Hades is fallen, death is abolished, the tyranny of Egypt is overthrown.
The Lord’s Entrance Into Egypt: The Healing of Death and Sin
Psalm 151, Bright Saturday and The Resurrection
“I was small among my brethren, and youngest in my father’s house: I tended my father’s sheep. My hands formed a musical instrument, and my fingers tuned a psaltery. And who shall tell my Lord? the Lord himself, he himself hears. He sent forth his angel, and took me from my father’s sheep, and he... Continue Reading →
God in flesh Kills the Death Therein
God is in flesh. He is not active at intervals as he was among the prophets. Instead he possesses a humanity connatural and united to himself, and restores all humanity to himself through flesh the same as ours in kind. So then, one might say, 'How did the splendour come to all by means of... Continue Reading →
The Genealogy of Christ in My Life
If this was the story of a mere man, it would be right and pious to hide the ‘gory details’, but if of God come to descend to our weakness (cf. Phil 2.7) then this is to be glorified. Because it is Christ’s entry into all the brokenness of humanity we should not be surprised to read of his entry through this broken, but very human line of individuals.
He in All and All in Him
"For who is so simple-minded as not to believe, when he considers the universe, that the Divine Being is in every thing, clothing Himself with it, embracing it, and residing in it. If then all things are in Him and He in all things, why are they ashamed of the plan of our religion which... Continue Reading →
Uniting man to God
"He that is God by nature became, and is in truth, a man from Heaven; not merely inspired [ie by the Holy Spirit], as some of those who do not rightly understand the depth of the mystery imagine, but being at the same time God and man, in order that, uniting as it were in Himself things widely opposed by nature, and averse to fusion with each other, He might enable man to share and partake of the nature of God." St. Cyril of Alexandria, On John 17.20
Humanity Ascends in Him
"Our Lord Jesus Christ consecrated for us a new and living way... it is not then that He may present Himself to God the Father, that Christ has ascended upon high; for ever was and is and will be continually in the Father, in the sight of Him Who begat Him, for He it is... Continue Reading →
Our Death to Death and Rising to Life
“We must therefore avoid love of glory, the sister and neighbour of arrogance, which is not far distant from its borders. Let us flee the illustrious honour of the present life as something unjust, and instead let us seek the holiness found in humility, yielding to each other as the blessed Paul admonished us: ‘Each... Continue Reading →
Morning Hymn of St. Severus
"Come speedily, you peoples, let us go to the spiritual Jordan or the temple of the baptistery in order to honour the God-befitting mystery of the holy resurrection, and let us all in it worship the life-giving death of God who became incarnate and suffered on our behalf in the flesh; which also caused a... Continue Reading →
We too are rescued from slavery
Juxtaposing the ransom of humanity to the ransom of Israel from Egypt St. Cyril teaches: "He rescued us from the slavery of the devil as from clay and brick, he delivered from us the passions of the world and impurities of the flesh, he made us pass over as through a sea. For having outrun... Continue Reading →
The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his Master’s crib
"Now then I pray you accept His Conception, and leap before Him; if not like John from the womb (Luke 1:41), yet like David, because of the resting of the Ark (2 Samuel 6:14). Revere the enrollment on account of which you were written in heaven, and adore the Birth by which you were loosed from the chains... Continue Reading →
The Son of Man Came as a Ransom
“Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom [lutron] for... Continue Reading →
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 