CONTRA FATUM

Yet one of those blog-posts that are "to be updated" as  I find more quotes on the subject matter. There is a tendency to think of prayer as a mechanism of obtaining things. You ask, you receive. God is imagined to be some sort of cosmic mechanical dispenser. You put in prayer, you get something, whatever, out. Of course it has to be honest prayer from a pure heart, and so on. We also tend to think of prayer as an initiative we take in order to get God's attention. But what we forget is that the only prayer acceptable to God is the one animated by the Spirit.

"If anyone has a thought of God, it does not match God's worth - what could that be? So far as in him lies, let him think of a tremendous light of supreme beauty, unthinkable and unapproachable, possessing every good power and every attractive virtue, concerned for all, full of compassion, passionless, good, omniscient, completely prescient, true, sweet, brilliant, unquenchable" (Clement, Selections from the Prophetic Scriptures, 21, Ferguson, 161-162)

What is called by men an ancestral custom passes away in a moment, but the divine guidance is a possession which abides for ever. (The Instructor VII, ANF p. 223)

The Harrowing of Hell Notes based on a sermon in ‘Morgencaféen GRACE’ (a café for homeless immigrants in Copenhagen), 21/5-2013 . The words were written after the sermon was delivered, hence not representing the full contents, though giving a broad outline. “ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (Ps 139:7-12) Prayer: Heavenly Father, we pray that you will anoint us with your Spirit, that we will gain just a small spark of understanding of how deep and unfailing your love is. Yesterday we came back from Athens....

We are currently doing a seminar on the classical idea(s) of the atonement, among which is the 'ransom theory'. The following passages from the early Church illustrate the idea (this page will be updated as we find more examples). First some important passages from the New Testament: ”For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for.” (Mark 10:45) “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:25-28) "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) From The E...

"Custom is indeed in everything hard to resist. It possesses an enormous power of attracting and seducing the soul. In the cases where a man has got into a fixed state of sentiment, a certain imagination of the good is created in him by this habit; and nothing is so naturally vile but it may come to be thought both desirable and laudable, once it has got into the fashion." (De Vir. IX)

"if the presence of a good man, through the respect and reverence which he inspires, always improves him with whom he associates, with much more reason does not he who always holds uninterrupted converse with God by knowledge, life, and thanksgiving, grow at every step superior to himself in all respects—in conduct, in words, in disposition? Such an one is persuaded that God is ever beside him, and does not suppose that He is confined in certain limited places; so that under the idea that at times he is without Him, he may indulge in excesses night and day. Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded that God is altogether on every side present, we cultivate our fields, praising; we sail the sea, hymning; in all the rest of our conversation we conduct ourselves according to rule. The Gnostic, then, is very closely allied to God, being at once grave and cheerful in all things,—grave on account of the bent of his soul towards the Divinity, and cheerful on account of his con...