Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers

judgment

3 Entries

On that dreadful and amazing day, Thou shalt say to us sinners, O Lord: "You men know well what I have undergone for you...what have you suffered for Me?" What shall I say to that; I who, though penitent, am evil, sinful and polluted? The martyrs will point to their wounds, their sufferings, the severed parts of their bodies, and to their endurance to the end. The ascetics will point to their asceticism, to their long fasts and vigils, to their liberality, their tears and their endurance to the end. But I, idle, sinful, transgressing as I am, what shall I be able to point to? Spare me, O merciful One! Spare me, O Thou Lover of mankind!" St. Ephraim the Syrian quoted in the Prologue, Vol. 2, 5/10, p.163

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[Jesus], in administering the righteous judgment of the Father to all, assigns to each what is righteous according to his works. ... Justification will be seen in the awarding to each that which is just; to those who have done well, there will be justly assigned eternal happiness. The lovers of wickedness will be assigned eternal punishment. ... But the righteous will remember only the righteous deeds by which they reached the heavenly kingdom." 170-236 AD St. Hippolytus Against Plato sec. 3)

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A brother asked Abba Sisoes, 'What shall I do, Abba, for I have fallen?' The old man said to him, 'Get up again.' The brother said, 'I have got up again, but I have fallen again.; The old man said, 'Get up again and again.; So then the brother said, 'How many times?' The old man said, 'Until you are taken up either in virtue or in sin. For a man presents himself to judgement in the state in which he is found.' The Sayings of the Desert Fathers.

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