The Messianic Secret -- why does Jesus not want the word to get out that he is the Messiah?? Could it have something to do with the cross and the enigma that the only way to find yourself is to lose yourself?...
Gregory of Nyssa on St. Paul's intimate knowledge of his Lord, Jesus Christ, expressed in a multitude of descriptive titles for him that provides great food for Christian Meditation. The honor of sharing in Jesus' primary title, Christ, should impel Christians to imitate him...
In this excerpt from his work On the Incarnation, St. Athanasius says that the Word of God entered our world and assumed a body so that he could die for us, so great is his loving kindness. It is read by the Church on the...
The letter of Pope Leo to Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, about Eutyches Commonly known as the "Tome of Leo" In the first half of the 5th century, the great doctrinal controversies in the Christian world all revolved around the divinity and humanity of Christ and how these...
This powerfully poetic sermon on the Cross of Christ as the Cosmic Tree was preached during Holy Week in the early church, somewhere around the 5th century, by someone whose name has been lost. It was wrongly attributed to the great preacher St. John Chrysostom....
On June 27, the Catholic Church honors the Memory of St. Cyril of Alexandria, best known for his role at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431 defending the traditional title of the Virgin Mary as Theotokos, translated "God-bearer" or Mother of God....
St. Theodore the Studite here acclaims the cross as a life-giving tree that is the antidote to that tree in paradise that was Adam's undoing. Following the early Christian method of interpreting the Old Testament spiritually, he traces the many ways the wood of...
Melito of Sardis, a 2nd century Father of the Church, shows how the Passover Lamb and many Old Testament realities, prefigure Christ and his suffering. This marvelous Holy Week reading is a great example of the spiritual sense of Scripture....
Leo the Great reflects on the passion of Jesus Christ and sees in it not shame, but glory. He sees in the cross not weakness, but power. In his passion and death on the cross, Jesus fulfills all the sacrifices of the Old...
Jesus sacrifice of himself for our sake on the cross has brought redemption to the whole world, says St. John Fisher, the fifteenth century English bishop whose own self-sacrifice would recall that of his master....