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St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles QUOTES

St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles QUOTES

1 " Labour together with one another; strive in company together; run together; suffer together; sleep together; and awake together, as the stewards, and associates, [1101] and servants of God. Please ye Him under whom ye fight, and from whom ye receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism endure as your arms; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your patience as a complete panoply. Let your works be the charge [1102] assigned to you, that ye may receive a worthy recompense. Be long-suffering, therefore, with one another, in meekness, as God is towards you. May I have joy of you for ever! [1103] Give "

― Ignatius of Antioch , St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles

2 " Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things, whatsoever ye do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; in the beginning and in the end; with your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God. Be ye subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual. Study, "

― Ignatius of Antioch , St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles

3 " Wherefore it is fitting that ye also should run together in accordance with the will of the bishop who by God's appointment [515] rules over you. Which thing ye indeed of yourselves do, being instructed by the Spirit. For your justly-renowned presbytery, being worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp. Thus, being joined together in concord and harmonious love, of which Jesus Christ is the Captain and Guardian, do ye, man by man, become but one choir; so that, agreeing together in concord, and obtaining [516] a perfect unity with God, ye may indeed be one in harmonious feeling with God the Father, and His beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. For, says He, "Grant unto them, Holy Father, that as I and Thou are one, they also may be one in us." [517] It is therefore profitable that you, being joined together with God in an unblameable unity, should be the followers of the example of Christ, of whom also ye are members. [515] "

― Ignatius of Antioch , St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles

4 " Now I begin to be a disciple. And let no one, of things visible or invisible, envy [853] me that I should attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, [854] breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful [855] torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ. From "

― Ignatius of Antioch , St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles

5 " For if the Lord were in the body in appearance only, and were crucified in appearance only, then am I also bound in appearance only. And why have I also surrendered myself to death, to fire, to the sword, to the wild beasts? But, [in fact,] I endure all things for Christ, not in appearance only, but in reality, that I may suffer together with Him, while He Himself inwardly strengthens me; for of myself I have no such ability. [1001] "

― Ignatius of Antioch , St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles

6 " But if, as some that are without God, that is, the unbelieving, say, that He only seemed to suffer (they themselves only seeming to exist), then why am I in bonds? Why do I long to be exposed to [796] the wild beasts? Do I therefore die in vain? [797] Am I not then guilty of falsehood [798] against [the cross of] the Lord? But "

― Ignatius of Antioch , St. Ignatius of Antioch: The Epistles