St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)John of Damascus, Saint
Religion
St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)
John of Damascus, Saint
Icons -- Cult; Idols and images -- Worship; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Assumption -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800
It seems to me not superfluous to bring forward and insist on the past
types of this holy one, the Mother of God. These types succinctly
announced the Divine Child whom we have received. I look upon His Mother
as the saint of saints, the holiest of all, the fragrant urn for the
manna, or rather, to speak more truly, the fountain taking its rise in
the divine and far-famed city of David, in Sion the glorious; in it the
law is fulfilled and the spiritual law is portrayed. In Sion, Christ the
Law-giver consummated the typical pasch, and God, the Author of the old
and the new dispensation, gave us the true pasch. In it the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world, initiated His disciples unto His
mystical feast, and gave them Himself slain as a victim, and the grape
pressed in the true vine. In Sion, Christ is seen by His apostles, risen
from the dead, and Thomas is told, and through Thomas the world, that He
is Lord and God, having in Himself two natures after His resurrection,
and consequently two operations, independent wills, enduring for all
ages. Sion is the crown of churches, the resting-place of disciples. In
it the echo of the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues, His fiery descent
are transmitted to the apostles. In it St John, taking the Mother of
God, ministered to her wants. Sion is the mother of churches in the
whole world, who offered a resting-place to the Mother of God after her
Son’s resurrection from the dead. In it, lastly, the Blessed Virgin was
stretched on a small bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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