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Lent: Day 11 - Ignatius to Polycarp

...o “flee evil arts”, or “wicked practices” as other translations have it, but to also make sure he preaches against such things in public. Within the rest of this chapter, there is a quick run down of instructions concerning marriage and how to pastor those who want to be married, or who already are. There are similar calls to marriage purity and relationships as Paul gives in Eph 5:25, which is probably what Ignatius is quoting when he writes that Polycarp should encourage the men to “love their wives, even as the Lord the Church”, but also to those who are unmarried and virgins, they should strive to remain “in a state of purity” – another ech...

Lent: Day 17 - Justin Martyr: First Apology: Chaps. 60-68

...away the evil of your doings from your souls; learn to do well; judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow: and come and let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. From this, Justin talks about those who get baptised “are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated … and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed” – something they have “learned from the apostles”, which bea...

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

...and the devil attacked him again. Twenty years of solitude After going into the desert, Anthony arrived at the Nile and found an abandoned fort on the other side of the river, where he set up camp to live, surviving only on bread which was brought to him by some friends every so often. Anthony spent twenty years alone in this fort, save for the demonic attacks he suffered. At one point they were so much that the villagers thought he was under physical attack from men, but discovered him alone and in prayer, singing praises and hymns to God. When two decades has passed, he finally left the fort to find a great crowd had amassed waiting for him so they cou...

Lent Day 27: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 61-70

...anything evil to day against us (Titus 2:8). Anthony's vision on the passing of souls At another time when Anthony was praying at night after a discussion with some people about what happens to the soul after death, he heard a voice from above telling him to go outside and look up. On going, he saw a giant being going up as tall as the clouds, and people ascending upwards through the clouds. Some of the people were being hindered while others flew by without issue. He had his mind opened to understand what he was seeing, and it was explained that the giant was the enemy stopping those souls from heading to heaven who were accountable to the devil but those...

Lent Day 33: Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXII

...Day Thirty-three: St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXII Who: Bishop of Jerusalem and Doctor of the Church, born about 315; died probably 18 March, 386. Little is known of his life, except from his younger contemporaries, Epiphanius, Jerome, and Rufinus, as well as from the fifth-century historians, Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. What: Each of the lectures deal with a different topic to teach converts the mysteries of the Church, particularly: rites of the renunciation of Satan and his works, of anointing with oil, of baptism, of anointing with the holy chrism, and of partaking of the body and blood of Christ. Why: Cyril delivered to ne...

Spiritual Disciplines of the Early Church: Ancient Practices for the 21st Century

...waves of evil thoughts, dissolves anger, corrects and moderates profligacy.” Commentary on Psalm 1, Basil the Great (4th century)   Prayer and Fasting Another common practice that was expected of believers was regular fasting, since Jesus had said “when you fast”, not “if”. Typically, fasting was done every week on Wednesday and Friday, based on Matthew 6:16–18, and also to honour the days of the Passion and crucifixion in later tradition. “But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; … but fast on the fourth day (Wednesday) and the Preparation (Friday). … [But pray] as the Lord commanded in His Gospel (the Lord’s Prayer) … Th...