Day: September 28, 2010

Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Trallians

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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

New Church Father Resource

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As I am sure it has now become clear, I’m a big fan of the Early Church Fathers 🙂 I always try to encourage everyone I know to become familiar with their writings and discover the wisdom they have to pass on to us. I’ve just been notified of a new website, www.churchfathers.org which seeks to do the same.

The nice thing about this website is that it groups Church Father quotations by topic, such as “The Real Presence”, “Intercession of the Saints” etc, which makes it a particularly useful reference for apologetics.

The other thing I like about it is that all the quotations have a document name and date attached to them – I’m always frustrated when I come across a great Early Church Father quote but I then have to spend time tracking down the document name and date of composition….well, no more.

Joe, the creator of the website also has a newsletter to which you can subscribe for a free weekly quote from a Church Father.  Getting familiar with the Church Fathers really couldn’t get any easier…