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A Epiphany present for my Coptic friend @dzheremi (Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!) and a Christmas present for @ArmenianJohn ‘s friends among the Armenians in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, who like all Eastern Christians in the Hagiopolis, are on the Julian calendar (because of the Holy Fire, coordination with the Greeks, and deconfliction with the Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre).
This comes courtesy of my dear friend, Fr. Peter Farrington of the Coptic Orthodox Church, St. George’s Mission, who I think will be remembered as the foremost Coptic scholar of Divinity since Pope Shenouda of blessed memory, and the best Christologist since Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, who before becoming Pope Benedict, headed what they once called the “Holy Office” and worked out that the Oriental Orthodox were actually telling the truth all these years in denying that they were followers of Eutyches, and actually were every bit as Orthodox as the Chalcedonians (of course, you all knew that already, but we needed someone powerful in the West who could
Here is the link to the original document:
Translation - Homily 67 of St Severus of Antioch - St George Orthodox Ministry
Concerning Mary, Holy Mother of God and Ever Virgin.
When I want to focus my attention on the Virgin Mother of God and touch simply on the thoughts that concern her, at the beginning of my steps it seems to me that a voice comes to me from God, and sounds loudly in my ears: Do not approach here, take the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Truly, indeed, we must rid our mind of all mortal and carnal imagination as well as of our shoes when we seek to ascend to the contemplation of one of the divine things. What object can be contemplated that is more divine than the Mother of God or superior to her? Approaching her, is to approach holy ground and reach the heavens. She belonged to the earth, was part of humanity by its nature and was of the same essence as us, although it was pure from all defilement and immaculate, and she produced from her own womb as well as from heaven, God who was made flesh, because she conceived and bore in a very divine way: it is not that she gave the divine nature to the one who is born, for he possessed it before any beginning and before every age, but it is because she has given him human nature without experiencing change, and that by herself and by the ineffable and mysterious coming of the Holy Spirit. And if you want to learn how (this has happened), what you are looking for is arrested by the seal of virginity which this birth did not violate, and what is sealed is absolutely intangible, it remains secret and we can not to speak about it: also, astonished by this prodigy, someone will exclaim as Jacob: This place is terrible, it is the gate of heaven.
The God who is above all has descended beforehand, when he promulgated the Law on Mount Sinai. The appearance of the glory of the Eternal, as the sacred book says, was like a burning fire on the top of the mountain in front of the children of Israel. However it was not the appearance of the essence or substance, but of the glory of the Lord. This aspect was also accompanied by a cloud filled with darkness, the powerful voice of the trumpet, rapid lightening and all that could excite fear, and drive away and turn from the mountain all those who stood around, when they were sanctified and purified; for those who were animals by their nature, were threatened with stones and arrows: If an animal touches the mountain, it is said, it is to be stoned or pierced with arrows. All this took place to produce fear. (God) approached the children of Israel as individuals who were still the subjects and the servants of Egyptian idolatry and brutal passions, and everywhere he excited fear in them, because he wanted to frighten them by the sounds and terrify them and in this way make them very docile to the place of legislation. Paul was referring to this episode, when he also said to those who believed in the gospel: ‘You did not receive a spirit of servitude to be in fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption’. In fact, God wished to teach them by fear and to correct them by the law, and once they had been raised above the condition of servants, to approach them as his children, by amore perfect and loving way...
This comes courtesy of my dear friend, Fr. Peter Farrington of the Coptic Orthodox Church, St. George’s Mission, who I think will be remembered as the foremost Coptic scholar of Divinity since Pope Shenouda of blessed memory, and the best Christologist since Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, who before becoming Pope Benedict, headed what they once called the “Holy Office” and worked out that the Oriental Orthodox were actually telling the truth all these years in denying that they were followers of Eutyches, and actually were every bit as Orthodox as the Chalcedonians (of course, you all knew that already, but we needed someone powerful in the West who could
Here is the link to the original document:
Translation - Homily 67 of St Severus of Antioch - St George Orthodox Ministry
Concerning Mary, Holy Mother of God and Ever Virgin.
When I want to focus my attention on the Virgin Mother of God and touch simply on the thoughts that concern her, at the beginning of my steps it seems to me that a voice comes to me from God, and sounds loudly in my ears: Do not approach here, take the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Truly, indeed, we must rid our mind of all mortal and carnal imagination as well as of our shoes when we seek to ascend to the contemplation of one of the divine things. What object can be contemplated that is more divine than the Mother of God or superior to her? Approaching her, is to approach holy ground and reach the heavens. She belonged to the earth, was part of humanity by its nature and was of the same essence as us, although it was pure from all defilement and immaculate, and she produced from her own womb as well as from heaven, God who was made flesh, because she conceived and bore in a very divine way: it is not that she gave the divine nature to the one who is born, for he possessed it before any beginning and before every age, but it is because she has given him human nature without experiencing change, and that by herself and by the ineffable and mysterious coming of the Holy Spirit. And if you want to learn how (this has happened), what you are looking for is arrested by the seal of virginity which this birth did not violate, and what is sealed is absolutely intangible, it remains secret and we can not to speak about it: also, astonished by this prodigy, someone will exclaim as Jacob: This place is terrible, it is the gate of heaven.
The God who is above all has descended beforehand, when he promulgated the Law on Mount Sinai. The appearance of the glory of the Eternal, as the sacred book says, was like a burning fire on the top of the mountain in front of the children of Israel. However it was not the appearance of the essence or substance, but of the glory of the Lord. This aspect was also accompanied by a cloud filled with darkness, the powerful voice of the trumpet, rapid lightening and all that could excite fear, and drive away and turn from the mountain all those who stood around, when they were sanctified and purified; for those who were animals by their nature, were threatened with stones and arrows: If an animal touches the mountain, it is said, it is to be stoned or pierced with arrows. All this took place to produce fear. (God) approached the children of Israel as individuals who were still the subjects and the servants of Egyptian idolatry and brutal passions, and everywhere he excited fear in them, because he wanted to frighten them by the sounds and terrify them and in this way make them very docile to the place of legislation. Paul was referring to this episode, when he also said to those who believed in the gospel: ‘You did not receive a spirit of servitude to be in fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption’. In fact, God wished to teach them by fear and to correct them by the law, and once they had been raised above the condition of servants, to approach them as his children, by amore perfect and loving way...
