[Pyro7480]

Ping!

[Kolokotronis]

From the Synodikon of the 7th Ecumenical Council, which we recite in unison on the Sunday of the Triumph Of Orthodoxy;

“As the Prophets beheld,
As the Apostles taught,
As the Church received,
As the Teachers dogmatized,
As the Universe agreed,
As Grace illumined,
As the Truth revealed,
As falsehood passed away,
As Wisdom presented,
As Christ awarded,

Thus we declare,
Thus we assert,
Thus we proclaim Christ our true God
and honor His saints,

In words,
In writings,
In thoughts,
In sacrifices,
In churches,
In holy icons.

On the one hand, worshipping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord.
And on the other hand, honoring and venerating His Saints as true servants of the same Lord.

This is the Faith of the Apostles.
This is the Faith of the Fathers.
This is the Faith of the Orthodox.
This is the Faith which has established the Universe.”

[kosta50]

Pyro, excellent post. I see D-fendr beat me to it by posting the link to St. John Damascene's Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. Those of you who haven't, please, by all means READ all four books! You will be amazed.

Thank you D-fendr for posting the link.

[Salvation]

Doctors of the Catholic Church

Saint John Damascene is the Icon and Image Doctor. He is most famous as one who defended and favored the veneration of sacred images, holy pictures, statues and icons. His writings in the Eastern Church are what the Summa of St Thomas Aquinas are to the West.

John guarded the Church's faith and traditions zealously. His dedicated life of prayer afforded him to put his literary and preaching talents at the service of God. He was a recipent of many miracles. Praying changed everything into beauty for him.

St Damascene spent all his life under Moslem rule and, like all the doctors, had an extraordinary devotion to the Mother of God. It was reported that John received a total healing from a wound inflicted on him through the intercession of St. Mary.

The Pope, in defining the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called St. John Damascene “the interpreter of this tradition par excellence”. He quoted St. John below. This is taken from Father Renger’s book. (noted elsewhere)

There was need of her who in childbirth had preserved intact, be preserved incorrupt after death. There was need that she who had carried her Creator as a babe on her bosom, would linger lovingly in the dwelling of her God. There was need that the bride whom the Father had betrothed to Himself should live in the bridal chamber in heaven, that she who had looked so closely upon her own Son on the Cross, and who there felt in her heart the sword-pangs of sorrow which in bearing Him she had been spared, should look upon Him seated with His Father. There was need that God’s Mother should enter into her Son’s possessions, and as a Mother of God and handmaid, be reverenced by all creation. (Par. 21).

St John Damascene 676-749. The Icon or Image Doctor, Feast Dec 4th.