Church Fathers V3 - Fr George Grube - Saint Mina Coptic Orthodox ...

+ The constant welcome expectation of death should be a necessary practice
of silence. A man who embraces silence without this thought cannot endure
what we have to bear and suffer at all costs.
- Monks Callistus and Ignatius
+ Before Christ nothing was stronger than death, and nothing was weaker
than us. Now the opposite is true, nothing is weaker than death and nothing is
stronger than us.
- St. John Chrysostom
+ In Adam, death was not the separation of the soul from the body, but the flight
of the Holy Spirit from the immortal soul.
- Nickodimos of the Holy Mountain
+ As the death of the body is its separation from the soul, so also the death of
the soul comes when the grace of the Holy Spirit of God is removed from it.
- St. Symeon the New Theologian
+ It is precisely through undergoing many trials and temptations, through
grief and suffering, and through patiently enduring them, that a man acquires
experience. As a result he comes to know both his own weakness and the
power of God. In becoming aware of his own weakness, and ignorance, he
recognizes that he has now learned what once he did not know. This allows
him to see that just as he used not to know these things, and was unaware
that he did not know, so there are many other things which he may later be
able to learn.
- St. Peter of Damaskos
+ The resurrection of the dead appeared contrary to nature, whereas...it is not
contrary to nature but transcends nature. This, at least, is how it appears to us.
However, in God's eyes the resurrection of the dead does not transcend nature,
but is quite natural.
- St. Peter of Damaskos
+ Ever since the God- Man was resurrected and ascended, all the faithful can
trample death as if it did not exist. They prefer to die rather than deny their faith
in Christ. Now there are no dead. Now the only dead one is the Devil, who in
the past used to boast about the death of men. The Devil is the only one truly
dead, since the “pangs of death have been loosed”, (Acts 2:24). Therefore,
the proof of this is the following: People who were once afraid of death before
believing in Christ, once baptized and members of the Church, despised death
so much that they would readily rush toward it and become martyrs. Death
became so weak that (those) who were at first deceived by it in the person
of Eve, can now mock death as something truly eliminated and altogether
weakened.
- St. Athanasios the Great
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