Телеграм канал «Ecce Verbum»

The Discovery of the Mind - The Greek Origins of European Thought (1953)
Bruno Snell

#civilisation #philosophy

The Bright Ages - a New History of Medieval Europe (2021)
Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry

Note: A new history of medieval Europe challenging the 'Dark Ages' narrative, highlighting cultural and intellectual achievements instead of darkness and ignorance

#middleages

The A to Z of Ethics (2010)
Harry J. Gensler & Earl W. Spurgin

#ethics

Harry J. Gensler & Earl W. Spurgin - The A to Z of Ethics (2010)

"And we, today we are with You, Lady, Lady I repeat, Mother of God, Virgin, and we turn our hearts toward the hope that You are for us, toward the strongest and most certain anchor! We offer You mind, heart, body, our entire selves, honoring You according to our strength with psalms, hymns, and songs full of spirit. If honor given to other servants is—as the Word of God teaches us—proof of love for our common Lord, then how can we not make the effort to honor You, Mother of the Lord? How can we not honor You? Shall we not place You above life itself, since You have given us Life? In this way, indeed, we will show our love for the Lord even better."

St. John of Damascus (+749) Homily on the Assumption of Our Lady, 14

#mary

Truly you are, noble Virgin, great beyond all greatness! What can be compared to your greatness, dwelling place of God! To which among all creatures shall I compare you, Virgin? You are greater than all, Ark of the New Covenant, surrounded everywhere not with gold but with purity. In you is found the golden vessel containing the true manna—the body in which is divinity. [...] Shall I say that the heavens are high? Yet even they are not equal to you, for it is written: "Heaven is my throne," while God rested in you. [...] Shall I say that the Cherubim are great? You are greater than they; for they bear up God's throne, but you bear God in your arms. Shall I say that the Seraphim are great? You are greater than they; they cover their faces with their wings, unable to gaze upon the fullness of glory, while you not only gaze upon His face but caress Him and place your breast in His holy mouth. (...) O Virgin, pure in body and spirit! Indeed, it is through you that this precious gift was found! O you who drowned death, which ruled the womb of woman! For purity is the garment of Angels, the crown of Archangels, the glory of Seraphim. Whence, then, did the children of women receive such a gift, if not from her who is clothed in purity? Whence? For the sons of men, who crumble in the grave after a short time, here on earth are clothed in the glory of Angels. It is through you, Mother of Life, that we received this great gift!

Homily against Arius 216–217 (4th century) Attributed to Symeon the Blind, an author from the Alexandrian school of theology

#mary

Bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Selection of quotes

"If the Holy Virgin had died and was buried, her falling asleep would have been surrounded with honour, death would have found her pure, and her crown would have been a virginal one...Had she been martyred according to what is written: 'Thine own soul a sword shall pierce', then she would shine gloriously among the martyrs, and her holy body would have been declared blessed; for by her, did light come to the world."
Epiphanius,Panarion,78:23(A.D. 377), in PG 42:737

"The Apostles took up her body on a bier and placed it in a tomb; and they guarded it, expecting the Lord to come. And behold, again the Lord stood by them; and the holy body having been received, He commanded that it be taken in a cloud into paradise: where now, rejoined to the soul, [Mary] rejoices with the Lord's chosen ones..."
Gregory of Tours, Eight Books of Miracles,1:4(inter A.D. 575-593), in Jur,III:306

"As the most glorious Mother of Christ,our Savior and God and the giver of life and immortality, has been endowed with life by him, she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a way known only to him."
Modestus of Jerusalem,Encomium in dormitionnem Sanctissimae Dominae nostrae Deiparae semperque Virginis Mariae(PG 86-II,3306),(ante A.D. 634) from Munificentis simus Deus

"It was fitting ... that the most holy-body of Mary, God-bearing body, receptacle of God, divinised, incorruptible, illuminated by divine grace and full glory ... should be entrusted to the earth for a little while and raised up to heaven in glory, with her soul pleasing to God."
Theoteknos of Livias,Homily on the Assumption(ante A.D. 650), in Theo, 57 

"You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dewlling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissoultion into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life."
Germanus of Constantinople,Sermon I(PG 98,346),(ante A.D. 733),from Munificentis simus Deus

"It was fitting that the she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped when giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father, It was fitting that God's Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God"
John of Damascene,Dormition of Mary(PG 96,741),(ante A.D. 749) from Munificentis simus Deus

" 'St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.' "
John of Damascene,PG(96:1)(A.D. 747-751)

"Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten Thy Son our Lord incarnate from herself.
"
Gregorian Sacramentary,Veneranda(ante A.D. 795), from Munificentis simus Deus


"An effable mystery all the more worthy of praise as the Virgin's Assumption is something unique among men
."
Gallican Sacramentary, from Munificentis simus Deus

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#mary