✝️ The End for which the Word of God was Made Man 🔥 Being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life; and not receiving the incorruptible Word, they remain in mortal flesh, and are debtors to death, not obtaining the antidote of life. . . . For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that we might receive the adoption of sons? _St. Irenaeus. Against Heresies III, 19, 1; ANF I, p. 448-449. #Incarnation #WordMadeFlesh #Adoption #Immortality #Salvation #ChurchFathers

🎉 Be joyful before the Lord, because He comes ✨ Today are strains of praise sung joyfully by the choir of angels, and the light of the advent of Christ shines brightly upon the faithful. Today is the glad spring time to us, and Christ the Sun of righteousness has beamed with clear light around us, and has illumined the minds of the faithful. Today is Adam made anew, and moves in the choir of angels, having winged his way to heaven. Today is the whole circle of the earth filled with joy, since the sojourn of the Holy Spirit has been realized to men. Today the grace of God and the hope of the unseen shine through all wonders transcending imagination, and make the mystery that was kept hid from eternity plainly discernible to us. Today is fulfilled the word of David, “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. The fields shall be joyful, and all the trees of the wood before the Lord, because He comes.” (Ps 95:11-13 LXX) St Gregory Thaumaturgus, First Homily on the Annunciation ANF, Vol. VI, p. 58 #Advent #Incarnation #Annunciation #ChurchFathers #Joy

☀️ He Has Become Man That He Might Deify Us in Himself We do not worship a creature. Far be the thought. ... But we worship the Lord of Creation, Incarnate, the Word of God. For if the flesh also is in itself a part of the created world, yet it has become God's body. For the Flesh did not diminish the glory of the Word; far be the thought: on the contrary, it was gloried by Him. Nor, because the Son that was in the form of God took upon Him the form of a servant was He deprived of His Godhead. On the contrary, He is thus become the Deliverer of all flesh and of all creation. And if God sent His Son brought forth from a woman, the fact causes us no shame but contrariwise glory and great grace. For He has become Man, that He might deify us in Himself, and He has been born of a woman, and begotten of a Virgin, in order to transfer to Himself our erring generation, and that we may become henceforth a holy race, and “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Pe 1:4), as blessed Peter wrote. -St Athanasius, Letter 60, 3-4, To Adelphius; NPNF, 2nd Ser.,Vol.IV, p. 575-576 #Deification #Incarnation #ChurchFathers #PartakersOfDivineNature #Theosis

🕊️ The Purpose of the Great Mystery: To Become One in Christ What is this new mystery which concerns me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I share one condition with the lower world, the other with God; one with the flesh, the other with the spirit. I must be buried with Christ, arise with Christ, be joint heir with Christ, become the son of God. ... This is the purpose of the great mystery for us. This is the purpose for us of God, Who for us was made man and became poor, to raise our flesh, and recover His image, and remodel man, that we might all be made one in Christ (Gal 3:28), who was perfectly made in all of us all that He Himself is, that we might no longer be male and female, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free (Col 3:11) (which are badges of the flesh), but might bear in ourselves only the stamp of God, by Whom and for Whom we were made, and have so far received our form and model from Him, that we are recognized by it alone. -St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 7, 23. NPNF 2nd Ser. Vol. VII, p. 237 #UnityInChrist #Incarnation #Mystery #Deification #ChurchFathers