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Lent Day 26: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 51-60

...nd sought prayer. On seeing him, Anthony sent him away saying that on his departure he would be healed. But the man remained for a few days, so Anthony went again to him and told him that he wouldn’t get what he wanted until he went on his way back to Egypt, so the man left and upon seeing Egypt, suddenly he received his healing as Anthony had said, “which the Saviour had revealed to him in prayer”. Another time a woman from Busiris Tripolitania came to him who was paralysed and had strange fluid issues coming from her eyes, nose and ears. Her parents had heard of Anthony and because they had read the Gospels of when Jesus healed the woman who had been bl...

Lent Day 34: Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXIII

...ce is the prayers to “commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us” – but what’s interesting here is the implication that it’s not just in remembrance of the faithful who had died before them, either long ago in the Prophets and Apostles, or for those in “who in past years have fallen asleep among us”, but that “at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition” [emphasis mine]. Here’s an early example of praying to the “saints”, or rather not to them but with the assumption that they are already praying for us on our behalf, as they are commemorated by the prayers of the Church. Cyril goes on to say that this...

The Deity of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew - Part 2

.... In his prayer of dedication, Solomon said,  (1 Kings 8:27–30): “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! 28 Nevertheless, turn Your attention to the prayer of Your servant and to his plea, Lord, my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today, 29 so that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant will pray toward this place. 30 And listen to the plea of Your servant and of Your people Isra...

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

...(such as prayer, solitude and self control). There weren't many monasteries in Egypt at this time, so he eventually went into the desert to find greater solitude for prayer and discipline, which was an unusual practice, since other ascetics and monks would just stay in remote places near their villages. In the next village there was an old man who had been a hermit since his youth. Anthony sought him out to learn piety from and then went about his own discipline, incorporating what he'd learnt. As he heard about other similar men, Anthony would travel far and wide to find them and learn what he could, “having got from the good man as it were supplies for...

Lent Day 29: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 81-94

...s time in prayer. It was here that those who accompanied him would often see that Anthony was “wrapped in a vision” and would not speak or move. Anthony foresees persecution At one time while Anthony was working, he fell into a trance with loud groans and trembling. Those with him “trembling and terrified, desired to learn from him what it was” that he saw, and after a while, Anthony explained that persecution was coming upon the Church from the Arian heretics. Athanasius interjects here to say that two years after Anthony saw these things, the “plunder of the churches took place, when [the Arians] violently carried off the vessels” from the church...

Did a Roman Catholic priest perform 'invalid' baptisms for years?

...erroneous prayer, God is present to uphold the words of His gospel… [for] He Himself consecrates His sacrament. (Augustine, On Baptism VI, 25:47) As I mentioned earlier, the only time he would also agree that the words said in baptism matter is when it comes to the name in which a person is baptised: Clearly, if the baptism is not consecrated in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, it should be considered to be of the heretics, and repudiated as unrighteous by us… (Augustine, On Baptism VI, 36:70) The current events swirling around this issue have the potential to cause people to doubt their faith and salvation, due to the gu...