ON LUKE 9:37-43. HEALING OF THE DEMON-POSSESSED BOY

St. Cyril of Alexandria

But it came to pass, the day after, as they came down from the mountain, a great crowd met Him. And, behold, a man cried out from the crowd, saying, Teacher, I beseech Thee to regard my Son, for he is my only one. And lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it convulseth and teareth him, and he foameth; and having bruised him scarcely departeth from him. And I besought Thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus answered, and said: O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And when he was yet coming, the devil threw him down, and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and gave him to his father. And all wondered at the majesty of God.

How did Stephen See Transcendent Glory? Who Laid Bare Heaven’s Gates for Him?

St. Gregory of Nyssa

December 26th is the Feast of St Stephen, the First Martyr.

Yesterday the Lord of the universe welcomed us whereas today it is the imitator [Stephen] of the Lord.

[...] One assumed human nature on our behalf while the other shed it for his Lord.

One accepted the cave of this life for us, and the other left it for him.

The Nativity of the Saviour Gives Joy to Sound Hearts

St. Leo the Great

As yonder visible light affords pleasure to eyes that are unimpaired, so to sound hearts does the Saviour’s nativity give eternal joy.

And we must not keep silent about it, though we cannot treat of it as we ought.

For we believe that what Isaiah says, “who shall declare his generation?” (Isaiah 53:8) applies not only to that mystery, whereby the Son of God is co-eternal with the Father, but also to this birth whereby “the Word became flesh.”

The Pre-Eternal and Uncircumscribed and Almighty Word is Now Born according to the Flesh

St. Gregory Palamas

This is the Festival of the virgin birth!

[...] Today I see equality of honour between heaven and earth, and a way up for all those below to things above, matching the condescension of those on high.

However great the heaven of heavens may be, or the upper waters which form a roof over the celestial regions, or any heavenly place, state or order, they are no more marvellous or honourable than the cave, the manger, the water sprinkled on the infant and His swaddling clothes.

The Son of God Became the Son of Man in order to Make Us Sons of God

John of Kronstadt:

We are approaching…the world-saving feast of the birth in the flesh of our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

For several days before the feast, the holy Church will celebrate this wondrous mystery in the spiritual hymns of her daily services.

These hymns remind us of our divine birthright, and the squandering of our sonship through sin; of its restoration through repentance of our common spiritual kinship and of the spirit of love and care for one another.

As Aaron Took His Robe, so the Word Took Earthly Flesh

Athanasius of Alexandria

Aaron was not born a high-priest….

He became so, not simply, nor as betokened by his ordinary garments, but putting over them the ephod, the breastplate, the robe, which the women wrought at God’s command.

And, going in them into the holy place, he offered the sacrifice for the people; and in them, as it were, mediated between the vision of God and the sacrifices of men.

The Incarnation and the Creation of the New Man

Hilary of Poitiers

That blessed and true birth of the flesh conceived within the Virgin the Apostle Paul has named both a creating and a making, for then there was born both the nature and form of our created being.

And without doubt in his view this name belongs to Christ’s true birth as a man, since Paul says:

But when the fulness of the time came, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, in order that He might redeem those who are under the law, that we might obtain the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4, 5).

In the Beginning was the Word

Gregory of Nyssa

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2).

The sublime John…, that voice of thunder which proclaims the mystery of the Theology, both names Him Son of God and purges his proclamation from every idea of passion.

For behold how in the very beginning of his Gospel he prepares our ears, how great forethought is shown by the teacher that none of his hearers should fall into low ideas on the subject, slipping by ignorance into any incongruous conceptions.

A Man is Made the Body of Christ, because Christ Also is the Body of a Man

Leo the Great

Such was the state of all mortals resulting from our first ancestors that…no one would have escaped the punishment of condemnation, had not the Word become flesh and dwelt in us, that is to say, in that nature which belonged to our blood and race.

And accordingly, the Apostle says: “As by one man’s sin (judgment passed) upon all to condemnation, so also by one man’s righteousness (it) passed upon all to justification of life.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man’s obedience shall many be made righteous” (Rom. 5:18, 19);

Cyril of Alexandria: We Proclaim the Holy Virgin to be the Mother of God

Because he was of the house and lineage of David (Luke 2:4).

The book of the sacred Gospels referring the genealogy to Joseph, who was descended from David’s house, has proved through him that the Virgin also was of the same tribe as David, inasmuch as the Divine law commanded that marriages should be confined to those of the same tribe.

And the interpreter of the heavenly doctrines, the great apostle Paul, clearly declares the truth, bearing witness that the Lord arose out of Juda.

At the beginning of the Nativity Fast: St Gregory Palamas – On Fasting

Taken from HOMILY SIX – TO ENCOURAGE FASTING

by Saint Gregory Palamas

(INCLUDING A BRIEF WORD ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD)

THE INVISIBLE SERPENT, the originator of evil, is inventive, versatile and extremely skillful in contriving wickedness. He has means to hinder our good purposes and actions as soon as they begin. But if he fails to prevent them initially, he sets up other devices by which he can render them useless once they are underway. If he is unable to make them worthless when they are half way to completion, he knows other tricks and ways to invalidate them even once they are finished, and makes them a source not of reward but of harm to all but the most careful. First of all he points out how laborious and difficult to accomplish virtue is. In this way he fills us with laziness and despair, as though we were attempting difficult and impossible things and were therefore incapable of putting our intentions into action. Then he engenders disbelief in the rewards which God has promised to those who struggle.