Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 6) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read the 'Oration concerning Simeon and Anna'.
My summary
This week we read an oration which is thought to be written by Methodius.
The work exalts:
(i) Christ;
(ii) Mary;
(iii) Simeon;
(iv) Anna.
In reference to Christ, Methodius draws heavily on Isaiah 6.
What grabbed me
I found a lot of today's reading disturbing in its reference to Mary.
For example: 'But what shall I say to thee, O mother-virgin and virgin-mother? For the praise even of her who is not man's work exceeds the power of man. Wherefore the dimness of my poverty I will make bright with the splendour of the gifts of the spirits that around thee shine, and offering to thee of thine own, from the immortal meadows I will pluck a garland for thy sacred and divinely crowned head. With thine ancestral hymns will I greet thee, O daughter of David, and mother of the Lord and God of David. For it were both base and inauspicious to adorn thee, who in thine own glory excellest with that which belongeth unto another. Receive, therefore, O lady most benignant, gifts precious, and such as are fitted to thee alone, O thou who art exalted above all generations, and who, amongst all created things, both visible and invisible, shinest forth as the most honourable.'
Texts like this surely contributed to Roman Catholic errors concerning Mary.
Next week's reading
Read the 'Oration concerning on the palms' and 'Some other fragments'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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