Matins Lesson for Monday after Trinity Sunday

Matins Lesson for Monday after Trinity Sunday

From the Treatise of the Faith by St. Gregory of Nazianzus

Every Catholic knoweth that the Father is truly Father, the Son truly Son, the Holy Ghost truly Holy Ghost ; as the Lord himself taught the Apostles, when he told them to baptize all nations in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This is the perfect Trinity in Unity, which we profess to be of one Substance. For we cannot admit division in God, as thought he ware a body ; but according to the power of the divine Nature, which is immaterial, we both do believe them to be truly distinct Persons, and do testify to the unity of their divinity.

We do not say, as some have imagined, that the divine Word, the Son of God, is the extension of some part of the divinity ; nor do we hold that he is a word without reality, like the sound of a voice ; but we believe the three Names to signify what the three Persons are, namely, a oneness of essence, majesty and power. For this reason therefore we do confess on God, to wit, because the Unity of Majesty doth not allow us to speak of several Gods.



Lastly, according to the Catholic Faith, we speak of the Father and the Son ; but we neither can nor ought to say that they are two Gods. Not indeed that the Son of God is not God, rather, that he is true God of true God ; but because we know that the Son of God is from none other than the one Father himself, therefore we speak of one God. This is the doctrine delivered to us by the Prophets and Apostles ; and taught by the Lord himself when he saith : I and the Father are one. When he saith One : he hath reference to the unity of the divinity, as I have already said : but the plural word Are indicateth the Persons.

St. Gregory Nazianzus, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor

St. Gregory Nazianzus, Bishop, Confessor & Doctor

　
This Gregory, who is one of the first four Eastern Doctors of the Church, was born about the year 325 in Cappadocia, of a remarkable Christian family. For his father Gregory the Elder, and his mother Nonna, and his brother Caesarius, who became a physician at the imperial court of Constantinople, are all revered in the Eastern Liturgy as Saints. Saint Gregory the Elder was a wealthy magistrate when he was converted to Christianity, and thereafter he was ordained to the priesthood, and finally became Bishop of Nazianzus, which See he ruled for forty-five years, being assisted therein, during the latter years of his life, by his holy son Gregory. To both Caesarius and Gregory he had given the best education available ; and Gregory used it to such purpose that, because of his extraordinary depth of sacred learning, he was afterwards given the honour (which he shareth with the Apostle John) of being called The Divine (that is, The Theologian).

His education was acquired chiefly at Athens, where he became the intimate friend of his fellow-student Saint Basil, with whom likewise, when they had acquired knowledge in divers branches of earthly learning, he gave himself up to learn the things of God. This they did for some years in a monastery, framing their opinions, not out of their own heads, but according to the interpretation arrived at by the wisdom and decision of the ancients ; at which time Gregory assisted Basil to write the famous monastic Rule which the Basilian monks follow. They were both distinguished by power of doctrine and holiness of life ; they were both called to the duty of preaching the Gospel of truth ; and through the gospel they both begat many sons unto Christ. Gregory after a while returned home. He was first made Bishop of Sasima, and afterwards administered the Church at Nazianzus. Then he was called to rule the church of Constantinople. That city, which he found reeking with heresy, he purged, and brought again to the Orthodox Faith. But this, which deserved for him the warmest love of all men, raised up many enemies.

Among the bishops themselves there was a great party against him, and to still their contentions, he, of his own free will gave up his See, saying with the Prophet Jonah : Take me up, and cast me forth ; for I know that for my sake this tempest is upon you. So he went his way back again to Nazianzus, and when he had seen that Eulalius was set over that Church, he gave himself up altogether to think and write concerning the things of God. He wrote much, both in prose and verse, and that with wonderful godliness and eloquence. According to the judgement of learned and holy men, there is nothing in his writings which doth anywhere stray from the line of true godliness and Orthodox truth, and not a single word which any one can justly call in doubt. He was a most vigorous champion of the doctrine of that the Son is of one substance with the Father. During the reign of the Emperor Theodosius he dwelt in the country after the manner of a monk, unceasingly taken up with writing, study, and prayer until in the year 390 or thereabouts, being then in a good old age, he laid down his earthly, to enter on an heavenly life. He is reckoned one of the three Cappadocians (as he and Basil, and Basil’s blood-brother Saint Gregory of Nyssa are jointly called), and by the Eastern Church is named one of the three Holy Hierarchs, which same are himself and Saints Basil and John Chrysostom.
　

Collect:

O God, by whose providence blessed Gregory Nazianzus was sent to guide thy people in the way of everlasting salvation : grant we beseech thee, that as we have learned of him the doctrine of life on earth, so we may be found worthy to have him for our advocate in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.