Letters of St. Paulinus of Nola, Volume II
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
These 18 prose letters serve as a spiritual autobiography, providing an intimate view of monastic life in Italy during the fifth century. Volume 2 contains letters 23–51.
Top Highlights
“Their light is Christ, in whose light we shall see light.107 If this light always burns in the lamp of our bodies, the works of darkness will fall away, and the prince of this world will be cast out108—not, of course, cast out from this world, with which, as Scripture says,109 he will be purged at the final condemnation, and his end mingled with those who are condemned, but cast out of our hearts, from which he is driven if we accept Christ.” (Page 22)
“He is born, He grows, He reaches the flower of manhood, He comes to old age. But we must beg Him not to remain too long or continually in us as One small and weak and poor.” (Page 3)
“As I have said, the yoke and hair of Christ are light, because by serving Christ we perform the good works by which we wing up to the heights.” (Page 24)
“that of wicked men is a mark of oppression, like Absalom’s,111 or of foulness, like Nabuchodonosor’s.112” (Page 22)
“I recognise that it is through my unhappiness that Paul burns, that it is through my disposition that he cries out in grief for me: Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?50 But Paul is also the master who reforms and refashions me. He shows me the path out to salvation, if only to will is present with me,51 so that through the grace of God I may deserve to find perfection through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Page 60)