Seasonal Quotes

Incarnation

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Gospel of St. John, Book 9. Vol. 2
He does more than say: A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another; He plainly signifies the novelty involved in His command,
and the extent by which the love that He enjoins surpasses that old idea of mutual love, by straightway adding the words: Even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. We must investigate therefore the question how the Christ loved us, in order to understand clearly the full force of the words used. For then we shall indeed perceive, and that very easily, the novel character and the changed nature of the commandment now given. We know that, being in the form of God, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. And again: though He was rich, yet He became poor, as Paul elsewhere testifies to us. Dost thou see the novelty of His love towards us? For whereas the Law enjoined the necessity of loving our brethren as ourselves, our Lord Jesus the Christ on the other hand loved us far more than He loved Himself, Else He would never have descended to our humiliation from His original exaltation in the form of God and on an equality with God the Father, nor would He have undergone for our sakes the exceeding bitterness of His death in the flesh, nor have submitted to buffetings from the Jews, to shame, to derision, and all His other sufferings: speaking briefly, so as not to protract our argument to endless length by enumerating everything in detail. Nay, He would never have become poor from being rich, if He had not loved us very exceedingly more than Himself. Marvelous then indeed was the extent of His love.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Luke, SERMON LXVI
But any one who thoroughly understands the mystery of the Incarnation may well say to him, If you had been skilful in the law
, and in the meaning of its hidden teaching, it would not have escaped you Who He is you venture to tempt. For you thought that He was a mere man, and that only; and not rather God, Who appeared in human likeness, and Who knows what is secret, and can look into the hearts of those who approach Him. In manifold ways is the Emmanuel depicted to you by the shadowing of Moses. You saw Him there sacrificed as a lamb, yet vanquishing the destroyer, and abolishing death by His blood. You saw Him in the arrangement of the ark, in which was deposited the divine law: for He was in His holy flesh like as in an ark, being the Word of the Father, the Son that was fathered of Him by nature. You saw Him as the mercy-seat in the holy tabernacle, around which stood the Seraphim [Cherubim]: for He is our mercy-seat for pardon of our sins. Yes! and just like man, He is glorified by the Seraphim, who are the intelligent and holy powers above; for they stand around His divine and exalted throne. You saw Him as the candlestick with seven lamps in the Holy of Holies: for abundant is the Saviour’s light to those who hurry into the inner tabernacle. You saw Him as the bread placed upon the table: for He is the living bread, that came down from heaven, and gives life to the world. You saw Him as the brazen serpent that was raised on high as a sign, and being looked upon healed the bites of the serpents: for though He was like us, in the form therefore of that which is evil, as being in our form, nevertheless He is by nature good, and continues to be that which He was. For the serpent is the type of wickedness; but yet, by being lifted up, and enduring the cross for us, He rendered powerless the bites of those rational serpents, who are no other than Satan, and the wicked powers under his command.

St. Theophilus of Alexandria (Sixth Paschal Letter)
Just as the best artists not only display their art on precious materials to general amazement but often take cheap clay and soluble wax to display the power of their skill and gain far greater praise, so the supreme artist of all, the living and active Word of God, beautifying the universe with the harmony of order, did not come to us through taking a heavenly body as a precious material, but displayed the greatness of his art in clay, transforming man who was fashioned out of clay. He came forth as man from the Virgin in a novel manner, changing the mode of generation and having resolved not to shun likeness to us in all respects save sin; being born, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and suckled, and lying as a baby in the cradle, he accepted for the reasons given the weakness of our nature. But while still a baby he confounded the enemy and his host, drawing the Magi to repentance and making them ignore the king who had sent them.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – That Christ is One
For the mystery of Christ is in peril of being disbelieved by reason of the intensity of its marvellousness: GOD was in human nature, and in our estate He that is over all creation; the Invisible, visible by reason of flesh; He that is out of Heaven and from above in likeness of things earthy; the Impalpable subject to touch; He that is in His own Nature Free in bondman’s form; He Who blesseth the creation WAS MADE subject to curse, among the transgressors All-Righteousness, and in guise of death Life. For the Body which tasted death, was not another man’s but His who is by Nature Son.

St. Irenaeus – Against Heresies, Book 5, Chapter 19
“Just as the human race was bound to death by a virgin it is released through a virgin, the obedience of a virgin evenly counterbalancing the disobedience of a virgin. For the sin of the first-formed was wiped out by the chastisement of the First-born, the wisdom of the Serpent was conquered by the simplicity of the dove, and we were released from the chains by which we were bound to death.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, Sermon LXXI
For although in that He is perceived to be, and is God, He is free, yet He took the form of a slave, that He might bestow upon us those things which are His, and enrich the slave with His own excellencies. For He alone is by nature free, because He alone is Son of the Father, even of Him Who is supreme above all, and ruleth over all, and Who is by nature and verily free. For whatsoever has been brought into existence bows the neck of slavery to Him Who created it. For the Psalmist singeth unto Him, saying, that “all things are Thy slaves:” but inasmuch as in the dispensation He transferred to Himself what was ours, He has given us what was His. And most wise Paul, the minister of His mysteries, is our proof, thus writing: “That when He was rich, He made Himself poor, that we by His poverty might be rich.” For our things, by which is meant the condition of human nature, is poverty to God the Word: while it is wealth to human nature to receive what things are His. And of these one is the dignity of freedom,—a gift peculiarly befitting those who have been called to sonship. 

St. Athanasius – Ser. II, Vol. IV, On Luke x. 22. (Illud Omnia, &c.)
For whereas man sinned, and is fallen, and by his fall all things are in confusion: death prevailed from Adam to Moses (cf. Rom. v. 14), the earth was cursed, Hades was opened, Paradise shut, eaven offended, man, lastly, corrupted and brutalised (cf. Ps. xlix. 12), while the devil was exulting against us;—then God, in His loving-kindness, not willing man made in His own image to perish, said, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go?’ (Isa. vi. 8). But while all held their peace, the Son said, ‘Here am I, send Me.’ And then it was that, saying ‘Go Thou,’ He ‘delivered’ to Him man, that the Word Himself might be made Flesh, and by taking the Flesh, restore it wholly. For to Him, as to a physician, man ‘was delivered’ to heal the bite of the serpent; as to life, to raise what was dead; as to light, to illumine the darkness; and, because He was Word, to renew the rational nature (τὸ λογικόν). Since then all things ‘were delivered’ to Him, and He is made Man, straightway all things were set right and perfected. Earth receives blessing instead of a curse, Paradise was opened to the robber, Hades cowered, the tombs were opened and the dead raised, the gates of Heaven were lifted up to await Him that ‘cometh from Edom’ (Ps. xxiv. 7, Isa. lxiii. 1).

St. Athanasius – Ser. II, Vol. IV, On Luke x. 22. (Illud Omnia, &c.)
And what is written in John’s Gospel harmonises with this: ‘The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand’ (Joh. iii. 35). Given, in order that, just as all things were made by Him, so in Him all things might be renewed. For they were not ‘delivered’ unto Him, that being poor, He might be made rich, nor did He receive all things that He might receive power which before He lacked: far be the thought: but in order that as Saviour He might rather set all things right. …For at the beginning they came into being ‘through’ Him; but afterwards, all having fallen, the Word has been made Flesh, and put it on, in order that ‘in Him’ all should be set right. Suffering Himself, He gave us rest, hungering Himself, He nourished us, and going down into Hades He brought us back thence. For example, at the time of the creation of all things, their creation consisted in a fiat, such as ‘let [the earth] bring forth,’ ‘let there be’ (Gen. i. 3, 11), but at the restoration it was fitting that all things should be ‘delivered’ to Him, in order that He might be made man, and all things be renewed in Him. For man, being in Him, was quickened: for this was why the Word was united to man, namely, that against man the curse might no longer prevail. This is the reason why they record the request made on behalf of mankind in the seventy-first Psalm: ‘Give the King Thy judgment, O God’ (Ps. lxxii. 1): asking that both the judgment of death which hung over us may be delivered to the Son, and that He may then, by dying for us, abolish it for us in Himself. This was what He signified, saying Himself, in the eighty-seventh Psalm: ‘Thine indignation lieth hard upon me’ (Ps. lxxxviii. 7). For He bore the indignation which lay upon us, as also He says in the hundred and thirty-seventh: ‘Lord, Thou shalt do vengeance for me’ (Ps. cxxxviii. 8, LXX.).

St. Athanasius (296 – 373 AD) – Contra Arianos, Discourse III, 33
Whence also, whereas the flesh is born of Mary Bearer of God, He Himself is said to have been born, who furnishes to others an origin of being; in order that He may transfer our origin into Himself, and we may no longer, as mere earth, return to earth, but as being knit into the Word from heaven, may be carried to heaven by Him. Therefore in like manner not without reason has He transferred to Himself the other affections of the body also; that we, no longer as being men, but as proper to the Word, may have share in eternal life. For no longer according to our former origin in Adam do we die; but henceforward our origin and all infirmity of flesh being transferred to the Word, we rise from the earth, the curse from sin being removed, because of Him who is in us, and who has become a curse for us. And with reason; for as we are all from earth and die in Adam, so being regenerated from above of water and Spirit, in the Christ we are all quickened; the flesh being no longer earthly, but being henceforth made Word, by reason of God’s Word who for our sake ‘became flesh.’

St. Basil of Caeserea (330 – 379 AD)  –  Letter CCLXI, To the Sozopolitans
After all these in the last days He was Himself manifested ill the flesh, “made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”If, then, the sojourn of the Lord in flesh has never taken place, the Redeemer 
paid not the fine to death on our behalf, nor through Himself destroyed death’s reign.  For if what was reigned over by death was not that which was assumed by the Lord, death would not have ceased working his own ends, nor would the sufferings of the God-bearing flesh have been made our gain; He would not have killed sin in the flesh: we who had died in Adam should not have been made alive in Christ; the fallen to pieces would not have been framed again; the shattered would not have been set up again; that which by the serpent’s trick had been estranged from God would never have been made once more His own.  All these boons are undone by those that assert that it was with a heavenly body that the Lord came among us.  And if the God-bearing flesh was not ordained to be assumed of the lump of Adam, what need was there of the Holy Virgin?

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, SERMON LXVIII
In manifold ways is the Emmanuel depicted to thee by the shadowing of Moses. Thou sawest Him there sacrificed as a lamb, yet vanquishing the destroyer, and abolishing death by His blood. Thou sawest Him in the arrangement of the ark, in which was deposited the divine law: for He was in His holy flesh like as in an ark, being the Word of the Father, the Son that was begotten of Him by nature. Thou sawest Him as the mercy-seat in the holy tabernacle, around which stood the Seraphim [Cherubim]: for He is our mercy-seat for pardon of our sins. Yea! and even as man, He is glorified by the Seraphim, who are the intelligent and holy powers above; for they stand around His divine and exalted throne. Thou sawest Him as the candlestick with seven lamps in the Holy of Holies: for abundant is the Saviour’s light to those who hasten into the inner tabernacle. Thou sawest Him as the bread placed upon the table: for He is the living bread, that came down from heaven, and giveth life to the world. Thou sawest Him as the brazen serpent that was raised on high as a sign, and being looked upon healed the bites of the serpents: for though He was like us, in the form therefore of that which is evil, as being in our form, nevertheless He is by nature good, and continues to be that which He was. For the serpent is the type of wickedness; but yet, by being lifted up, and enduring the cross for us, He rendered powerless the bites of those rational serpents, who are no other than Satan, and the wicked powers under his command.

Hippolytus (170 -235 AD) – Exegetical Fragments
And if you please, we say that the Word was the first-born of God, who came down from heaven to the blessed Mary, and was made a first-born man in her womb, in order that the first-born of God might be manifested in union with a first-born man…When they brought Him to the temple to present Him to the Lord, they offered the oblations of purification. For if the gifts of purification according to the law were offered for Him, in this indeed He was made tinder the law. But the Word was not subject to the law in such wise as the sycophants fancy, since He is the law Himself; neither did God need sacrifices of purification, for He purifieth and sanctifieth all things at once in a moment. But though He took to Himself the frame of man as He received it from the Virgin, and was made under the law, and was thus purified after the manner of the first-born, it was not because He needed this ceremonial that He underwent its services, but only for the purpose of redeeming from the bondage of the law those who were sold under the judgment of the curse.

Alexander of Alexandria (250 – 326 AD) – Epistles on Arianism
Who compelled God to come down to earth, to take flesh of the holy Virgin, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, to be nourished with milk, to be baptized in the Jordan, to be mocked of the people, to be nailed to the tree, to be buried in the bosom of the earth, and the third day to rise again from the dead; in the cause of redemption to give life for life, blood for blood, to undergo death for death? For Christ, by dying, has discharged the debt of  death to which man was obnoxious. Oh, the new and ineffable mystery! The Judge was judged. He who absolves from sin was bound; He was mocked who once framed the world; He was stretched upon the cross who stretched out the heavens; He was fed with gall who gave the manna to be bread; He died who gives life. He was given up to the tomb who raises the dead…But when our Lord rose from death and trampled it down, when He bound the strong man and set man free, then every creature wondered at the Judge who for Adam’s sake was judged, at the invisible being seen, at the impassable suffering, at the immortal dead, at the celestial buried in the earth. For our Lord was made man; He was condemned that He might impart compassion; He was bound that He might set free; He was apprehended that He might liberate; He suffered that He might heal our sufferings; He died to restore life to us; He was buried to raise us up.

St. Athanasius – Festal Epistles, Letter VI
And, what is most wonderful, the Word became incarnate, that we should no longer live in the flesh, but in spirit should worship God, who is a Spirit.

St. Athanasius – Festal Epistles, Letter X
This is the Lord, Who is manifested in the Father, and in Him also the Father is manifested; Who, being truly the Son of the Father, at last became incarnate for our sakes, that He might offer Himself to the Father in our stead, and redeem us through His offering and sacrifice. This is He Who once, in old time, brought the people out of Egypt ; but Who afterwards redeemed all of us, or rather the whole race of men, from death, and brought them up from the grave. This is He Who, in old time, was sacrificed as a lamb, having been typified in the lamb ; but Who afterwards was slain for us, for Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed.

St. Athanasius (296 – 373 AD) – Against the Arians
Thus then the Lord also, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;’ but when the Father willed that ransoms should be paid for all and to all, grace should be given, then truly the Word, as Aaron his robe, so did He take earthly flesh, having Mary for the Mother of His Body as if virgin earth, that, as a High Priest, having He as others an offering, He might offer Himself to the Father, and cleanse us all from sins in His own blood, and might rise from the dead.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – Commentary on Gospel of St. Luke
They saw that God the Word, Who was in the form of God the Father, had become flesh for our sakes: they saw Him Who shares the Father’s throne, dwelling with us, in our form, that by justification and sanctification He might fashion us after His own likeness, imprinting upon us the beauty of His Godhead in an intellectual and spiritual manner. And of this Paul is witness, who thus writes: “For as we have been clothed with the image of the earthy, we shall also be clothed with the image of the heavenly:” meaning by the earthy man, Adam, the first created: but by the heavenly, the Word Who is from above, and Who shone forth from the substance of God the Father, but was made, as I said, in our likeness. He Who by nature is a Son took the form of a slave, not that by taking upon Him our state, He might continue in the measure of slavery, but that He might set us free, who were chained to the yoke of slavery, for every thing that is made is by nature a slave, enriching us with what is His. For through Him and with Him we have received the name of sons, being ennobled, so to speak, by His bounty and grace. He Who was rich shared our poverty, that He might raise man’s nature to His riches.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – Five Tomes Against Nestorius, Tome IV
For the Divine Nature and that passeth all natures dwelleth in the light unapproachable and hath authority over all things and to Him is ascribed the glory which most befits it alone: but when the Only-Begotten Word of God was made man and was about by the grace of God through His own flesh to taste death for every man, and undo its might hard-to-withstand, quickening as God His own Temple, He devises the prayer as Man, and wills the Father to consent with Him Who was transforming the nature of man to what it was at the beginning and renewing it unto incorruption, and displaying it superior to the meshes of death: that ancient curse and the sentence upon the First-formed being undone. Hence since visible in flesh, He is preached Son of God by Nature and in truth, He says, Father glorify Thy Son, rendering Him as Man, superior to both death and decay, that He may be believed to be Thine, being as God Life by Nature, according to the count of His own Nature: for then will the Son too glorify Thee.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – THAT CHRIST IS ONE
And verily God the Father said somewhere to the Jews by one of the Prophets, See ye despisers and perish and marvel because I am working a work in your days, a work which ye shall not believe if one should detail it to you. For the mystery of Christ is in peril of being disbelieved by reason of the intensity of its marvellousness: GOD was in human nature, and in our estate He that is over all creation; the Invisible, visible by reason of flesh; He that is out of Heaven and from above in likeness of things earthy; the Impalpable subject to touch; He that is in His own Nature Free in bondman’s form; He Who blesseth the creation WAS MADE subject to curse, among the transgressors All-Righteousness, and in guise of death Life. For the Body which tasted death, was not another man’s but His who is by Nature Son.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – Second epistle to Nestorius
For the difference of the natures is not taken away by the union, but rather the divinity and the humanity make perfect for us the one Lord Jesus Christ by their ineffable and inexpressible union. So then he who had an existence before all ages and was born of the Father, is said to have been born according to the flesh of a woman, not as though his divine nature received its beginning of existence in the holy Virgin, for it needed not any second generation after that of the Father (for it would be absurd and foolish to say that he who existed before all ages, coeternal with the Father, needed any second beginning of existence), but since, for us and for our salvation, he personally united to himself an human body, and came forth of a woman, he is in this way said to be born after the flesh; for the was not first born a common man of the holy Virgin, and then the Word came down and entered into him, but the union being made in the womb itself, he is said to endure a birth after the flesh, ascribing to himself the birth of his own flesh. On this account we say that he suffered and rose again; not as if God the Word suffered in his own nature stripes, or the piercing of the nails, or any other wounds, for the Divine nature is incapable of suffering, inasmuch as it is incorporeal, but since that which had become his own body suffered in this way, lie is also said to suffer for us; for he who is in himself incapable of suffering was in a suffering body. In the same manner also we conceive respecting his dying; for the Word of God is by nature immortal and incorruptible, and life and life-giving; since, however, his own body did, as Paul says, by the grace of God taste death for every man, he himself is said to have suffered death for us, not as if he had any experience of death in his own nature (for it would be madness to say or think this), but because, as I have just said, his flesh tasted death.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – SCHOLIA ON THE INCARNATION OF THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN
One therefore is He Who before the Incarnation is called by the God-inspired Scripture, Only-Begotten, Word, God, Image, Brightness, Impress of the Person of the Father, Life, Glory, Light, Wisdom, Power, Arm, Right Hand, Most Highest, Magnificence, Lord of Sabaoth, and other like names, truly most God-befitting; and after the Incarnation, Man, Christ Jesus, Propitiation, Mediator, Firstfruits of them that slept, First-begotten of the dead, Second Adam, Head of the Body the Church; the first names also following Him: for all are His, both the first and those in the last times of the world. One therefore is He Who both before the Incarnation was Very God and in the human nature hath remained That He was and is and shall be. We must not then sever the One Lord Jesus Christ into Man separately and into God separately, but we say that Jesus Christ is One and the Same, yet knowing the distinction of the Natures and keeping them unconfused with one another. When therefore Holy Writ says that in Christ dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, we do not therefore say that the Word by Himself dwelt in another, the man Christ, nor plucking asunder one from another things united do we conceive of two sons, but this rather, that holy Writ calls by the name Christ sometimes separately the human nature of the Word of God which He having as His own, used as a Temple. And it has been written somewhere of human souls also, Them that dwell in houses of clay, whereof we too are of the same clay. Do we then, since he calls the bodies of men houses of clay, and affirms that their souls dwell in them, sever one man into two? yet how is it not wholly without blame, that in a man should be said to dwell his spirit?

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – Anathemas in Opposition to Nestorius
Holy Scripture states that Christ is High Priest and Apostle of our confession, and offered Himself on our behalf for a sweet-smelling savor to God and our Father. If, then, any one says that He, the Word of God, was not made our High Priest and Apostle when He was made flesh and man after our manner; but as being another, other than Himself, properly man made of a woman; or if any one says that He offered the offering on His own behalf, and not rather on our behalf alone; for He that knew no sin would not have needed an offering, let him be anathema.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (378 – 444 AD) – Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke
O! how great and wonderful is the plan of salvation! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” He Who is in the bosom of the Father, the Son Who shares His throne, and is coeternal with Him: by Whom all things are divinely brought into existence, submitted nevertheless to the measure of human nature, and even offered a sacrifice to His own Father, although adored by all, and glorified with Him. And what did He offer? As the firstborn and a male a pair of turtles, or two young doves, according to what the law prescribed…Turtles, therefore, and doves were offered, when He presented Himself unto the Lord, and there might one see simultaneously meeting together the truth and the types. And Christ offered Himself for a savour of a sweet smell, that He might offer us by and in Himself unto God the Father, and so do away with His enmity towards us by reason of Adam’s transgression, and bring to nought sin that had tyrannized over us all.

St. Basil the Great – Philipp. ii. 9.  On the Name above every Name
“If the name above every name was given by the Father to the Son, Who was God, and every tongue owned Him Lord, after the incarnation, because of His obedience, then before the incarnation He neither had the name above every name nor was owned by all to be Lord.  It follows then that after the incarnation He was greater than before the incarnation, which is absurd.”  So of Matt. xxviii. 18. “We must understand this of the incarnation, and not of the Godhead.”

St. Basil the Great – On John vi. 57. I live by the Father.
“If the Son lives on account of the Father, He lives on account of another, and not of Himself.  But He who lives on account of another cannot be Self-life. So He who is holy of grace is not holy of himself. Then the Son did not speak truly when He said, ‘I am the life,’ and again ‘the Son quickeneth whom He will.’ We must therefore understand the words to be spoken in reference to the incarnation, and not to the Godhead.”

St. Basil the Great – On Prov. vii. 22. The Lord created Me (LXX.)
Now proverbs are figures of other things, not the actual things which are uttered.  If it was God the Son Who said, ‘The Lord created me,’ He would rather have said, ‘The Father created me.’  Nowhere did He call Him Lord, but always Father.  The word ‘begot,’ then, must be understood in reference to God the Son, and the word created, in reference to Him who took on Him the form of a servant. In all these cases we do not mention two, God apart and man apart (for He was One), but in thought we take into account the nature of each.  Peter had not two in his mind when he said, ‘Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh.’  If, they argue, the Son is a thing begotten and not a thing made, how does Scripture say, ‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ’?  We must also say here that this was spoken according to the flesh about the Son of Man; just as the angel who announced the glad tidings to the shepherds says, ‘To you is born to-day a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord.’  The word ‘to-day’ could never be understood of Him Who was before the ages. This is more clearly shewn by what comes afterwards where it is said, ‘That same Jesus whom ye have crucified.’  If when the Son was born He was then made wisdom, it is untrue that He was ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God.’  His wisdom did not come into being, but existed always.  And so, as though of the Father, it is said by David, ‘Be thou, God, my defender,’ and again, ‘thou art become my salvation, and so Paul, ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar.’ Thus the Lord ‘of God is made unto us wisdom and sanctification and redemption.’

St. Cyril of Alexandria –  Second epistle to Nestorius 
The holy and great Synod therefore says, that the only begotten Son, born according to nature of God the Father, very God of very God, Light of Light, by whom the Father made all things, came down, and was incarnate, and was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven…For we do not say that the nature of the Word was changed and became flesh, or that it was converted into a whole man consisting of soul and body; but rather that the Word having personally united to himself flesh animated by a rational soul, did in an ineffable and inconceivable manner become man, and was called the Son of Man, not merely as willing or being pleased to be so called, neither on account of taking to himself a person, but because the two natures being brought together in a true union, there is of both one Christ and one Son; for the difference of the natures is not taken away by the union, but rather the divinity and the humanity make perfect for us the one Lord Jesus Christ by their ineffable and inexpressible union…We must not, therefore, divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two Sons. Neither will it at all avail to a sound faith to hold, as some do, an union of persons; for the Scripture has not said that the Word united to himself the person of man, but that he was made flesh. This expression, however, “the Word was made flesh,” can mean nothing else but that he partook of flesh and blood like to us; he made our body his own, and came forth man from a woman, not casting off his existence as God, or his generation of God the Father, but even in taking to himself flesh remaining what he was.

Good summary of theosis
St. Cyril of Alexandria –  Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
For we must inquire in what sense it may be seemly to conceive that God the Father condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in likeness of sinful flesh. For albeit the Son were by nature God and had shone forth from His essence and possessed naturally the immutability of His proper being, and for this cause in no wise could stumble into sin, or turn aside anywhither into what is not right, the Father caused him voluntarily to descend into the flesh that is subject to sin, with intent that making very flesh His own, He might bring it over unto His own natural property, to wit, sinlessness. For, I conceive, we shall not be right in believing that it was with intent to effect this for the Temple of His own Body alone that the Only-begotten has been made man; for where were the glory and profit of His Advent unto us to be seen, if He accomplished the salvation of His own Body alone? But we believe rather that it was to secure the benefits for all nature through Himself and in Himself first as in the firstfruits of humanity, that the Only-begotten has become like us. For like as we have followed after not only death but all the sufferings of the flesh, undergoing this suffering in the first man by reason as well of the transgression as of the divine curse; after the same sort, I conceive, shall we all of us follow Christ, as He saves in many ways and sanctifies the nature of the flesh in Himself. Wherefore also Paul said: And as we love the image of the earthy, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly. For the image of the earthy, to wit of Adam, is to be in sufferings and corruption; and the image of the heavenly, to wit of Christ, is to be in impassibility and incorruption. So then the Word being God by nature condemned sin in His own flesh, by charging it to cease its activity, or rather so amending it as that it should move after the good pleasure of God, and no longer at its own will; and so whereas the body was natural, He made it spiritual.

Fr. Tadros Malaty – Man & Redemption
Therefore, when the word of God was incarnate He received His body in the womb of St. Mary and had a human soul. He became a true man and accepted human nature as a whole, to sanctify it all. St. Severus of Antioch says: [We confess that while remaining what He was, He united to Himself hypostatically a flesh possessing a rational soul]. St. Philoxenos of Mabbogh says: [The complete man was redeemed in God. Since the whole of Adam had come under the curse and been deprived, the whole of him was taken by God and renewed. The Lord who became incarnate gave His body unto death for the sake of everybody, and His soul for the salvation of all souls. In this way the whole of our nature was recreated in Him into a new man ].

St. John Chrysostom – Commentary on Galatians
“But when the fulness of the time came God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, under the Law that he might redeem them which were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
Here he states two objects and effects of the Incarnation, deliverance from evil and supply of good, things which none could compass but Christ. They are these; deliverance from the curse of the Law, and promotion to sonship. Fitly does he say, that we might “receive,” “[be paid,]” implying that it was due; for the promise was of old time made for these objects to Abraham, as the Apostle has himself shown at great length. And how does it appear that we have become sons? he has told us one mode, in that we have put on Christ who is the Son; and now he mentions another, in that we have received the Spirit of adoption. “And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer a bond-servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”

John Damascene (676 – 749) – On Holy Images
The gates of heaven are opened to receive the receptacle of God, who, bringing forth the tree of life, destroyed Eve’s disobedience and Adam’s penalty of death. And Christ, the cause of all life, receives the chosen mirror, the mountain from which the stone without hands filled the whole earth. She, who brought about the Word’s divine Incarnation, rests in her glorious tomb as in a bridal chamber, whence she goes to the heavenly bridals, to share in the kingdom of her Son and God, leaving her tomb as a place of rest for those on earth.

St. Irenaeus (130 – 202 AD) – Against Heresies, Book 5
And since the apostasy tyrannized over us unjustly, and, though we were by nature the property of the omnipotent God, alienated us contrary to nature, rendering us its own disciples, the Word of God, powerful in all things, and not defective with regard to His own justice, did righteously turn against that apostasy, and redeem from it His own property, not by violent means, as the [apostasy] had obtained dominion over us at the beginning, when it insatiably snatched away what was not its own, but by means of persuasion, as became a God of counsel, who does not use violent means to obtain what He desires; so that neither should justice be infringed upon, nor the ancient handiwork of God go to destruction. Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion with God.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (310 – 367 AD) – On the Trinity, Book X
He was found in fashion as a man, with a body which could feel pain, but His nature could not feel pain; for, though His fashion was that of a man, His origin was not human, but He was born by conception of the Holy Ghost. For the reasons mentioned, He was esteemed ‘stricken, smitten and afflicted.’ He took the form of a servant: and ‘man born of a Virgin’ conveys to us the idea of One Whose nature felt pain when He suffered. But though He was wounded it was ‘for our transgressions.’

Divine Liturgy of St. Clement
Thou art indeed holy, and most holy; the highest, and most highly exalted for ever. Holy is also Thine Only-Begotten So Jesus Christ, our Lord and God. Who always ministering to Thee His God and Father, not only in the various works of the creation, but in the providential care of it, did not overlook lost mankind. But after the law of nature, the admonitions of the positive law, the prophetical reproofs, and the superintendency of angels, when men had perverted both the positive and natural law, and had forgotten the flood, the burning of Sodom, the plagues of the Egyptians, the slaughter of the nations of Palestine, and were now ready to perish universally; He, Who was man’s creator, was pleased with Thy consent to become man; the Lawgiver to be under the law ; the Priest to be Himself the sacrifice; the Shepherd a sheep; to appease Thee His God and Father, to reconcile Thee to the world, and deliver all men from the impending wrath. He was incarnate of a Virgin, God the Word, the beloved Son, the First-born of every creature; and as He Himself had foretold by the mouth of the prophets, of the seed of David, and of Abraham, and of the tribe of Judah. He, Who forms all that are born in the world, was Himself formed in the womb of a Virgin; He That was without flesh, became flesh; and He Who was begotten from eternity, was born in time. He was holy in His conversation, and taught according to the law; He cured diseases, and wrought signs and wonders amongst the people; He Who is the feeder of the hungry, and fills every living creature with His goodness, became partaker of His own gifts, ate and drank, and slept amongst us; He manifested Thy Name to them that knew it not; He dispelled the cloud of ignorance, restored piety, fulfilled Thy will, and finished Thy work which Thou gavest Him to do. And when He had regulated all these things, He was seized by the hands of a disobedient people, and wicked men abusing the office of Priests and High-Priests, being betrayed to them by one who excelled in wickedness ; and when He had suffered many things from them, and been treated with all manner of indignity, He was by Thy permission delivered to Pilate the governor: the Judge of all the world was judged, and the Saviour of mankind condemned; although impassible, He was nailed to the cross; and although immortal, died. The Giver of Life was laid in the grave, that He might deliver those from the pains of death, for whose sake He came; and that He might break the bands of the devil, and rescue man from his deceit.


Feast of Nativity

St. Gregory Nazianzen – Oration 38
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 enrolment on account of which you were written in heaven, and adore the Birth by which you were loosed from the chains of your birth, Luke 2:1-5 and honour little Bethlehem, which has led you back to Paradise; and worship the manger through which thou, being without sense, wast fed by the Word. Know as Isaiah bids you, your Owner, like the ox, and like the ass your Master’s crib; if you be one of those who are pure and lawful food, and who chew the cud of the word and are fit for sacrifice. Or if you are one of those who are as yet unclean and uneatable and unfit for sacrifice, and of the gentile portion, run with the Star, and bear your Gifts with the Magi, gold and frankincense and myrrh, Isaiah 1:3 as to a King, and to God, and to One Who is dead for you. With Shepherds glorify Him; Matthew ii with Angels join in chorus; with Archangels sing hymns. Let this Festival be common to the powers in heaven and to the powers upon earth. Luke 2:14-15 For I am persuaded that the Heavenly Hosts join in our exultation and keep high Festival with us today. ..because they love men, and they love God just like those whom David introduces after the Passion ascending with Christ and coming to meet Him, and bidding one another to lift up the gates.

St. John Chrysostom – Nativity Sermon
The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness. For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit that He may save me. Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been ¡in planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.

St. Gregory Nazianzen,  A Christmas Homily
“This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating to-day, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God—that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him and buried with Him and rising with Him. For I must undergo the beautiful conversion, and as the painful succeeded the more blissful, so must the more blissful come out of the painful. For where sin abounded Grace did much more abound; and if a taste condemned us, how much more doth the Passion of Christ justify us?  Therefore let us keep the Feast, not after the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the way of the world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own but as belonging to Him Who is ours, or rather as our Master’s; not as of weakness, but as of healing; not as of creation, but of re-creation.”


Feast of Circumcision

St. John Chrysostom (349 – 407 AD) – Homilies on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
But after this, they of the seed of Abraham all became subject to punishment. For the Law wrought wrath unto them by being transgressed, and thenceforward deprived them of that promise made unto the fathers…For having fulfilled the whole Law in which He also fulfilled the circumcision, and having by it, and by the Cross, freed them from the curse of the transgression, He suffered not this promise to fall to the ground. When then he calls Him “a Minister of the circumcision,” he means this, that by having come and fulfilled the Law, and been circumcised, and born of the seed of Abraham, He undid the curse, stayed the anger of God, made also those that were to receive the promises fit for them, as being once for all freed from their alienation.To prevent then these accused persons from saying, How then came Christ to be circumcised and to keep the whole Law? he turns their argument to the opposite conclusion. For it was not that the Law might continue, but that He might put an end to it, and free thee from the curse thereof, and set thee entirely at liberty from the dominion of that Law. For it was because thou hadst transgressed the Law, that He fulfilled it, not that thou mightest fulfil it…


Feast of Theophany

St. Gregory Nazianzen – Oration 38
A little later on you will see Jesus submitting to be purified in the River Jordan for my Purification, or rather, sanctifying the waters by His Purification
(for indeed He had no need of purification Who takes away the sin of the world) and the heavens cleft asunder, and witness borne to him by the Spirit That is of one nature with Him; you shall see Him tempted and conquering and served by Angels, and healing every sickness and every disease, and giving life to the dead (O that He would give life to you who are dead because of your heresy), and driving out demons, sometimes Himself, sometimes by his disciples; and feeding vast multitudes with a few loaves; and walking dryshod upon seas; and being betrayed and crucified, and crucifying with Himself my sin; offered as a Lamb, and offering as a Priest; as a Man buried in the grave, and as God rising again; and then ascending, and to come again in His own glory. Why what a multitude of high festivals there are in each of the mysteries of the Christ; all of which have one completion, namely, my perfection and return to the first condition of Adam.

St. Gregory Nazianzen (329 A.D. – 390 A.D.) – Oration on the Holy Lights, XVII
Now, since our Festival is of Baptism, and we must endure a little hardness with Him Who for our sake took form, and was baptized, and was crucified; let us speak about the different kinds of Baptism, that we may come out thence purified.  Moses baptized but it was in water, and before that in the cloud and in the sea.  This was typical as Paul saith; the Sea of the water, and the Cloud of the Spirit; the Manna, of the Bread of Life; the Drink, of the Divine Drink.  John also baptized; but this was not like the baptism of the Jews, for it was not only in water, but also “unto repentance.”  Still it was not wholly spiritual, for he does not add “And in the Spirit.”  Jesus also baptized, but in the Spirit.  This is the perfect Baptism.  And how is He not God, if I may digress a little, by whom you too are made God? I know also a Fourth Baptism—that by Martyrdom and blood, which also Christ himself underwent:—and this one is far more august than all the others, inasmuch as it cannot be defiled by after-stains.  Yes, and I know of a Fifth also, which is that of tears, and is much more laborious, received by him who washes his bed every night and his couch with tears; whose bruises stink through his wickedness; and who goeth mourning and of a sad countenance; who imitates the repentance of Manasseh and the humiliation of the Ninevites upon which God had mercy; who utters the words of the Publican in the Temple, and is justified rather than the stiff-necked Pharisee; who like the Canaanite woman bends down and asks for mercy and crumbs, the food of a dog that is very hungry.

St. Athanasius – Discourses Against the Arians
“If then for our sake He sanctifies Himself, and does this when He has become man, it is very plain that the Spirit’s descent on Him in Jordan was a descent upon us, because of His bearing our body. And it did not take place for promotion to the Word, but again for our sanctification, that we might share His anointing, and of us it might be said, ‘Do you not know that you are God’s Temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in you [ 1 Corinthians 3:16 ]?’ For when the Lord, as man, was washed in Jordan, it was we who were washed in Him and by Him. And when He received the Spirit, we it was who by Him were made recipients of It. And moreover for this reason, not as Aaron or David or then rest, was He anointed with oil, but in another way above all His fellows, ‘with the oil of gladness,’ which He Himself interprets to be the Spirit, saying by the Prophet, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me [ Isaiah 61:1 ];’ as also the Apostle has said, ‘How God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost. [ Acts 10:38 ] ‘ When then were these things spoken of Him but when He came in the flesh and was baptized in Jordan, and the Spirit descended on Him?”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem – Catechetical Lectures, Lecture III on Holy Baptism
Jesus sanctified Baptism, being Himself baptized. Since the Son of God was baptized, what religious man can despise Baptism? He, however, was baptized, not to receive forgiveness of sins, for He was sinless: but being sinless, to grant divine grace and dignity to the baptized. Since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise shared the same, that we, partaking of His bodily presence, might partake also of His divine grace; and so again Jesus was baptized, that through this also, we by the participation, might with salvation receive dignity. The Dragon was in the waters, according to Job, he who receiveth Jordan in his mouth: whereas then He was to crush the heads of the Dragon, He descended, and in the waters bound the mighty one, that we might receive power to tread upon serpents and scorpions. It was no common monster, but a terrible one. No ship of fishers could bear one scale of his tail: before him ran destruction, wasting those that encountered him. Life then encountered him, that henceforth the mouth of death might be
closed, that we the saved might all say, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? By Baptism, the sting of death is destroyed. Thou descendest into the water bearing sins, but the invocation of grace having sealed thy soul, allows not that thou shouldest henceforth be swallowed up by the fearful Dragon. Dead in sins thou wentest down, quickened in righteousness thou comest up: for if thou wert planted together in the likeness of the Saviour’s death, thou shalt be counted worthy of His resurrection also. For as Jesus took on Him the world’s sins, and died, that having been the death of sin, He might raise thee up in righteousness, so thou also, by descending into the water, and in some sense being in the waters buried, as He was in the rock, are raised again, to walk in newness of life.

Orthodox Study Bible, comment on Leviticus 16:4
“Thus Aaron shall come into the holy place with a young bull of the oxen as a sin offering, and a ram as a whole burnt offering. He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water and put them on.” (Leviticus 16:3-4)
“Aaron was to thoroughly wash himself in water. Here was not only a type of baptism in general, but also of the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Jesus said to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15). The true High Priest was preparing to go into the holy of holies for the sins of the whole world. He only is without sin, so it was not for His own sins that He was baptized, but for the uncleanness of the people for whom He would suffer.”

Fast of Nineveh

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Jonah (Chapter 1)
Our faith in the Divinity, however, is not derived from the fairy tales they have; we mention them to convince unbelievers that even the stories they have do not present such accounts as unacceptable. Since, however, I believe that there is need to accept the extraordinary event even on the basis of what is still done according to God’s will, come now, let us mention that even in the womb the fetus is immersed in natural moisture, is buried, as it were, in the entrails of the pregnant woman, and cannot breathe, and yet is still alive and well, being nourished remarkably by God’s wishes. No explanation could be given of such things, however, nor would the things of God be easily apprehended by anyone; Scripture says, after all, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” Or who has grasped the ways of extraordinary things? Or whose mind is not surpassed by what exceeds the power of reason? To fail to believe, therefore, is risky, even if God performs something quite beyond reason; we, on the other hand, accept it as true. Now, when we take the blessed prophet as a type of the ministry understood in Christ, there is need to add that the whole world was at risk and the human race was affected by tempest, as if the waves of sin itself were raging; the dire and insufferable pleasures were overwhelming it, corruption impending in the form of a storm, fierce winds buffeting it—namely, the devil and the wicked powers subject to him and working with him. When we were in this situation, however, the Creator had pity, and the God and Father sent us the Son from heaven; he took on flesh, arrived on earth when it was at risk of tempests, and willingly went to his death to make the storm abate, allow the sea to become calm, settle the waves, and put an end to the storm; by the death of Christ we were saved. The tempest abated, the rain passed, and waves settled down, the force of the winds diminished, deep peace then prevailed, and we enjoyed fair weather of a spiritual kind, since Christ has suffered for us. 

St. John Chrysostom reminds us to be like the Ninevites in their actions and not merely by calling a fast–“God saw their works”. He exhorts us renounce the passion for riches, lust for glory, and to beseech God to stretch for His hand and raise up our fallen members:

I do not now proclaim a fast only, but I suggest to you the remedy which raised up that city also when falling. And what was that? “God saw their works,” saith the prophet, “that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil which He said He would do unto them.” (Jonah iii. 10.) This let us do, both we and you. Let us renounce the passion for riches, the lust for glory, beseeching God to stretch forth His hand, and to raise up our fallen members. And well may we, for our fear is not for the same objects as theirs; for then indeed it was only stones and timbers that were to fall, and bodies that were to perish; but now it is none of these; no, but souls are about to be delivered over to hell fire. Let us implore, let us confess unto Him, let us give thanks unto Him for what is past, let us entreat Him for what is to come, that we may be counted worthy to be delivered from this fierce and most terrible monster, and to lift up our thanksgivings to the loving God and Father with whom, to the Son, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, and honor, now, henceforth, and for ever and ever. Amen. – St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Ephesians, Chap 4:4)

St. Gregory the Theologian (329 – 390 A.D.) exhorts us to weep before God for our sins and to desire to appease His anger. He urges us, through confession and repentance, to entreat the Father’s mercy and righteous affections, which are natural to God:

St. Gregory Nazianzen – Oration XVI
Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker; let us appoint a public mourning, in our various ages and families, let us raise the voice of supplication; and let this, instead of the cry which He hates, enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Let us anticipate His anger by confession; let us desire to see Him appeased, after He was wrathful. Who knoweth, he says, if He will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? This I know certainly, I the sponsor of the loving-kindness of God.  And when He has laid aside that which is unnatural to Him, His anger, He will betake Himself to that which is natural, His mercy.  To the one He is forced by us, to the other He is inclined. And if He is forced to strike, surely He will refrain, according to His Nature. Only let us have mercy on ourselves, and open a road for our Father’s righteous affections. Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in joy, let us show ourselves men of Nineveh, not of Sodom. Let us amend our wickedness, lest we be consumed with it; let us listen to the preaching of Jonah, lest we be overwhelmed by fire and brimstone, and if we have departed from Sodom let us escape to the mountain, let us flee to Zoar, let us enter it as the sun rises; let us not stay in all the plain, let us not look around us, lest we be frozen into a pillar of salt, a really immortal pillar, to accuse the soul which returns to wickedness.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Answers to Tiberius
The excitement of the flesh fights against the mind bent on continence because of its fear of God, and it puts up a terrible battle against the impulses towards chastity. Those, who make use of a fasting appropriate to God-fearing people check the excitement of the flesh, and by employing discipline, exercise and other suitable aids take the sharpness off sin’s spur. The upshot is that it is impossible to eliminate from the flesh its innate desire, but, as I said, it is possible by vigilance to prevent it from dominating over the mind, especially in view of the fact that God’s only-begotten Word was made man and no longer allows the law of sin to run riot in our members. All-wise Paul will teach you this plainly because he writes ‘For the Law’s impotence wherein it was feeble throughout the flesh [has ceased, for] God, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not behave in accord with flesh but in accord with spirit. ‘ So we are not victorious over our innate impulses absolutely all at once; that is reserved for the life of total bliss we expect in the world to come. But we can play the man and with God’s co-operation providing us with power from on high, we can curb the excitements of the flesh. Desire is keener in the slack and dominates their hearts, as it were. In those who maintain a divine fear it is frail, easily checked and’ expelled from the mind. Scripture has it that ‘The fear of God is holy’, meaning sanctifying.

St. John Chrysostom – Homilies 1 Timothy, Chapter 5:11-15
If in the days of Jonah the destruction of Nineveh had not been threatened, that destruction had not been averted. Nineveh would not have stood but for the threat, “Nineveh shall be overthrown.” (Jonah iii. 4.) And if hell had not been threatened, we should all have fallen into hell. If the fire had not been denounced, no one would have escaped the fire. God declares that He will do that which He desires not to do, that He may do that which He desires to do. He willeth not the death of a sinner, and therefore He threatens the sinner with death, that He may not have to inflict death. And not only has He spoken the word, but He has exhibited the thing itself, that we may escape it. And lest it should be supposed to be a mere threat, He has manifested the reality of it by what He has already done on earth. Dost thou not see in the flood a symbol of hell, in that rain of all-destroying water an image of the all-devouring fire? “For as it was in the days of Noah,” He says, “they were marrying and giving in marriage” (Matt. xxiv. 38.), so is it even now. It was then predicted long before it took place, and it is now predicted four hundred years or more beforehand: but no one heeds it. It is looked upon as a mere fable, as a matter of derision; no one fears it, no one weeps or beats his breast at the thought of it. The stream of fire is boiling up, the flame is kindled, and we are laughing, taking our pleasure, and sinning without fear. No one even bears in mind That Day. No one considers that present things are passing away, and that they are but temporal, though events are every day crying out and uttering a fearful voice. The untimely deaths, the changes that take place in our lives, our own infirmities and diseases, fail to instruct us.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catehetical Lectures, Lecture IV, Of the Resurrection
But He who descended into the regions beneath the earth came up again; and Jesus, who was buried, truly rose again the third day. And if the Jews ever worry thee, meet them at once by asking thus: Did Jonah come forth from the whale on the third day, and hath not Christ then risen from the earth on the third day? Is a dead man raised to life on touching the bones of Elisha, and is it not much easier for the Maker of mankind to be raised by the power of the Father? Well then, He truly rose, and after He had risen was seen again of the disciples; and twelve disciples were witnesses of His Resurrection, who bare witness not in pleasing words, but contended even unto torture and death for the truth of the Resurrection. What then, shall every word be established at the mouth of two of three witnesses, according to the Scripture, and, though twelve bear witness to the Resurrection of Christ, art thou still incredulous in regard to His Resurrection?

St. Augustine – City of God, Chapter 24
As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth in such passages as these: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” and “These shall go away into eternal punishment;” and “They shall be tormented for ever and ever;” and “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched,” —such persons, I say, are most emphatically and abundantly refuted, not by me so much as by the divine Scripture itself.  For the men of Nineveh repented in this life, and therefore their repentance was fruitful, inasmuch as they sowed in that field which the Lord meant to be sown in tears that it might afterwards be reaped in joy.  And yet who will deny that God’s prediction was fulfilled in their case, if at least he observes that God destroys sinners not only in anger but also in compassion? For sinners are destroyed in two ways,—either, like the Sodomites, the men themselves are punished for their sins, or, like the Ninevites, the men’s sins are destroyed by repentance. God’s prediction, therefore, was fulfilled,—the wicked Nineveh was overthrown, and a good Nineveh built up.  For its walls and houses remained standing; the city was overthrown in its depraved manners.  And thus, though the prophet was provoked that the destruction which the inhabitants dreaded, because of his prediction, did not take place, yet that which God’s foreknowledge had predicted did take place, for He who foretold the destruction knew how it should be fulfilled in a less calamitous sense.

St. Clement of Rome – First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter VII
Wherefore let us lay aside all vain and empty cares, and come up to the glorious and honorable rule of our holy calling. Let us consider what is good, and acceptable, and well-pleasing in the sight of him that made us. Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious his blood is in the sight of God, which, being shed for our salvation, hath obtained the grace of repentance to the whole world. Let us look to all past generations, and learn that from generation to generation the Lord hath given place for repentance to all such as would turn to him. Noah preached repentance; and as many as hearkened to him were saved. Jonah denounced destruction against the Ninevites; and they, repenting of their sins, appeased the wrath of God by their prayers, and received salvation, although they were strangers (to the covenant) of God. The ministers of the grace of God have spoken, by the Holy Spirit, of repentance; and even the Lord of all hath himself declared with an oath concerning it, “As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent”,” adding also this good exhortation: “Turn from your iniquity, O house of Israel. Say unto the children of my people, though your sins should reach from earth to heaven, and though they should be redder than scarlet”, and blacker than sackcloth, yet if ye shall turn to me with all your heart, and shall say, Father! I will hearken to you as unto an holy people.” And in another place, he saith on this wise, “Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your souls from before mine eyes. Cease from your wickedness: learn to do well: seek judgment: relieve the oppressed: judge the fatherless; and plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together (saith the Lord). Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow: though they be like crimson, I will make them white as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and obey not, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things.” God hath thus appointed, by his almighty will, desiring that all his beloved should come to repentance.

St. Justin Martyr — Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 108
“And though all the men of your nation knew the incidents in the life of Jonah, and though Christ said amongst you that He would give the sign of Jonah, exhorting you to repent of your wicked deeds at least after He rose again from the dead, and to mourn before God as did the Ninevites, in order that your nation and city might not be taken and destroyed, as they have been destroyed; yet you not only have not repented, after you learned that He rose from the dead, but, as I said before you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilaean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. Moreover, you accuse Him of having taught those godless, lawless, and unholy doctrines which you mention to the condemnation of those who confess Him to be Christ, and a Teacher from and Son of God. Besides this, even when your city is captured, and your land ravaged, you do not repent, but dare to utter imprecations on Him and all who believe in Him. Yet we do not hate you or those who, by your means, have conceived such prejudices against us; but we pray that even now all of you may repent and obtain mercy from God, the compassionate and long-suffering Father of all.

Tertullian – ON FASTING IN OPPOSITION TO THE PSYCHICS, Chap 7
Through this attendant of mourning, and (this) hunger, even that sinful state, Nineveh, is freed from the predicted ruin. For repentance for sins had sufficiently commended the fast, keeping it up in a space of three days, starving out even the cattle with which God was not angry. Sodom also, and Gomorrah, would have escaped if they had fasted. This remedy even Ahab acknowledges. When, after his transgression and idolatry, and the slaughter of Naboth, slain by Jezebel on account of his vineyard, Elijah had upbraided him, “How hast thou killed, and possessed the inheritance? In the place where dogs had licked up the blood of Naboth, thine also shall they lick up,” — he “abandoned himself, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and slept in sackcloth. And then (came) the word of the Lord unto Elijah, Thou hast seen how Ahab hath shrunk in awe from my face: for that he hath shrunk in awe I will not bring the hurt upon (him) in his own days; but in the days of his son I will bring it upon (him)” — (his son), who was not to fast. Thus a God-ward fast is a work of reverential awe: and by its means also Hannah the wife of Elkanah making suit, barren as she had been beforetime, easily obtained from God the filling of her belly, empty of food, with a son, ay, and a prophet.

St. John Chrysostom – Homilies on the Statutes or to the People of Antioch, Homily V
Let us imitate the excellent wisdom of the barbarians. They repented, even though uncertain of the result]! For the sentence had no such clause, “If ye turn and repent, I will preserve the city ;” but simply, Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. What then said they? Who knoweth whether. ‘God will repent of the evil He said He would do unto us? Who knoweth? They know not the end of the event, and yet they do not neglect repentance! They are unacquainted with God’s method of shewing mercy, and yet they change upon an uncertainty! For neither was it in their power to look at other Ninevites who had repented and been saved; nor had they read prophets; nor had they heard patriarchs; nor had they enjoyed counsel, or partaken of admonition; nor had they persuaded themselves that they should certainly propitiate God by repentance. For the threatening did not imply this: but they were doubtful, and hesitating as to it; nevertheless, they repented with all diligence. What reason then shall we have to urge, when those, who had no ground for confidence as to the issue, are seen to have exhibited so great a change; but thou, who hast ground of confidence in the mercy of God, and who hast frequently received many pledges of His care, and hast heard prophets, and apostles, and hast been instructed by actual events, hast yet no emulation to reach the same measure of virtue as these did! Great assuredly was their virtue! but greater by far was the mercy of God ! and this may be seen from the very greatness of the threat. For this reason God did not add to the declaration, “ But if ye repent, I will spare :” in order that by setting forth a sentence without limitation, He might increase the fear, and having increased the fear, He might persuade them to a more speedy repentance.

Great Lent

St. John Chrysostom – Against the Jews, Homily 3
Although the catechumen keeps the fast each year, lie does not celebrate the Pasch since he does not share in the sacrifice. But even though a man is not observing the Lenten fast, he does celebrate the Pasch as long as lie comes to the altar with a clean conscience and shares in the sacrifice-whether it be today, tomorrow, or any day whatsoever. The best time to approach the mysteries is determined by the purity of a man’s conscience and not by his observance of suitable seasons. Yet we do just the opposite. We fail to cleanse our conscience and, even though we are burdened with ten thousand sins, we consider that we have celebrated the Pasch as long as we approach the mysteries on that feast day. But this is certainly not the case. If you approach the altar on the very day of the Sabbath and your conscience be bad, you fail to share in the mysteries and you leave without celebrating the Pasch. But if you wash away your sins and share in the mysteries today, you do celebrate the Pasch in precisely the proper way.

St. John Chrysostom – Against the Jews, Homily 3
Why, then, do we fast for forty days?
In the past, and especially at the time when Christ entrusted to us these sacred mysteries, many a man approached the sacrificial banquet without thought or preparation. Since the Fathers realized that it was harmful for a person to approach the mysteries in this heedless fashion, they came together and marked out forty days for people to fast, pray, and gather together to hear the word of God. Their purpose was that we might all scrupulously purify ourselves during tiffs time by our prayers. alms-giving, fasting, vigils tears, confessions, and all the other pious practices. so that we might approach the mysteries with our consciences made as clean as we could make them. And they did well when they came to our aid and established for us the practice of this Lenten fast. This is clear because, if we keep shouting and proclaiming a fast the whole year through, no one listens to what we say. But as soon as the season of Lent draws near, even the laziest of men rouses himself, even though no one counsels or advises him. Why? He gets advice and counsel from the season of Lent.

St. John Chrysostom – Against the Jews, Homily 3
So if a Jew or pagan ask you why you are fasting, do not tell him that it is because of the Pasch or because of the mystery of the cross. If you tell him that, you give him an ample grip upon you. Tell him we fast because of our sins and because we are going to approach the mysteries. The Pasch is not a reason for fasting or grief; it is a reason for cheerfulness and joy. The cross has taken away sin; it was an expiation for the world. a reconciliation for the ancient enmity. It opened the gates of heaven, changed those who hated into friends; it took our human nature, led it up to heaven, and seated it at the right hand of God’s throne. And it brought to us ten thousand other blessings. There is no need, then, to grieve or be downcast: we must rejoice and glory in all these things. This is why Paul said: “But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And again: “But God commends his charity towards us, because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us.” John put it like this: “God so loved the world. Tell me, how did God love the world? John passed over all the other signs of God’s love and put the cross in first place. For after he said: “God so loved the world,” he said: “That he gave his only-begotten Son,” that he be crucified, “that those who believe in him may not perish but may have life everlasting.” If, then, the cross is the basis and boast of love, let us not say that it is a cause for grief. Heaven forbid that we grieve because of the cross. We grieve for our sins, and this is why we fast.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Twelve Prophets: On Joel Chap 1
Sanctify a fast, proclaim worship, assemble the elders, all the dwellers of the land in the house of our God. Cry aloud to the Lord at length, Alas, alas, for the day! (vv.14–15) Once again he indicates the way in which they should manifest grief, presents himself to them as a wise commentator on the way of repentance, and clearly demonstrates what it is that makes the God of all gentle and benevolent. This way was, in my view, the willingness to quell [divine] wrath, remove the offense, suppress the harm, restore to them a blissful way of life, and have good things bestowed on them. Hence his saying, Sanctify a fast, that is, perform a truly holy and blameless fast like an offering and in the manner of a sacrifice; what is required is not wasting the flesh with abstinence from food, but for them to fast from doing what would likely offend God. After all, if in the time of fasting we were not intending to abstain from our impulses, but to sting our inferiors “into quarrels and fighting, and strike the lowly with our fists,” as Scripture says, we have not yet fasted in a holy and pure manner; our effort has gone for nothing, as God cries aloud, “I did not choose this fasting, says the Lord.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Twelve Prophets: On Joel Chap 1
It is therefore necessary to abstain from depravity and follow rigorously the teachings of the lawgiver, directing our heart towards whatever pleases him, submitting the neck of our mind, singing and saying, “See my lowliness and my trouble, and forgive all my sins,” and in addition that prophetic statement, “Lo, here we come to you, for you are the Lord our God.” This in fact is a spiritual offering and a sacrifice pure and pleasing to God “more than a young calf,” more than a lamb of the flock, more than a kid from the goats, more than fine flour and incense, since “God is pleased with sacrifices” of a spiritual kind. By sanctifying a fast, let us proclaim worship, that is, performance of the divine will, with which  is duly associated uprightness, docility in behavior, readiness for everything affecting piety. Now, we shall perform the forms of worship when the elders are assembled in churches, all the dwellers of the land have congregated, constantly interceding all day, and firmly convinced that God will definitely have mercy. After all, he is “slow to anger, rich in mercy, and faithful,” “pardoning iniquities, passing over transgressions, and not retaining his anger in witness, because he delights in mercy,” as Scripture says.

St. Athanasius – Festal Letter VI
Let us watch like David who rose seven times, and in the middle of the night gave thanks for the righteous judgments of God. Let us be early, as he said, ‘In the morning I will stand before Thee, and Thou wilt look upon me: in the morning Thou wilt hear my voice.’ Let us fast like Daniel; let us pray without ceasing, as Paul commanded; all of us recognizing the season of prayer, but especially those who are honorably married; so that having borne witness to these things, and thus having kept the feast, we may be able to enter into the joy of Christ in the kingdom of heaven. But as Israel, when going up to Jerusalem, was first purified in the wilderness, being trained to forget the customs of Egypt, the Word by this typifying to us the holy fast of forty days, let us first be purified and freed from defilement, so that when we depart hence, having been careful of fasting, we may be able to ascend to the upper chamber with the Lord, to sup with Him; and may be partakers of the joy which is in heaven. In no other manner is it possible to go up to Jerusalem, and to eat the Passover, except by observing the fast of forty days.

The Church’s observance of Lent as well as a fast Wednesday and Friday of every week is is evident from the writing of the first century Church Father St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a direct disciple of the Apostle John the Beloved:

Be ye subject to the bishop, to the presbyters, and to the deacons. Love one another in the Lord, as being the images of God. Take heed, ye  husbands, that ye love your wives as your own members. Ye wives also, love your husbands, as being one with them in virtue of your union. If any one lives in chastity or continence, let him not be lifted up, lest he lose his reward. Do not lightly esteem the festivals. Despise not the period of forty days, for it comprises an imitation of the conduct of the Lord. After the week of the passion, do not neglect to fast on the fourth and sixth days, distributing at the same time of thine abundance to the poor. If any one fasts on the Lord’s Day or on the Sabbath, except on the paschal Sabbath only, he is a murderer of Christ. – St. Ignatius of Antioch (Epistle to the Philippians)

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on St. Luke
And observe, I pray, how the nature of man in Christ casts off the faults of Adam’s gluttony: by eating we were conquered in Adam, by abstinence we conquered in Christ. By the food that springeth up from the earth our earthly body is supported, and seeks for its sustenance that which is congenerate with it: but the rational soul is nourished unto spiritual healthiness by the Word of God. For the food that the earth supplies nourishes the body that is akin to it: but that from above and from heaven strengthens the spirit. The food of the soul is the Word that cometh from God, even the spiritual bread which strengthen man’s heart, according to what is sung in the Book of Psalms. And such also we affirm to be the nature of the food of the holy angels.

Gregory of Nyssa – Sermons on the Beatitudes
It says, ‘Let this be thought among you which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a thing to be snatched, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.’ What is more poverty-stricken for God than the form of servant? What is humbler for the king of whatever exists than to enter voluntarily into communion with our poverty-stricken nature? The king of kings and the lord of lords takes on the form of servitude, the judge of everything becomes subject to those in power, the lord of creation lives in a cave, the sovereign of everything does not find room in the inn but is cast aside into the manger of animals, the pure and undefiled one accepts the filth of human nature, and proceeding through all our poverty comes at last to experience death. Witness the extent of his voluntary poverty: life tastes death, the judge is led to judgement, the lord of the life of whatever exists is subjected to the verdict of the one giving sentence, the king of all the powers above the cosmos does not reject the hands of the executioners. To this example, it says, compare the measure of your own humility.

St. Irenaeus – Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter XX1
Fasting forty days, like Moses and Elias, He afterwards hungered, first, in order that we may perceive that He was a real and substantial man — for it belongs to a man to suffer hunger when fasting; and secondly, that His opponent might have an opportunity of attacking Him. For as at the beginning it was by means of food that [the enemy] persuaded man, although not suffering hunger, to transgress God’s commandments, so in the end he did not succeed in persuading Him that was an hungered to take that food which proceeded from God. For, when tempting Him, he said, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” But the Lord repulsed him by the commandment of the law, saying, “It is written, Man doth not live by bread alone.” As to those words [of His enemy,] “If thou be the Son of God,” [the Lord] made no remark; but by thus acknowledging His human nature He baffled His adversary, and exhausted the force of his first attack by means of His Father’s word. The corruption of man, therefore, which occurred in paradise by both [of our first parents] eating, was done away with by [the Lord’s] want of food in this world.

St. Athanasius – Festal Epistles, Letter XII, to Serapion
But I have farther deemed it highly necessary and very urgent, to make known to your modesty—for I have written this to each one—that thou shouldest proclaim the fast of forty days to the brethren, and persuade them to fast; to the end that, while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing-stock, as the only people who do not fast, but take our pleasure in these days. For if we do not fast, because the Letter is [only] then read, it is right that we should take away this pretext also, and that it be read before the fast of forty days, so that they may not make this an excuse for neglect of fasting. Also, when it is read, they may be able to learn respecting the fast. But, O, our beloved, whether in this way or any other, exhort and teach them to fast forty days. For it is even a disgrace that when all the world does this, those alone who are in Egypt, instead of fasting, should find their pleasure. For even I also, being grieved because men make a laughing-stock of us for this, have been constrained thus to write to thee. When thou, therefore, receivest the letters, and hast read them and given the exhortation, write to me in return, our beloved, that I also may rejoice upon learning it.

St. Athanasius – Letter to Serapion ( Festal Letter XII)
You should proclaim the fast of forty days to the brethren and persuade them to fast, lest, while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should be derided as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in these days. For if, on account of the Letter [not] being yet read, we do not fast, we should take away this pretext, and it should be read before the fast of forty days, so that they may not make this an excuse for neglect or fasting. Also, when it is read, they may be able to learn about the fast. But O, my beloved, whether in this way or any other, persuade and teach them to fast the forty days. For it is a disgrace that when all the world does this, those alone who are in Egypt, instead of fasting, should find their pleasure. For even I also, being grieved because men derided us for this, have been constrained thus to write to you. When you, therefore, receive the letters, and have read them and given the exhortation, write to me in return, our beloved, that I also may rejoice upon learning it.

St. Athanasius – Letters, Letter 1
For since, as I before said, there are various proclamations, listen, as in a figure, to the prophet blowing the trumpet; and further, having turned to the truth, be ready for the announcement of the trumpet, for he says, ‘Blow the trumpet in Sion: sanctify a fast [ Joel 2:15 ].’ This is a warning trumpet, and commands with great earnestness, that when we fast, we should hallow the fast. For not all those who call upon God, hallow God, since there are some who defile Him; yet not Him— that is impossible— but their own mind concerning Him; for He is holy, and has pleasure in the saints. And therefore the blessed Paul accuses those who dishonour God; ‘Transgressors of the law dishonour God [ Romans 2:23 ].’ So then, to make a separation from those who pollute the fast, he says here, ‘sanctify a fast.’ For many, crowding to the fast, pollute themselves in the thoughts of their hearts, sometimes by doing evil against their brethren, sometimes by daring to defraud. And, to mention nothing else, there are many who exalt themselves above their neighbours, thereby causing great mischief. For the boast of fasting did no good to the Pharisee, although he fasted twice in the week [ Luke 18:12 ], only because he exalted himself against the publican. In the same manner the Word blamed the children of Israel on account of such a fast as this, exhorting them by Isaiah the Prophet, and saying, ‘This is not the fast and the day that I have chosen, that a man should humble his soul; not even if you should bow down your neck like a hook, and should spread sackcloth and ashes under you; neither thus shall you call the fast acceptable [ Isaiah 58:5 ].’ That we may be able to show what kind of persons we should be when we fast, and of what character the fast should be, listen again to God commanding Moses, and saying, as it is written in Leviticus , ‘And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, In the tenth day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement; a convocation, and a holy day shall it be to you; and you shall humble your souls, and offer whole burnt-offerings unto the Lord.’ And afterwards, that the law might be defined on this point, He proceeds to say; ‘Every soul that shall not humble itself, shall be cut off from the people. ‘

St. Augustine – SERMONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, Sermon 1
Now, in the generations which Matthew enumerates, the predominant number is forty. For it is a custom of the Holy Scriptures, not to reckon what is over and above certain round numbers. For thus it is said to be four hundred years, after which the people of Israel went out of Egypt, whereas it is four hundred and thirty. And so here the one generation, which exceeds the fortieth, does not take away the predominance of that number. Now this number signifies the life wherein we labour in this world, as long as we are absent from the Lord, during which the temporal dispensation of the preaching of the truth is necessary. For the number ten, by which the perfection of blessedness is signified, multiplied four times, because of the fourfold divisions of the seasons, and the fourfold divisions of the world, will make the number forty. Wherefore Moses and Elias, and the Mediator Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, fasted forty days, because in the time of this life, continence from the enticements of the body is necessary. Forty years also did the people wander in the wilderness. Forty days the waters of the flood lasted.  Forty days after His resurrection did the Lord converse with the disciples, persuading them of the reality of His risen body, whereby He showed that in this life, “wherein we are absent from the Lord” (which the number forty, as has been already said, mystically figures), we have need to celebrate the memory of the Lord’s Body, which we do in the Church, till He come. Forasmuch, then as our Lord descended to this life, and “the Word was made flesh, that He might be delivered for our sins, and rise again for our justification,” Matthew followed the number forty; so that the one generation which there exceeds that number, either does not hinder its predominance—just as those thirty years do not hinder the perfect number of four hundred—or that it even has this further meaning, that the Lord Himself, by the addition of whom the forty-one is made up, so descended to this life to bear our sins, as yet, by a peculiar and especial excellency, whereby He is in such sense man, as to be also God, to be found to be excepted from this life. For of Him only is that said, which never has been or shall be able to be said of any holy man, however perfected in wisdom and righteousness, “The Word was made Flesh.”

Blessed Augustine: On the Gospel of St. John, tractate 17:4-8
Number 40 attracts our attention as a sacred number of perfection. What I suggest is well known to you, beloved, because the Holy Bible testifies often to this truth. In that fasting this number of days is, as you know, good. Moses fasted forty days, and so did Elijah and many others. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself completed this number in fast. Moses represents the law; Elijah represents the prophets, and the Lord the Gospel. For this reason all three appeared on the mountain: The Lord manifested Himself to His disciples in the glory of His shining face and clothes. He  appeared in the middle between Moses and Elijah as testimony of the law, the prophets and the
Gospel.

St. John Chrysostom, Against the Jews, Homily 3 
Why, then, do we fast for forty days? In the past, and especially at the time when Christ entrusted to us these sacred mysteries, many a man approached the sacrificial banquet without thought or preparation. Since the Fathers realized that it was harmful for a person to approach the mysteries in this heedless fashion, they came together and marked out forty days for people to fast, pray, and gather together to hear the word of God. Their purpose was that we might all scrupulously purify ourselves during tiffs time by our prayers. almsgiving, fasting, vigils tears, confessions, and all the other pious practices. so that we might approach the mysteries with our consciences made as clean as we could make them. And they did well when they came to our aid and established for us the practice of this Lenten fast. This is clear because, if we keep shouting and proclaiming a fast the whole year through, no one listens to what we say. But as soon as the season of Lent draws near, even the laziest of men rouses himself, even though no one counsels or advises him. Why? He gets advice and counsel from the season of Lent…The Pasch is not a reason for fasting or grief; it is a reason for cheerfulness and joy. The cross has taken away sin; it was an expiation for the world, a reconciliation for the ancient enmity. It opened the gates of heaven, changed those who hated into friends; it took our human nature, led it up to heaven, and seated it at the right hand of God’s throne. And it brought to us ten thousand other blessings.

Fr. Tadros Malaty – Commentary on Exodus
We talked previously about the clouds and the appearance of God as fire. Now, let us behold Moses on the mountain “forty days and forty nights” (Ex. 24: 18). St. Augustine believes that the figure 40 refers to the wholeness of our life on earth; as though it is fitting for the believer to spend all his life on the mountain of God; according to God’s law and his commandments, contemplating in God’s glory, and enjoying His encounter face to face. And as Moses fasted forty days and forty nights, the true believer should live all his days of sojourn in some sort of abstinence, not for its own sake, but in order to lift up his heart to a life of fellowship with God and continuous contemplation in Him; or in other words, to say with the scholar Tertullian: [Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, subsisting on God alone]. God became their fulfilling food!


Lazarus Saturday

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
He declared that He would raise up the dead, and bring back again to life those who are lying in the earth and in tombs. The hour cometh, He says, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment. And, desiring to satisfy us that He could readily accomplish this, He taught, saying: I am the Resurrection and the Life. But, inasmuch as the vastness of the miracle made it difficult of belief that the dead could ever be restored to life, He anticipated to our profit the time of the Resurrection, and gave us a sign by raising Lazarus and the widow’s son and the daughter of Jairus. And what else besides? As He said that full of glory would be the resurrection of the Saints, for then, He says, shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, in order that here again He might be believed to speak truth, He granted the sight thereof before the time to the disciples. For He took Peter and James and John, and went up into the mountain, and was transfigured before them: and His Face did shine as lightning, and His garments became white as snow. Just as, then, although He promised to accomplish these things in their season, yet He performed the works in part and with a limited scope even out of due time, as an earnest and foretaste of that which was expected to come to pass and to affect the whole world, so doing in order that faith in Him might not be shaken

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
For they believed that if Christ would only appear the sufferer would be set free from his disease. And they gently remind Him of the love which He had for the sick man, drawing Him thither especially by this means; for they knew that He took thought for this man. And He was able, even though absent, to heal him, as being God and tending all things; nevertheless, they thought that if He were present, He would put forth His hand and awaken him. Not even they possessed as yet the perfection of faith, wherefore also they are troubled, as it seems probable, with the thought that Lazarus would not have been ill at all, had not Christ neglected him: for, say they, since such as are beloved by God possess all good things, why is he whom Thou lovest, sick? Or perhaps they even say: Great is the audacity of the sickness, because it dared to attack such as are beloved by God. And it may be too that they seem to say something of this sort. Since Thou lovest and healest even Thine enemies, much rather oughtest Thou to confer such benefits on them that love Thee. For Thou art able to do all things by merely Thy Will. Therefore their language is full of faith and proves their close relationship to Christ. “But when Jesus heard it, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.” The Lord now says this, not that the men may go away and report it to the sisters of Lazarus, but as God foretelling what should come to pass, because He saw that the conclusion of the affair would be for the glory of God; not that the sickness came upon the man for this reason, that He should be glorified…And if He Himself said that the sickness of Lazarus was not unto death, and yet his death took place, there is nothing to marvel at. For looking on to the final result of the affair, and seeing that He was going to raise him up after a little time, we do not consider anything that took place in the interval, but only how the end would result. For the Lord determined to set forth the weakness of death, and to shew forth all that happened as for the glory of God, that is, of Himself.


Palm Sunday

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
The multitudes, being more obedient and yielding to the effect of the sign, went to meet the Christ, hymning Him as One Who had conquered death, and carrying palm branches. And they do not praise Him with ordinary language, but quote from the inspired Scripture that which was beautifully spoken with regard to Him; confessing that He was indeed King of Israel, Whom also they called specially their own King, accepting the lordship of the Christ..For when a great multitude were escorting Him like a body-guard and shouting His praises, with the most perfect self-restraint He seated Himself upon a donkey, teaching us not to be lifted up by praises, and omitting no necessary thing. Matthew therefore related at greater length the circumstances concerning the ass; but John comes at once to the point of the affair that was most suited to the occasion, as it is his custom to do. And since, contrary to His usual habits, on this occasion only, Christ appears seated on a donkey, we do not say that He so sat for the reason that it was a long distance to the city; for it was not more than fifteen furlongs off: nor because there was a multitude; for it is certain that on other occasions when He was found with a multitude He did not do this: but He does so, to indicate that He is about to make subject to Himself as a new people the unclean among the Gentiles, and to lead them up to the prerogative of righteousness, and to the Jerusalem above, of which the earthly is a type; into which this people being made clean shall enter with Christ, Who will be hymned by the guileless angels, of whom the babes are a type. And He calls the ass a colt, because the people of the Gentiles had been untrained to the piety which faith produces.


Holy Week

Monday

St. Athanasius –  Festal Letters, Letter VI For 334. Easter-day, xii Pharmuthi
Verily, when He came and found no fruit in them, He cursed them through the fig-tree, saying, ‘Let there be henceforth no fruit from thee;’ and the fig-tree was dead and fruitless so that even the disciples wondered when it withered away. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet; ‘I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the scent of myrrh, and the light of a lamp, and the whole land shall be destroyed.’ For the whole service of the law has been abolished from them, and henceforth and for ever they remain without a feast. And they observe not the Passover; for how can they? They have no abiding place, but they wander everywhere. And they eat unleavened bread contrary to the law, since they are unable first to sacrifice the lamb, as they were commanded to do when eating unleavened bread. But in every place they transgress the law, and as the judgments of God require, they keep days of grief instead of gladness. Now the cause of this to them was the slaying of the Lord, and that they did not reverence the Only-Begotten. At this time the altogether wicked heretics and ignorant schismatics are in the same case; the one in that they slay the Word, the other in that they rend the coat. They too remain expelled from the feast, because they live without godliness and knowledge, and emulate the conduct shewn in the matter of Bar-Abbas the robber, whom the Jews desired instead of the Savior. Therefore the Lord cursed them under the figure of the fig-tree. Yet even thus He spared them in His loving-kindness, not destroying them root and all. For He did not curse the root, but [said], that no man should eat fruit of it thenceforth. When He did this, He abolished the shadow, causing it to wither; but preserved the root, so that we might [not] be grafted upon it; ‘they too, if they abide not in unbelief, may attain to be grafted into their own olive tree.’ Now when the Lord had cursed them because of their negligence, He removed from them the new moons, the true lamb, and that which is truly the Passover. But to us it came: there came too the solemn day, in which we ought to call to the feast with a trumpet, and separate ourselves to the Lord with thanksgiving, considering it as our own festival. For we are bound to celebrate it, not to ourselves but to the Lord; and to rejoice, not in ourselves but in the Lord, who bore our griefs and said, ‘My soul is sorrowful unto death.’ For the heathen, and all those who are strangers to our faith, keep feasts according to their own wills, and have no peace, since they commit evil against God. But the saints, as they live to the Lord also keep the feast to Him, saying, ‘I will rejoice in Thy salvation,’ and, ‘my soul shall be joyful in the Lord.’

Tuesday

St. Basil the Great – Concerning Baptism, Book II
Consider the case of the five foolish virgins.
On the testimony of the Lord Himself, they were virgins and had trimmed their lamps and lighted them; that is, they had done the same things as the wise virgins and they also went out to meet the Lord, showing themselves in every way as zealous as the wise. Yet, merely because they had not enough oil in their vessels, they failed of their purpose and were kept from entering the place where the bridegroom was. So, also, with the one who was left of the two in the mill-house and of the two in the same bed. The Lord is silent as to the reason for this, perhaps in order to show that, in every case, the least failure in propriety-and particularly, as the Apostle taught, in true charity – renders an act displeasing. Since, then, we see how works become unfruitful, let us take care not to violate in any way the laws of the contest which aims to win the divine pleasure. In everything, let us exhibit ourselves as ministers of God and not this only, but let us be careful not to enter into such associations as Paul, speaking in Christ, has explicitly forbidden, saying: ‘Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of this darkness’; and, by adding: ‘but rather reprove them,’ he taught us how we are to conduct ourselves in this abstention.

St. Athanasius –  Festal Letters, Letter VII
For this is the work of the Father’s loving-kindness and goodness, that not only should He make him alive from the dead, but that He should render His grace illustrious through the Spirit. Therefore, instead of corruption, He clothes him with an incorruptible garment; instead of hunger, He kills the fatted calf; instead of far journeys, [the Father] watched for his return, providing shoes for his feet; and, what is most wonderful, placed a divine signet-ring upon his hand; while by all these things He begot him afresh in the image of the glory of Christ. These are the gracious gifts of the Father, by which the Lord honors and nourishes those who abide with Him, and also those who return to Him and repent. For He promises, saying, ‘I am the bread of life; he that comes unto Me shall not hunger, and he that believes in Me shall never thirst John 6:35.’ We too shall be counted worthy of these things, if at all times we cleave to our Savior, and if we are pure, not only in these six days of Easter, but consider the whole course of our life as a feast, and continue near and do not go far off, saying to Him, ‘You have the words of eternal life, and whither shall we go John 6:68?’ Let those of us who are far off return, confessing our iniquities, and having nothing against any man, but by the spirit mortifying the deeds of the body. Romans 8:13 For thus, having first nourished the soul here, we shall partake with angels at that heavenly and spiritual table; not knocking and being repulsed like those five foolish virgins Matthew 25:1-12, but entering with the Lord, like those who were wise and loved the bridegroom; and showing the dying of Jesus in our bodies 2 Corinthians 4:10, we shall receive life and the kingdom from Him.

St. John Chrysostom – Against the Jews, Homily 3
So as often as you approach the sacrificial banquet with a clean conscience, you celebrate the Pasch. You celebrate it not when you fast but when you share in that sacrifice. “For as often as  you shall eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord.” Our Pasch is the  proclamation of the Lord’s death. The sacrifice which we offer today, that which was offered yesterday, and each day’s sacrifice is alike and the same as the sacrifice offered on that Sabbath day; the sacrifice offered on that Sabbath is no more solemn than today’s, nor is today’s of less value than that; they are one and the same, alike filled with awe and salvation.

St. Gregory Nazianzen – Oration 38
Be purified; be circumcised; strip off the veil which has covered you from your birth. After this teach in the Temple, and drive out the sacrilegious traders. John 2:15 Submit to be stoned if need be, for well I know you shall be hidden from those who cast the stones; you shall escape even through the midst of them, like God. If you be brought before Herod, answer not for the most part. Luke 23:9 He will respect your silence more than most people’s long speeches. If you be scourged, John 19:1 ask for what they leave out. Taste gall for the taste’s sake; Matthew 27:34 drink vinegar; John 19:29 seek for spittings; accept blows, be crowned with thorns, that is, with the hardness of the godly life; put on the purple robe, take the reed in hand, and receive mock worship from those who mock at the truth; lastly, be crucified with Him, and share His Death and Burial gladly, that you may rise with Him, and be glorified with Him and reign with Him. Look at and be looked at by the Great God, Who in Trinity is worshipped and glorified, and Whom we declare to be now set forth as clearly before you as the chains of our flesh allow, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom be the glory forever. Amen.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary On Luke (SERMON LXVI)
He Who by nature is a Son took the form of a slave, not that by taking upon Him our state, He might continue in the measure of slavery, but that He might set us free, who were chained to the yoke of slavery,—-for every thing that is made is by nature a slave,—-enriching us with what is His.
For through Him and with Him we have received the name of sons, being ennobled, so to speak, by His bounty and grace. He Who was rich shared our poverty, that He might raise man’s nature to His riches: He tasted death upon the tree and the cross, that He might take away from the midst the offence incurred by reason of the tree (of knowledge), and abolish the guilt that was thereby, and strip death of his tyranny over us.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (313 – 386 AD), Lecture XIII
What power, O robber, led thee to the light?  Who taught thee to worship that despised Man, thy companion on the Cross? O Light Eternal, which gives light to them that are in darkness!  Therefore also he justly heard the words, Be of good cheer; not that thy deeds are worthy of good cheer; but that the King is here, dispensing favours. The request reached unto a distant time; but the grace was very speedy. Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise; because to-day thou hast heard My voice, and hast not hardened thine heart. Very speedily I passed sentence upon Adam, very speedily I pardon thee.  To him it was said, In the day wherein ye eat, ye shall surely die; but thou to-day hast obeyed the faith, to-day is thy salvation.  Adam by the Tree fell away; thou by the Tree art brought into Paradise.  Fear not the serpent; he shall not cast thee out; for he is fallen from heaven.  And I say not unto thee, This day shalt thou depart, but, This day shalt thou be with Me.  Be of good courage:  thou shalt not be cast out.  Fear not the flaming sword; it shrinks from its Lord.  O mighty and ineffable grace!  The faithful Abraham had not yet entered, but the robber enters! Moses and the Prophets had not yet entered, and the robber enters though a breaker of the law…I am come who feed My sheep among the lilies, I am come to feed them in the gardens.  I have found a sheep that was lost, but I lay it on My shoulders; for he believes, since he himself has said, I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.

St. Basil the Great – Against Eunomius, On Matt. xxvi. 39
“If the Son really said, ‘Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,’ He not only shewed His own cowardice and weakness, but implied that there might be something impossible to the Father.  The words ‘if it be possible’ are those of one in doubt, and not thoroughly assured that the Father could save Him.  How could not He who gave the boon of life to corpses much rather be able to preserve life in the living?  Wherefore then did not He Who had raised Lazarus and many of the dead supply life to Himself?  Why did He ask life from the Father, saying, in His fear, ‘Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me’?  If He was dying unwillingly, He had not yet humbled Himself; He had not yet been made obedient to the Father unto death; He had not given Himself, as the Apostle says, ‘who gave Himself for our sins, a ransom.’ If He was dying willingly, what need of the words ‘Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away’?  No:  this must not be understood of Himself; it must be understood of those who were on the point of sinning against Him, to prevent them from sinning; when crucified in their behalf He said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ We must not understand words spoken in accordance with the economy to be spoken simply.”

St. Alexander of Alexandria- Epistles on Arianism
Oh, the new and ineffable mystery! The Judge was judged. He who absolves from sin was bound; He was mocked who once framed the world; He was stretched upon the cross who stretched out the heavens; He was fed with gall who gave the manna to be bread; He died who gives life. He was given up to the tomb who raises the dead. The powers were astonished, the angels wondered, the elements trembled, the whole created universe was shaken, the earth quaked, and its foundations rocked; the sun fled away, the elements were subverted, the light of day receded; because they could not bear to look upon their crucified Lord. The creature, in amazement, said, What is this novel mystery? The judge is judged and is silent; the invisible is seen and is not confounded; the incomprehensible is grasped and is not indignant at it; the immeasurable is contained in a measure and makes no opposition; the impassable suffers and does not avenge its own injury; the immortal dies and complains not; the celestial is buried and bears it with an equal mind. What, I say, is this mystery? The creature surely is transfixed with amazement. But when our Lord rose from death and trampled it down, when He bound the strong man and set man free, then every creature wondered at the Judge who for Adam’s sake was judged, at the invisible being seen, at the impassable suffering, at the immortal dead, at the celestial buried in the earth. For our Lord was made man; He was condemned that He might impart compassion; He was bound that He might set free; He was apprehended that He might liberate; He suffered that He might heal our sufferings; He died to restore life to us; He was buried to raise us up. For when our Lord suffered, His humanity suffered, that which He had like man; and He dissolves the sufferings of him who is His like, and by dying He has destroyed death. It was for this cause that He came down upon earth, that by pursuing death He might kill the rebel that slew men. For one underwent the judgment, and myriads were set free; one was buried, and myriads rose again. He is the Mediator between God and man; He is the resurrection and the salvation of all; He is the Guide of the erring, the Shepherd of men who have been set free, the life of the dead, the charioteer of the cherubim, the standard-bearer of the angels, and the King of kings, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Athanasius, Festal Letters, Letter VI
“No longer then ought we to live to ourselves, but, as servants to the Lord. And not in vain should we receive the grace, as the time is especially an acceptable one, and the day of salvation hath dawned, even the death of our Redeemer

Easter

St. Gregory Nazianzen – Second Oration on Easter
We were cast out because we transgressed. We fasted because we refused to fast, being overpowered by the Tree of Knowledge.  For the Commandment was ancient, coeval with ourselves, and was a kind of education of our souls and curb of luxury, to which we were reasonably made subject, in order that we might recover by keeping it that which we had lost by not keeping it. We needed an Incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live.  We were put to death together with Him, that we might be cleansed; we rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him; we were glorified with Him, because we rose again with Him.

St. Athanasius
And let us first exclaim in the words of the Psalms, Blessed be the Lord, Who hath not given us over as a prey to their teeth. Let us keep the feast in that way which He hath consecrated to us for salvation—the holy day of Easter—so that we may celebrate the feast which is in heaven with the angels. Thus, anciently, the people of the Jews, when they came out of affliction into a state of ease, kept the feast, singing a song of praise for their victory

Augustine – Letters of Augustin to Januarius
According to this faith and hope and love, by which we have begun to be “under grace,” we are already dead together with Christ, and buried together with Him by baptism into death; as the apostle hath said, “Our old man is crucified with Him;” and we have risen with Him, for “He hath raised us up together, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places.” Whence also he gives this exhortation: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” In the next words, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory,”

St. Athanasius, Festal Letters, Letter X
“Let us keep the feast in that way which He hath consecrated to us for salvation—the holy day of Easter—so that we may celebrate the feast which is in heaven with the angels.”


Resurrection

St. Alexander of Alexandria – Epistles on Arianism
You see, therefore, how great was the effect of the death of Christ, for no creature endured His fall with equal mind, nor did the elements His Passion, neither did the earth retain His body, nor hell His Spirit. All things were in the Passion of Christ disturbed and convulsed. The Lord exclaimed, as once before to Lazarus, Come forth, you dead, from your tombs and your secret places; for I, the Christ, give unto you resurrection. For then the earth could not long hold the body of our Lord that in it was buried; but it exclaimed, O my Lord, pardon mine iniquities, save me from Your wrath, absolve me from the curse, for I have received the blood of the righteous, and yet I have not covered the bodies of men or Your own body! What is at length this wonderful mystery? Why, O Lord, did You come down to earth, unless it was for man’s sake, who has been scattered everywhere: for in every place has Your, fair image been disseminated? Nay! But if you should give but one little word, at the instant all bodies would stand before You. Now, since You have come to earth, and have sought for the members of Your fashioning, undertake for man who is Your own, receive that which is committed to You, recover Your image, Your Adam. Then the Lord, the third day after His death, rose again, thus bringing man to a knowledge of the Trinity. Then all the nations of the human race were saved by Christ. One submitted to the judgment, and many thousands were absolved.

St. Athanasius – Festal Letters, Letter II
Now some have related the wonderful signs performed by our Saviour, and preached His eternal Godhead. And others have written of His being born in the flesh of the Virgin, and have proclaimed the festival of the holy passover, saying, ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed;’ so that we, individually and collectively, and all the churches in the world may remember, as it is written, ‘That Christ rose from the dead, of the seed of David, according to the Gospel.’ And let us not forget that which Paul delivered, declaring it to the Corinthians; I mean His resurrection, whereby ‘He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;’ and raised us up together with Him, having loosed the bands of death, and vouchsafed a blessing instead of a curse, joy instead of grief, a feast instead of mourning, in this holy joy of Easter, which being continually in our hearts, we always rejoice, as Paul commanded; ‘We pray without ceasing; in everything we give thanks.’ So we are not remiss in giving notice of its seasons, as we have received from the Fathers. Again we write, again keeping to the apostolic traditions, we remind each other when we come together for prayer; and keeping the feast in common, with one mouth we truly give thanks to the Lord. Thus giving thanks unto Him, and being followers of the saints, ‘we shall make our praise in the Lord all the day,’ as the Psalmist says. So, when we rightly keep the feast, we shall be counted worthy of that joy which is in heaven.

St. Athanasius – On the Incarnation of the Word
Forasmuch then as the children are ” the sharers in blood and flesh, he also himself in like ” manner partook of the same, that through death he ” might bring to nought him that had the power of ” death, that is, the devil; and might deliver them “who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” For by the sacrifice of his own body, he both put an end to the law which was against us, and made a new beginning of life for us, by the hope of resurrection which he has given us. For since from man it was that death prevailed over men, for this cause conversely, by the Word of God being made man has come about the destruction of death and the resurrection of life; as the man which bore Christ saith: ” For since by man came death, by man came also the “resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so “also in Christ shall all be made alive: ” and so forth. For no longer now do we die as subject to condemnation; but as men who rise from the dead we await the general resurrection of all, “which in its own times he shall” show,” even God, who has also wrought it, and bestowed it upon us…Why, now that the common Saviour of all has died on our behalf, we, the faithful in Christ, no longer die the death as before, agreeably to the warning of the law; for this condemnation has ceased; but, corruption ceasing and being put away by the grace of the Resurrection, henceforth we are only dissolved, agreeably to our bodies’ mortal nature, at the time God has fixed for each, that we may be able to gain a better resurrection.

St. Athanasius – On the Incarnation of the Word, Chap 4
Have no fears then. Now that the common Savior of all has died on our behalf, we who believe in Christ no longer die, as men died aforetime, in fulfillment of the threat of the law. That condemnation has come to an end; and now that, by the grace of the resurrection, corruption has been banished and done away, we are loosed from our mortal bodies in God’s good time for each, so that we may obtain thereby a better resurrection. Like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish in our dissolution, but like them shall rise again, death having been brought to nought by the grace of the Savior. That is why blessed Paul, through whom we all have surety of the resurrection, says: “This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality; but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?'”

St. Cyril of Alexandria- Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
When therefore God was ordering what belongs to the feast of tabernacles, He says thus unto Moses, On the fifteenth day of the seventh month a feast of tabernacles unto the Lord, and ye shall offer whole burnt sacrifices and sacrifices seven days, and the first day shall be notable holy. Then after enjoining besides the mode of the sacrifices, He added again, And in the fifteenth day of this seventh month, ye shall offer whole burnt offerings unto the Lord seven days, and the first day a rest and the seventh day a rest. And on the first day ye shall take you boughs of palm trees and thick branches of a tree and fruit of a goodly tree and willows and branches of agnus from the brook to rejoice withal. Having then already in the second book gone through every portion of the above cited passage and expended much discourse thereon, we will yet again make mention of it briefly  For we said that the feast of tabernacles signified the thrice longed for time of the resurrection: that the taking boughs and the fruit of a goodly tree, and the other things besides, meant a recovery of Paradise about to be given us again through Christ. But that since it is put at the end that one ought to take every thing out of the brook, and again to rejoice thereof, we said that our Lord Jesus Christ was compared to a brook, in Whom we shall find all delight and enjoyment in hope, and in Him shall delight us Divinely and spiritually. And that He is and is called spiritually a Brook, the most wise Psalmist too will testify to us, saying to God the Father about us, The children of men shall hope in the shadow of Thy wings: they shall be inebriated with the fatness of Thy House, and Thou shalt give them drink of the Brook of Thy delights. And the Lord Himself somewhere in the prophets  says, Behold I am inclining to them as a river of peace and as an overflowing brook.

St. Cyril of Alexandria- Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
Profitably then does He command that the tabernacle be set up in one day, holding out a type of Christ, that you may understand thereby His Death once for all in this one present time. For He will not be born again hereafter, nor yet will die, having once for all been born and died and risen from the dead. For the Resurrection, which is as it were, a pitching of the holy tabernacle, must of necessity follow His Death. But it is in the new moon, because in Christ we have a new age: for what is in Him, are a new creature. And the first month is taken, signifying the renewal of human nature from death and decay to life and incorruption, and its passing at length from barrenness to fruitfulness, and its escape from the tyranny of the devil, like the winter now passed away and come to its close. Again in another way does he shew us Emmanuel in type and figure saying, And thou shalt place the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the veil. For in the preceding the Word was limned in the complete tabernacle (for it was the House of God indwelling therein, to wit, the Holy Body of Christ) but no less is the same signified to us by the ark individually. For it was constructed of undecaying wood, that you might understand His Body incorruptible: it was overlaid with pure gold within and without, as it is written ; for all belonging to Him is Precious and royal, both the Divinity and the Humanity, and in all things He hath the preeminence as Paul saith. And the gold is taken as a type of honour and excellence above all things. The ark then was fashioned of undecaying wood, and overlaid with gold, and had the Divine law deposited therein, for a type of God the Word indwelling in, and united to, His Holy Flesh (for the Law too was the Word of God, although not the Hypostatic Word, as the Son is). And it is covered by the veil. For God the Word Incarnate was unseen of the many, having His Own Body as a covering, and lying hid within His Own Flesh as with a veil, so that thence certain not knowing His God-befitting Dignity, at one time endeavoured to stone Him, imputing it to Him, as a crime, that He being Man, said He was God, at another time, they blushed not to say, Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother WE know? how doth He now say, I have come down from heaven?

St. Athanasius explained that Christ yielded his body to death “instead of all” in order to:

1. Satisfy their debt of death by His death
2. Make men quit and free of their old trespass
3. Display His own body incorruptible, as first-fruits of the resurrection of all.

St. Athanasius – On the Incarnation of the Word
For the Word, perceiving that no otherwise could the corruption of men be undone save by death as a necessary condition, while it was impossible for the Word to suffer death, being immortal, and Son of the Father; to this end He takes to Himself a body capable of death, that it, by partaking of the Word Who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all, and might, because of the Word which was come to dwell in it, remain incorruptible, and that thenceforth corruption might be stayed from all by the Grace of the Resurrection. Whence, by offering unto death the body He Himself had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from any stain, straightway He put away death from all His peers by the offering of an equivalent. For being over all, the Word of God naturally by offering His own temple and corporeal instrument for the life of all satisfied the debt by His death. And thus He, the incorruptible Son of God, being conjoined with all by a like nature, naturally clothed all with incorruption, by the promise of the resurrection…But since it was necessary also that the debt owing from all should be paid again: for, as I have already said, it was owing that all should die, for which especial cause, indeed, He came among us: to this intent, after the proofs of His Godhead from His works, He next offered up His sacrifice also on behalf of all, yielding His Temple to death in the stead of all, in order firstly to make men quit and free of their old trespass, and further to shew Himself more powerful even than death, displaying His own body incorruptible, as first-fruits of the resurrection of all.

St. Athanasius – On the Incarnation of the Word
For being Himself mighty, and Artificer of everything, He prepares the body in the Virgin as a temple unto Himself, and makes it His very own as an instrument, in it manifested, and in it dwelling.  And thus taking from our bodies one of like nature, because all were under penalty of the corruption of death He gave it over to death in the stead of all, and offered it to the Father— doing this, moreover, of His loving-kindness, to the end that, firstly, all being held to have died in Him, the law involving the ruin of men might be undone (inasmuch as its power was fully spent in the Lord’s body, and had no longer holding-ground against men, his peers), and that, secondly, whereas men had turned toward corruption, He might turn them again toward incorruption, and quicken them from death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of the Resurrection, banishing death from them like straw from the fire.

St. Basil the Great – On Matt. xx. 23
“If the Son has not authority over the judgment, and power to benefit some and chastise others, how could He say, ‘The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son’?  And in another place, ‘The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins;’ and again, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;’ and to Peter, ‘I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;’ and to the disciples, ‘Verily, I say unto you that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration,…shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’  The explanation is clear from the Scripture, since the Saviour said, ‘Then will I reward every man according to his work;’ and in another place, ‘They that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.’  And the Apostle says, ‘We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.’  It is therefore the part of the recipients to make themselves worthy of a seat on the left and on the right of the Lord: it is not the part of Him Who is able to give it, even though the request be unjust.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book V, Chapter III
“Hearest thou how to the Jews asking a sign as a proof that He is God by Nature, even though they said it tempting Him, He says that no other shall be shewn to them save the sign of the prophet Jonas, i. e. the three days death and the coming to life again from the dead? For what token of God-befitting authority so great and manifest, as to undo death and overthrow decay, albeit by Divine sentence having the mastery over human nature? For in Adam it heard, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return; but it was in the power of Christ the Saviour both to end His Anger, and by blessings to overthrow the death which from His curse prevailed. But that the Jews exceedingly feared the sign of the resurrection as mighty to convince that Christ is by Nature God, their final deed will clearly tell us, for when they heard of the Resurrection of the Saviour, and that He was not found in the tomb, terrified and exceeding fearful thereat, they planned to buy off the informations of the soldiers by large money. For they gave them money to say, His disciples came by night and stole Him while we slept. Mighty therefore is the sign of the Resurrection, having undoubted demonstration that Jesus is God, whereat the hard and unbending heart of the Jews was sore troubled.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book VI
For just as the doctrine of the resurrection extends to all men, through the Resurrection of the Saviour, Who causes to rise with Himself the nature of man in its entirety, yet it will profit nothing those who love sin, (for they will go down into Hades, receiving restoration to life only that they may be punished as they deserve); nevertheless it will be of great profit to those who have practised the more excellent way of life, (for they will receive the resurrection to the participation of the good things which pass understanding): in just the same way I think the doctrine of the friendly relationship applies to all men, both bad and good, yet is not the same thing to all; but while to those who believe on Him it is the means of true kinship and of the blessings consequent upon that, to those who are not such it is an aggravation of their ingratitude and un-holiness.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book X
For even if it be the fact that Christ raises the bodies of all men, for there will be a resurrection of the evil and the good alike, yet not to all without distinction will a new life of glory and felicity be given. For it is clear that some only rise again to punishment, and will have a life more grievous than any death, while others spending ages of blessedness, will actually live the desirable and holy life in Christ. For that they who are doomed to receive the sentence of punishment from Christ on the occasion of the judgment, will abide without a taste of the blessed life, although they shared with the Saints the lot of resurrection, He makes plain by these words: He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life, but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide on Him. For know that although while all the evil and the good alike await the resurrection, He says that those who are fast bound by the charge of disobedience cannot even attain to a glimpse of the life, as He declares that it is not the mere act of resurrection that is life, but that that life rather consists in rest and glory and felicity, spiritual of course and of no other kind.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book II, Chapter IV
What is Paul too about, saying, For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad?…For of the believer he says that he shall have everlasting life, of the unbeliever, the word hath a different significance. For he does not say that he shall not have life: for he shall be raised by the common law of the resurrection; but he says that he shall not see life, that is, he shall not so much as arrive at the bare sight of the life of the saints, he shall not touch their blessedness, he shall remain untasting of their life passed in bliss. For that is indeed life. But to exist in punishment is bitterer than all death, holding the soul in the body only for the sensation of sufferings. Some such difference in life Paul also brings forward. Hear what he says to those who are dead to evil for Christ’s sake, For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Seest thou how he calls appearing in glory with Christ the life of the saints? But what when the Psalmist too sings to us, saying, What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil. Shall we not say that herein is signified the life of the saints? but it is, I think, evident to all. For he does not, forsooth, bid some to refrain from evil, that they may obtain the resurrection of the flesh hereafter (for they will rise again even if they do not cease from evil), but he rouses them rather to that life, wherein they may wholly see good days, passing an endless life in bliss and glory.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book II, Chapter VIII
Verily verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; the hour again that is, when they that hear shall live. By the words then in the beginning, He means the time of the resurrection, wherein He teaches through the word of the Judge that they that sleep shall rise again to answer for their life in the world, that as I said before, devising the fear thence arising as a bridle, He might persuade them to live full excellently and wisely: by the closing words He shews that the due time of believing is now come, but also says that everlasting life will be the reward of obedience: all but declaring, Ye shall all come to judgement, sirs, that is at the time of the Resurrection, but if it seem bitter to you to be punished, and to undergo endless penalties at the hand of the offended Judge, suffer not the time of obedience to pass by, but laying hold of it while yet present, haste ye to attain to everlasting life.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book IV, Chapter II
To these things we say, Yes, all flesh shall live again: for Prophecy foretells that the dead shall be raised. For we consider that the Mystery through the resurrection of Christ extendeth over the whole nature of man, and in Him first we believe that our whole nature has been released from corruption. For all shall rise, after the likeness of Him That was raised for our sakes, and hath all in Himself, in that He is Man. And as in the first-formed we fell down into death, so in the First-born again, who was so for our sakes, all shall rise again from the dead: but they that did good, unto the resurrection of life (as it is written), and they that wrought evil, unto the resurrection of doom. And I will grant, that in no passing degree bitterer than death is the resurrection unto punishment, and the receiving life again unto disgrace alone. In the stricter sense then wo must understand the Life that is really so, the life in Christ, in holiness and bliss and unfailing delight. For that this is truly life the wise John too knows, saying, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide on him. For lo, lo, he says that he which is in unbelief shall not see life: although every creature looks to return again to life, and to rise again. It is then manifest, that the Saviour with reason called that the life which is prepared for the Saints, I mean that in glory and in holiness, which that we ought to pursue after by coming to the participation of the Life-giving Flesh, no right-minded person will doubt.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book IV, Chapter VII
But we receive the circumcision in the Spirit which bringeth us up to an intimate nearness to God, on the eighth day, that is the day of the resurrection of the Saviour, taking this as a sign that the circumcision of the Spirit is the giver of Life, and agreeing in some sort through the thing itself, that we shall live with Christ, according to what is said by Paul, For ye died, and your life hath been hidden with Christ in God: when Christ shall appear, your life, then shall YE also appear with Him in glory. For will not one say (and that with truth) that one dies to the world, by refusing the world’s pleasures for God’s sake? Such an one did the Divine Paul too manifest himself to us, saying, God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of Christ, by Whom the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world: for made partakers of Him through the Spirit, which circumciseth without hands all. the impurity that is in us, we become dead to the world, and live a most excellent life to God. Therefore circumcision is on the eighth day by reason of the resurrection of Christ, and not before the eighth; for not before the Resurrection was the gift of the Spirit, but after it, or at the very time of the resurrection, when He breathed on His disciples also, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. To the Jews then the circumcision by the knife was more fitting, for they were yet slaves and under the avenging law (and the iron is the symbol of punishment), but to us as free and spiritual belongs the purification through the Spirit, banishing all pollution from our souls, and bringing in perfection in the brightness of godliness through faith.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book VII
For although we are all raised to life through Christ, yet this [eternal life given to the faithful] is the true life, namely, to live unendingly in bliss; for to be restored to life only for punishment differs nothing from death. If therefore any one notices that even the saints, who have received promises of life, die; this is nothing, for it is only what naturally comes to pass. And until the proper time has been reserved the display of the grace [of resurrection], which is powerful, not partially, but effectually, in the case of all men, even of those saints who have died in time past and are tasting death for a short time, until the general resurrection. For then, together, all will enjoy the good things. And in saying: Though he die, yet shall he live, the Saviour did not take away the death in this present world: but admits that it has such might against the faithful that it naturally happens to them, and no more; because He has reserved the grace of resurrection until the proper time. He certainly says: “He that helieveth on Me shall not be without a participation in the death of the flesh in the ordinary course of human nature, but nevertheless he will suffer nothing worthy of fear in this, as God is able easily to make alive whomsoever He will.” For he that believeth on Him, hath in the world to come an endless life in bliss and perfect immortality. Wherefore let not any of the unbelieving mock: for Christ did not say: “From this present moment he shall in no wise see death,” but when He said absolutely: “He shall never see death in any wise,” He spake concerning the world to come, reserving the end of the promise until then.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, SERMON CIII
For certainly after the resurrection from the dead we must stand in Christ’s presence; and there a recompense shall of necessity be made to the compassionate and merciful: but a condemnation commensurate with their deeds shall be the lot of those who were harsh and without mutual love; for it is written, “that there is judgment without mercy for those who have shewed no mercy.” And if so, how is it not the proof and perfection of a sound mind, that before we descend to the pit of torment we should take forethought for our life? For come, and let us discuss this among ourselves. Suppose that for some cause or other which the law condemned they had dragged us before the judges, and so a sentence such as our offences deserved had been passed upon us after our conviction; should we not with pleasure offer up our wealth to escape from all torment and punishment? And how can there be any doubt of this? For oneself is better than possessions, and life than wealth. Now we are guilty of many sins, and must give an account to the Judge of whatsoever we have done; and why then do we not deliver ourselves from judgment and the everlasting fire while time permits? And the way in which to deliver ourselves is to live in virtue;—to comfort the brethren who are grieved with poverty, and open our hand wide to all who are in need, and to sympathize with the sick.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book , Book II, Chapter VIII
He signifies by these words the time of the resurrection of all, when, as the Divine Paul wrote to us, The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a summons, with the voice of the Archangel, with the trump of God, to judge the world in righteousness, and render to every man according to his works. For He raiseth by a word and God-befitting Operation not only the sick from little diseases, but those also who have been already submerged by death and overcome by invincible corruption. And hence introducing the greater, He says, The hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear His Voice. For He who by a Word brought into being things that were not, how should He not be able to win back into being that which was already created? For thus each will be the effect of the same Operation, and the glorious production of one Authority. And profitably does He subjoin that they shall come forth of their graves, they that were holden of base deeds and that lived in wickedness to undergo endless punishment, the illustrious in virtue to receive the reward of their religiousness, eternal life: at once (as we said above) introducing Himself as the Dispenser of what belongs to each, in these words of His; and persuading them, either from fear of suffering dreadful punishments, to forego evil and to hasten to elect to live more soberly, or pricked with desire after some sort for eternal life, make more zealous and eager haste after good.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book , Book V, Chapter I
For ye died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God: when Christ, your Life, shall appear, then shall YE also appear with Him in glory: and again putting forth his discourse on the resurrection, he says, And WE which are alive, which remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And things akin to this is the Saviour Himself too seen discoursing of to His disciples. For as He sat and did eat with them, He says, But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of Heaven: yea and to the robber who hung on high along with Him, at the very gates of death through faith in Him seizing on the grace of the saints, He saith, Verily, verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. They then who by obedience have honored Him, shall be with Him unhindered, and shall delight them in the good things that pass understanding: but they who refuse not to insult Him with their folly, albeit sons of the bridechamber, shall go away in sorrow to hell, to pay bitter penalties. For they shall be cast out, as it is written, into the outer darkness. True therefore will be the Lord saying darkly to the Jews, Where I am YE cannot come.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book , Book IX 
He says, however, that “the Son of Man” is glorified, meaning none other than Himself; not implying a separation in Himself, as some have thought, for the Christ is one only Son both before and after His incarnation, as well after He became man like unto us as before He had become man. But we must now inquire what manner of glorification that is to which He now specially alludes; for some perhaps may say: Was He not surely glorified before this, by the mighty wonders which He wrought?…For if we examine as well as we may the real character of the mystery of His work, we shall see that He died, not merely for Himself, nor even especially for His own sake; but that it was on behalf of humanity that He suffered and carried out both the suffering in itself and the resurrection that followed. For in that He died according to the flesh, He offered up His own life as an equivalent for the life of all; and by rendering perfect satisfaction for all, He fulfilled in Himself to the uttermost the force of that ancient curse. And in that He has risen again from the dead to a life imperishable and unceasing, in Himself He raises the whole of nature…For He Who was believed to be a mere man was glorified very much beyond that, by being acknowledged as in very truth really God and the Son of God; not being promoted to a new dignity in possessing the Divine nature, but rather returning with His flesh to the full enjoyment of that very glory which was equally His before He took flesh. For this reason then we shall reckon that He was now glorified, although there never was a time when He was not Lord of glory.

St. Ignatius of Antioch (35 – 108 AD) – Epistle to the Ephesians, Chapter 11
The last times are come upon us. Let us therefore be of a reverent spirit, and fear the long-suffering of God, lest we despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance. For let us either fear the wrath to come, or let us love the present joy in the life that now is; and let our present and true joy be only this, to be found in Christ Jesus, that we may truly live. Do not at any time desire so much as even to breathe apart from Him. For He is my hope; He is my boast; He is my never-failing riches, on whose account I bear about with me these bonds from Syria to Rome, these spiritual jewels, in which may I be perfected through your prayers, and become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, and have fellowship with Him in His death, His resurrection from the dead, and His everlasting life.


Ascension

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book X
It was necessary then to confer on the nature of man the height of blessedness, and not only to rid it of death and sin, but to raise it even to the heavens themselves, and to make man a companion of the angels, and a partaker in their joys. And just as by His own Resurrection He renewed in us the power of escaping corruption, even so He thought it right to open out for us the path heavenwards, and to set in the Presence of the Father the race of man who had been cast out of His sight owing to Adam’s transgression. And the inspired Paul, adopting this view, says: For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, nor into one like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the Face of God for us. He tells us that being ever in His Father’s Presence, and partaking of His Nature by reason of the sameness of Their Essence, He now manifests Himself not for His own sake but for us. For I will repeat what I have already said. He places us in the sight of the Father, by departing into heaven as the firstfruits of humanity. For just as, being Himself the Life by Nature, He is said to have died and risen again for our sake, even so He is said, ever beholding His Father and being in like manner beholden of Him, to appear as Man now, that is, when He has taken human nature upon Him, not for His own sake but for us. And as this one thing was seen to be lacking in His dispensation to us-ward, our ascension into heaven has been prepared for us in Christ, Who was the firstfruits and the first of men to ascend. For He ascended thither as our forerunner, as the inspired Paul also himself says. There, as Man, He is in very truth still the High Priest of our souls, our Comforter, and the propitiation for our sins; and, as God and Lord by Nature, He sits on His own Father’s throne, and even on us too will the glory thereof be reflected. For this reason also Paul said concerning the Father: And He raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. When then His mission on earth was accomplished, it was necessary that He should fulfill what yet remained—-His Ascension to the Father. Wherefore He says: It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter cannot come unto you.

St. Augustine – Letters of Augustin to Januarius
According to this faith and hope and love, by which we have begun to be “under grace,” we are already dead together with Christ, and buried together with Him by baptism into death; as the apostle hath said, “Our old man is crucified with Him;” and we have risen with Him, for “He hath raised us up together, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places.” Whence also he gives this exhortation: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” In the next words, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory,”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book IX, Chap. XIV
For in that He has appeared in human form He is still one of us as He sits at the right hand of God the Father, even though He is far above all creation; and He is also Consubstantial with His Father, in that He has come forth from Him as truly God of God and Light of Light. He has presented Himself therefore as Man to the Father on our behalf, that so He may restore us, who had been removed from the Father’s presence by the ancient transgression, again as it were to behold the Father’s face. He sits there in His position as Son, that so also we through Him may be called sons and children of God. For this reason also Paul, who insists that he has Christ speaking by his voice, teaches us to regard the events that happened in the life of Christ alone as common to the whole race; saying that God raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ. For to Christ, as by nature Son, it belongs as a special prerogative to sit at the Father’s side, and the glory of this dignity we can ascribe rightly and truly to Him, and Him alone. But the fact that Christ Who sits there is in all points like unto us, in that He has appeared as Man, while we believe Him to be God of God, seems to confer on us also the privilege of this dignity. For even if we shall not sit at the side of the Father Himself,—-for how could the servant ever ascend to equal honour  with the master?—-yet nevertheless Christ promised the holy disciples that they should sit on thrones. For He says: When the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Letter to Acacius the Bishop, Concerning the Scapegoat
The only begotten Word of God ascended in the heavens with his flesh united to him, and this was a new sight in the heavens. The multitude of holy angels was astounded seeing the king of glory and the Lord of hosts in the form like unto us. And they said, “Who is this that comes from Edom (that is, from earth), in crimsoned garments, from Bosor.” But Bosor is interpreted flesh or anguish and affliction. Then the angels asked this, “What are these wounds in the middle of your hands?” And he said to them, “With these I was wounded in the house of my beloved.”

St. Athanasius – Against the Arians
Formerly the world, as guilty, was under judgment from the Law
; but now the Word has taken on Himself the judgment, and having suffered in the body for all, has bestowed salvation to all. With a view to this has John exclaimed, ‘The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ Better is grace than the Law, and truth than the shadow.‘Better’ then, as has been said, could not have been brought to pass by any other than the Son, who sits on the right hand of the Father. And what does this denote but the Son’s genuineness, and that the Godhead of the Father is the same as the Son’s? For in that the Son reigns in His Father’s kingdom, is seated upon the same throne as the Father, and is contemplated in the Father’s Godhead, therefore is the Word God, and whoso beholds the Son, beholds the Father; and thus there is one God. Sitting then on the right, yet He does not place His Father on the left; but whatever is right and precious in the Father, that also the Son has, and says, ‘All things that the Father hath are Mine.’ Wherefore also the Son, though sitting on the right, also sees the Father on the right, though it be as become man that He says, ‘I saw the Lord always before My face, for He is on My right hand, therefore I shall not fall.’ This shews moreover that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son; for the Father being on the right, the Son is on the right; and while the Son sits on the right of the Father, the Father is in the Son.

St. Athanasius – Against the Arians, Discourse I, Chapter XI
And this too is an evidence of His goodness towards us that, while we were exalted because that the Highest Lord is in us, and on our account grace was given to Him, because that the Lord who supplies the grace has become a man like us, He on the other hand, the Saviour, humbled Himself in taking ‘our body of humiliation,’ and took a servant’s form, putting on that flesh which was enslaved to sin. And He indeed has gained nothing from us for His own promotion: for the Word of God is without want and full; but rather we were promoted from Him; for He is the ‘Light, which lighteneth every man, coming into the world.’ And in vain do the Arians lay stress upon the conjunction ‘wherefore,’ because Paul has said, ‘Wherefore, hath God highly exalted Him.’ For in saying this he did not imply any prize of virtue, nor promotion from advance, but the cause why the exaltation was bestowed upon us. And what is this but that He who existed in form of God, the Son of a noble Father, humbled Himself and became a servant instead of us and in our behalf? For if the Lord had not become man, we had not been redeemed from sins, not raised from the dead, but remaining dead under the earth; not exalted into heaven, but lying in Hades. Because of us then and in our behalf are the words, ‘highly exalted’ and ‘given.’

St. Athanasius – On the Incarnation of the Word
From the Scriptures you will learn also of His second manifestation to us, glorious and divine indeed, when He shall come not in lowliness but in His proper glory, no longer in humiliation but in majesty, no longer to suffer but to bestow on us all the fruit of His cross—the resurrection and incorruptibility. No longer will He then be judged, but rather will Himself be Judge, judging each and all according to their deeds done in the body, whether good or ill. Then for the good is laid up the heavenly kingdom, but for those that practice evil outer darkness and the eternal fire. So also the Lord Himself says, “I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man seated on the right hand of power, coming on the clouds of heaven in the glory of the Father.” For that Day we have one of His own sayings to prepare us, “Get ready and watch, for ye know not the hour in which He cometh” And blessed Paul says, “We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive according as he practiced in the body, whether good or ill.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book IX
He ascended, as it were by way of first-fruits and in the Temple of His own Body first,
unto God the Father in heaven. But after in the meanwhile accomplishing a short time, He will descend again, as we believe, and will return again unto us, in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels, and will set up the appalling tribunal before all men, both evil and good. For all created things shall come to judgment. And rendering becoming awards, corresponding to the life each one has led, He will say to them on the left, i.e. to those that have minded the things in the world: Depart from Me ye cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; howbeit to them on the right, i.e. to the holy and good: Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For they shall be with Christ and shall reign with Him, and shall revel in the heavenly blessings, having been made conformable to His Resurrection, and escaped the meshes of the ancient corruption, being endued with the long and ineffable life, and living endlessly with the ever-living Lord…For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord; and again, to them that have chosen to mortify worldly passions: For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory.

St. Alexander of Alexandria – Epistles on Arianism
Now, since You have come to earth, and have sought for the members of Your fashioning, undertake for man who is Your own, receive that which is committed to You, recover Your image, Your Adam. Then the Lord, the third day after His death, rose again, thus bringing man to a knowledge of the Trinity. Then all the nations of the human race were saved by Christ. One submitted to the judgment, and many thousands were absolved. Moreover, He being made like to man whom He had saved, ascended to the height of heaven, to offer before His Father, not gold or silver, or precious stones, but the man whom He had formed after His own image and similitude; and the Father, raising Him to His right hand, has seated Him upon a throne on high, and has made Him to be judge of the peoples, the leader of the angelic host, the charioteer of the cherubim, the Son of the true Jerusalem, the Virgin’s spouse, and King for ever and ever. Amen.

Aphrahat (270 A.D – 345 A.D) – Demonstrations, Demonstration VI 
All this humility did our Saviour show us in Himself. Let us then also humble ourselves, my beloved. When our Lord went outside of His nature, He walked in our nature. Let us abide in our nature, that in the day of judgment He may cause us to partake of His nature. Our Lord took from us a pledge when He went, and He left us a pledge of His own when he ascended. He that was without need, because of our need devised this expedient. What was ours was His even from the beginning, but that which was His, who would have given us? But true is that which our Lord promised us:— Where I am there you also shall be. John 14:3 For whatsoever He took of ours, is in honour with Him, and (as) a diadem is bound upon His Head. So also that, which of His we have received, we ought to honour. That which is ours is held in honour with Him who was not in our nature: let us honour that which is His in His own nature. If we honour Him, we shall go to Him, Who took upon Him of our nature and so ascended. But if we despise Him, He will take away from us that which He has given us. If we deal fraudulently with His pledge, He will there take away that which is His, and will deprive us of all that He has promised us…Whoso holds the King’s Son in honour, shall obtain many gifts from the King. That of ours, that is with Him, has sat down in honour and a diadem is bound upon His head, and He has sat down with the King.

Aphrahat (270 A.D – 345 A.D) – Demonstrations, Demonstration VI 
And we who are poor, what shall we do to the King’s Son Who is with us? He needs nothing from us, but that we should adorn our temples for Him; that when the time is accomplished and He goes to His Father, He may give thanks to Him because of us, because we have honoured Him. When He came to us, He had nothing of ours, and also we had nothing of His, though the two natures were His and His Father’s. For when Gabriel made announcement to the Blessed Mary who bore Him, the word from on high set out and came, and the word became flesh and dwelt in us. John 1:14 And when He returned to Him that sent Him, He took away, when He went, that which He had not brought, as the Apostle said:— He has taken us up and seated us with Himself in the heavens. Ephesians 2:6 And when He went to His Father, He sent to us His Spirit and said to us I am with you till the world shall end. For Christ sits at the right hand of His Father, and Christ dwells among men. Matthew 28:20 He is sufficient above and beneath, by the wisdom of His Father. And He dwells in many, though He is one, and all the faithful each by each He overshadows from Himself, and fails not, as it is written:— I will divide Him among many. Isaiah 53:12 And though He is divided among many, yet He sits at the right hand of His Father. And He is in us and we are in Him, as He said:— You are in Me and I am in you. John 14:20 And in another place He said:— I and Father are one. John 10:30

St. Basil the Great – On Psalm XIV
And He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of His Father, whence He is coming at the end of this world, to raise all men, and to give to every man according to his conduct.  Then the just shall be taken up into life eternal and the kingdom of heaven, but the sinner shall be condemned to eternal punishment, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched: And in one Holy Ghost, the Comforter, in Whom we were sealed to the day of redemption: The Spirit of truth, the Spirit of adoption, in Whom we cry, Abba, Father; Who divideth and worketh the gifts that come of God, to each one for our good, as He will; Who teaches and calls to remembrance all things that He has heard from the Son; Who is good; Who guides us into all truth, and confirms all that believe, both in sure knowledge and accurate confession, and in pious service and spiritual and true worship of God the Father, and of His only begotten Son our Lord, and of Himself.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Gospel of St. John, Book IX
For we shall either suppose that this is what He means by Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me; or else turning aside to a different point of view—-especially when there is intertwined with His words the saying Because I live, ye shall live also—-we reason somewhat on this wise. For after His Revival from the dead, when He had effected for our nature the return unto that whereunto it existed from the beginning, and had made man incorruptible, He ascended, as it were by way of first-fruits and in the Temple of His own Body first, unto God the Father in heaven. But after in the meanwhile accomplishing a short time, He will descend again, as we believe, and will return again unto us, in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels, and will set up the appalling tribunal before all men, both evil and good. For all created things shall come to judgment. And rendering becoming awards, corresponding to the life each one has led, He will say to them on the left, i.e. to those that have minded the things in the world: Depart from Me ye cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; howbeit to them on the right, i.e. to the holy and good: Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For they shall be with Christ and shall reign with Him, and shall revel in the heavenly blessings, having been made conformable to His Resurrection, and escaped the meshes of the ancient corruption, being endued with the long and ineffable life, and living endlessly with the ever-living Lord.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Gospel of St. Luke, SERMON CXLV
For He arose, having trampled upon the grave; He ascended up into heaven, He sat down on the right hand of God the Father; and hereafter He shall come, not in mean estate, as of old, nor in the measure of human nature, but in the glory of the Father, with the holy angels as His body-guard; and He shall sit also upon the throne of His glory, “judging the world in righteousness,” as it is written. Then, as the prophet saith, “they shall look on Him Whom they pierced:” and Him Whom these wretched beings ridiculed, as they saw Him hang on the precious cross, they shall behold crowned with godlike glory, and in just retribution of their wickedness towards Him, shall fall into the pit of destruction. “What therefore, He says, concerns Me, hath an end,” as far, that is, as relates to My suffering death in the flesh. And then shall those things which were foretold by the holy prophets in old time, happen unto those who slew Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Gospel of St. John, Book VII
“For when Christ ascends into the heavens, they also shall follow Him.
And He says that He gives to those that follow Him as a recompense and reward, eternal life and exemption from death, or corruption, and from the torments that will be brought upon the transgressors by the Judge. And by the fact of His giving life, He shews that He is in His Nature Life, and that He furnishes this from Himself and not as receiving it from another. And we understand by eternal life, not [only] the length of days which all, both good and bad, are going to enjoy after the resurrection, but also the spending it in bliss.”


Ascension

St. Athanasius – Four Discourses Against the Arians, Chapter XI
For as Christ died and was exalted as man, so, as man, is He said to take what, as God, He ever had, that even such a grant of grace might reach to us. For the Word was not impaired in receiving a body, that He should seek to receive a grace, but rather He deified that which He put on, and more than that, ‘gave’ it graciously to the race of man. For as He was ever worshiped as being the Word and existing in the form of God, so being what He ever was, though become man and called Jesus, He none the less has the whole creation under foot, and bending their knees to Him in this Name, and confessing that the Word’s becoming flesh, and undergoing death in flesh, has not happened against the glory of His Godhead, but ‘to the glory of God the Father.’ For it is the Father’s glory that man, made and then lost, should be found again; and, when dead, that he should be made alive, and should become God’s temple. For whereas the powers in heaven, both Angels and Archangels, were ever worshiping the Lord, as they are now worshiping Him in the Name of Jesus, this is our grace and high exaltation, that even when He became man, the Son of God is worshiped, and the heavenly powers will not be astonished at seeing all of us, who are of one body with Him, introduced into their realms. And this had not been, unless He who existed in the form of God had taken on Him a servant’s form, and had humbled Himself, yielding His body to come unto death.

St. Athanasius – Four Discourses Against the Arians, Chapter XI
But since He Himself is said to be ‘exalted,’ and God ‘gave’ Him, and the heretics think this a defect or affection in the essence of the Word, it becomes necessary to explain how these words are used. He is said to be exalted from the lower parts of the earth, because death is ascribed even to Him. Both events are reckoned His, since it was His Body, and none other’s, that was exalted from the dead and taken up into heaven. And again, the Body being His, and the Word not being external to it, it is natural that when the Body was exalted, He, as man, should, because of the body, be spoken of as exalted. If then He did not become man, let this not be said of Him: but if the Word became flesh, of necessity the resurrection and exaltation, as in the case of a man, must be ascribed to Him, that the death which is ascribed to Him may be a redemption of the sin of men and an abolition of death, and that the resurrection and exaltation may for His sake remain secure for us. In both respects he hath said of Him, ‘God hath highly exalted Him,’ and ‘God hath given to Him;’ that herein moreover he may show that it is not the Father that hath become flesh, but it is His Word, who has become man, and receives after the manner of men from the Father, and is exalted by Him, as has been said…For He received it as far as His man’s nature was exalted; which exaltation was its being deified. But such an exaltation the Word Himself always had according to the Father’s Godhead and perfection, which was His.

St. Athanasius – Four Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse IV
Wherefore He highly exalted Him,’ and ‘He set Him at the right hand,’ and the like, we must say that our Lord, being Word and Son of God, bore a body, and became Son of Man, that, having become Mediator between God, and men, He might minister the things of God to us, and ours to God. When then He is said to hunger and weep and weary, and to cry Eloi, Eloi, which are our human affections, He receives them from us and offers to the Father, interceding for us, that in Him they may be annulled. And when it is said, ‘All power is given unto Me,’ and ‘I received,’ and ‘Wherefore God highly exalted Him,’ these are gifts given from God to us through Him. For the Word was never in want, nor has come into being; nor again were men sufficient to minister these things for themselves, but through the Word they are given to us; therefore, as if given to Him, they are imparted to us. For this was the reason of His becoming man, that, as being given to Him, they might pass on to us. For of such gifts mere man had not become worthy; and again the mere Word had not needed them; the Word then was united to us, and then imparted to us power, and highly exalted us. For the Word being in man, highly exalted man himself; and, when the Word was in man, man himself received. Since then, the Word being in flesh, man himself was exalted, and received power…For all that man himself has received, the Word is said to have received Wherefore if anything be said to be given to the Lord, or the like, we must consider that it is given, not to Him as needing it, but to man himself through the Word.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Gospel of St. John, Chapter II
For He returns clothed with our flesh to be again highly exalted and glorified with the Father. And He was loved by Him, and not then for the first time, when He fulfilled His voluntary subjection; and you will better understand this by the following considerations. For according to the manner in which He was always exalted and glorified, with reference to His Own Nature, He that was bereft of the glory suited to God, so far as the definition of His Humanity was concerned, is said to have been glorified and exalted when He became Man. For being thus from the beginning loved always and through all time, He is said to have been loved even when clothed in flesh. For on this account He appeared amongst us; that is, He took our form upon Him and became Man, in order that He might make pleasing to God that which was hated on account of the transgression at the beginning, and the sin which had crept in in the interval. For, for this reason, Christ is said to have appeared as the Door, and the Beginning, and the Way of all things good to us.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on Gospel of St. John, Boox XI, Chapter VI
Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the Name which is above every name; that in the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father For though the Son is high, inasmuch as He proceeded as God and Lord from the Father, none the less is the Father recorded to have exalted man in Him, for on man the degradation of his nature brings the need of exaltation. He prays, then, for the recovery of His own glory, even in the flesh. He is not wholly bereft of His own glory when He so speaks, even though He were to ask without receiving, for the Word, being the true God, was never robbed of His own majesty. He rather refers to the glory which belongs ever to Him, and its appropriate temple in the heavens, and His own return thither in the raiment of the flesh, on which the interval of His humiliation had been consequent. For that He may not appear to be claiming for Himself a strange and unusual glory to which He had not been accustomed in time past, He distinguishes it by the addition of the epithet “before the world was,” and the words “with Thine own Self.”


Pentecost 

Christ is formed in us when the Holy Spirit imparts to us a kind of divine form through sanctification and justification; this is the way, in fact, this is the way that the stamp of the substance of the God and Father becomes obvious in our souls, when the Holy Spirit transforms us to likeness with him, as i said, through sanctification. Paul in his sacred role, for instance, also spoke in similar terms, ”Do not be conformed to this world; instead, be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” He also says that a veil lies over the hearts of the Jews, whereas all of us with unveiled faces see the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, and are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, as though from the Lord, the Spirit.

St. Athanasius – Against the Arians, Discourse I
He, the Word, dispensed to the saints the Spirit as His own, so also when made man, He sanctifies all by the Spirit and says to His Disciples, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’ And He gave to Moses and the other seventy; and through Him David prayed to the Father, saying, ‘Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.’ On the other hand, when made man, He said, ‘I will send to you the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth;’ and He sent Him, He, the Word of God, as being faithful. Therefore ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,’ remaining unalterable, and at once gives and receives, giving as God’s Word, receiving as man. It is not the Word then, viewed as the Word, that is promoted; for He had all things and has them always; but men, who have in Him and through Him their origin

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Third Letter to Nestorius
And when He says of the Spirit, He shall glorify Me, we conceiving aright say that not as lacking glory from another did the One Christ and Son receive Glory from the Holy Ghost, since neither is His Spirit superior to Him and above Him: but since for demonstration of His Godhead He was using His own Spirit for mighty deeds, He says that He is glorified by Him. Just as if one of us were to say of his own strength (for example) or understanding in regard to ought, They will glorify me. For even though the Spirit exist in His Own Person, and is conceived of by Himself, inasmuch as He is the SPIRIT and not the SON, yet is He not therefore alien from Him; for He is called the Spirit of Truth, and Christ is the Truth, and He proceedeth from Him, just as from God the Father. The Spirit therefore working miracles by the hand too of the holy Apostles after that our Lord Jesus Christ had gone up into Heaven, glorified Him; for He Himself again working through His own Spirit, was believed in, that He is God by Nature. Wherefore He said also, He shall receive of Mine and declare it unto you. And we do not say that by participation is the Spirit both wise and mighty (for He is All-perfect and unneeding of all good) but since He is the Spirit of the Father’s Might and Wisdom, i.e., the Son, He is Wisdom and Might’s Very Self.

St. Irenaeus gives us more details about the four Gospels. Note that he mentions both St. Peter and St. Paul laid the foundation for the Church in Rome.

St. Irenaeus – Against Heresies, Chap 8
For, after our Lord rose from the dead, [the apostles] were invested with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down [upon them], were filled from all [His gifts], and had perfect knowledge: they departed to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the good things [sent] from God to us, and proclaiming the peace of heaven to men, who indeed do all equally and individually possess the Gospel of God. Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book IX
Notwithstanding, it is by the Father through the Son that all good things are wrought for the worthy, and the distribution of the Divine gifts
is made; through the Son, I say, not as accepted in the rank of a servant, as we have already explained, but as conceived to be Co-Giver and Co-Supplier, and moreover as being so of a truth. For the nature of the Godhead is one, and also is believed so to be. For although it is extended to Father and Son and to the Holy Spirit, yet it has no absolute and entire severance; I mean, into each of the Persons indicated. For we shall be orthodox in believing that the Son is naturally both of the Father and in the Father, and that the own Spirit of the Father and of the Son, that is, the Holy Spirit, is both of and in the Father. So then, forasmuch as the Godhead of Their nature both is and is conceived of as One, Their gifts will be supplied to the worthy through the Son from the Father in the Spirit, and our offerings will be carried to God manifestly through the mediation of the Son: for no one cometh unto the Father but through Him, as to be sure He also Himself fully confesses. So then the Son both has become and is the Door and the Way as well of our friendship as of our progress towards God the Father, and the Co-Giver as well as Distributer of His bounty, forasmuch as it proceeds from a single and common munificence. For one is the nature of the Godhead in the person and substance both of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book XI
Hereby he exhorts the disciples to pray for spiritual graces, and at the same time gives them this encouragement—-that what they ask they will not fail to obtain; adding the comforting assurance of the word “verily” to His promise that if they will go to the Father’s throne and make any request, they will receive it of Him, He Himself acting as Mediator and leading them into the Father’s Presence. For this is the meaning of the words in my Name; for we cannot draw nigh unto God the Father save by the Son alone. For through Him we have obtained access in One Spirit unto the Father, according to the Scripture. Therefore also He saith: I am the Door: I am the Way: no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. For inasmuch as the Son is also God, together with the Father He conveys good gifts to the Saints, and associates Himself with Him in granting us the portion of the blessed…And in right of His titles, Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate, He conveys to the Father prayers on our behalf, for He gives us all boldness to address the Father. In the Name then of Our Saviour Christ we must make our requests, for so will the Father most readily grant them, and will give to those that ask good gifts, that we may take them and rejoice therein. So being fulfilled with spiritual graces, and enriched with the grant of knowledge from Him through the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, we shall gain a very easy triumph over every strange and abominable lust; and thus being active in good works, and attaining to the practice of every virtue with fervent zeal, and strengthened with everything whatsoever that maketh for sanctification, we rejoice with exceeding joy at the prospect of the reward that awaits us; and, dismissing the despondency that springs from an evil conscience, we have our hearts enriched with the joy that is in Christ. This did not enter into the life of the men of old time; they never practised this manner of prayer, for they knew it not. But now is it ordained for us by Christ, at the appropriate season, when the time of the accomplishment of our redemption was fulfilled, and the perfect fruition of all good was gained for us by Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary of the Gospel of St. John
Even S. Cyril of Jerusalem, who avoided the word Homoöusion, not to give offence, says: “There is One and the Same Spirit, which sanctifieth and subsisteth, and is ever co-present with the Father and the Son, not being spoken or breathed-forth from, the mouth and lips of the Father or the Son, not dispersed into the air, but subsisting.”At this same period, and by the same writers, the Eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost “through the Son” (διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ) is spoken of; the one expression “from” marking the more vividly, that the Holy Spirit, in the Eternal Being, issued from Father and Son in one, the Third in order of the All-Holy Trinity; the other, that, the Father being the One Source of Godhead, the Holy Spirit proceedeth, not directly or immediately from Him, but through the Son. Such language of S. Cyril has been given above. So also St. Athanasius; yet guarding against any poor conception which might be derived from the word “through” by itself, as though the Godhead could pass as through a channel, “through the Son,” and not rather that, through the Oneness of the Father and the Son, the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son as One. Thus, as S. Cyril speaks of the Holy Ghost, as “of the Son and in Him, and His very own,”

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, BOOK IX
He says, that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you…For naturally am I in the Father—-for I am the Fruit of His Essence and Its real Offspring, subsisting in It, having shone forth from It, Life of Life—-and ye are in Me and I in you, forasmuch as I appeared as a man Myself, and made you partakers of the Divine Nature by putting My Spirit to dwell in you. For Christ is in us through the Spirit, converting that which has a natural tendency to corruption into incorruption, and transferring it from the condition of dying unto that which is otherwise. Wherefore also Paul says that He that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, through His Spirit that dwelleth in you. For albeit the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, yet He comes through the Son, and is His Own; for all things are through the Son from the Father. For that it was through the Spirit we were wrought anew unto eternal life, the Divine Psalmist will bear us record, when he cries as unto the God of all: When Thou openest Thine Hand, all things shall be filled with goodness; when Thou turnest away Thy Face they shall be troubled; Thou shalt take away their breath and they shall fail and shall turn again to their dust. Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book X
And when He calls the Father Husbandman, why does He give Him this title, for the Father is not idle or inert in His dealings with us, and while the Son nourishes us and sustains us in a perfect state by the Holy Spirit, the rectification of our condition is as it were the function of the whole sacred and consubstantial Trinity, and the will and power to do all the actions done by It pervades the whole Divine Nature? Therefore it is glorified by us in its entirety, and in one single aspect. For we call God a Saviour, not gaining the graces which are compassionately bestowed upon us partly from the Father, and partly from the Son Himself or the Holy Spirit, but calling our salvation the work of One Divinity. And if we must apportion the gifts which are bestowed upon us, or those activities which They display about creation, to each person of the Trinity separately, none the less do we believe that everything proceeds from the Father by the Son in the Spirit.

He is called Spirit, as “God is a Spirit,” and “the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.” He is called holy, as the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, for to the creature holiness was brought in from without, but to the Spirit holiness is the fulfilment of nature, and it is for this reason that He is described not as being sanctified, but as sanctifying. He is called good, as the Father is good, and He who was begotten of the Good is good, and to the Spirit His goodness is essence. He is called upright, as “the Lord is upright,” in that He is Himself truth, and is Himself Righteousness, having no divergence nor leaning to one side or to the other, on account of the immutability of His substance.  He is called Paraclete, like the Only begotten, as He Himself says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter.” Thus names are borne by the Spirit in common with the Father and the Son, and He gets these titles from His natural and close relationship.  From what other source could they be derived?  Again He is called royal, Spirit of truth, and Spirit of wisdom.

St. Basil the Great – On the Holy Spirit, Chap XVI
And in the creation bethink thee first, I pray thee, of the original cause of all things that are made, the Father; of the creative cause, the Son; of the perfecting cause, the Spirit; so that the ministering spirits subsist by the will of the Father, are brought into being by the operation of the Son, and perfected by the presence of the Spirit…The operation of the Father who worketh all in all is not imperfect, neither is the creating work of the Son incomplete if not perfected by the Spirit.  The Father, who creates by His sole will, could not stand in any need of the Son, but nevertheless He wills through the Son; nor could the Son, who works according to the likeness of the Father, need co-operation, but the Son too wills to make perfect through the Spirit.  “For by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath [the Spirit] of His mouth.” The Word then is not a mere significant impression on the air, borne by the organs of speech; nor is the Spirit of His mouth a vapour, emitted by the organs of respiration; but the Word is He who “was with God in the beginning” and “was God,” and the Spirit of the mouth of God is “the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father.” You are therefore to perceive three, the Lord who gives the order, the Word who creates, and the Spirit who confirms.

St. Basil the Great – On the Holy Spirit, Chap 18
He is called Spirit, as “God is a Spirit,” and “the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord.” He is called holy, as the Father is holy, and the Son is holy, for to the creature holiness was brought in from without, but to the Spirit holiness is the fulfilment of nature, and it is for this reason that He is described not as being sanctified, but as sanctifying. He is called good, as the Father is good, and He who was begotten of the Good is good, and to the Spirit His goodness is essence. He is called upright, as “the Lord is upright,” in that He is Himself truth, and is Himself Righteousness, having no divergence nor leaning to one side or to the other, on account of the immutability of His substance.  He is called Paraclete, like the Only begotten, as He Himself says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter.” Thus names are borne by the Spirit in common with the Father and the Son, and He gets these titles from His natural and close relationship.  From what other source could they be derived?  Again He is called royal, Spirit of truth, and Spirit of wisdom…He existed; He pre-existed; He co-existed with the Father and the Son before the ages. It follows that, even if you can conceive of anything beyond the ages, you will find the Spirit yet further above and beyond. And if you think of the creation, the powers of the heavens were established by the Spirit, the establishment being understood to refer to disability to fall away from good. For it is from the Spirit that the powers derive their close relationship to God, their inability to change to evil, and their continuance in blessedness. Is it Christ’s advent? The Spirit is forerunner. Is there the incarnate presence? The Spirit is inseparable. Working of miracles, and gifts of healing are through the Holy Spirit. Demons were driven out by the Spirit of God. The devil was brought to naught by the presence of the Spirit. Remission of sins was by the gift of the Spirit, for you were washed, you were sanctified,…in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the holy Spirit of our God. There is close relationship with God through the Spirit, for God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6 The resurrection from the dead is effected by the operation of the Spirit, for You send forth your spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth. If here creation may be taken to mean the bringing of the departed to life again, how mighty is not the operation of the Spirit, Who is to us the dispenser of the life that follows on the resurrection, and attunes our souls to the spiritual life beyond? Or if here by creation is meant the change to a better condition of those who in this life have fallen into sin, (for it is so understood according to the usage of Scripture, as in the words of Paul if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Corinthians 5:17), the renewal which takes place in this life, and the transmutation from our earthly and sensuous life to the heavenly conversation which takes place in us through the Spirit, then our souls are exalted to the highest pitch of admiration.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – On the Gospel According to St. John, Book XII, Chapter 1
For He proclaimed that He would send down to us from heaven the Comforter,
when He was ascended to God the Father; and this, indeed, He did, when He had gone away to the Father, and vouchsafed to shed forth the Spirit abundantly upon all who were willing to receive it. For any man could receive it, through faith, that is, and Holy Baptism; and then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the voice of the Prophet: I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. But it was necessary that the Son should appear as co-operating with the Father in granting the Spirit; it was necessary that those who believed on Him should understand that He is the Power of the Father, That has created this whole world, and called man out of nothing into being. For God the Father, at
the beginning, by His own Word, took of the dust of the ground, as is written, and fashioned the animal, that is man, and endowed him with a soul, according to His Will, and illuminated him with a share of His own Spirit; for He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, as is written. And when it came to pass that through disobedience man fell under the power of death, and lost his ancient honour, God the Father built him up and restored him to newness of life, through the Son, as at the beginning. And how did the Son restore him? By the death of His own Flesh He slew death, and brought the race of man back again into incorruption; for Christ rose again for us. In order, then, that we might learn that He it was Who at the beginning created our nature, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit, our Saviour again grants the Spirit, through the outward sign of His Breath, to the holy disciples, as being the firstfruits of renewed nature. For Moses writes concerning our creation of old, that God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. As, then, at the beginning, man was formed and came into being, so likewise is he renewed; and as he was then formed in the Image of his Creator, so likewise now, by participation in the Spirit, is he transformed into the Likeness of his Maker.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – On the Gospel According to St. John, Book IX
For naturally am I in the Father—-for I am the Fruit of His Essence and Its real Offspring, subsisting in It, having shone forth from It, Life of Life—-and ye are in Me and I in you, forasmuch as I appeared as a man Myself, and made you partakers of the Divine Nature by putting My Spirit to dwell in you. For Christ is in us through the Spirit, converting that which has a natural tendency to corruption into incorruption, and transferring it from the condition of dying unto that which is otherwise. Wherefore also Paul says that He that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, through His Spirit that dwelleth in you. For albeit the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, yet He comes through the Son, and is His Own; for all things are through the Son from the Father. For that it was through the Spirit we were wrought anew unto eternal life, the Divine Psalmist will bear us record, when he cries as unto the God of all: When Thou openest Thine Hand, all things shall be filled with goodness; when Thou turnest away Thy Face they shall be troubled; Thou shalt take away their breath and they shall fail and shall turn again to their dust. Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Hearest thou how the transgression that was in Adam, and the “turning away” as it were from the Divine precepts, sore troubled the nature of man, and made it return to its own earth? But when God sent forth His Spirit, and made us partakers of His own Nature, and through Him renewed the face of the earth, we were transfigured unto newness of life, casting off the corruption that comes of sin, and once more grasping eternal life, through the grace and love towards mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom and with Whom unto God the Father, be glory with the Holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen.

St. Basil – De Spirito Sancto, Chapter 15
Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all fullness of blessing, Romans 15:29 both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment. If such is the earnest, what the perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment? Furthermore, from this too may be apprehended the difference between the grace that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. I indeed, he says, baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Matthew 3:11 Here He calls the trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3:13 And again, The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. 1 Corinthians 3:13 And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death for Christ’s sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood.

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Section 3, XIX 
“Concerning Him also did Jeremiah prophesy, saying: “The Spirit before His face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their snares: of whom we said, Under His shadow we shall live among the Gentiles.” Ezekiel also, and the following prophets, affirm everywhere that He is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Angel of the Father, the only-begotten God. Him therefore do we also preach to you, and declare Him to be God the Word, who ministered to His God and Father for the creation of the universe. By believing in Him you shall live, but by disbelieving you shall be punished. For “he that is disobedient to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Therefore, after you have kept the festival of Pentecost, keep one week more festival, and after that fast; for it is reasonable to rejoice for the gift of God, and to fast after that relaxation”

Fr. Tadros Malaty – Patristic Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
The Holy Spirit is called ‘the Paraclete’. This is an old Greek word. ‘Para’ means ‘dwell, beside’, ‘clete’ means ‘call’, ‘to help’. Thus, the Paraclete is the dwelling Helper or the Guide and Comforter, the Intercessor and Defender. In Latin Paraclete is ‘advocatus’ and in French ‘avocat’ which means ‘lawyer’ or ‘defending intercessor’. This is the basis of our communion with the Holy Trinity. He intercedes for us before the Father. He presents the case to end our judgment with a verdict of innocence. We thus have the right of communion and of enjoyment of the divine bosom. The plea of the Holy Spirit is powerful, able, and glorious. Nevertheless, it is an argument in truth for He does not advocate for us falsely or with contrivance. He is the Spirit of Truth whose testimony is for Truth. He is Truth Himself. He is just in His defense; He does not hide our sins and mistakes: in His intercession for sinners (Phil 1:20), He does not conceal our sins or cover up their stains with fig leaves as Adam did and as Adam’s sons do. He does not show preference, nor does He ask for association of light and darkness, or righteousness and corruption. His work and advocacy for us is that He ‘cuts to the heart’ of the individual before he believes and before the Spirit dwells in him. He changes his nature, so that He may grant him faith and acceptance of the gift of the Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost. “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the hearts, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles “…what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” (Acts 2: 37-38)

Fr. Tadros Malaty – Patristic Commentary on Ezekiel
This segregation or discernment, accompanying the coming of the great day of the Lord, is happening now within the heart. In the day of the Pentecost, as the whirlwind blew, it granted the Church the Spirit of discernment, not to condemn the wicked outside it, but to spiritually judge those inside it; to separate between the wicked, who is holding fast to his wickedness, from the simple and pure souls; Every member will carry inside him as well, the spirit of discernment, that condemns the evil or weakness to which he falls; to walk in the light, and to get away from the darkness. He judges himself, and condemns his inner depths, and his behavior, before getting judged and condemned from outside. As to the book of Ezekiel, the prophet felt the whirlwind coming out of the north (Ez. 1:4). It is as though the Lord confirms that he (blows) on His people the spirit of discernment, to chasten them for their evil, and to bring them through captivity and suffering into the pure life.

Fr. Tadros Malaty – Patristic Commentary on Ezekiel
The Lord Christ connected between the divine Spirit and the whirlwind, in a new theological concept, by saying: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). He reveals that the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth through Baptism is a secret unseen one; but its activity and action is realized in the believer’s life. It blows as a rushing wind to shake the old foundations of the heart, to set out of it a new sanctuary. The Spirit keeps on blowing inside us, as though it is not coming from outside, but is dwelling within, working on the growth of our new man. We feel it working in us, but we do not comprehend its mysteries. That was how the divine Spirit worked, even in the Old Testament, through chastising by enemies coming from the north, in a secret way, that people could not comprehend, It is the work of God in them after their return to Him.

St. Athanasius – Against the Arians, Discourse III, Chapter XXV, p.24-25
And he will both disprove the interpretation of these irreligious men, and will teach how we become in God and God in us; and how again we become One in Him, and how far the Son differs in nature from us, and will stop the Arians from any longer thinking that they shall be as the Son, lest they hear it said to them, ‘Thou art a man and not God,’ and ‘Stretch not thyself, being poor, beside a rich man.’ John then thus writes; ‘Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.’ Therefore because of the grace of the Spirit which has been given to us, in Him we come to be, and He in us; and since it is the Spirit of God, therefore through His becoming in us, reasonably are we, as having the Spirit, considered to be in God, and thus is God in us. Not then as the Son in the Father, so also we become in the Father; for the Son does not merely partake the Spirit, that therefore He too may be in the Father; nor does He receive the Spirit, but rather He supplies It Himself to all; and the Spirit does not unite the Word to the Father, but rather the Spirit receives from the Word. And the Son is in the Father, as His own Word and Radiance; but we, apart from the Spirit, are strange and distant from God, and by the participation of the Spirit we are knit into the Godhead; so that our being in the Father is not ours, but is the Spirit’s which is in us and abides in us, while by the true confession we preserve it in us, John again saying, ‘Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.’ What then is our likeness and equality to the Son? rather, are not the Arians confuted on every side? and especially by John, that the Son is in the Father in one way, and we become in Him in another, and that neither we shall ever be as He, nor is the Word as we; except they shall dare, as commonly, so now to say, that the Son also by participation of the Spirit and by improvement of conduct came to be Himself also in the Father. But here again is an excess of irreligion, even in admitting the thought. For He, as has been said, gives to the Spirit, and whatever the Spirit hath, He hath from the Word. The Saviour, then, saying of us, ‘As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they too may be one in Us,’ does not signify that we were to have identity with Him; for this was shewn from the instance of Jonah; but it is a request to the Father, as John has written, that the Spirit should be vouchsafed through Him to those who believe, through whom we are found to be in God, and in this respect to be conjoined in Him. For since the Word is in the Father, and the Spirit is given from the Word, He wills that we should receive the Spirit, that, when we receive It, thus having the Spirit of the Word which is in the Father, we too may be found on account of the Spirit to become One in the Word, and through Him in the Father. And if He say, ‘as we,’ this again is only a request that such grace of the Spirit as is given to the disciples may be without failure or revocation. For what the Word has by nature, as I said, in the Father, that He wishes to be given to us through the Spirit irrevocably; which the Apostle knowing, said, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ for ‘the gifts of God’ and ‘grace of His calling are without repentance. It is the Spirit then which is in God, and not we viewed in our own selves; and as we are sons and gods because of the Word in us, so we shall be in the Son and in the Father, and we shall be accounted to have become one in Son and in Father, because that that Spirit is in us, which is in the Word which is in the Father.

St. Basil the Great – On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 16, P. 37
Let us then revert to the point raised from the outset, that in all things the Holy Spirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of being parted from the Father and the Son. St. Paul, in the passage about the gift of tongues, writes to the Corinthians, If you all prophesy and there come in one that believes not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of the heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 If then God is known to be in the prophets by the prophesying that is acting according to the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, let our adversaries consider what kind of place they will attribute to the Holy Spirit. Let them say whether it is more proper to rank Him with God or to thrust Him forth to the place of the creature. Peter’s words to Sapphira, How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? You have not lied unto men, but unto God, show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same; and thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. God works the differences of operations, and the Lord the diversities of administrations, but all the while the Holy Spirit is present too of His own will, dispensing distribution of the gifts according to each recipient’s worth. For, it is said, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all. But all these, it is said, works that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. (1 Corinthians 12:11) It must not however be supposed because in this passage the apostle names in the first place the Spirit, in the second the Son, and in the third God the Father, that therefore their rank is reversed. The apostle has only started in accordance with our habits of thought; for when we receive gifts, the first that occurs to us is the distributer, next we think of the sender, and then we lift our thoughts to the fountain and cause of the gifts.

St. Basil the Great – On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 16, P. 40
For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for them that are worthy, as not to know that the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more abundant and perfect measure in that day, when spiritual glory shall be distributed to each in proportion as he shall have nobly played the man? For among the glories of the saints are many mansions in the Father’s house, that is differences of dignities: for as star differs from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:41-42 They, then, that were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, and preserve pure and undiminished the first fruits which they received of the Spirit, are they that shall hear the words well done thou good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Matthew 25:21 In like manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder, Matthew 24:51 — the cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the SpiritThe cutting asunder, as I have observed, is the separation for aye of the soul from the Spirit. For now, although the Spirit does not suffer admixture with the unworthy, He nevertheless does seem in a manner to be present with them that have once been sealed, awaiting the salvation which follows on their conversion; but then He will be wholly cut off from the soul that has defiled His grace. For this reason In Hell there is none that makes confession; in death none that remembers God, because the assistance of the Spirit is no longer present.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book VI
For the restoration to life is common to both saints and sinners, to both Greeks and Jews, as well as ourselves, for: The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall awake, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice, according to the sure promise of the Saviour. But the participation of the Holy Spirit is not thus common to all, being the more than life, as it were something beyond that which is common to all; and will be bestowed only upon those who are justified by faith in Christ: and the Divine Paul also will prove this to us, saying: Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall all sleep, hut we-shall not all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For indeed all shall rise from the dead, because this is granted to all nature, through the grace of the Resurrection; and in One, that is, Christ, Who was the first and foremost to break down the dominion of death and attain eternal life, the common lot of humanity was changed and made incorruptible, even as also in one, that is, the first Adam, it was condemned to death and corruption. But there will be at that time an important difference among those who are raised, and very widely distinct will be their destiny. For those who have gone to their rest with faith in Christ, and who have received the earnest of the Spirit in the appointed time of their bodily life, will obtain the most perfect grace, and will be changed to the glory which shall be given from God. But those who have not believed the Son, and have deemed such an excellent reward of no account, shall be once more condemned by His voice, and, sharing with the rest in nothing save in the restoration to life, shall pay the penalty of such prolonged unbelief. For they shall depart down into Hades to be punished, and shall feel unavailing remorse. For, saith He, there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book V, Chapter II
He wishes to show us that it behoves us to love, to hold fast to our love towards Him, and how great a gain we shall have from our union with Him, when He says that He is the Vine, by way of illustration; and that those who are united and fixed and rooted in a manner in Him, and who are already partakers in His nature through their participation in the Holy Spirit are branches; for it is His Holy Spirit Which has united us with the Saviour Christ, since connection with the Vine produces a choice of those things which belong to It, and our connection with It holds us fast. From a firm resolve in goodness we proceed onward by faith, and we become His people, obtaining from Him the dignity of Sonship. For according to the holy Paul, He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. As then in other places He has been called the foundation and coping-stone by the voice of the prophets, for upon Him we are built up, ourselves being the stones, living and spiritual stones, into a holy priesthood for a habitation of God in the Spirit, and in no other way are we able to be built up into this, save only if Christ be the coping-stone, so here by a similar reflection He says that He is a Vine, as it were the mother and nourisher of its branches. For we are begotten of Him and in Him in the Spirit, to produce the fruits of life; not the old life of former days, but that which consists in newness of faith and love towards Him. And we are preserved in our hold on this life by clinging as it were to Him, and holding fast to the holy commandment given to us, and by making haste to preserve the blessing of our high birth; that is, by our refusing to grieve in any way whatever the Holy Spirit That has taken up His abode in us, by Whom God is conceived to dwell in us. For in what manner we are in Christ and He in us the wise John will show us when He says: Hereby we know that we are in Him and He in us, by the Spirit Which He gave us; and again, Hereby know we that we are in Him; he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked. And he makes this even clearer to his hearers by the words, He that keepeth His commandments abideth in Him, and He in him. For if the keeping of His commandments worketh love towards Him, and we are joined to Him by love, surely what has been said has been shown to be true by these quotations. For just as the root of the vine ministers and distributes to the branches the enjoyment of its own natural and inherent qualities, so the Only-begotten Word of God imparts to the Saints as it were an affinity to His own nature and the nature of God the Father, by giving them the Spirit, insomuch as they have been united with Him through faith and perfect holiness; and He nourishes them in piety, and worketh in them the knowledge of all virtue and good works.

H.G. Bishop Youanis, Paradise of the Spirit, Part 1 Second Edition
“Every sin, no matter how evil it is, can be forgiven as long as one has a sincere intention to repent. “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemes they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.” (Mark 3:28-29) Blaspheming against the Holy Spirit which is never forgiven is not a sin by itself. It is a spiritual condition, which a person reaches. He wants to do evil and keeps being stubborn, not listening to the rebukes of the conscience and the Holy Spirit. It is different from committing adultery, killing, or stealing. Any person may commit the worst sins or he may even blaspheme against the Son of God unbelievingly. St. Paul did that before God renewed his life. All this can be forgiven by the influence of the Holy Spirit Who leads us to repentance. But he who refuses the work of the Holy Spirit does not listen to the voice of his conscience will not be granted the forgiveness of his sins forever. He has refused all the means which rebuke him. “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin.” (John 16:8) The Holy Spirit reproves me of my sins. Hence, if I refuse His work or blaspheme against Him, I will never repent and will never be forgiven. Mar Isaac said, “There is no sin that cannot be forgiven except the one without repentance.”

H.G. Bishop Youanis, Paradise of the Spirit, Part 2 Second Edition
As a result of the love of God which overwhelms the soul, and its feelings of His presence inside her, the spirit sails expressing her love, happiness and her needs by saying short repetitive prayers which do not need rational concentration or mental effort. These prayers do not require a specific time, place or atmosphere, as they are the words of man to the Holy Spirit dwelling inside him. We can express our feelings by these short prayers in crowded roads, in the tramway, in the bus, when we are alone, or in a gathering and in general in all circumstances and conditions. How beautiful are the words contained in the Saturday (Psalmody) prayers in the Church annual praises “Every breath of mine praises Your Holy Name”. It is true O Lord that every breath praises You. Every breath coming from inside me brings out with it praises to You my beloved. It carries the feelings of my love, loyalty, submission and the desire of myself to be always with You. We ask you dear brother/sister to practice this beautiful wonderful exercise. It is not mere theoretical talk, but actual experience by many who live in it. There is nothing which prevents you from practicing and enjoying it. It needs the feeling and awareness of the presence of the Beloved within you. The moment you are aware of His presence you will shout with the groom “I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go” (Song 3:4). This exercise – like any other one – its perfection requires practice and patience. In the beginning, it needs some effort and perseverance, but keeping at it with patience carries us to the state when we do it without toil or effort.

H.G. Bishop Youanis, Paradise of the Spirit, Part 3 Second Edition
It is enough to meditate in the words of the Lord Jesus to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This expression “For God so loved”, displays the inability of human language to describe the love of God to man. Besides, it reveals the love of the three Persons of God to man. The Lord Jesus did not say “For the Father so loved the world”, but “For God so loved the world”, confirming a valuable fact, that the salvation of man is the result of the love of the three Persons of God. This salvation was in the mind of the eternal Heavenly Father, and was fulfilled by His only Begotten Son by the Holy Spirit in the heart of each believer. In other words, the salvation of man was prepared by the Heavenly Father Who is love, fulfilled by the Son of God Who is love, and we received its blessings by the Holy Spirit Who is love. What is love in the Divine Person? It is a mystery which the human soul can not explain, because if it is able to characterize the love of God, it would be able to characterize God Himself. Let us not be surprised at the description of the Apostle Paul to God’s love in Christ “passes knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19). This is expressed in the liturgy of St. Gregory the Theologian: “no manner of speech can measure the depth of Your love to mankind”.

Agpeya (Coptic Orthodox Daily Book of Prayers, Absolution of Third Hour)
We ask and entreat You, O Lover of Mankind, to accept our prayers, and forgive our sins, and send
forth upon us the grace of Your Holy Spirit. Purify us from all defilement of body and spirit and change us into a spiritual manner of life, that we may walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And make us worthy to serve You with purity and righteousness all the days of our life. For unto You is due glory, honor, and dominion, with Your good Father and the Holy Spirit.  Now and at all times and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book X
When He has shown that His departure to His Father is the fitting occasion of the descent and mission of the Spirit, and has by this means sufficiently allayed the pangs of grief in His holy disciples, He rightly proceeds to show what the work of the Holy Spirit will be. For when He is come, He says, He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. And He has clearly pointed out what form the reproof in each of these cases will take. But since some are likely to stumble in dealing with this question, I consider it necessary to interpret the text point by point, and to state more plainly its signification. The reproof of sin, then, has been set first. How then will He reprove the world? When those who love Christ, as being made worthy of Him, and as true believers, are convinced of sin, then it is that He will condemn the world, that is those who are ignorant and persist in unbelief, and are enslaved by their love of worldly pleasure, by the very nature of their case, in that they are bound by their sins and doomed to die in their transgressions. For God will in nowise be a respecter of persons, nor will He vouchsafe the Spirit to some in the world without sufficient cause, and to others wholly deny Him; but will cause the Comforter to dwell only in those who are worthy of Him, who by a pure faith have honoured Him as truly God, and confessed that He is the Creator and Lord of the Universe. And that which the Saviour Himself by anticipation told the Jews when He said, Except ye believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins, the Comforter when He is come will in fact show to be true.
But further, He says: He will reprove the world in respect of righteousness, because I go to the Father and ye behold Me no more. For He will duly hold converse with those who believe in Christ after His ascension into heaven, as duly justified thereby. For they received as the true God Him Whom, though they had in nowise seen Him, they yet believed to sit on His Father’s throne. For by calling to mind what Thomas said and did, one might readily perceive that Christ calls those who thus believe blessed. For when he was in doubt about the restoration of the Son to life, he said: Except I shall put my hand into His side, and see the prints of the nails, I will not believe. And when, after Christ had permitted him to do as he desired, he believed, what words did he hear? Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Justly then have those been justified who without seeing have believed; but the world has missed the attainment of an equal blessedness, not seeking to obtain the righteousness that is of faith, but deliberately preferring to abide in its own wickedness. It is necessary, however, to know that the two reproofs already mentioned will apply not merely to the Jews, but rather to every man who is stubborn and disobedient. For the appellation “the world” signifies not merely the man who is incessantly engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, and who clings to the wickedness that is of the devil, but signifies equally those who are dispersed about and dwell in the whole world. Thus the double reproof has a generic meaning, and applies to all. For Christ included not merely Judaea, as was the case in the beginning, or the seed of Israel only, but the entire race that was descended from Adam. For His grace is not partial, but the benefit of faith is extended to the whole world.
The third reproof by the Comforter will be, as the Saviour says, the most righteous condemnation of the prince of this world. And what form this reproof takes I will explain. For the Comforter will testify to the glory of Christ, and, showing that He is truly the Lord of the Universe, will reprove the world as having wandered astray, and as having left Him Who is truly God by Nature and fallen down and worshipped him whom Nature owns not as God, that is Satan. For the judgment against him is, I think, sufficient to show that this statement is true. For he could not have been condemned and lost his power, nor have paid the penalty of his conflict with God, being delivered into chains of darkness, if he were by Nature God, Who sits unshaken on His throne of majesty and power. But now we see him so incapable to preserve his own honour, that he is even cast under the feet of those filled with the Spirit, I mean the faithful who have confessed that Christ is God. For they trample the demon under foot when he tries and struggles. When then any one sees the swarm of impure demons shuddering and cast out by the prayers of such men, and by the working power of the Holy Spirit, will he not with reason say that Satan has been condemned? For he has been condemned by his no longer being able to prevail over those who have been impressed with the seal of righteousness and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, through the faith that is in Christ. How then, tell me, have we trodden all his power under foot, according to the saying in the Psalms addressed to every man that lives in the world? By the help of the Most High thou shalt tread upon the asp and basilisk; the lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot. When then the Comforter from heaven enters souls that are pure, and manifests the righteousness of His mission by faith impartially bestowed, then will He show that the world is bound in its own sins, and without share
in the grace that is from above, since men repulse their Redeemer; and He will also reprove the world—-as causelessly accusing those who have believed—-of sin, and as far as they have rightly been justified, although they gaze not on Christ as He departed unto God and wrought marvels, but honour Him by faith. It was, I think, with some such thought as this in his mind that Paul said: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? For the mouth of all lawlessness is stopped, according to the word of the Psalmist, as it can lay nothing to the charge of the faithful elect, who are invested with the glory of the righteousness that proceedeth from faith. He will reprove the world as having gone astray and resting its hopes on [the devil], who has received such condemnation that he has lost all the glory of his former condition, and only deserves our contempt, and to be held of no account by those who worship God.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book XI
Observe, too, how Both Persons, I mean the Father and the Son, effectually work together to make the Godhead comprehensible to men. For the Father makes us wise by revealing to us His own Son, and none the less also the Son makes us wise by revealing to us the Father. To the blessed Peter, moreover, He spake these words, about the parts of Caesarea called Philippi: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. For the disciple confessed and maintained his belief that He was Christ, the Son of the living God. And now He says, concerning Himself: I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known. For the Only-begotten ceaseth not to reveal unto us the meaning of the mystery concerning Himself, as He revealed it to His first followers at the beginning; and this He doeth continually, implanting in each of us the light of the Spirit, and guiding those that love Him to knowledge of those things which pass their understanding and conception. What His purpose is, and what kind of benefit He will confer on us by His declaration that He had already revealed the Father unto the disciples, and would also make Him known to their successors, He pointed out to us, when He said, that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them. For they who have
been able, by purity of thought, to know God the Father, and have been throughly instructed in the knowledge of the mystery that is in Christ, will wholly gain and indisputably enjoy the perfect love of the Father, like unto the Son. For the Father loves His Son with a perfect love; and Christ also Himself abideth in Him, through the Holy Spirit, uniting, through Himself, into spiritual fellowship with God the Father him that knows Him, and is in travail, as it were, with the unperverted word of Divine Truth.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book XII
They, therefore, partook of the Holy Spirit when He breathed on them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; for it were impossible for Christ to lie, and He would never have said “Receive” without giving; but in the days of Holy Pentecost, when God more openly proclaimed His grace, and manifested the stablishment of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, there appeared unto them tongues through flame, not signifying the beginning of the gift of the Spirit in their hearts, but rather having reference to the time when they were first endowed with the gift of languages. It is written, indeed, that they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Note, that they began to speak, not to receive sanctification, and that the gift of divers tongues came down upon them; and this was the working of the Spirit that was in them. For just as the Father spake from heaven, and bare witness to His Son, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; and did this to satisfy the minds of those who heard, uttering, or causing to be uttered, a sound as of some instrument which fell upon the ear; even so, also, in the case of the holy disciples He made the manifestation of the grace given them more public, sending down upon them tongues as of fire, and causing the descent of the Holy Spirit to resemble the sound of the rushing of a mighty wind. And that this very portent was given unto the Jews by way of a sign, you will readily see, if you listen to God, the Lord of all, saying by the mouth of the |678 Prophet: By men of strange tongues, and by the lips of strangers, will I speak unto this people, and yet will they not believe. And to the intent that we might believe that the blessed disciples did, in fact, partake of the Holy Spirit, and were from henceforth honoured with the grace of Christ from above, and that they were able to expound the truth, and that the glory of their apostleship was worthy all admiration, witness being borne thereto by the gift from on high, therefore it was that fire came down in the form of tongues.

St. Cyril of Alexandria – Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Book XII
Christ, when He gave the Spirit unto them, said: Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained; though only the living God is able and powerful to grant unto sinners remission of sins; for whom could it befit to pardon thetransgressions that sinners have committed against the Divine Law, save the Lawgiver Himself? You may, if you choose, see the meaning of the saying from the analogy of human affairs. Who has authority to meddle with the decrees of earthly monarchs, and who tries to undo that which has been ordained by the will and judgment of rulers, save only someone who is invested with regal honour and dignity? Therefore, wise was the saying, Insolent is he who saith unto the king, Thou breakest the law. In what way, then, and in what sense did the Saviour invest His disciples with the dignity which befits the Nature of God alone? The Word that is in the Father cannot err; and this He did, and whatsoever He doeth, He doeth well. For He thought it meet that they who have once been endued with the Spirit of Him Who is God and Lord, should have power also to remit or retain the sins of whomsoever they would, the Holy Spirit That dwelt in them remitting or retaining them according
to His Will, though the deed were done through human instrumentality. They who have the Spirit of God remit or retain sins in two ways, as I think. For they invite to Baptism those to whom this sacrament is already due from the purity of their lives, and their tried adherence to the faith; and they hinder and exclude others who are not as yet worthy of the Divine grace. And in another sense, also, they remit and retain sins, by. rebuking erring children of the Church, and granting pardon to those who repent; just as, also, Paul gave up him that had committed fornication at Corinth, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved, and admitted him again into fellowship, that he might not be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow, as he says in his letter. When, then, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts doeth things which befit God alone, surely He is the living God, invested with the glorious dignity of the Divine Nature, and having power over sacred laws.

St. Mary Fast/Feast

“I see the assembly of the saints, all zealously gathered together, invited by the holy Mother of God, Mary, ever-virgin. I was feeling very sad, but then the presence of the holy Fathers changed this sorrow into merriment. Now the sweet words of the hymnographer David has been fulfilled in our presence: ‘Behold how fair, and how pleasant it is, when brother dwell together as one’! (Ps 133:1). Hail, we say, O holy and mystic Trinity, who have called us together in this Church dedicated to Mary, Mother of God. We hail you, O Mary Mother of God, venerable treasure of the entire world , inextinguishable lamp, crown of virginity, scepter of orthodoxy, imperishable temple, container of him who cannot be contained, Mother and Virgin, through whom it is said in the holy Gospels: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ (Matt 21:9). Hail, you who held the Uncontainable One in your holy and virginal womb! Through you, the Holy Trinity is glorified; the precious Cross is celebrated and adored throughout the world; heaven exults, the angels and archangels rejoice, the demons are put to flight, the devil, the tempter, falls from heaven, the fallen creation is brought back to paradise, all creatures trapped in idolatry come to know the truth. Through you, holy baptism and the oil of gladness are administered to the believers; through you, churches are established throughout the world; the peoples are led to conversion. What more shall I say? Through you, the only begotten Son of God shone forth as a light upon those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. Through you, the prophets made their predictions, and the apostles preached salvation to the nations; through you the dead rise, sovereigns reign, and through you the Holy Trinity reigns. But who among men is capable of celebrating Mary most glorious? The virginal womb; such a great wonder! This miracle has me enraptured. When has it ever been heard that a builder was prevented from dwelling in temple that he himself built? Could he, who calls his own handmaid to be his Mother, be considered deserving of this shame? Behold, now: the whole universe is rejoicing. The sea obeyed, recognizing [in the Fathers] its fellow servants. For while the water surged in stormy billows, the passage of the saints made it smooth and calm. The creature water remembered the voice of the Savior ‘Silence! Be Still!’ (Mk 4:39). The passage of the Fathers also subdued the earth, which previously had been infested with brigands. ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace’ (Rom 10:15). But what peace is this? Jesus, our Lord, who was born from Mary, as He Himself willed” – St. Cyril of Alexandria (Homily IV – Preached at Ephesus contra Nestorius 431 A.D., P.G. 77, 992-96; Translation taken from Luigi Gambero, “Mary and the Church Fathers”, pp. 247-48))

Coptic Synaxarium
St. Thomas the Apostle was not present at the time of St. Mary’s departure. He wanted to go to Jerusalem and a cloud carried him there. On his way, he saw the pure body of St. Mary carried by the angels and ascended to heaven with it. One of the angels told him, “Make haste and kiss the pure body of St. Mary,” and he did. When St. Thomas arrived where the disciples were, they told him about St. Mary’s departure and he said to them, “You know how I conducted myself at the resurrection of the Lord Christ, and I will not believe unless I see her body.” They went with him to the tomb, and uncovered the place of the body but they did not find it, and everyone was perplexed and surprised. St. Thomas told them how he saw the holy body and the angels that were ascending with it. They heard the Holy Spirit saying to them, “The Lord did not will to leave her body on earth.” The Lord had promised his pure apostles to let them see her in the flesh once again. They were waiting for this promise to be fulfilled, until the 16th day of the month of Misra, when the promise was fulfilled and they saw her.

The Holy Spirit then told them, “The Lord did not Will to leave Her Holy body on earth.” The Lord
had promised his pure apostles that they would see her in flesh another time. They were waiting for the fulfillment of this truthful promise, until the sixteenth day of the month of Misra, when the promise of seeing her was fulfilled. They saw her sitting on the right hand of her Son and her Lord, surrounded by the angelic Host, as David prophesied and said, “At your right hand stands the queen.” (Psalm 45:9) St. Mary’s life on earth was sixty years. She spent twelve years of them in the temple, thirty years in the house of the righteous St. Joseph, and fourteen years in the care of St. John the Evangelist, as the  Lord commanded her saying, “Woman behold your Son,” and to St. John, “Behold your Mother.” May Her intercession be with us. Amen.

The Revealing of the Assumption of the Body of the Pure Virgin St. Mary to Heaven (Synaxarium – Coptic Reader)
On this day the church commemorates the revealing of the assumption of the body of our pure Lady St. Mary to heaven. The pure St. Mary departed on the 21st day of Tobe and she was surrounded by our fathers the apostles gathered to receive the blessing of her pure body. St. Thomas was absent for he was preaching the faith in India. The apostles buried her pure body in the place which was prepared for her in Gethsemane. The angelic voices of praises around the tomb did not cease for three days as well as the spread of the sweet aroma of incense which perfumed the whole place. The apostle St. Thomas before he preached in India he preached in the Arabian countries, Mesopotamia and Persia. Alter St. Thomas had gone to India and established its church, he wanted to go back to visit all the churches that he had established before. On his way back, he saw on the top of one of the mountains a group of angels who told him; “Hurry and kiss the body of the Mother of God.” He hurried, kissed and received the blessing of the pure body. The girdle that surrounded the holy body fell and he hurried and picked it up, and kissed it glorifying God for this blessing. When he arrived to Jerusalem, after he had completed his pastoral visits, he asked to visit the tomb where the Virgin St. Mary was buried for Thomas wanted to reveal the greatness of the miracle of the assumption of the pure body. He pretended that he did not believe that she had died as all humans and asked to see the pure body. When they lifted up the stone they did not find the body in the tomb which disturbed them all and were perplexed. However St. Thomas explained to them what he saw and how the angels carried the pure body to heaven and how he received its blessing by the command of the angels and showed them the girdle. The apostles, those were present in Jerusalem, decided to fast so the Lord Christ would reveal to them the where about of the body. The fast lasted for two weeks and on the 16th day of Mesore the Lord Christ appeared to them along with the Virgin St. Mary. The Lord told them that the body of the pure Virgin is in heaven for the body that carried God the Logos for nine month and took from it His humanity, should not remain in the dust of the earth and be putrefied as the other bodies but should be kept in heaven. This declaration was a great consolation for all the church in Jerusalem and they glorified God Who kept the body of His virgin mother encompassing it with this great honor. No wonder in that for Moses the prophet alter spending forty days on the mountain in the presence of God and had received from Him the two tablets of the Testimony the skin of his face shone and received a great honor. How about the body of the holy Virgin that carried God the Word a full nine months. Our teacher the apostle St. Paul said: “But if the testimony of death, written and engraved on stories, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.” Because of this glory that Moses received, God buried him by Himself in Mount Nebo and charged the archangel Michael to guard the body so the people of Israel would not find it and worship him. If God had cared for the body of Moses to that extent, what would be His care for the body of His mother the Virgin St. Mary after her departure? He came by Himself to receive her spirit and charged His angels to carry her pure body to heaven. The intercession of the pure St. Mary be with us all. Amen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *