The biblical approach to fraternal correction has nothing to do with the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Rather, it is all about loving intervention. As Ezekiel was a watchman for the house of Israel, we are all watchmen for each other....
The prophets of the Old and New Testaments show us that sometimes love demand that we speak truth that people don't want to hear. Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern; Jesus was run out of Nazaret. This shows us that God's messengers shouldn't expect...
The gospel story of the Widow's Mite and the Old Testament visit of the prophet Elijah to the Widow of Zarephath are well known bible tales. Two simple but heroic women -- who call us to heroic virtue in a hidden way, in the midst...
Somehow, we can all relate to the discouragement and exhaustion of Elijah. So we need to learn from the solution proposed by God to revitalize and energize him for the long journey he needed to make and the important work he was going to do. ...
Gregory the Great comments on the famous passage in Ezekiel 33 in which God calls the prophet to be a watchman for the house of Israel. Saint Gregory reflects on how this applies to himself as bishop of Rome and protests his inadequacy for the...
Saint Jerome on the nature of true repentance and the gracious mercy of God, our loving Father....
Augustine on the duty of pastors to strengthen weak Christians. The weak are those who want to live a good life but are unable to endure the sufferings that inevitably threaten. Some are so ill that they are like the paralytic who needed to be...
Irenaeus here shows that the Church of the 2nd century regarded the Eucharist as a sacrifice which fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi 1:11 of a new, pure oblation and offering that would be offered by the gentiles all over the world. ...
By his wounds we are healed- this reading on the Savior's passion is taken from a treatise On the Incarnation of the Lord by Saint Theodoret of Cyr. It reflects on several key scripture passages, including the Song of the Suffering Servant found in...
Cyril of Alexandria, commenting on the book of Haggai, speaks of the Church, the Body of Christ, as the new temple that we must busy ourselves with building and the peace that passes understanding as the reward given to those who rebuild it....