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The emphasis falls on the possibility of redemption and the inviolability of life. In the secular law of countries with a Christian tradition, a parallel process occurs: restriction and then often abolition of the death penalty, along with the development of prison systems oriented (at least declaratively) toward rehabilitation.
The change did not mean rejecting justice or the common good, but it increasingly incorporated the moral understanding of the infinite value of every soul and the real possibility of rehabilitation and salvation until the very end of life. This factor was one of the main drivers of the humanization of both moral theology and legal systems within the sphere of Christian civilization.
| 2 | The development of a theology of the existence and salvation of the soul influenced the understanding of punishment and social justice
based on E. Christian Brugger– Capital Punishment and Roman Catholic Moral Tradition and Servais Pinckaers– The Sources of Christian Ethics
Old Testament and Early Judaism
In the oldest layers of the Old Testament, the main emphasis was on
the purity and holiness of the entire community of Israel, the removal of “evil from the midst of the people,” the averting of bloodguilt, deterrence.The concept of an individual, immortal soul and its eternal salvation was weakly developed (a fuller belief in the resurrection appears more clearly only in later books, such as Daniel, 2 Maccabees, and Wisdom).
Therefore, law and punishment had a primarily retributive and protective character toward the community. The individual conversion of the condemned person was not yet a central purpose of punishment.
New Testament and the Apostolic Period
With the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles, a clear shift occurs:
God seeks each lost sheep individually (Lk 15).
The value of one soul surpasses the whole world (Mt 16:26).
The call to conversion and mercy becomes central.
At the same time, St. Paul recognizes the right of secular authority to bear the “sword” (Rom 13:4).
Christians, as a minority, did not yet administer state justice. Their contribution consisted in introducing a strong emphasis on the possibility of conversion until the very end of life and on mercy.
Church Fathers
The First Systematic Tension Between Justice and the Salvation of the Soul. The theology of the soul (immortality, particular judgment ) reaches more maturity. This brings about the first clear changes. St. Augustine allowed the death penalty and just war as means of protecting order, but at the same time strongly emphasized that the purpose of punishment should also include the amendment of the offender and his salvation. Authority should act like a father correcting a son, not like an executioner.
The practice of delaying executions appears so that the condemned may confess and prepare for death. The Church began to exert pressure on secular authorities to allow the possibility of penance. A distinction is introduced between punishment as vengeance and punishment as medicine (the medicinal character of punishment).
Roman law (gradually being Christianized) remained severe, but the first restrictions and an emphasis on the pastoral preparation of the condemned appeared.
Middle Ages and Scholasticism
The death penalty remains permissible when it is necessary for the common good (protection of society).
At the same time, the theology of the soul imposes new elements:
the condemned must be given time and means for conversion (confession, Holy Communion, anointing),
punishment must not be pure vengeance, if a milder means exists that effectively protects society, it should be chosen.
In canon law and secular law (under the influence of the Church), the following appear:
the institution of church asylum,
the obligation to admit a priest to the condemned, attempts to limit overly hasty death sentences. Executions nevertheless remain frequent, because the realities of the time (lack of secure prisons) mean that the protection of the common good often requires the death penalty.
Early Modern Period (16–18 c)
The development of the theology of spirituality places even stronger emphasis on the value of every soul and the possibility of conversion until the final moments.
The influence on law is gradual:
more frequent appeals for clemency from the clergy, the development of the institution of life imprisonment in some countries, criticism of the cruelty of certain forms of execution.
Modern period
With the development of Christian anthropology (the person as the image of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ) and the improvement of social conditions, a clear evolution takes place. Capital punishment is permissible only in extreme cases when there is no other way to defend society. | 120 |
| 3 | Why was the death penalty considered acceptable ?
In traditional moral theology (St. there was a clear principle:
The death penalty is permissible only when necessary to protect the common good.
If there is another effective way to protect society, it becomes inadmissible.
For most of human history (ancient times, the Middle Ages, and the modern era, up until the 19th/20th centuries), it was recognized that in many cases there was no other effective method . Therefore, it was permitted.
What exactly were these “realities”?
No possibility of safe, permanent isolation of criminals
Prisons in ancient and medieval times were not penal institutions in the modern sense. They were primarily used for temporary detention prior to trial or execution.
There were no maximum security facilities from which escape would be practically impossible.
Escapes were frequent, and recapturing a dangerous killer was difficult and expensive.
Lifelong safe imprisonment was technically and organizationally almost impossible.
The weakness of the state apparatus
Lack of professional police, prison services, monitoring systems, databases, forensic techniques.
Central authority was often weak (especially in the Middle Ages). Society had to fend for itself.
The only sure way to permanently eliminate the threat posed by a particularly dangerous criminal was to kill him.
Economic and practical considerations
Keeping someone in prison for decades was very expensive for the community (food, guards, buildings).
In poor agrarian or tribal societies this was often unrealistic.
Deterrent effectiveness and restoring order
In societies with high levels of public violence, execution served as a strong deterrent and a public restoration of justice.
The lack of such punishment could lead to private family vendettas and a spiral of violence
Only with the emergence of modern, secure penitentiary systems in the 19th and 20th centuries (maximum security prisons, life sentences without parole, effective guards) did the assessment of necessity change | 118 |
| 4 | We are saved by Grace judged by works.
Scriptural Edification
(A) “Faith Alone” is not Scriptural
John 15:6 “ Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.”
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”
James 2:17 (“So also Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead”).
James 2:24 (“See how a person is justified by works and not faith alone”). Matt 7:21-27 (Only those who do the Will of the Father will be saved). Matthew 19:16-17 “ 16 Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”[l] 17 He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.[m] If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Romans 1:5 (“Apostleship to bring about the obedience to Faith”).
Romans 2:13 “For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified.”
Romans 16:26 (“the mystery . . . to bring about the obedience of faith”).
1 Corinthians 13:2 (If we have faith without love we have nothing).
1 Corinthians 13:13 (“Faith, hope, love abode . . . but the greatest of these is love”).
Galatians 5:6 (Only “Faith working through love” amounts to anything). James 2:18-19 “Indeed someone may say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble.” James 2:20 (“Do you want to be shown . . . Faith apart from works is barren”).
1 John 3:10 “In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.” 1 John 3:24 “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit that he gave us.”
(B) We will be judged according to our works
Romans 2:6 “render to every man according to his works.”
Jeremiah 17:10 “Giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds.”
Matthew 16:27 “He will repay every man for what he has done.”
2 Corinthians 5:10 “receive good or evil according to what he has done.”
1 Peter 1:17 “Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,”
Apocalypse of Saint John 20:12 “I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life.[j]The dead were judged according to their deeds,” Apocalypse of Saint John 22:11-15 “Let the wicked still act wickedly, and the filthy still be filthy. The righteous must still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit.”
Matthew 12:36 “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.” Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,[j] but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
#faith@ecceverbum #justification@ecceverbum
#salvation@ecceverbum | 215 |
| 5 | Christian Higher Education in Europe: A Historical Analysis (2011)
D. W. Bebbington
Summary: A historical analysis of Christian influence in European higher education, examining seven distinct eras from scholasticism to civil law.
#education@ecceverbum | 370 |
| 6 | An Introduction to the History of the Assyrian Church – 100-640 A.D. (2004)
Williiam Ainger Wigram
#churchhistory@ecceverbum | 347 |
| 7 | Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
This day is also called the Triumph of the Cross, Elevation of the Cross, Holy Cross Day, Holy Rood Day, or Roodmas. This Feast was observed in Rome before the end of the seventh century. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross, which had been placed on Mount Calvary by St. Helena and preserved in Jerusalem, but then had fallen into the hands of Chosroas, King of the Persians. The precious relic was recovered and returned to Jerusalem by Emperor Heralius in 629. The liturgy of the Cross is a triumphant liturgy. When Moses lifted up the bronze serpent over the people, it was a foreshadowing of the salvation through Jesus when He was lifted up on the Cross. Our Mother Church sings of the triumph of the Cross, the instrument of our redemption. To follow Christ we must take up His cross, follow Him and become obedient until death, even if it means death on the cross. We identify with Christ on the Cross and become co-redeemers, sharing in His cross. We make the Sign of the Cross before prayer which helps to fix our minds and hearts to God. After prayer we make the Sign of the Cross to keep close to God. During trials and temptations our strength and protection is the Sign of the Cross. At Baptism we are sealed with the Sign of the Cross, signifying the fullness of redemption and that we belong to Christ. Let us look to the cross frequently, and realize that when we make the Sign of the Cross we give our entire self to God — mind, soul, heart, body, will, thoughts. O cross, you are the glorious sign of victory. Through your power may we share in the triumph of Christ Jesus. | 479 |
| 8 | On the Nature of Mortal Sins
A mortal sin is a conscious and voluntary turning away from God and a contempt for His love through the breaking of divine law in a serious matter. A mortal sin is called deadly because it deprives a person of sanctifying grace, which is the supernatural life of the soul.
Sanctifying grace is the necessary foundation through which a person enters into a friendly bond with God. By committing a mortal sin, a person consciously and voluntarily severs this bond, making themselves an enemy of God.
A mortal sin is a true spiritual suicide, for it is a rejection of God's grace, which is the source of eternal life. A mortal sin is a true rebellion against God's authority, for it consists in rejecting His divine commandments.
A mortal sin is a true contempt for God because it involves disregarding the promises that the Lord God has attached to a virtuous and pious life in grace. Whoever truly loves God desires to fulfill His will, keep His commandments, and remain in a state of sanctifying grace, for sanctifying grace is the only way to abide in a deep relationship of love with God.
Love for God must always be linked with a hatred of sin and a desire for a virtuous life, for there is no relationship with God when one simultaneously persists in mortal sin, which by its nature is a denial of God and His holiness.
There is no alternative path to union with God apart from the path of sanctifying grace, which also requires our own striving and growth in virtue. We must therefore be aware of the horror and ugliness of mortal sin, but at the same time, we must remember the weakness of human nature and God's great mercy toward us. We are weak, so we fall, but let this not be a cause for despair, for God has a remedy for our sins and offers it to everyone who desires to improve.
The work of Redemption accomplished by our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the best example that the Lord God does not desire our damnation but longs for our salvation. He offers us salvation and the necessary help for it, yet at the same time, He does not violate our free will. He allows the possibility of turning away from Him, but He also clearly and explicitly warns against this disastrous path that leads to damnation.
Jesus Christ, in bringing the Good News of Salvation to the world, also spoke of the danger of eternal damnation. Even if someone, out of human weakness, has fallen into sins, as long as they live, they still have a real chance at salvation. It is offered to every human being, and God's grace is more powerful than any human flaw. One need only trustingly and sincerely desire to detach from one's sinful life and turn to God, who gives us in the sacraments (Baptism and Penance) the essential and sure means of reconciliation with Him.
Sincerity consists in acknowledging one's sinful actions as true evil and desiring to turn away from them, while trust consists in accepting that God offers grace to everyone (and thus to us as well), which, surpassing human strength, enables the repair of all evil and the healing of all weakness. If someone is damned, it is not because God deprived them of the possibility of receiving grace, but because the person themselves did not want to accept that grace in order to break free from sin with its help.
We must defend the truth toward our neighbors out of love for them, for truth and love are inseparably linked. God, who is Truth, is at the same time Love. Truth and love must therefore always be united in our actions.
based on: 1. M. Sieniatycki, Catholic Ethics (Chapter V - Sin) 2. M. Sieniatycki, Outline of Catholic Dogmatics (Volume III - On Grace and Virtues)
#sin@ecceverbum | 425 |
| 9 |  +2School, university, hospital, library. All these institutions were created by Christian Europe. Today, their creators are made to justify why they are even present in the buildings they themselves constructed and maintained for centuries.
Dr. Artur Górecki
Main points:
3.
The “march through the institutions” strategy, proclaimed by Rudi Dutschke in 1967, creates nothing of its own. It takes over ready-made structures: it keeps the name, the building, and the prestige, but erases authorship and substitutes a different purpose.
🔗
#education@ecceverbum | 654 |
| 10 |  +3School, university, hospital, library. All these institutions were created by Christian Europe. Today, their creators are made to justify why they are even present in the buildings they themselves constructed and maintained for centuries.
Dr. Artur Górecki
Main points:
2.
University autonomy, invoked today as a “secular achievement,” grew from canon law – it was the first to develop the concept of a collective person.
🔗
#education@ecceverbum | 603 |
| 11 |  +3School, university, hospital, library. All these institutions were created by Christian Europe. Today, their creators are made to justify why they are even present in the buildings they themselves constructed and maintained for centuries.
Dr. Artur Górecki
Main points:
1.
It wasn’t the Enlightenment or the modern state that invented the school and university – they are the fruit of *christianitas*, drawing from Greek reason and Roman law. The Church, not a ministry of education, undertook Europe’s first attempt at universal literacy.
🔗
#education@ecceverbum | 555 |
| 12 | Why did God choose St. Peter, a simple man with no education or social standing, rather than an orator, a senator or an emperor?
How great was Christ’s courtesy! This Peter who spoke these words was once a fisherman and in our day a public speaker deserves high praise if he is able to converse with a fisherman!
Addressing the first Christians the apostle Paul says: “Brothers and sisters, remember what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise according to human standards; not many of you were influential or of noble birth. But God chose what the world regards as weak in order to disconcert the strong; God chose what the world regards as foolish in order to abash the wise; God chose what the world regards as common and contemptible, of no account whatever, in order to overthrow the existing order” (1Cor 1:26-28).
If Christ had first chosen a man skilled in public speaking, such a man might well have said: "I have been chosen on account of my eloquence." If he had chosen a senator, the senator might have said: "I have been chosen because of my rank" If his first choice had been an emperor, the emperor surely might have said: "I have been chosen for the sake of the power I have at my disposal."
Let these worthies keep quiet and defer to others; let them hold their peace for a while. I am not saying they should be passed over or despised; I am simply asking all those who can find any grounds for pride in what they are to give way to others just a little. Christ says: Give me this fisherman, this man without education or experience, this man to whom no senator would deign to speak, not even if he were buying fish. Yes, give me him; once I have taken possession of him, it will be obvious that it is I who am at work in him. Although I mean to include senators, orators, and emperors among my recruits… I shall still be surer of the fisherman.
The senator can always take pride in what he is; so can the orator and the emperor, but the fisherman can glory in nothing except Christ alone. Any of these other men may come and take lessons from me in the importance of humility for salvation, but let the fisherman come first.
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church, Sermo 43, fragments 5–7 (CCL 41, 510–511).
source: https://liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdC020925/theword_journey.html | 269 |
| 13 |  On August 22, 1939, Hitler announced to his generals that a great purge would take place on Polish soil, particularly targeting the Catholic clergy. The Nazis prepared lists of priests to be killed, and later Hans Frank and Arthur Greiser continued the persecutions. The Reichsgau Wartheland in particular became the Golgotha of the Church. 97% of churches were closed or demolished. 90% of the clergy were arrested or deported, and even bishops like Michał Kozal were murdered; all religious orders were dissolved, as were seminaries. It is estimated that a total of 3,000 priests were murdered. The symbol of the persecution of the clergy is the camp within a camp, the Priesterblock in Dachau, where thousands of priests from across Europe met their death.
Let us remember and pray, especially for the intercession of the 108 martyrs of World War II, for the victims, and that another war may never occur.
The photograph shows the public execution of Polish priest Roman Pawłowski in Kalisz on October 18, 1939. | 380 |
| 14 | "All the more, then, should a Christian not allow himself to be absorbed by temporal cares, since he has another far more important matter to fulfill. What is that matter? The Savior reminds us of it in today’s Gospel when He says: Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And what is the Kingdom of God? There is no need to go far to find it, for the Lord Jesus teaches: The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). And St. Paul writes that the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Therefore, to seek the Kingdom of God means to strive for Christian righteousness, for peace with God and with people, for a good conscience and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever lives in this righteousness, in this peace, and in this joy on earth has the Kingdom of Heaven within him; in him God reigns by grace, and he possesses a pledge of the eternal Kingdom. Let us therefore seek first the things that are eternal, and without a doubt God will not forget our temporal needs either, but will give them to us as an addition. Let our conversation be in heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father. Let us serve faithfully God alone, our Lord, Creator, and Redeemer, to whom be honor and glory forever."
source: Bishop Władysław Krynicki, Krótkie nauki homiletyczne na niedziele i uroczystości całego roku według „Postylli Katolickiej Większej” ks. Jakuba Wujka SI (Short Homiletic Instructions for the Sundays and Feasts of the Entire Year according to the “Greater Catholic Postil” of Fr. Jakub Wujek SI), Włocławek, Published by Księgarnia Powszechna, 1912, pp. 255–259/ the instruction for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (based on the Gospel of Matthew 6:24–33). | 277 |
| 15 | The Fundamentals of National Education
Zygmunt Balicki
2. Mother Tongue and Literature
The link between the generations and the living bond that joins contemporaries into a nation is the mother tongue. The young should feel and know that the language they speak serves not only to express thoughts, but also to express the soul of the nation; that in it, as in a mirror, are reflected its gift of observation, its methods of thought, the character of its feelings, and in general those special traits that give a distinctive form to its spiritual individuality. In the precision of language and speech lie the seeds of truth inherent in the mentality of the nation.
It has rightly been said that “the more perfect is a language, the harder it is to lie in it.” Through the mother tongue the young should learn that simplicity and integrity of expression which tolerates neither ambiguity, nor the stretching of concepts, nor intellectual charlatanism. Forcefulness, precision and vigour of phrasing form the best protection against verbosity in speech—that trait of small minds which so easily produces verbosity in action, a trait of small characters. Both defects share the same nature: the accumulation of data without substance, data that furnish no material for conclusions—the very beginning of all purposeful action.
That is why conciseness of speech is an unconscious exercise in the capacity for deed. Let us therefore train the young, through the old language, to reflect in their speech the traits of a healthy, growing nation, and above all let us teach them to feel the spirit of the language, not merely to know the rules of its correct forms.
If language is the means of expressing the soul of the nation, then national literature is the direct expression of that soul. Here, precisely, lies the field for cultivating in the young generation that subtle feeling, that even immediate intuition which at once enables them to recognise what in writing is the reflection of a soul unspoiled by anything alien, what is a thoughtless accretion and imitation, and what is its deviation and degeneration.
All the great works of world literature have reflected the spirit of the nations that produced them, and there are no monumental works that do not bear this stamp. Just as there is no beautiful landscape in painting that does not reproduce the distinctive nature of a particular time and place as seen through the prism of the artist’s soul, so there is no beauty in literature that is not a reflection of the distinctive national soul of its creator.
The great works of national literature, to a higher degree than any others, are the direct expression not only of the nation’s spirit but of its national thought; they contain an all-embracing synthesis of nation's beliefs, illuminating with the radiance of poetry the heights to which the creative thought of every successive generation ought to rise.
In literature, as in all human works, the mind of the young should seek not what is new, but what is imperishable and eternal, and should discover not what deserves criticism and awakens doubt, but what is worthy of admiration and awakens rapture. Then the youthful mind will uncover the true treasure contained in the literature of the Fatherland: it will come to know what, in life, in the works of man, in the human soul and in the soul of the nation, is worthy of love.
#education@ecceverbum #patriotism@ecceverbum | 283 |
| 16 | The Fundamentals of National Education
Zygmunt Balicki
1. A spiritual bond with one’s homeland
National upbringing requires of the individual a different attitude toward the Fatherland than treating it as something that exists outside our soul—despite all desire for the good of that Fatherland and condemnation of everything that strikes against it. The soul not only carries the Fatherland within itself, but also feels itself to be within her, joined to her by all its fibers and completely merging its own personality with her selfhood—and such a bond can be consolidated only when the layers of the national instinct reach down into the depths of the ancestral past.
“From the moment,” says A. Comte, “when one recognizes that one has common ancestors, when one knows of those dead who rule over us, from that moment one has a Fatherland.” The history of a nation ought to be the age-long carrying out of the testament left by those who gave their nation its personality among other nations in the form of a state and who traced the paths of its future.
The will of the dead ancestors animates the living: it must be fulfilled, and then the historical tasks of the nation will be fulfilled. Living relationship with the dead generations—that is what the history of the Fatherland should be for the young, if it is to form the real foundation of their patriotism, the pledge of their close union with that Fatherland which was, is, and will be.“The history of a nation is written in living letters in the souls of its citizens,” says one of the thinkers of the younger generation, Ludwik Posadzy.¹
Having reached into the depths of the soul, everyone can awaken those feelings that once stirred former generations.
For every human being is created in the image and likeness of the society in which he lives and carries its features within himself. Whoever is able to read the genesis of those features in himself possesses the rare gift of historical intuition.” To develop this historical intuition in the young generation, to make it relive the nation’s history together with the nation, to reconstruct its more important moments from memoirs, to portray with full plasticity the life, customs and beliefs, the labors and hopes of past generations, and against that background to engrave in its soul the age-old testament of the nation—this is not merely something more; it is something entirely different from teaching chronology and enumerating historical events.
The bond with the dead once included a bond with the earth in which their ashes rest. An analogous union of homeland studies with history ought to link, in the minds of the young, the native nature and the ancestral soil, the graves of the forefathers, the traces of ancient culture and the monuments of the past, the living people with their features of tribal heredity, their economic efforts, their civilizational achievements, their present struggles and cares—into one clear image of the Fatherland. And again, such knowledge of the country is something entirely different from the formal geography of the lands and dry information about the state of culture in those lands.
*¹ In his book: On the Mission of the European Nations. Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of France, Germany and Poland, Inowrocław, 1909.
#patriotism@ecceverbum | 222 |
| 17 | The Discovery of the Mind - The Greek Origins of European Thought (1953)
Bruno Snell
#civilisation@ecceverbum
#philosophy@ecceverbum | 326 |
| 18 | The Bright Ages - a New History of Medieval Europe (2021)
Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry
Note: A new history of medieval Europe challenging the 'Dark Ages' narrative, highlighting cultural and intellectual achievements instead of darkness and ignorance
#middleages@ecceverbum | 304 |
| 19 | +6 Philosophy of Science A-Z (2007)
Stathis Psillos
#philosophy | 389 |
| 20 | "And we, today we are with You, Lady, Lady I repeat, Mother of God, Virgin, and we turn our hearts toward the hope that You are for us, toward the strongest and most certain anchor! We offer You mind, heart, body, our entire selves, honoring You according to our strength with psalms, hymns, and songs full of spirit. If honor given to other servants is—as the Word of God teaches us—proof of love for our common Lord, then how can we not make the effort to honor You, Mother of the Lord? How can we not honor You? Shall we not place You above life itself, since You have given us Life? In this way, indeed, we will show our love for the Lord even better."
St. John of Damascus (+749) Homily on the Assumption of Our Lady, 14
#mary | 246 |
