Cyprian: peace in the storm's heart

Saturday, August 24, 2019
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
    —Romans 12:20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see—brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians—and I am one of them.
    ... St. Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) (?-258), a letter in A Treasury of Sermon Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed., Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:20-21; John 14:1; 16:32-33; 2 Cor. 1:3-4; 13:11; 1 Thess. 3:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are the strength of Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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