Antony wishes all his dear brethren joy in the Lord. Members of the Church, I will never grow weary of remembering you. I want you to know that the love that is between me and you is no bodily love, but a spiritual, religious love. For bodily friendship has no firmness or stability, being moved by strange winds. Whosoever fears God and keeps His commandments, is the servant of God. And in this service is not perfection, but the righteousness which leads to adoption. For this cause the Prophets also and the Apostles, the holy band whom God chose, entrusting to them the apostolic preaching, by the goodness of God the Father became prisoners in Christ Jesus. For Paul says, “Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle” (Eph. 3:1; Rom. 1:1): so that the written law works with us in a good servitude, until we are able to master every passion, and to become perfect in the good ministry of virtue through this apostolic state.
For if a man draws near to grace, then Jesus will say to him, “I will no longer call you servants, but I will call you my friends and my brothers: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” (John 15:15) For those who have drawn near, and have been taught by the Holy Spirit, have known themselves according to their intellectual substance. And in their knowledge of themselves they have cried out and said, “For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15): that we may know what God has given us – “If we are sons, then are we heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with the saints.” (Rom. 8:17)
My dear brethren and joint heirs with the saints, not foreign to you are the virtues, but they are yours, if you are not under guilt from this fleshly life, but are manifest before God. For the Spirit enters not the soul of one whose heart is defiled, nor the body that sins; a holy power it is, removed from all deceit.
Truly, my beloved, I write to you as to reasonable men, who have been able to know yourselves. For he who knows himself, knows God: and he who knows God, is worthy to worship Him as is right. My beloved in the Lord, know yourselves. For they who know themselves, know their time: and they who know their time, are able to stand firm, and not be moved about by diverse tongues. For in regard to Arius, who has risen up in Alexandria, and spoken strange words about the Only-begotten, giving a beginning to Him who has no beginning, and an end to Him who is ineffable among men, and motion to Him who is without motion – if one man sin against another, they entreat God for him; but if a man sin against God, whom will they entreat for him? (1 Sam. 2:25) That man therefore has taken upon himself a great matter, and a wound incurable. For if such a one had known himself, his tongue would not have spoken that of which he had no knowledge. But it is manifest that he did not know himself.
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St. Antony (251 - 356)
Saint Anthony or Antony (Greek: Ἀντώνιος Antṓnios; Latin: Antonius; Coptic: Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓ, lit. ''Avva Antoni'') January 12, 251 – January 17, 356 was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony such as Anthony of Padua, by various epithets of his own: Anthony the Great, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on January 17 among the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches and on Tobi in the Egyptian calendar used by the Coptic Church.The biography of Anthony's life by Athanasius of Alexandria helped to spread the concept of Christian monasticism, particularly in Western Europe via its Latin translations. He is often erroneously considered the first Christian monk, but as his biography and other sources make clear, there were many ascetics before him. Anthony was, however, the first to go into the wilderness (about ad 270), which seems to have contributed to his renown.[6] Accounts of Anthony enduring supernatural temptation during his sojourn in the Eastern Desert of Egypt inspired the often-repeated subject of the temptation of St. Anthony in Western art and literature.