Through the Church Fathers

• Through the Church Fathers: October 14

  What happens when faith is woven into every part of daily life? Hippolytus shows us a church where the bishop’s hand gives bread, the deacons serve the sick, lamps are lit at evening prayer, psalms rise at night, and the Eucharist is received each morning with awe. Augustine urges us to wash, be clean, and put away malice so that our hearts may shine like lights in the firmament, bearing fruit in love of neighbor (Isaiah 1:16–18; Matthew 19:16–22). Aquinas reminds us that love itself has causes: we love because we perceive the good, we are drawn by what is fitting, and, at the highest level, God Himself pours charity into our hearts. Together these voices show that Christian life is a rhythm of worship, holiness, and love—ordered around Christ and sustained by His Spirit.Readings:Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition (Later Additions, ETH24–ETH26; LAT31–32)Augustine, The Confessions, Book 13, Chapter 19 (Section 24)Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 27, Article (Combined—Of the Cause of Love)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#Hippolytus #ChurchFathers #Confessions #SummaTheologica #Love #Eucharist #Theology

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  11:26

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  11:26
• Through the Church Fathers: Introcution to The Shepherd of Hermas

  A strange and powerful text enters our path today: The Shepherd of Hermas, a second-century Christian vision of sin, repentance, and the Church’s growth. In this introduction we place Hermas alongside Augustine’s reflections on creation and Aquinas’s careful analysis of hatred, showing how each voice—ancient visionary, restless bishop, and scholastic master—adds to our unfolding journey. From the raw imagery of Hermas to Augustine’s layered allegory and Aquinas’s piercing distinctions, the Fathers call us deeper into wisdom (John 17:17; 1 Corinthians 13:12).Readings: Introduction to the Shepherd of HermasAugustine, The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 20 (Section 26)Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 28 (Of Hatred)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#ShepherdOfHermas #Confessions #SummaTheologica #EarlyChurch #HistoricalTheology

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  9:24

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  9:24
• Through the Church Fathers: October 13

  Today’s theme: how worship’s forms, the Church’s gifts, and rightly ordered love shape both communal holiness and personal growth.In these readings we move from the liturgy outward and then inward: Hippolytus shows how the Eucharist and consecratory prayer form a community—thanksgiving, oblation, and the invocation of the Spirit bind table, charity, and ministry so that worship becomes formative action; Augustine turns our attention to spiritual illumination, describing gifts as lights and stars that guide the soul from milk to solid food, reminding us that some gifts serve beginners while the “Sun” of wisdom awaits those whose eyes are disciplined by practice; Aquinas brings this together ethically by insisting that love is a passion rightly ordered by reason and habituated into friendship and charity, so that our affections fuel service instead of disordering it. Listen for how liturgical language, spiritual gifts, and the doctrine of the passions converge: the liturgy shapes desire, gifts provide scaffolding for growth, and reason-formed love holds everything to the telos of neighbor and God. (Acts 6:2; Mark 14:25; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; 1 Corinthians 13; Romans 13:11–12)Readings:Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, Chapters 25–38 (Parts III–IV)Augustine, The Confessions, Book 18, Chapter 23Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 26 (On the passions — First, of love)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#ApostolicTradition #Confessions #SummaTheologica #Eucharist #SpiritualGifts #Love

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  14:19

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  14:19
• Through the Church Fathers: October 12

  Hippolytus shows the liturgy’s formative power—how bishops, offerings, and the eucharistic thanksgiving shape the church’s life and service; Augustine prays that our works and contemplative light make us signs in the world, sending labourers into the harvest; Aquinas insists that reason must order the passions so that these outward practices and inward lights become steady virtue rather than disorder. (Acts 6:2; Mark 14:25; 1 Corinthians 10:16; Romans 13:11–12)Readings:Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, Chapters 25–38 (Parts III–IV)Augustine, The Confessions, Book 18, Chapter 18Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 245, Article (Combined — The Order of the Passions)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#ApostolicTradition #Confessions #SummaTheologica #Eucharist #MoralFormation #HistoricalTheology

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• Through the Church Fathers: October 11

  These three readings together give a disciplined curriculum for sanctification: the Apostolic Tradition shows how the church forms bodies and habits — fasting, orderly hospitality, hourly prayer, catechesis, and charitable care — so that the community’s external rhythms cultivate inward stability and readiness for sacrament and service; Augustine’s reflection on angels and the “unchangeable light” reminds us that true knowledge of God is ultimately experienced by a transforming love that makes the soul thirsty for what is eternal rather than satisfied with temporal goods; and Aquinas (Q24) teaches how the passions — concupiscible and irascible — are morally neutral movements that become virtuous only when reason and right intention order them toward the true good. Put simply: liturgical formation trains the body, Augustine awakens the heart’s longing for the divine face, and Aquinas gives the moral grammar for disciplining the passions so that desire is rightly ordered. The practical pastoral takeaway is direct: keep the communal disciplines that shape habit, cultivate the steady hunger Augustine names, and attend to the ends you pursue so your emotions serve charity rather than disordered appetite. (Ps 36:5; 1 John 3:2; Gal 5:22–23)Readings:Hippolytus (trad.), Apostolic Tradition, Chapters 25–38Augustine, The Confessions, Book 8, Chapters 16–17 (19–21)Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 24 (combined)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#ApostolicTradition #Confessions #SummaTheologica #Formation #Desire #SpiritualFormation

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  13:48

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