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Lent Day 39: Leo the Great: Sermon XLIX (On Lent XI)

...of people fasting to renew their faith and discipline in following Christ. Even those who had slipped into worldly cares, become lukewarm or were just weak in faith, “furnished [themselves] with spiritual armour” and renewed their enthusiasm! Through Jesus's victory on the cross, many people turned to faith, and so Satan was “driven from the hearts of those he once possessed” and was stripped of his power over such people. But as James wrote, “all of us make many mistakes” (James 3:2), so we must all be willing to forgive one another, in order that we don't violate the holy command in the Lord's prayer which we bind ourselves to, where it says, “f...

Lent Day 21: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 1-10

...r for his fasting and sleeping on the ground; the meekness of one and the long-suffering of another he watched with care, while he took note of the piety towards Christ and the mutual love which animated all. When his reputation had spread throughout the villages, the people “saw that he was a man of this sort, used to call him God-beloved. And some welcomed him as a son, others as a brother”. But as we draw closer to God, the more attention we can also draw from our adversary, the devil. Having seen that someone so young could be so pious, the enemy began “whispering to him the remembrance of his wealth, care for his sister, claims of kindred, love of...

Lent Day 22: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 11-20

...lean from fasting and striving with the demons”; and being full of the Spirit, “through him the Lord healed the bodily ailments of many present, and cleansed others from evil spirits” and with godly wisdom he countless counselled many various people in need. He began preaching from Romans 8:32 about how God didn’t hold anything back, but gave up even his only Son, and continued “exhorting all to prefer the love of Christ before all that is in the world”, which led many to prefer the solitary life of devotion to God than to their worldly pleasures, and eventually caused many groups to gather “even in the mountains, and the desert was colonised by...

Lent Day 23: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 21-30

...rayer and fasting we can overcome and strengthen our resolve against their attacks, which we'll need since once we defeat the weaker demons by our faith, they will come with stronger powers to try and bring fear through terrible visions and dreams and false prophecies. But through the power of Christ, these demons are displaced “like serpents and scorpions to be trodden underfoot by us Christians”. But even so, despite this they will try all the more to distract and deceive the Christian, causing noise and music and sleepless nights by rousing us awake at all hours, sometimes taking on the appearance of holy men or angels in order to trick us into listening...

Raised in the Heavenlies!

...Easter is upon us once again! Lent is over, Good Friday has passed and now the time for mourning and fasting is complete. It's a time to feast, a time to remember and celebrate the resurrection of Christ as we look forward to our own final resurrection!But what really is the resurrection? How will we be resurrected, and what does it mean for us that Jesus rose again? Let’s explore what this means for us as Christians, and see what the Scriptures say. The resurrection is spiritual! That heading may cause some reading this to question me, but do read on – this is actually what the New Testament teaches us (though not only this type of resurrection). Many ti...

Lent: Day 11 - Ignatius to Polycarp

...Day Eleven: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to Polycarp (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: A letter addressed personally to Polycarp giving him advice and encouragement as a bishop, plus some instructions on marriage to the church, which are reminiscent of Paul’s epistles. Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum around 108 AD. Wh...