St. Ambrose - Let God's Word be Heard

Open Your Lips, and Let God’s Word Be Heard

From the Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose, bishop

We must always meditate on God’s wisdom, keeping it in our hearts and on our lips.  Your tongue must speak justice, the law of God must be in your heart.  Hence Scripture tells you: You shall speak of these commandments when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you get up. 

Let us then speak of the Lord Jesus, 

for He is wisdom, He is the Word, 

the Word indeed of God.

It is also written: Open your lips, and let God’s word be heard.  God’s word is uttered by those who repeat Christ’s teaching and meditate on His sayings.  Let us always speak this word.  

When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ.

  

When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ.  

When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ.  

When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ.

  

When we speak about truth and life and redemption, 

we are speaking of Christ.

Open your lips, says Scripture and let God’s word be heard. It is for you to open, it is for Him to be heard.  So David said: I shall hear what the Lord says in me. The very Son of God says: Open your lips, and I fill them. Not all can attain to the perfection of wisdom as Solomon or Daniel did, but the spirit of wisdom is poured out on all according to their capacity, that is, on all the faithful.  

If you believe, you have the spirit of wisdom.

Meditate, then, at all times on the things of God, and speak the things of God, when you sit in your house. By house we can understand the Church, or the secret place within us, so that we are to speak within ourselves.  Speak with prudence, so as to avoid falling into sin, as by excess of talking.  

When you sit in your house, speak, so as never to be idle. You speak along the way if you speak in Christ, for Christ is the Way.  When you walk along the way, speak to yourself, speak to Christ.  

Hear him say to you: I desire that in every place men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. When you lie down, speak so that the sleep of death may not steal upon you.  

Listen and learn how you are to speak as you lie down; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

When you get up or rise again, speak of Christ, so as to fulfill what you are commanded.

Listen and learn how Christ is to awaken you from sleep.  Your soul says: I hear my brother knocking at the door. 

Then Christ says to you: Open the door to me, my sister, my spouse. Listen and learn how you are to awaken Christ.  Your soul says: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, awaken or reawaken the love of my heart. Christ is love.

Incarnation - Christ Comes to Us

St. Gregory  Nazianzen

The Marvel of the Incarnation

From a sermon by St Gregory Nazianzen, bishop

The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning of beginning, the light of light, the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable seal, the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father: he it is who comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul, to purify like by like. 

He takes to himself all that is human, except for sin. He was conceived by the Virgin Mary, who had been first prepared in soul and body by the Spirit; his coming to birth had to be treated with honor, virginity had to receive new honor. 

He comes forth as God, in the human nature he has taken, one being, made of two contrary elements, flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, flesh received it.

He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that I may gain the riches of his divinity. 

He who is full is made empty; he is emptied for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness. 

What is this wealth of goodness? What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of God, but failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring salvation to the image, immortality to the flesh. He enters into a second union with us, a union far more wonderful than the first.

Holiness had to be brought to man by the humanity assumed by one who was God, so that God might overcome the tyrant by force and so deliver us and lead us back to himself through the mediation of his Son. The Son arranged this for the honour of the Father, to whom the Son is clearly obedient in all things. 

The Good Shepherd by Philippede

The Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, came in search of the straying sheep to the mountains and hills on which you used to offer sacrifice. When he found it, he took it on the shoulders that bore the wood of the cross, and led it back to the life of heaven.

Christ, the light of all lights, follows John, the lamp that goes before him. The Word of God follows the voice in the wilderness; the bridegroom follows the bridegroom’s friend, who prepares a worthy people for the Lord by cleansing them by water in preparation for the Spirit.

We need God to take our flesh and die, that we might live. We have died with him, that we may be purified. 

We have risen again with him, because we have died with him. 

We have been glorified with him, because we have risen again with him.

PUT ON THE ARMOR OF GOD