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Sermo 14 (De fide)

ON FAITH

By the grace of God the good, to the one who approaches with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching according to piety, the faith of Christians shines like a light, which I will set forth to you briefly; so that you, the church of God, like a ship free from storm having our Lord Jesus Christ as pilot, may be brought to anchor in his holy and calm harbor, lest ever being submerged by some great wave of heretical teaching, you should be shipwrecked concerning the faith. But I set before you the faith itself of the Lord briefly, as I said; for things set forth more concisely are wont to remain more easily with those who hear. Our Lord Jesus Christ, through his compassion for his own creation, having come upon earth to seek and to save that which was lost, and having been incarnate through a holy virgin, and having worked as God all those miracles which we have learned through the gospels, and through all his goodness having been a benefactor to the race of men, and having suffered every kind of incurable thing for our salvation at the hands of those who had been his beneficiaries, finally was crucified, and having been crucified he died, and having died he was raised on the third day. And after he was raised, and had fulfilled the whole loving dispensation for us, when he was about to be taken up from whence he came down, he delivered the faith to his holy disciples; "Go," he says, "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

We, therefore, according to the tradition of the Lord Jesus Christ, and according to the faith of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers gathered in Nicaea, as we have received, so also we baptize, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and as we baptize, so also we believe, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and as we believe, so also we glorify, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us keep this faith, I beseech you, until the appearing of him who delivered it to us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by the grace of God our Father, to whom be the glory and the power, with his only-begotten Son and the holy and good Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages, amen.

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Sermo 14 (De fide)

ΠΕΡΙ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ

Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ χάριτι, τῷ προσερχομένῳ, ὑγιαίνουσι λόγοις τοῖς τοῦ

κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῇ κατ' εὐσέβειαν διδασκαλίᾳ, λάμπει ὡς φῶς ἡ τῶν χριστιανῶν πίστις, ἣν διὰ βραχέων ὑμῖν παραθήσομαι· ἵνα ὑμεῖς ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησία, ὥσπέρ τι πλοῖον ἀχείμαστον κυβερνήτην ἔχων τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, εἰς τὸν αὐτοῦ ἅγιον καὶ γαληνὸν λιμένα ὁρμισθῆτε, μήποτέ τινι τρικυμίᾳ τῇ τῶν αἱρετικῶν διδασκαλίᾳ βαπτισθέντες, περὶ τὴν πίστιν ναυαγήσητε. Παρατίθεμαι δὲ ὑμῖν αὐτὴν τοῦ κυρίου τὴν πίστιν διὰ βραχέων ὡς ἔφην· πέφυκε γὰρ τὰ διὰ συντομωτέρας ἐκθέσεως, ῥᾷον παραμένειν τοῖς ἀκούουσιν. Ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, τῇ περὶ τὸ ἴδιον πλάσμα εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ, ἐλθὼν ἐπὶ γῆς ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός, καὶ διὰ παρθένου ἁγίας σαρκωθείς, καὶ πάντα τὰ θαύματα ἐκεῖνα ἃ διὰ τῶν εὐαγγελίων μεμαθήκαμεν ἐργασάμενος ὡς θεός, καὶ διὰ πάσης τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτοῦ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων εὐεργετήσας γένος, καὶ πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἀνηκέστων διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν παθὼν παρὰ τῶν εὐεργετηθέντων, τέλος ἐσταυρώθη, καὶ σταυρωθεὶς ἀπέθανε, καὶ ἀποθανὼν ἠγέρθη τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. Καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἐγερθῆναι αὐτόν, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν φιλάνθρωπον πληρῶσαι οἰκονομίαν, ὅτε ἤμελλεν ἀναλαμβάνεσθαι ὅθεν κατέβη, παρέδωκε τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ μαθηταῖς τὴν πίστιν· ἀπελθόντες, φησί, μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος.

Ἡμεῖς τοίνυν κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ κατὰ τὴν πίστιν τῶν ἐν Νικαίᾳ συναχθέντων ἁγίων πατέρων τριακοσίων δεκὰ καὶ ὀκτώ, ὡς παρελάβομεν οὕτως καὶ βαπτίζομεν, εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος· ὡς δὲ βαπτίζομεν, οὕτω καὶ πιστεύομεν, εἰς πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα· ὡς δὲ πιστεύομεν, οὕτως καὶ δοξάζομεν, πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα. Ταύτην τὴν πίστιν τηρήσωμεν παρακαλῶ, μέχρι τῆς ἐπιφανείας αὐτοῦ τοῦ παραδεδωκότος ἡμῖν κυρίου καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος, σὺν τῷ μονογενεῖ αὐτοῦ υἱῷ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίῳ καὶ ἀγαθῷ πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεῖ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰώνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν.