Through the Church Fathers

• Through the Church Fathers: November 29

  Clement of Alexandria opens today’s reading with a fierce rebuke of vanity. In The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 13, he mocks the obsession with jewels and gold—those childish trinkets that enslave rather than adorn. True wealth, he says, is not worn but shared: “He who gives to the poor lends to God.” Virtue, not ornament, makes the soul beautiful. A Christian’s pearl is Christ Himself, the Word who shines in simplicity and generosity. The wise soul trades gold for mercy, fashion for faith.In Letter 90, Augustine of Hippo receives a plea from Nectarius of Calama, who begs for mercy on his city after a violent uprising. The old bishop appeals to Augustine’s sense of justice and compassion—urging that punishment be tempered with discernment, that the innocent not perish with the guilty. True authority, he reminds us, is pastoral before it is political. Justice without mercy, Augustine would agree, is only vengeance dressed in law.Thomas Aquinas closes our reflection in Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 52, asking whether habits can grow. His answer is both precise and pastoral: virtue deepens through repetition and grace. Habits don’t swell like bodies—they intensify like flame. Each act of goodness strengthens the soul’s readiness to do good again. Practice builds nature, and grace perfects what nature begins. The soul grows not by size but by depth.Together these Fathers reveal one truth: holiness is the art of inward adornment. The saints are not gilded but refined—burnished by mercy, discipline, and love until they shine with the beauty of Christ.Readings:Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 13 – Against Excessive Fondness for Jewels and Gold OrnamentsAugustine of Hippo, Letter 90 – To Bishop Augustine from Nectarius of Calama (A.D. 408)Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 52, Article 1 – Whether Habits IncreaseExplore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ClementOfAlexandria #Augustine #Aquinas #Virtue #Beauty #ChurchFathers #SummaTheologica #Confessions #Patristics

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• Through the Church Fathers: November 28

  Clement’s final lesson feels almost monastic: simplicity of step as simplicity of soul. He rebukes luxury even in sandals, urging us to walk lightly upon the earth—bare feet nearer to humility than ornamented leather. Augustine follows with a letter forged in the fires of persecution, pleading with Bishop Januarius for peace amid Donatist violence. He exposes hypocrisy and appeals for a public conference, a dialogue of truth over blood. Then Aquinas, calm and exacting as ever, explains how the soul is shaped by repetition—how habits are not born of flashes of passion but through the slow rhythm of obedience. Together they show that holiness walks, writes, and acts one step at a time (Galatians 5:25).Readings: Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 12 – On Shoes Augustine of Hippo, Letter 89 to Januarius Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 51 (Combined articles—On the Cause of Habits)Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ClementOfAlexandria #Augustine #SummaTheologica #ChurchFathers #Virtue #Habits #Discipleship

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• Through the Church Fathers: November 27

  Clement of Alexandria, Augustine’s Letter 84, Aquinas Q50 A5 — Whether Any Habit Is in the Will)The human soul bends toward what it loves most—Clement warns me not to hide behind displays of wisdom, for the true adornment of the Christian is humility and restraint, even down to the sandals on our feet. Augustine then writes with the gentleness of a bishop and the precision of a theologian, guiding a troubled friend through the tension between action and contemplation—between the outer work of charity and the inward rest of grace. Aquinas closes the day by explaining that the will, too, carries habits just as the intellect does, for we grow into the good not by accident but by steady choosing. Virtue becomes second nature when the will learns to delight in the good itself (Philippians 2:13).Readings: Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Chapter 12 (“On Shoes”)Augustine, Letter 84Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 50, Article 5Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ClementOfAlexandria #Augustine #SummaTheologica #ChurchFathers #Habits #Virtue

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• Through the Church Fathers: November 26

  Clement of Alexandria begins with the sanctity of marriage, teaching that the marital act is not for indulgence but for partnership with God in creating and shaping life. To misuse that union, he warns, is to rebel against the order of nature itself. True chastity is not abstinence but purpose—a life in which desire serves reason and reason serves God (Genesis 1:28; 1 Corinthians 6:15–20).Augustine, writing to Novatus, speaks of a different discipline: the surrender of what we love for the sake of the gospel. His letter reveals the ache of ministry, where obedience sometimes means letting go of comfort and companionship. Yet this sacrifice, he says, yields a greater family in Christ, for what is given up for Him is never truly lost (Matthew 19:29).Aquinas completes the theme, showing that even the will itself must be trained. Though naturally drawn to the good, the will needs habits—virtues that align desire with reason—so that doing good becomes not struggle, but stability. The moral life, he reminds us, is not spontaneous; it is learned, practiced, and perfected through grace (Philippians 2:13).Readings:Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Book 2, Chapter 10 — On the Procreation of ChildrenAugustine of Hippo, Letter 84 — To NovatusThomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 50, Article 5 (Whether any habit is in the will)Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ClementOfAlexandria #Augustine #Aquinas #Marriage #Discipline #Will #Virtue #ThroughTheChurchFathers #HistoricalTheology

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• Through the Church Fathers: November 25

  Temperance, vigilance, and order—the same virtues that shape our waking lives, Clement of Alexandria says, should guide our sleep. When the day ends, the disciple’s rest must not become indulgence. A simple bed, a light meal, and a watchful heart prepare the soul for prayer even in silence. For the Christian, sleep is not escape but renewal—an act of readiness for the next call of God (Luke 12:35–36; 1 Thessalonians 5:7–8).Augustine carries that same spirit of discipline into the intellect. In his final letter to Jerome, he insists that truth can never be served by deceit, even when the motive seems noble. Scripture alone, he writes, is infallible; all other teachers, himself included, must submit to its judgment. Between these two great minds, the correspondence ends not with victory, but with charity—a model of how love must rule even in disagreement (Galatians 2:11–14; Matthew 5:37).Aquinas closes the day by defining habit as a quality of the soul—a stable readiness to act well or ill. Virtue, he says, is not momentary enthusiasm but the formed strength of grace and repetition. The same habit that steadies the hand of the craftsman must also shape the heart of the saint (Philippians 2:13).Readings:Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus), Book 2, Chapter 9 — On SleepAugustine of Hippo, Letter 82 — To Jerome, My Brother in ChristThomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 49 (Combined articles — Of Habits in General, as to Their Substance)Explore the Project:Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.comPatreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpattonCredo Courses – https://www.credocourses.comCredo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org#ClementOfAlexandria #Augustine #Aquinas #Temperance #Truth #Virtue #ThroughTheChurchFathers #HistoricalTheology

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