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Posts Tagged ‘Ignatius Of Antioch’

Ignatius of Antioch and Friends

17 Oct

Today is the Feast Day of probably my favourite Early Church Father, St. Ignatius of Antioch:

Office Of Readings

Today in the Office of Readings we read a section of one of the letters he wrote on his way to martyrdom sometime around AD 107:

“I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.

“No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. If you have him in your heart, you will understand what I wish. You will sympathize with me because you will know what urges me on.” – Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans

Early Church Relationships

Here is a diagram showing the relationships between Jesus, His Apostles, Ignatius of Antioch and some of the other Early Church Fathers:

Want to know more?

If you would like to read more of St. Ignatius’ writings, or listen to them free on MP3, be sure to check out the Patristics section of this blog.

 
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Invented at Nicaea?

12 Jul

A friend of mine recently told me about a conversation she had with her friend who considered himself a follower of Jesus, but who also held to the popular Dan Brown myth that one also often hears from Jehovah Witnesses and Muslims, that the divinity of Christ was something invented by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea.

albino monk

Don’t trust murdering albino monks when it comes to theology…

I promised my friend that I would put together a post to demonstrate the Divinity of Christ from both Sacred Scripture and Early Church history, so here it is…

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Who’s your daddy? St. Polycarp

23 Feb

Today is the feast day of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Contrary to the insistence of some of my friends, “Polycarp” does not mean “much fish” ;-) Rather, his name means “much fruit”, an appropriate appellation for a man whose life was full of the fruit of one whose life was devoted to Jesus Christ:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” – John 15:5

Polycarp, perhaps more so than any other Apostolic Father, provides us with a bridge between the Apostles and the Early Church. When Polycarp was young he sat at the feet of St. John and when Polycarp was old, another young man, St. Irenaeus sat at his feet and would later become one of the great defenders of the faith against the Gnostics.

Polycarp has a link to another Early Church Father. In fact, I have mentioned St. Polycarp on this blog before, when I wrote about the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans and his letter to the bishop of that city, Polycarp. In his letter, Ignatius exhorts Polycarp:

“The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks for the haven, so that both you and those under your care may attain to God. Be sober as God’s athlete: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life” – Ignatius to Polycarp

The turbulent times did indeed call for a great bishop and they did indeed find one in Polycarp…

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Beginning Ignatius’ letter to Polycarp

18 Oct

Well, we’re finally here!  The last letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch!  I’m posting this a bit earlier than usual because the next couple of weeks are going to be rather busy.

Each of the Ignatius’ letters are special for different reasons, but his letter to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, holds a special place in my heart.

In some ways it reminds me of the book of Proverbs, since Ignatius often offers Polycarp advice in the form of short exhortations.

This is the only personal letter Ignatius wrote to a fellow bishop and should, in my not so humble opinion, be required reading for all pastors and all those who minister in the Church.

When I have friends who enter the seminary, they usually receive a card from me with a quotation which comes from somewhere in this letter.  Whenever I become discouraged in the ministries in which I serve, this is the document I usually dig out.

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to Polycarp” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Polycarp” Audio

I said this was Ignatius’ last letter, but that is not strictly true, for there was one final letter he wrote, to both his “God Jesus Christ” and to the “Catholic Church”. However, this was a letter of a different kind…  Rather than being written in private, this letter was written in an amphitheatre before thousands of jeering Romans.  Rather than using parchment, he used his own flesh and, in place of ink, his own blood.

St. Ignatius, pray for us.

 
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Posted in Apologetics, Faith, Patristics

 

Set Up iTunes Feed…

16 Oct

It’s probably worth mentioning that I’ve created an RSS feed to allow people to subscribe to the St. Ignatius podcasts in iTunes:

If you have problems with this, or don’t use iTunes, simply point your media player software towards:

http://www.trycatch.net/audio/ignatius/IgnatiusOfAntioch.rss

 
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Posted in Announcement, Faith, Patristics

 

Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Smyrnaeans

16 Oct

The final two letters of St. Ignatius which we read are both sent to the city of Smyrna.  The first letter is sent to the Church as a whole, the second specifically to their bishop, Polycarp.

This first letter is special for many reasons, but particularly because it contains Ignatius’ clearest declaration of faith about the Eucharist, as well as being the earliest recorded use of the phrase “Catholic Church”. Invented at Nicea?  I don’t think so.

Here is my abridged version of the letter:

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Smyrnaeans” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Smyrnaeans” Audio

 
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Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Philadelphians

12 Oct

Ignatius is moving!

Thus far we have been reading the letters this inspirational martyr wrote from the city of Smyrna, but we must now follow him to Troas where he will write his last three letters before completing his journey to Rome and to the mouths of the wild beasts!

Ignatius now addresses the schism and the Judaising attempts at the church in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. Here is my abridged version of the letter:

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Philadelphians” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Philadelphians” Audio

 
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Posted in Apologetics, Faith, Patristics

 

Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians

05 Oct

This week in the JP2 Group we will be continuing our study of the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, martyr of the early 2nd Century.

Last week we read his words to the Trallians where Ignatius presents unity with the bishop as a defence against heresy. This week we move on to the letter he wrote to the Ephesians, the community in which Paul lived for three years and to whom he wrote a letter which we find in Sacred Scripture.

In this letter Ignatius pulls together all the different topics we have seen him address in his letters thus far: unity, the episcopacy, heresy, the Eucharist etc. However, as well as being a nice revision of all we have seen thus far, he also gives us some advice on how to deal with those outside the Church.

After looking at several different translations, I have, again, created my own abridged version so that we will be able to complete our study of this letter in a single evening.  The letter to the Ephesians is quite long so unfortunately I had to cut quite a bit. Anyway, here it is:

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Ephesians” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Ephesians” Audio

 
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Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Trallians

28 Sep

This week in the JP2 Group we will be continuing our study of the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the third bishop of Antioch. Last week we read his words to the Magnesians where he exhorted them to do nothing without the bishop and to give honour to God by honouring the presbytery in authority over them.  This week we move on to the letter he wrote to the Church in Tralles in which Ignatius repeats much of what he told the Magnesians, but goes on to warn them of a heresy which was starting to creep into the Church, Docetism.

After looking at several different translations, I have, again, created my own abridged version so that we will be able to complete our study of this letter in a single evening.  Here it is:

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Trallians” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Trallians” Audio

 
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Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Magnesians

23 Sep

This week in the JP2 Group we will be continuing our study of the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, an Early Church Father who died in about 107 AD.

Last week we read of his willingness to offer himself in sacrifice, imitating the Lord he loved so much.  This week we move on to the letter he wrote to the Church in Magnesia in which Ignatius exhorts them to be united together in unity and to cling to the grace of the Gospel.

After looking at several different translations, I have, again, created my own abridged version so that we will be able to complete our study of this letter in a single evening.  Here it is:

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Magnesians” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Magnesians” Audio

 
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Posted in Apologetics, Faith, Patristics

 
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