Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers

creation

7 Entries

As it is written, it is clear the the Spirit is not a creature, but takes part in the act of creation. The Father creates all things through the Word in the Spirit; for where the Word is, there is the Spirit also, and it is out of the Spirit from the Word that the things which are created through the Word have their power to exist. Thus it is written in the thirty-second psalm: `By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth is all their might' (Ps. 32:6). St. Athanasius the Great: Third Letter to Serapion



Christ made all things, whether you speak of Angels, or Archangels, of Dominions, or Thrones. Not that the Father wanted strength to create the works Himself, but because He willed that the Son should reign over His own workmanship, God Himself giving Him the design of the things to be made. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 11 no. 23)

If the the world has a beginning, and if it has been created, enquire who gave it this beginning, and who was the Creator: or rather, in the fear that human reasonings may make you wander from the truth, Moses has anticipated enquiry by engraving in our hearts, as a seal and a safeguard, the awful name of God: 'In the beginning God created' - It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodness without measure, a worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty the most to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life, intellectual light, impenetrable wisdom, it is He who 'in the beginning created heaven and earth.' St. Basil the Great, The Hexaemeron.

The sun was formed by a mere command, but man by God's hands: 'Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness' (Gen. 1:26). A wooden image of an earthly king is held in honor; how much more a rational image of God? St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 12 no. 5)

Who is it that so wisely, delicately and beautifully arranges and transforms the ugly, the sightless, formless substance of the earth into flowers? Who give them their wonderful forms? Creator, grant that we may salute in the flowers Thy wisdom, Thy goodness, Thine omnipotence. St. John of Kronstadt

"Creation is a slave; the Spirit sets free. Creation stands in need of life; the Spirit is the Life-Giver. Creation needs instruction; the Spirit is the Teacher. Creation is sanctified; the Spirit is the Sanctifier." St. Basil the Great

Now the voice of the Word is ever a voice of power. At the creation. light shone forth at His command, and again at His order the firmament arose; and similarly all the rest of creation came into being at His creative Word. So too now, when the Word calls a soul that has advanced to come unto Him, it is immediately empowered at His command and becomes what the Bridegroom wishes. It is transformed into something divine, and it is transformed from the glory in which it exists to a higher glory by a perfect kind of alteration. St. Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory.




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