Way of the Fathers

For those who missed the YouTube livestream Q&A with Mike Aquilina on May 8th, 2023, here is the audio. It was a lively conversation where Mike fielded viewer questions about important cities of the early Church, early evidence for papal primacy, the role of charity in the early Church, Origen, the providential role of easy travel for the spread of the Gospel in the first centuries, and more. We're a week into CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. Generous donors have offered a $50,000 matching grant, so any donation you make by May 24 will double in value! You can donate on our website or PayPal (tax-deductible). Donation links below: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DZRZRJ5723MLA We’ll be doing more YouTube livestreams where viewers will be able to interact, ask questions and prompt discussion via the live chat box. Upcoming livestreams: 5/15, 8pm ET—Thomas Mirus & James Majewski (hosts,Catholic Culture Podcast, Catholic Culture Audiobooks, Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast) 5/22, 8pm ET—Phil Lawler & Jeff Mirus (CatholicCulture.org writers)

With this introductory episode we begin our exploration of the cities where the Fathers lived and taught. At first these were cities that raged against the Gospel and persecuted the Church. The Fathers brought them to faith. Each city was different from all the others—and each became more perfectly itself through its encounter with Jesus Christ. We can learn from the history. LINKS Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/ Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:xs159yz4591/00002552_mixed.pdf John Julius Norwich, Cities that Shaped the Ancient World https://www.amazon.com/Cities-that-Shaped-Ancient-World/dp/0500293406/ Rodney Stark, Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome https://www.amazon.com/Cities-God-Christianity-Movement-Conquered/dp/0061349887/ Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org Please donate to this podcast: http://www.CatholicCulture.org/donate/audio/  

Christianity is the odd religion that does not require pilgrimage, but Christians do it anyway, and in great numbers, as they have since the earliest days of the Church. Many of the early Fathers made the journey to the holy sites. They trekked to the Holy Land to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and to Rome to honor Peter and Paul. How can we follow their example? LINKS Mike Aquilina’s 2023 pilgrimage to Rome https://www.pilgrimages.com/mikeaquilina/ Margherita Guarducci, The Primacy of the Church of Rome https://www.amazon.com/Primacy-Church-Rome-Documents-Reflections/dp/0898709229/ The Pilgrimage of Etheria [or Egeria] https://archive.org/details/pilgrimageofethe00mccliala Jas Elsner and Ian Rutherford, Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrimage-Graeco-Roman-Early-Christian-Antiquity/dp/0199237913/ Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

’Twas the night before Easter, and all through the Church every heart was stirring. The early Christians kept a Vigil that made a lasting impression. The symbols were elemental: fire, water, darkness, nakedness, music, dramatic preaching, surprising chalices, and more-than-marathon endurance. Prepare for your Easter Vigil by learning about theirs. LINKS Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha https://sachurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/On-Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha (another translation) https://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp Eusebius of Caesarea, On the Celebration of Easter https://tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_on_easter.htm St. Augustine, Sermon 227 https://stanselminstitute.org/files/SERMON%20227.pdf Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org  

Plato scorned manual labor. Aristotle believed that “no one who leads the life of a worker or laborer can practice virtue.” Plotinus, Celsus, and Herodotus agreed that work was ignoble and contemptible. Pagan religion reflected these precepts of the philosophers. In such a world, Christianity seemed revolutionary. The churches were full of laborers, who worshipped a Laborer—and whose Scriptures preserved NOT the syllogisms of philosophers, but the stories of people who got jobs done. Implicit in the writings of the Fathers is a radical and new idea: a theology of work. LINKS Paul Veyne, A History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/History-Private-Life-Pagan-Byzantium/dp/0674399749/ Jose H. Gomez, All You Who Labor: Towards a Spirituality of Work for the 21st Century https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp/vol20/iss2/11/ Mike Aquilina, Work, Play, Love: How the Mass Changed the Life of the First Christians https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/work-play-love-how-the-mass-changed-the-life-of-the-first-christians Mike Aquilina, How Christianity Saved Civilization ...And Must Do So Again https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/how-christianity-saved-civilization-and-must-do-so-again Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org  

To Plato it was an island paradise. To Cicero it was the beginning of the Roman Empire. To Basil it was a name synonymous with luxury. To Augustine it was a place of natural marvels: a mountain that burned perpetually, but was never consumed. To Gregory the Great it was a shrine to his favorite martyrs. Modern Christians know Sicily mostly from the Godfather movies, so they know nothing of its rich Christian history. Till now. Listen up. Links John Julius Norwich, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sicily/UECODQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=john%20julius%20norwich%2C%20sicily&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover M.I. Finley, A History of Sicily https://archive.org/details/historyofsicily00finl_0 Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

As long as there’s been Christian faith, there have been ascetics—athletes of prayer—and these athletes, both female and male, have sought ways to live in intentional community. Experiments in communal life went on in every corner of the Empire—in Egypt, Palestine, Rome, Cappadocia, Athens, Antioch, Africa—and involved the greatest names in the early Church. LINKS Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1699 Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2092 Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Widows https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2070 Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2272 Augustine of Hippo, Of Holy Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3280 John Cassian, Institutes https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2106 Palladius, Lausiac History https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_lausiac_02_text.htm Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Denis (aka Dionysius) the Great, in the years he was bishop, faced many of the terrors of the ancient world, all while the empire was persecuting Christians to the death. He saw his congregations reduced by death and defection. He saw the ranks of the clergy reduced to just a handful of priests. Yet he lived to see the day when the Church of Alexandria in Egypt revived to become a world leader once again. LINKS Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VI) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VII) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250107.htm Kyle Harper The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Rome-Climate-Disease-Empire/dp/0691192065/ William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples https://www.amazon.com/Plagues-Peoples-William-H-McNeill/dp/0385121229/ Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Western Christianity is fundamentally African in the way that Eastern Christianity is fundamentally Greek. It was in Africa that a vigorous Christian Latin culture first developed. Carthage had a Latin liturgy for a full century before Rome switched over from Greek. Africa gave the Church great saints and Fathers such as Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius—and the greatest of all: Augustine. For a Western Christian, to know early African Christianity is to know one’s own roots. LINKS Mike Aquilina, Africa and the Early Church: The Almost-Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Early-Church-Almost-Forgotten-Christianity/dp/1645852598/ Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

The calendar is a catechism. Every feast is a lesson in doctrine. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, like Christmas, rose to prominence at a time of deep division in the Church, as some Christians disputed Jesus’ true divinity. Both celebrations served as a kind of credal statement—and they still do today. LINKS Kilian McDonnell, OSB, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan: The Trinitarian and Cosmic Order of Salvation https://www.amazon.com/Baptism-Jesus-Jordan-Trinitarian-Salvation/dp/0814653073 Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Mike Aquilina, The Feasts: How the Church Year Forms Us as Catholics https://www.amazon.com/Feasts-Church-Year-Forms-Catholics/dp/080413992X/ Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org