#st. athanasius

[vigilantkilliforniakatholixxx]

[apilgrimpassingby]

(Image found on Ancient Faith Store).

So, men as they were, and human in all their thoughts, on whatever objects they fixed their senses, there they saw themselves met half-way , and taught the truth from every side. For if they looked with awe upon the Creation, yet they saw how she confessed Christ as Lord; or if their mind was swayed toward men, so as to think them gods, yet from the Saviour's works, supposing they compared them, the Saviour alone among men appeared Son of God; for there were no such works done among the rest as have been done by the Word of God. Or if they were biassed toward evil spirits, even, yet seeing them cast out by the Word, they were to know that He alone, the Word of God, was God, and that the spirits were none. Or if their mind had already sunk even to the dead, so as to worship heroes, and the gods spoken of in the poets, yet, seeing the Saviour's resurrection, they were to confess them to be false gods, and that the Lord alone is true, the Word of the Father, that was Lord even of death. For this cause He was both born and appeared as Man, and died, and rose again, dulling and casting into the shade the works of all former men by His own, that in whatever direction the bias of men might be, from thence He might recall them, and teach them of His own true Father, as He Himself says: I came to save and to find that which was lost.

St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 15.3-7

[thepastisalreadywritten]

The Solemnity of the Annunciation celebrates the coming of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to announce to her the special mission God had chosen for her in being the mother of His only son.

We are continually reminded of the importance of this feast to our salvation in various devotional prayers.

Two examples that highlight the importance of this feast are the joyous mysteries of the Rosary and the Angelus.

The Feast of the Annunciation began to be celebrated on this day during the fourth and fifth centuries, soon after the date for celebrating Christmas was universalized throughout the Church.

This feast celebrates the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity and the salvation of all mankind.

This point of our salvation was deeply discussed by many of the Church fathers to explain to the faithful and to show the deep love God has for us.

Some of the Church fathers who wrote on this were St. Athanasius, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Augustine.

[eternal-echoes]

You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.

St. Athanasius

[1five1two]

The Self-revealing of the Word is in every dimension - above, in creation; below, in the Incarnation; in the depth, in Hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.

St. Athanasius

[orthodoxicons]

"Orthodoxy is what Christ taught, the Apostles preached and the Fathers kept"

- St. Athanasius

[wisdomfish]

That mystery the Jews traduce, the Greeks deride, but we adore; and your own love and  devotion to the Word also will be the greater, because in His Manhood He seems so little worth. For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much the more does He make His Godhead evident. The things which they, as men, rule out as impossible, He plainly shows to be possible; that which they deride as unfitting, His goodness makes most fit; and things which these wiseacres laugh at as "human" He by His inherent might declares divine. Thus by what seems His utter poverty and weakness on the cross He overturns the pomp and parade of idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize Him as God.

St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

[dramoor]

“The Word made himself ‘bearer of the flesh’ in order that human beings might become ‘bearers of the Spirit’.”

~St. Athanasius of Alexandria