Letter of Saint Athanasius
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I will take a respite now since so many of you display tremors on the hearing of my opinions.

    While I am resting, please meditate on this letter on my behalf and know that I only hope to keep the faith and share it with all of you for the love of Christ and His Beloved Church and know that my prayers are for our Holy Father and for you.

    Sincerely

    FK

    Letter of Saint Athanasius

    Bishop of Alexandria To His Flock

    The Catholic Church Ravaged in the Fourth Century

    "May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises -- but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle -- the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ... "You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. "Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."

    - (Coll. Selecta SS.Eccl.Patrum, Caillau and Guillou Vol. 32, pp. 411-412)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    Always good to hear your opinions, Francis. I can't always agree with them, but good to hear you state them.
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Bishop Graber's book on Athanasius and the Church of our times is an excellent read. $.02