St Athanasius of Mount Sinai on the New Sabbath, and on St Thomas the Apostle.
Those who saw Christ in the flesh looked upon Him as a prophet. We, who have not seen Him, have confessed Him from our childhood to be the great and Almighty God Himself, the Creator of eternity, and splendour of the Father. We listen with faith to His Gospel, as if we saw Christ Himself speaking. And receiving the pure treasure of His body, we believe that Christ Himself is acting in us. And if we see only the image of His divine form, as if looking down upon us from heaven, we prostrate and adore. Great is now the faith of Christ.
From the Life of the Abbot Daniel, on Eulogius the Quarryman.
Then he went away dejected, and threw himself before an image of Our Lady, and crying out, he said: “Lord, enable me to pay what I promised this man.”
From the Life of St Mary of Egypt.
As I was weeping, I lifted up my eyes and saw the image of Our Lady, and I said to her :–
“O Virgin, Mother of God (qeotoke despoina), who didst give birth to God the Word, I know that it is neither fitting nor seemly that one so defiled and so covered with guilt as I should look up to thy image, O ever Virgin. It is fitting that I should be hated and shunned by thy purity. Yet as He who was born of thee became man on purpose to call sinners to repentance, help me, for I have no other succour. Let me also find an entrance.
Do not refuse me a sight of the wood on which God the Word, thy Son, suffered according to the flesh, who shed His own precious blood for me. Grant, O Queen, that I may be admitted to worship the sacred Cross, and I will promise thee as surety to the God whom thou didst bring forth that I will keep myself ever undefiled, When I see the Cross of thy Son, I will at once renounce the world and the things of the world, and forthwith follow wherever thou shalt lead.”
Saying this, taking faith’s token as a conviction, encouraged by Our Lady’s clemency, I left that place where I had made my petition, and returned again to join those who were entering the edifice. No one thrust me aside, and no one prevented me from going into the church. Then I was seized with horror and fear and trembling in all my limbs.
Read More about Memnon the Philosopher or Human Wisdom part 1
