“The heavens,” it is said, “declare the glory of God.” When this Psalm is read, it occurs to one that not so much the material elements as the heavenly merits seem to offer praise worthy of God … Look at the holy relics at my right hand and at my left, see men of heavenly conversation, behold the trophies of a heavenly mind. These are the heavens which declare the […]
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Ambrose: Authority and Duty of a Bishop
The Authority of the Bishop over the Emperor When have you heard, most gracious Emperor, that laymen gave judgment concerning a bishop in a matter of faith? Are we so prostrate through the flattery of some as to be unmindful of the rights of the priesthood, and do I think that I can entrust to others what God has given me? … But undoubtedly, whether we go through the series […]
Read moreAmbrose: On the Holy Spirit
The Spirit is the Ointment of Christ Because He is called the oil of gladness, the joining together of many graces giving a sweet fragrance. God the Almighty Father anointed Him the Prince of priests, [Who was] both according to the Law anointed in the body, and in truth was full with the virtue of the Holy Spirit from the Father above the Law. This is the oil of gladness, […]
Read moreAmbrose: On the Duties of the Clergy
The Feast of Wisdom The feasting that Solomon speaks of has not to do with common food only, but it is to be understood as having to do with good works… The Lord has told us that He had this food alone in abundance, as it is written in the Gospel, “My food is to do the will of My Father which is in heaven.” In this food let us […]
Read moreAmbrose: Exposition of the Christian Faith
The Spiritual Sandal For, by the Law, when a man died, the marriage bond with his wife was passed on to his brother, or other man next of kin, in order that the seed of the brother or next of kin might renew the life of the house, and thus it was that Ruth, though she was foreign-born, but yet had possessed a husband of the Jewish people, who had […]
Read moreJerome’s Eulogy of Saintly Women
Paula Before the Cross she threw herself down in adoration as though she beheld the Lord hanging upon it: and when she entered the tomb which was the scene of the Resurrection she kissed the stone which the angel had rolled away from the door of the sepulchre. Indeed so ardent was her faith that she even licked with her mouth the very spot on which the Lord’s body had […]
Read moreJerome on Translation
Cicero on Translating Demosthenes [Tully,] who has translated the Protagoras of Plato, the Œconomicus of Xenophon, and the two beautiful orations which Æschines and Demosthenes delivered one against the other … has spoken as follows in a prologue prefixed to the orations. ”I have thought it right to embrace a labour which though not necessary for myself will prove useful to those who study. I have translated the noblest speeches […]
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