beneficence of our Saviour toward them also.

8. These things have been drawn from ancient accounts; but let us now turn again to the divine Scripture. When the first and greatest persecution was instigated by the Jews against the church of Jerusalem in connection with the martyrdom of Stephen, and when all the disciples, except the Twelve, were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, some, as the divine Scripture says, went as far as Phœnicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but could not yet venture to impart the word of faith to the nations, and therefore preached it to the Jews alone.

9. During this time Paul was still persecuting the church, and entering the houses of believers was dragging men and women away and committing them to prison.

10. Philip also, one of those who with Stephen had been entrusted with the diaconate, being among those who were scattered abroad, went down to Samaria, and being filled with the divine power, he first preached the word to the inhabitants of that country. And divine grace worked so mightily with him that even Simon Magus with many others was attracted by his words.

11. Simon was at that time so celebrated, and had acquired, by his jugglery, such influence over those who were deceived by him, that he was thought to be the Great Power of God. [According to Eusebius here, Simon Magus was called τὴν μεγ€λην δύναμιν τοῦ θεοῦ. In Acts 8:10, he was called ἡ δύναμις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ καλουμένη. According to Irenæus (I.23.1) he was called “the loftiest of all powers, that is, the one who is father over all things” (sublissimam virtutem, hoc est, eum qui sit nuper omnia Pater). According to Justin Martyr (Apology I.26), he was called τὸν πρῶτον θεόν. According to the Clementine Homilies (II.22) he wished to be called “a certain supreme power of God” (ἀ νωτ€τη τις δύναμις). According to the Clementine Recognitions (II.7) he was called the “Standing One” (hinc ergo Stans appellatur).]

But at this time, being amazed at the wonderful deeds wrought by Philip through the divine power, he feigned and counterfeited faith in Christ, even going so far as to receive baptism.

12. And what is surprising, the same thing is done even to this day by those who follow his most impure heresy. For they, after the manner of their forefather, slipping into the Church, like a pestilential and leprous disease greatly afflict those into whom they are able to infuse the deadly and terrible poison concealed in themselves. The most of these have been expelled as soon as they have been caught in their wickedness, as Simon himself, when detected by Peter, received the merited punishment.

13. But as the preaching of the Saviour’s Gospel was daily advancing, a certain providence led from the land of the Ethiopians an officer of the queen of that country, for Ethiopia even to the present day is ruled, according to ancestral custom, by a woman. He, first among the Gentiles, received of the mysteries of the divine word from Philip in consequence of a revelation, and having become the first-fruits of believers throughout the world, he is said to have been the first on returning to his country to proclaim the knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving sojourn of our Saviour among men; so that through him in truth the prophecy obtained its fulfillment, which declares that Ethiopia stretches out her hand unto God.

14. In addition to these, Paul, that chosen vessel, Acts 9:15 not of men neither through men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ himself and of God the Father who raised him from the dead, Galatians 1:1 was appointed an apostle, being made worthy of the call by a vision and by a voice which was uttered in a revelation from heaven.

Chapter 2. How Tiberius was affected when informed by Pilate concerning Christ.

1. And when the wonderful resurrection and ascension of our Saviour were already reported abroad, in accordance with an ancient custom which prevailed among the rulers of the provinces, of reporting to the emperor the novel occurrences which took place in them, in order that nothing might escape him, Pontius Pilate informed Tiberius of the reports which were reported abroad through all Palestine concerning the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus from the dead.

2. He gave an account also of other wonders which he had learned of him, and how, after his death, having risen from the dead, he was now believed by many to be a God. They say that Tiberius referred the matter to the Senate, but that they rejected it, ostensibly because they had not first examined into the matter (for an ancient law prevailed that no one should be made a God by the Romans except by a vote and decree of the Senate), but in reality because the saving teaching of the divine Gospel did not need the confirmation and recommendation of men.

3. But although the Senate of the Romans rejected the proposition made in regard to our Saviour, Tiberius still retained the opinion which he had held at first, and contrived no hostile measures against Christ.

4. These things are recorded by Tertullian, a man well versed in the laws of the Romans, and in other respects of high repute, and one of those especially distinguished in Rome. In his apology for the Christians, which was written by him in the Latin language, and has been translated into Greek, he writes as follows:

5. But in order that we may give an account of these laws from their origin, it was an ancient decree that no one should be consecrated a God by the emperor until the Senate had expressed its approval. Marcus Aurelius did thus concerning a certain idol, Alburnus. And this is a point in favor of our doctrine, that among you divine dignity is conferred by human decree. If a God does not please a man he is not made a God. Thus, according to this custom, it is necessary for man to be gracious to God.

6. Tiberius, therefore, under whom the name of Christ made its entry into the world, when this doctrine was reported to him from Palestine, where it first began, communicated with the Senate, making it clear to them that he was pleased with the doctrine. But the Senate, since it had not itself proved the matter, rejected it. But Tiberius continued to hold his own opinion, and threatened death to the accusers of the Christians. Heavenly providence had wisely instilled this into his mind in order that the doctrine of the Gospel, unhindered at its beginning, might spread in all directions throughout the world.

Chapter 3. The Doctrine of Christ soon spread throughout All the World.

1. Thus, under the influence of heavenly power, and with the divine co-operation, the doctrine of the Saviour, like the rays of the sun, quickly illumined the whole world; and straightway, in accordance with the divine Scriptures, the voice of the inspired evangelists and apostles went forth through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

2. In every city and village, churches were quickly established, filled with multitudes of people like a replenished threshing-floor. And those whose minds, in consequence of errors which had descended to them from their forefathers, were fettered by the ancient disease of idolatrous superstition, were, by the power of Christ operating through the teaching and the wonderful works of his disciples, set free, as it were, from terrible masters, and found a release from the most cruel bondage. They renounced with abhorrence every species of demoniacal polytheism, and confessed that there was only one God, the creator of all things, and him they honored with the rites of true piety, through the inspired and rational worship which has been planted by our Saviour among men.

3. But the divine grace being now poured out upon the rest of the nations, Cornelius, of Cæsarea in Palestine, with his whole house, through a divine revelation and the agency of Peter, first received faith in Christ; and after him a multitude of other Greeks in Antioch, to whom those who were scattered by the persecution of Stephen had preached the Gospel. When the church of Antioch was now increasing and abounding, and a multitude of prophets from Jerusalem were on the ground, among them Barnabas and Paul and in addition many other brethren, the name of Christians first sprang up there, as from a fresh and life-giving fountain.

4. And Agabus, one of the prophets who was with them, uttered a prophecy concerning the famine which was about to take place, and Paul and Barnabas were sent to relieve the necessities of the brethren.

Chapter 4. After the Death of Tiberius, Caius appointed Agrippa King of the Jews, having punished Herod with Perpetual Exile.

1. Tiberius died, after having reigned about twenty-two years, and Caius succeeded him in the empire. He immediately gave the government of the Jews to Agrippa, making him king over the tetrarchies of Philip and of Lysanias; in addition to which he bestowed upon him, not long afterward, the tetrarchy of Herod, having punished Herod (the one under whom the Saviour suffered ) and his wife Herodias with perpetual exile on account of numerous crimes. Josephus is a witness to these facts.

2. Under this emperor, Philo became known; a man most celebrated not only among many of our own, but also among many scholars without the Church. He was a Hebrew by birth, but was inferior to none of those who held high dignities in Alexandria. How exceedingly he labored in the Scriptures and in the studies of his nation is plain to all from the work which he has done. How familiar he was with philosophy and with the liberal studies of foreign nations, it is not necessary to say, since he is reported to have surpassed all his contemporaries in the study of Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy, to which he particularly devoted his attention.

Chapter 5. Philo’s Embassy to Caius in Behalf of the Jews.

1. Philo has given us an account, in five books, of the misfortunes of the Jews under Caius. He recounts at the same time the madness of Caius: how he called himself a god, and performed as emperor innumerable acts of tyranny; and he describes further the miseries of the Jews under him, and gives a report of the embassy upon which he himself was sent to Rome in behalf of his fellow-countrymen in Alexandria; how when he appeared before Caius in behalf of the laws of his fathers he received nothing but laughter and ridicule, and almost incurred the risk of his life.

2. Josephus also makes mention of these things in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, in the following words: A sedition having arisen in Alexandria between the Jews that dwell there and the Greeks, three deputies were chosen from each faction and went to Caius.

3. One of the Alexandrian deputies was Apion, who uttered many slanders against the Jews; among other things saying that they neglected the honors due to Cæsar. For while all other subjects of Rome erected altars and temples to Caius, and in all other respects treated him just as they did the gods, they alone considered it disgraceful to honor him with statues and to swear by his name.

4. And when Apion had uttered many severe charges by which he hoped that Caius would be aroused, as indeed was likely, Philo, the chief of the Jewish embassy, a man celebrated in every respect, a brother of Alexander the Alabarch, and not unskilled in philosophy, was prepared to enter upon a defense in reply to his accusations.

5. But Caius prevented him and ordered him to leave, and being very angry, it was plain that he meditated some severe measure against them. And Philo departed covered with insult and told the Jews that were with him to be of good courage; for while Caius was raging against them he was in fact already contending with God.

6. Thus far Josephus. And Philo himself, in the work On the Embassy which he wrote, describes accurately and in detail the things which were done by him at that time. But I shall omit the most of them and record only those things which will make clearly evident to the reader that the misfortunes of the Jews came upon them not long after their daring deeds against Christ and on account of the same.

7. And in the first place he relates that at Rome in the reign of Tiberius, Sejanus, who at that time enjoyed great influence with the emperor, made every effort to destroy the Jewish nation utterly; and that in Judea, Pilate, under whom the crimes against the Saviour were committed, attempted something contrary to the Jewish law in respect to the temple, which was at that time still standing in Jerusalem, and excited them to the greatest tumults.

Chapter 6. The Misfortunes which overwhelmed the Jews after their Presumption against Christ.

1. After the death of Tiberius, Caius received the empire, and, besides innumerable other acts of tyranny against many people, he greatly afflicted especially the whole nation of the Jews. These things we may learn briefly from the words of Philo, who writes as follows:

2. So great was the caprice of Caius in his conduct toward all, and especially toward the nation of the Jews. The latter he so bitterly hated that he appropriated to himself their places of worship in the other cities, and beginning with Alexandria he filled them with images and statues of himself (for in permitting others to erect them he really erected them himself). The temple in the holy city, which had hitherto been left untouched, and had been regarded as an inviolable asylum, he altered and transformed into a temple of his own, that it might be called the temple of the visible Jupiter, the younger Caius.

3. Innumerable other terrible and almost indescribable calamities which came upon the Jews in Alexandria during the reign of the same emperor, are recorded by the same author in a second work, to which he gave the title, On the Virtues. With him agrees also Josephus, who likewise indicates that the misfortunes of the whole nation began with the time of Pilate, and with their daring crimes against the Saviour.

4. Hear what he says in the second book of his Jewish War, where he writes as follows: Pilate being sent to Judea as procurator by Tiberius, secretly carried veiled images of the emperor, called ensigns, to Jerusalem by night. The following day this caused the greatest disturbance among the Jews. For those who were near were confounded at the sight, beholding their laws, as it were, trampled under foot. For they allow no image to be set up in their city.

5. Comparing these things with the writings of the evangelists, you will see that it was not long before there came upon them the penalty for the exclamation which they had uttered under the same Pilate, when they cried out that they had no other king than Cæsar. John 19:15

6. The same writer further records that after this another calamity overtook them. He writes as follows: After this he stirred up another tumult by making use of the holy treasure, which is called Corban, in the construction of an aqueduct three hundred stadia in length.

7. The multitude were greatly displeased at it, and when Pilate was in Jerusalem they surrounded his tribunal and gave utterance to loud complaints. But he, anticipating the tumult, had distributed through the crowd armed soldiers disguised in citizen’s clothing, forbidding them to use the sword, but commanding them to strike with clubs those who should make an outcry. To them he now gave the preconcerted signal from the tribunal. And the Jews being beaten, many of them perished in consequence of the blows, while many others were trampled under foot by their own countrymen in their flight, and thus lost their lives. But the multitude, overawed by the fate of those who were slain, held their peace.

8. In addition to these the same author records many other tumults which were stirred up in Jerusalem itself, and shows that from that time seditions and wars and mischievous plots followed each other in quick succession, and never ceased in the city and in all Judea until finally the siege of Vespasian overwhelmed them. Thus the divine vengeance overtook the Jews for the crimes which they dared to commit against Christ.

Chapter 7. Pilate’s Suicide.

It is worthy of note that Pilate himself, who was governor in the time of our Saviour, is reported to have fallen into such misfortunes under Caius, whose times we are recording, that he was forced to become his own murderer and executioner; and thus divine vengeance, as it seems, was not long in overtaking him. This is stated by those Greek historians who have recorded the Olympiads, together with the respective events which have taken place in each period.

Chapter 8. The Famine which took Place in the Reign of Claudius.

1. Caius had held the power not quite four years, when he was succeeded by the emperor Claudius. Under him the world was visited with a famine, which writers that are entire strangers to our religion have recorded in their histories. And thus the prediction of Agabus recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, Acts 11:28 according to which the whole world was to be visited by a famine, received its fulfillment.

2. And Luke, in the Acts, after mentioning the famine in the time of Claudius, and stating that the brethren of Antioch, each according to his ability, sent to the brethren of Judea by the hands of Paul and Barnabas, Acts 11:29-30 adds the following account.

Chapter 9. The Martyrdom of James the Apostle.

1.  Acts 12:1-2 Now about that time (it is clear that he means the time of Claudius) Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

2. And concerning this James, Clement, in the seventh book of his Hypotyposes, relates a story which is worthy of mention; telling it as he received it from those who had lived before him. He says that the one who led James to the judgment-seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony, was moved, and confessed that he was himself also a Christian.

3. They were both therefore, he says, led away together; and on the way he begged James to forgive him. And he, after considering a little, said, Peace be with you, and kissed him. And thus they were both beheaded at the same time.

4. And then, as the divine Scripture says, Acts 12:3 sqq. Herod, upon the death of James, seeing that the deed pleased the Jews, attacked Peter also and committed him to prison, and would have slain him if he had not, by the divine appearance of an angel who came to him by night, been wonderfully released from his bonds, and thus liberated for the service of the Gospel. Such was the providence of God in respect to Peter.

Chapter 10. Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.

1. The consequences of the king’s undertaking against the apostles were not long deferred, but the avenging minister of divine justice overtook him immediately after his plots against them, as the Book of Acts records. For when he had journeyed to Cæsarea, on a notable feast-day, clothed in a splendid and royal garment, he delivered an address to the people from a lofty throne in front of the tribunal. And when all the multitude applauded the speech, as if it were the voice of a god and not of a man, the Scripture relates that an angel of the Lord smote him, and being eaten of worms he gave up the ghost. Acts 12:23

2. We must admire the account of Josephus for its agreement with the divine Scriptures in regard to this wonderful event; for he clearly bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities, where he relates the wonder in the following words:

3. He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he came to Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. northwest of Jerusalem. In the time of Strabo there was simply a small town at this point, called “Strato’s Tower”; but about 10 BC Herod the Great built the city of Cæsarea, which soon became the principal Roman city of Palestine, and was noted for its magnificence. It became, later, the seat of an important Christian school, and played quite a part in Church history. Eusebius himself was Bishop of Cæsarea. It was a city of importance, even in the time of the crusades, but is now a scene of utter desolation.}–> There he held games in honor of Cæsar, learning that this was a festival observed in behalf of Cæsar’s safety. At this festival was collected a great multitude of the highest and most honorable men in the province.

4. And on the second day of the games he proceeded to the theater at break of day, wearing a garment entirely of silver and of wonderful texture. And there the silver, illuminated by the reflection of the sun’s earliest rays, shone marvelously, gleaming so brightly as to produce a sort of fear and terror in those who gazed upon him.

5. And immediately his flatterers, some from one place, others from another, raised up their voices in a way that was not for his good, calling him a god, and saying, ‘Be merciful; if up to this time we have feared you as a man, henceforth we confess that you are superior to the nature of mortals.’

6. The king did not rebuke them, nor did he reject their impious flattery. But after a little, looking up, he saw an angel sitting above his head. And this he quickly perceived would be the cause of evil as it had once been the cause of good fortune, and he was smitten with a heart-piercing pain.

7. And straightway distress, beginning with the greatest violence, seized his bowels. And looking upon his friends he said, ‘I, your god, am now commanded to depart this life; and fate thus on the spot disproves the lying words you have just uttered concerning me. He who has been called immortal by you is now led away to die; but our destiny must be accepted as God has determined it. For we have passed our life by no means ingloriously, but in that splendor which is called happiness.’

8. And when he had said this he labored with an increase of pain. He was accordingly carried in haste to the palace, while the report spread among all that the king would undoubtedly soon die. But the multitude, with their wives and children, sitting on sackcloth after the custom of their fathers, implored God in behalf of the king, and every place was filled with lamentation and tears. And the king as he lay in a lofty chamber, and saw them below lying prostrate on the ground, could not refrain from weeping himself.

9. And after suffering continually for five days with pain in the bowels, he departed this life, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh year of his reign. Four years he ruled under the Emperor Caius — three of them over the tetrarchy of Philip, to which was added in the fourth year that of Herod — and three years during the reign of the Emperor Claudius.

10. I marvel greatly that Josephus, in these things as well as in others, so fully agrees with the divine Scriptures. But if there should seem to any one to be a disagreement in respect to the name of the king, the time at least and the events show that the same person is meant, whether the change of name has been caused by the error of a copyist, or is due to the fact that he, like so many, bore two names.

Chapter 11. The Impostor Theudas and his Followers.

1. Luke, in the Acts, introduces Gamaliel as saying, at the consultation which was held concerning the apostles, that at the time referred to, rose up Theudas boasting himself to be somebody; who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered. Acts 5:36 Let us therefore add the account of Josephus concerning this man. He records in the work mentioned just above, the following circumstances:

2. While Fadus was procurator of Judea a certain impostor called Theudas persuaded a very great multitude to take their possessions and follow him to the river Jordan. For he said that he was a prophet, and that the river should be divided at his command, and afford them an easy passage.

3. And with these words he deceived many. But Fadus did not permit them to enjoy their folly, but sent a troop of horsemen against them, who fell upon them unexpectedly and slew many of them and took many others alive, while they took Theudas himself captive, and cut off his head and carried it to Jerusalem. Besides this he also makes mention of the famine, which took place in the reign of Claudius, in the following words.

Chapter 12. Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians.

1. And at this time it came to pass that the great famine took place in Judea, in which the queen Helen, having purchased grain from Egypt with large sums, distributed it to the needy.

2. You will find this statement also in agreement with the Acts of the Apostles, where it is said that the disciples at Antioch, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren that dwelt in Judea; which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Paul.

3. But splendid monuments of this Helen, of whom the historian has made mention, are still shown in the suburbs of the city which is now called Ælia. But she is said to have been queen of the Adiabeni.

Chapter 13. Simon Magus.

1. But faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ having now been diffused among all men, the enemy of man’s salvation contrived a plan for seizing the imperial city for himself. He conducted there the above-mentioned Simon, aided him in his deceitful arts, led many of the inhabitants of Rome astray, and thus brought them into his own power.

2. This is stated by Justin, one of our distinguished writers who lived not long after the time of the apostles. Concerning him I shall speak in the proper place. Take and read the work of this man, who in the first Apology which he addressed to Antonine in behalf of our religion writes as follows:

3. And after the ascension of the Lord into heaven the demons put forward certain men who said they were gods, and who were not only allowed by you to go unpersecuted, but were even deemed worthy of honors. One of them was Simon, a Samaritan of the village of Gitto, who in the reign of Claudius Cæsar performed in your imperial city some mighty acts of magic by the art of demons operating in him, and was considered a god, and as a god was honored by you with a statue, which was erected in the river Tiber, between the two bridges, and bore this inscription in the Latin tongue, Simoni Deo Sancto, that is, To Simon the Holy God.

4. And nearly all the Samaritans and a few even of other nations confess and worship him as the first God. And there went around with him at that time a certain Helena who had formerly been a prostitute in Tyre of Phœnicia; and her they call the first idea that proceeded from him.

5. Justin relates these things, and Irenæus also agrees with him in the first book of his work, Against Heresies, where he gives an account of the man and of his profane and impure teaching. It would be superfluous to quote his account here, for it is possible for those who wish to know the origin and the lives and the false doctrines of each of the heresiarchs that have followed him, as well as the customs practiced by them all, to find them treated at length in the above-mentioned work of Irenæus.

6. We have understood that Simon was the author of all heresy. From his time down to the present those who have followed his heresy have feigned the sober philosophy of the Christians, which is celebrated among all on account of its purity of life. But they nevertheless have embraced again the superstitions of idols, which they seemed to have renounced; and they fall down before pictures and images of Simon himself and of the above-mentioned Helena who was with him; and they venture to worship them with incense and sacrifices and libations.

7. But those matters which they keep more secret than these, in regard to which they say that one upon first hearing them would be astonished, and, to use one of the written phrases in vogue among them, would be confounded, are in truth full of amazing things, and of madness and folly, being of such a sort that it is impossible not only to commit them to writing, but also for modest men even to utter them with the lips on account of their excessive baseness and lewdness.

8. For whatever could be conceived of, viler than the vilest thing — all that has been outdone by this most abominable sect, which is composed of those who make a sport of those miserable females that are literally overwhelmed with all kinds of vices.

Chapter 14. The Preaching of the Apostle Peter in Rome.

1. The evil power, who hates all that is good and plots against the salvation of men, constituted Simon at that time the father and author of such wickedness, as if to make him a mighty antagonist of the great, inspired apostles of our Saviour.

2. For that divine and celestial grace which co-operates with its ministers, by their appearance and presence, quickly extinguished the kindled flame of evil, and humbled and cast down through them every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. 2 Corinthians 10:5

3. Wherefore neither the conspiracy of Simon nor that of any of the others who arose at that period could accomplish anything in those apostolic times. For everything was conquered and subdued by the splendors of the truth and by the divine word itself which had but lately begun to shine from heaven upon men, and which was then flourishing upon earth, and dwelling in the apostles themselves.

4. Immediately the above-mentioned impostor was smitten in the eyes of his mind by a divine and miraculous flash, and after the evil deeds done by him had been first detected by the apostle Peter in Judea, he fled and made a great journey across the sea from the East to the West, thinking that only thus could he live according to his mind.

5. And coming to the city of Rome, by the mighty co-operation of that power which was lying in wait there, he was in a short time so successful in his undertaking that those who dwelt there honored him as a god by the erection of a statue.

6. But this did not last long. For immediately, during the reign of Claudius, the all-good and gracious Providence, which watches over all things, led Peter, that strongest and greatest of the apostles, and the one who on account of his virtue was the speaker for all the others, to Rome against this great corrupter of life. Clad in divine armor like a noble commander of God, He carried the costly merchandise of the light of the understanding from the East to those who dwelt in the West, proclaiming the light itself, and the word which brings salvation to souls, and preaching the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter 15. The Gospel according to Mark.

1. And thus when the divine word had made its home among them, the power of Simon was quenched and immediately destroyed, together with the man himself. And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds of Peter’s hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once only, and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine Gospel, but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark, a follower of Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would leave them a written monument of the doctrine which had been orally communicated to them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with the man, and had thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which bears the name of Mark.

2. And they say that Peter — when he had learned, through a revelation of the Spirit, of that which had been done — was pleased with the zeal of the men, and that the work obtained the sanction of his authority for the purpose of being used in the churches. Clement in the eighth book of his Hypotyposes gives this account, and with him agrees the bishop of Hierapolis named Papias. And Peter makes mention of Mark in his first epistle which they say that he wrote in Rome itself, as is indicated by him, when he calls the city, by a figure, Babylon, as he does in the following words: The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you; and so does Marcus my son. 1 Peter 5:13

Chapter 16. Mark first proclaimed Christianity to the Inhabitants of Egypt.

1. And they say that this Mark was the first that was sent to Egypt, and that he proclaimed the Gospel which he had written, and first established churches in Alexandria.

2. And the multitude of believers, both men and women, that were collected there at the very outset, and lived lives of the most philosophical and excessive asceticism, was so great, that Philo thought it worth while to describe their pursuits, their meetings, their entertainments, and their whole manner of life.

Chapter 17. Philo’s Account of the Ascetics of Egypt.

1. It is also said that Philo in the reign of Claudius became acquainted at Rome with Peter, who was then preaching there. Nor is this indeed improbable, for the work of which we have spoken, and which was composed by him some years later, clearly contains those rules of the Church which are even to this day observed among us.

2. And since he describes as accurately as possible the life of our ascetics, it is clear that he not only knew, but that he also approved, while he venerated and extolled, the apostolic men of his time, who were as it seems of the Hebrew race, and hence observed, after the manner of the Jews, the most of the customs of the ancients.

3. In the work to which he gave the title, On a Contemplative Life or on Suppliants, after affirming in the first place that he will add to those things which he is about to relate nothing contrary to truth or of his own invention, he says that these men were called Therapeutæ and the women that were with them Therapeutrides. He then adds the reasons for such a name, explaining it from the fact that they applied remedies and healed the souls of those who came to them, by relieving them like physicians, of evil passions, or from the fact that they served and worshipped the Deity in purity and sincerity.

4. Whether Philo himself gave them this name, employing an epithet well suited to their mode of life, or whether the first of them really called themselves so in the beginning, since the name of Christians was not yet everywhere known, we need not discuss here.

5. He bears witness, however, that first of all they renounce their property. When they begin the philosophical mode of life, he says, they give up their goods to their relatives, and then, renouncing all the cares of life, they go forth beyond the walls and dwell in lonely fields and gardens, knowing well that intercourse with people of a different character is unprofitable and harmful. They did this at that time, as seems probable, under the influence of a spirited and ardent faith, practicing in emulation the prophets’ mode of life.

6. For in the Acts of the Apostles, a work universally acknowledged as authentic, it is recorded that all the companions of the apostles sold their possessions and their property and distributed to all according to the necessity of each one, so that no one among them was in want. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses, as the account says, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, so that distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. Acts 2:45

7. Philo bears witness to facts very much like those here described and then adds the following account: Everywhere in the world is this race found. For it was fitting that both Greek and Barbarian should share in what is perfectly good. But the race particularly abounds in Egypt, in each of its so-called nomes, and especially about Alexandria.

8. The best men from every quarter emigrate, as if to a colony of the Therapeutæ’s fatherland, to a certain very suitable spot which lies above the Lake Maria upon a low hill excellently situated on account of its security and the mildness of the atmosphere.

9. And then a little further on, after describing the kind of houses which they had, he speaks as follows concerning their churches, which were scattered about here and there: In each house there is a sacred apartment which is called a sanctuary and monastery, where, quite alone, they perform the mysteries of the religious life. They bring nothing into it, neither drink nor food, nor any of the other things which contribute to the necessities of the body, but only the laws, and the inspired oracles of the prophets, and hymns and such other things as augment and make perfect their knowledge and piety.

10. And after some other matters he says:

The whole interval, from morning to evening, is for them a time of exercise. For they read the holy Scriptures, and explain the philosophy of their fathers in an allegorical manner, regarding the written words as symbols of hidden truth which is communicated in obscure figures.

11. They have also writings of ancient men, who were the founders of their sect, and who left many monuments of the allegorical method. These they use as models, and imitate their principles.

12. These things seem to have been stated by a man who had heard them expounding their sacred writings. But it is highly probable that the works of the ancients, which he says they had, were the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and probably some expositions of the ancient prophets, such as are contained in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in many others of Paul’s Epistles.

13. Then again he writes as follows concerning the new psalms which they composed: So that they not only spend their time in meditation, but they also compose songs and hymns to God in every variety of metre and melody, though they divide them, of course, into measures of more than common solemnity.

14. The same book contains an account of many other things, but it seemed necessary to select those facts which exhibit the characteristics of the ecclesiastical mode of life.

15. But if any one thinks that what has been said is not peculiar to the Gospel polity, but that it can be applied to others besides those mentioned, let him be convinced by the subsequent words of the same author, in which, if he is unprejudiced, he will find undisputed testimony on this subject. Philo’s words are as follows:

16. Having laid down temperance as a sort of foundation in the soul, they build upon it the other virtues. None of them may take food or drink before sunset, since they regard philosophizing as a work worthy of the light, but attention to the wants of the body as proper only in the darkness, and therefore assign the day to the former, but to the latter a small portion of the night.

17. But some, in whom a great desire for knowledge dwells, forget to take food for three days; and some are so delighted and feast so luxuriously upon wisdom, which furnishes doctrines richly and without stint, that they abstain even twice as long as this, and are accustomed, after six days, scarcely to take necessary food. These statements of Philo we regard as referring clearly and indisputably to those of our communion.

18. But if after these things any one still obstinately persists in denying the reference, let him renounce his incredulity and be convinced by yet more striking examples, which are to be found nowhere else than in the evangelical religion of the Christians.

19. For they say that there were women also with those of whom we are speaking, and that the most of them were aged virgins who had preserved their chastity, not out of necessity, as some of the priestesses among the Greeks, but rather by their own choice, through zeal and a desire for wisdom. And that in their earnest desire to live with it as their companion they paid no attention to the pleasures of the body, seeking not mortal but immortal progeny, which only the pious soul is able to bear of itself.

20. Then after a little he adds still more emphatically: They expound the Sacred Scriptures figuratively by means of allegories. For the whole law seems to these men to resemble a living organism, of which the spoken words constitute the body, while the hidden sense stored up within the words constitutes the soul. This hidden meaning has first been particularly studied by this sect, which sees, revealed as in a mirror of names, the surpassing beauties of the thoughts.

21. Why is it necessary to add to these things their meetings and the respective occupations of the men and of the women during those meetings, and the practices which are even to the present day habitually observed by us, especially such as we are accustomed to observe at the feast of the Saviour’s passion, with fasting and night watching and study of the divine Word.

22. These things the above-mentioned author has related in his own work, indicating a mode of life which has been preserved to the present time by us alone, recording especially the vigils kept in connection with the great festival, and the exercises performed during those vigils, and the hymns customarily recited by us, and describing how, while one sings regularly in time, the others listen in silence, and join in chanting only the close of the hymns; and how, on the days referred to they sleep on the ground on beds of straw, and to use his own words, taste no wine at all, nor any flesh, but water is their only drink, and the reish with their bread is salt and hyssop.

23. In addition to this Philo describes the order of dignities which exists among those who carry on the services of the church, mentioning the diaconate, and the office of bishop, which takes the precedence over all the others. But whosoever desires a more accurate knowledge of these matters may get it from the history already cited.

24. But that Philo, when he wrote these things, had in view the first heralds of the Gospel and the customs handed down from the beginning by the apostles, is clear to every one.

Chapter 18. The Works of Philo that have come down to us.

1. Copious in language, comprehensive in thought, sublime and elevated in his views of divine Scripture, Philo has produced manifold and various expositions of the sacred books. On the one hand, he expounds in order the events recorded in Genesis in the books to which he gives the title Allegories of the Sacred Laws; on the other hand, he makes successive divisions of the chapters in the Scriptures which are the subject of investigation, and gives objections and solutions, in the books which he quite suitably calls Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus.

2. There are, besides these, treatises expressly worked out by him on certain subjects, such as the two books On Agriculture, and the same number On Drunkenness; and some others distinguished by different titles corresponding to the contents of each; for instance, Concerning the Things Which the Sober Mind Desires and Execrates, On the Confusion of Tongues, On Flight and Discovery, On Assembly for the Sake of Instruction, On the Question, ‘Who is Heir to Things Divine?’ or On the Division of Things into Equal and Unequal, and still further the work On the Three Virtues Which With Others Have Been Described by Moses.

3. In addition to these is the work On Those Whose Names Have Been Changed and Why They Have Been Changed, in which he says that he had written also two books On Covenants.

4. And there is also a work of his On Emigration, and one On the Life of a Wise Man Made Perfect in Righteousness, or On Unwritten Laws; and still further the work On Giants or On the Immutability of God, and a first, second, third, fourth and fifth book On the Proposition, That Dreams According to Moses are Sent by God. These are the books on Genesis that have come down to us.

5. But on Exodus we are acquainted with the first, second, third, fourth and fifth books of Questions and Answers; also with that On the Tabernacle, and that On the Ten Commandments, and the four books On the Laws Which Refer Especially to the Principal Divisions of the Ten Commandments, and another On Animals Intended for Sacrifice and On the Kinds of Sacrifice, and another On the Rewards Fixed in the Law for the Good, and on the Punishments and Curses Fixed for the Wicked.

6. In addition to all these there are extant also some single-volumed works of his; as for instance, the work On Providence, and the book composed by him On the Jews, and The Statesman; and still further, Alexander, or On the Possession of Reason by the Irrational Animals. Besides these there is a work On the Proposition that Every Wicked Man is a Slave, to which is subjoined the work On the Proposition that Every Good Man is Free.

7. After these was composed by him the work On the Contemplative Life, or On Suppliants, from which we have drawn the facts concerning the life of the apostolic men; and still further, the Interpretation of the Hebrew Names in the Law and in the Prophets are said to be the result of his industry.

8. And he is said to have read in the presence of the whole Roman Senate during the reign of Claudius the work which he had written, when he came to Rome under Caius, concerning Caius’ hatred of the gods, and to which, with ironical reference to its character, he had given the title On the Virtues. And his discourses were so much admired as to be deemed worthy of a place in the libraries.

9. At this time, while Paul was completing his journey from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum, Romans 15:19 Claudius drove the Jews out of Rome; and Aquila and Priscilla, leaving Rome with the other Jews, came to Asia, and there abode with the apostle Paul, who was confirming the churches of that region whose foundations he had newly laid. The sacred book of the Acts informs us also of these things.

Chapter 19. The Calamity which befell the Jews in Jerusalem on the Day of the Passover.

1. While Claudius was still emperor, it happened that so great a tumult and disturbance took place in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, that thirty thousand of those Jews alone who were forcibly crowded together at the gate of the temple perished, being trampled under foot by one another. Thus the festival became a season of mourning for all the nation, and there was weeping in every house. These things are related literally by Josephus.

2. But Claudius appointed Agrippa, son of Agrippa, king of the Jews, having sent Felix as procurator of the whole country of Samaria and Galilee, and of the land called Perea. And after he had reigned thirteen years and eight months he died, and left Nero as his successor in the empire.

Chapter 20. The Events which took Place in Jerusalem during the Reign of Nero.

1. Josephus again, in the twentieth book of his Antiquities, relates the quarrel which arose among the priests during the reign of Nero, while Felix was procurator of Judea.

2. His words are as follows : There arose a quarrel between the high priests on the one hand and the priests and leaders of the people of Jerusalem on the other. And each of them collected a body of the boldest and most restless men, and put himself at their head, and whenever they met they hurled invectives and stones at each other. And there was no one that would interpose; but these things were done at will as if in a city destitute of a ruler.

3. And so great was the shamelessness and audacity of the high priests that they dared to send their servants to the threshing-floors to seize the tithes due to the priests; and thus those of the priests that were poor were seen to be perishing of want. In this way did the violence of the factions prevail over all justice.

4. And the same author again relates that about the same time there sprang up in Jerusalem a certain kind of robbers, who by day, as he says, and in the middle of the city slew those who met them.

5. For, especially at the feasts, they mingled with the multitude, and with short swords, which they concealed under their garments, they stabbed the most distinguished men. And when they fell, the murderers themselves were among those who expressed their indignation. And thus on account of the confidence which was reposed in them by all, they remained undiscovered.

6. The first that was slain by them was Jonathan the high priest; and after him many were killed every day, until the fear became worse than the evil itself, each one, as in battle, hourly expecting death.

Chapter 21. The Egyptian, who is mentioned also in the Acts of the Apostles.

1. After other matters he proceeds as follows: But the Jews were afflicted with a greater plague than these by the Egyptian false prophet. For there appeared in the land an impostor who aroused faith in himself as a prophet, and collected about thirty thousand of those whom he had deceived, and led them from the desert to the so-called Mount of Olives whence he was prepared to enter Jerusalem by force and to overpower the Roman garrison and seize the government of the people, using those who made the attack with him as body guards.

2. But Felix anticipated his attack, and went out to meet him with the Roman legionaries, and all the people joined in the defense, so that when the battle was fought the Egyptian fled with a few followers, but the most of them were destroyed or taken captive.

3. Josephus relates these events in the second book of his History. But it is worth while comparing the account of the Egyptian given here with that contained in the Acts of the Apostles. In the time of Felix it was said to Paul by the centurion in Jerusalem, when the multitude of the Jews raised a disturbance against the apostle, Are you not he who before these days made an uproar, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? Acts 21:38 These are the events which took place in the time of Felix.

Chapter 22. Paul having been sent bound from Judea to Rome, made his Defense, and was acquitted of every Charge.

1. Festus was sent by Nero to be Felix’s successor. Under him Paul, having made his defense, was sent bound to Rome. Aristarchus was with him, whom he also somewhere in his epistles quite naturally calls his fellow-prisoner. Colossians 4:10 And Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, brought his history to a close at this point, after stating that Paul spent two whole years at Rome as a prisoner at large, and preached the word of God without restraint.

2. Thus after he had made his defense it is said that the apostle was sent again upon the ministry of preaching, and that upon coming to the same city a second time he suffered martyrdom. In this imprisonment he wrote his second epistle to Timothy, in which he mentions his first defense and his impending death.

3. But hear his testimony on these matters: At my first answer, he says, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 2 Timothy 4:16-17

4. He plainly indicates in these words that on the former occasion, in order that the preaching might be fulfilled by him, he was rescued from the mouth of the lion, referring, in this expression, to Nero, as is probable on account of the latter’s cruelty. He did not therefore afterward add the similar statement, He will rescue me from the mouth of the lion; for he saw in the spirit that his end would not be long delayed.

5. Wherefore he adds to the words, And he delivered me from the mouth of the lion, this sentence: The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, 2 Timothy 4:18 indicating his speedy martyrdom; which he also foretells still more clearly in the same epistle, when he writes, For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

6. In his second epistle to Timothy, moreover, he indicates that Luke was with him when he wrote, but at his first defense not even he. Whence it is probable that Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles at that time, continuing his history down to the period when he was with Paul.

7. But these things have been adduced by us to show that Paul’s martyrdom did not take place at the time of that Roman sojourn which Luke records.

8. It is probable indeed that as Nero was more disposed to mildness in the beginning, Paul’s defense of his doctrine was more easily received; but that when he had advanced to the commission of lawless deeds of daring, he made the apostles as well as others the subjects of his attacks.

Chapter 23. The Martyrdom of James, who was called the Brother of the Lord.

1. But after Paul, in consequence of his appeal to Cæsar, had been sent to Rome by Festus, the Jews, being frustrated in their hope of entrapping him by the snares which they had laid for him, turned against James, the brother of the Lord, to whom the episcopal seat at Jerusalem had been entrusted by the apostles. The following daring measures were undertaken by them against him.

2. Leading him into their midst they demanded of him that he should renounce faith in Christ in the presence of all the people. But, contrary to the opinion of all, with a clear voice, and with greater boldness than they had anticipated, he spoke out before the whole multitude and confessed that our Saviour and Lord Jesus is the Son of God. But they were unable to bear longer the testimony of the man who, on account of the excellence of ascetic virtue and of piety which he exhibited in his life, was esteemed by all as the most just of men, and consequently they slew him. Opportunity for this deed of violence was furnished by the prevailing anarchy, which was caused by the fact that Festus had died just at this time in Judea, and that the province was thus without a governor and head.

3. The manner of James’ death has been already indicated by the above-quoted words of Clement, who records that he was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple, and was beaten to death with a club. But Hegesippus, who lived immediately after the apostles, gives the most accurate account in the fifth book of his Memoirs. He writes as follows:

4. James, the brother of the Lord, succeeded to the government of the Church in conjunction with the apostles. He has been called the Just by all from the time of our Saviour to the present day; for there were many that bore the name of James.

5. He was holy from his mother’s womb; and he drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh. No razor came upon his head; he did not anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the bath.

6. He alone was permitted to enter into the holy place; for he wore not woolen but linen garments. And he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God, and asking forgiveness for the people.

7. Because of his exceeding great justice he was called the Just, and Oblias, which signifies in Greek, ‘Bulwark of the people’ and ‘Justice,’ in accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him.

8. Now some of the seven sects, which existed among the people and which have been mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him, ‘What is the gate of Jesus?’ and he replied that he was the Saviour.

9. On account of these words some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the sects mentioned above did not believe either in a resurrection or in one’s coming to give to every man according to his works. But as many as believed did so on account of James.

10. Therefore when many even of the rulers believed, there was a commotion among the Jews and Scribes and Pharisees, who said that there was danger that the whole people would be looking for Jesus as the Christ. Coming therefore in a body to James they said, ‘We entreat you, restrain the people; for they are gone astray in regard to Jesus, as if he were the Christ. We entreat you to persuade all that have come to the feast of the Passover concerning Jesus; for we all have confidence in you. For we bear you witness, as do all the people, that you are just, and do not respect persons. Matthew 22:16

11. Therefore, persuade the multitude not to be led astray concerning Jesus. For the whole people, and all of us also, have confidence in you. Stand therefore upon the pinnacle of the temple, that from that high position you may be clearly seen, and that your words may be readily heard by all the people. For all the tribes, with the Gentiles also, have come together on account of the Passover.’

12. The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees therefore placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him and said: ‘You just one, in whom we ought all to have confidence, forasmuch as the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified one, declare to us, what is the gate of Jesus.’

13. And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do you ask me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man? He himself sits in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and is about to come upon the clouds of heaven.’

14. And when many were fully convinced and gloried in the testimony of James, and said, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ these same Scribes and Pharisees said again to one another, ‘We have done badly in supplying such testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, in order that they may be afraid to believe him.’

15. And they cried out, saying, ‘Oh! Oh! The just man is also in error.’ And they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah, ‘Let us take away the just man, because he is troublesome to us: therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’

16. So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to each other, ‘Let us stone James the Just.’ And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned and knelt down and said, ‘I entreat you, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ Luke 23:34

17. And while they were thus stoning him one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of the Rechabites, who are mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out, saying, ‘Stop. What are you doing? The just one prays for you.’

18. And one of them, who was a fuller, took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just man on the head. And thus he suffered martyrdom. And they buried him on the spot, by the temple, and his monument still remains by the temple. He became a true witness, both to Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is the Christ. And immediately Vespasian besieged them.

19. These things are related at length by Hegesippus, who is in agreement with Clement. James was so admirable a man and so celebrated among all for his justice, that the more sensible even of the Jews were of the opinion that this was the cause of the siege of Jerusalem, which happened to them immediately after his martyrdom for no other reason than their daring act against him.

20. Josephus, at least, has not hesitated to testify this in his writings, where he says, These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus, that is called the Christ. For the Jews slew him, although he was a most just man.

21. And the same writer records his death also in the twentieth book of his Antiquities in the following words: But the emperor, when he learned of the death of Festus, sent Albinus to be procurator of Judea. But the younger Ananus, who, as we have already said, had obtained the high priesthood, was of an exceedingly bold and reckless disposition. He belonged, moreover, to the sect of the Sadducees, who are the most cruel of all the Jews in the execution of judgment, as we have already shown.

22. Ananus, therefore, being of this character, and supposing that he had a favorable opportunity on account of the fact that Festus was dead, and Albinus was still on the way, called together the Sanhedrin, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, James by name, together with some others, and accused them of violating the law, and condemned them to be stoned.

23. But those in the city who seemed most moderate and skilled in the law were very angry at this, and sent secretly to the king, requesting him to order Ananus to cease such proceedings. For he had not done right even this first time. And certain of them also went to meet Albinus, who was journeying from Alexandria, and reminded him that it was not lawful for Ananus to summon the Sanhedrin without his knowledge.

24. And Albinus, being persuaded by their representations, wrote in anger to Ananus, threatening him with punishment. And the king, Agrippa, in consequence, deprived him of the high priesthood, which he had held three months, and appointed Jesus, the son of Damnæus.

25. These things are recorded in regard to James, who is said to be the author of the first of the so-called catholic epistles. But it is to be observed that it is disputed; at least, not many of the ancients have mentioned it, as is the case likewise with the epistle that bears the name of Jude, which is also one of the seven so-called catholic epistles. Nevertheless we know that these also, with the rest, have been read publicly in very many churches.

Chapter 24. Annianus the First Bishop of the Church of Alexandria after Mark.

1. When Nero was in the eighth year of his reign, Annianus succeeded Mark the Evangelist in the administration of the parish of Alexandria.

Chapter 25. The Persecution under Nero in which Paul and Peter were honored at Rome with Martyrdom in Behalf of Religion.

1. When the government of Nero was now firmly established, he began to plunge into unholy pursuits, and armed himself even against the religion of the God of the universe.

2. To describe the greatness of his depravity does not lie within the plan of the present work. As there are many indeed that have recorded his history in most accurate narratives, every one may at his pleasure learn from them the coarseness of the man’s extraordinary madness, under the influence of which, after he had accomplished the destruction of so many myriads without any reason, he ran into such blood-guiltiness that he did not spare even his nearest relatives and dearest friends, but destroyed his mother and his brothers and his wife, with very many others of his own family as he would private and public enemies, with various kinds of deaths.

3. But with all these things this particular in the catalogue of his crimes was still wanting, that he was the first of the emperors who showed himself an enemy of the divine religion.

4. The Roman Tertullian is likewise a witness of this. He writes as follows: Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine, particularly then when after subduing all the east, he exercised his cruelty against all at Rome. We glory in having such a man the leader in our punishment. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing was condemned by Nero unless it was something of great excellence.

5. Thus publicly announcing himself as the first among God’s chief enemies, he was led on to the slaughter of the apostles. It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero. This account of Peter and Paul is substantiated by the fact that their names are preserved in the cemeteries of that place even to the present day.

6. It is confirmed likewise by Caius, a member of the Church, who arose under Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome. He, in a published disputation with Proclus, the leader of the Phrygian heresy, speaks as follows concerning the places where the sacred corpses of the aforesaid apostles are laid:

7. But I can show the trophies of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian way, you will find the trophies of those who laid the foundations of this church.

8. And that they both suffered martyrdom at the same time is stated by Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, in his epistle to the Romans, in the following words: You have thus by such an admonition bound together the planting of Peter and of Paul at Rome and Corinth. For both of them planted and likewise taught us in our Corinth. And they taught together in like manner in Italy, and suffered martyrdom at the same time. I have quoted these things in order that the truth of the history might be still more confirmed.

Chapter 26. The Jews, afflicted with Innumerable Evils, commenced the Last War Against the Romans.

1. Josephus again, after relating many things in connection with the calamity which came upon the whole Jewish nation, records, in addition to many other circumstances, that a great many of the most honorable among the Jews were scourged in Jerusalem itself and then crucified by Florus. It happened that he was procurator of Judea when the war began to be kindled, in the twelfth year of Nero.

2. Josephus says that at that time a terrible commotion was stirred up throughout all Syria in consequence of the revolt of the Jews, and that everywhere the latter were destroyed without mercy, like enemies, by the inhabitants of the cities, so that one could see cities filled with unburied corpses, and the dead bodies of the aged scattered about with the bodies of infants, and women without even a covering for their nakedness, and the whole province full of indescribable calamities, while the dread of those things that were threatened was greater than the sufferings themselves which they anywhere endured. Such is the account of Josephus; and such was the condition of the Jews at that time.

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Source. Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250102.htm&gt;.