Help: Quotes on The Body

edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
Hey guys!
Hope Everyone is doing well! ;D

Well, i'm hoping i can get some help from you guys...

i need sayings/quotes from the Church Fathers regarding the body... sayings that talk about carnal lusts, temptations, the body being the temple of God, etc. (and anything else you can get for me)

i also need sayings from the Church Fathers that talk about our 'Heavenly Body'... what our body would be like in heaven and such (vs the Earthly Body)

If you guys could help me out, i'd really appreicate it!

I'm not looking for Bible Verses, so you dont need to trouble yourselves with that... i'm just looking for quotes from our Church Fathers...

Thanks a lot in advance!! ;D

Take Care and God Bless

Comments

  • I don't know if this would help or not...I have a book filled with fathers quotes and here is what I found..

    Abba Elias said: Unless the mind sings with the body, the labor is in vain. And: Whoever loves tribulation will have oy and refreshment afterwards.

    Abba Poemen said: If a monk overcomes two things, he can be free from this world. And a brother asked: What are they? He replied: Bodily ease and vainglory.

    Abba Euprepios said: Bodily things consist of matter. The person who loves wordly things loves stumbling blocks. When we lose something, therefore, we should accept it with joy and thanks, as we have been relieved from care.

  • Thanks for the reply Marianne!

    Anyone else have quotes, i need more!... please and thank you!!

    take care and God bless
  • ........ anyone? .... :-[
  • St Augustine:

    Great care is also taken, lest by such phrases as, “walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh,” “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” a hatred of the body should be begotten. “Thus you shall be freed from the body of this death, not by having no body, but by having another one and dying no more. If, indeed, he had not added, ‘of this death,’ perchance an error might have been suggested to the human mind, and it might have been said, ‘You see that God does not wish us to have a body.’ But He says, ‘the body of this death.’ Take away death, and the body is good. Let our last enemy, death be taken away, and my dear flesh will be mine for eternity. For no one can ever ‘hate his own flesh.’ Although the ‘spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit,’ although there is now a battle in this house, yet the husband is seeking by his strife not the ruin of, but concord with, his wife. Far be it, far be it, my brethren, that the spirit should hate the flesh in lusting against it! It hates the vices of the flesh; it hates the wisdom of the flesh; it hates the contention of death. This corruption shall put on incorruption, — this mortal shall put on immortality; it is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual body; and you shall see full and perfect concord, — you shall see the creature praise the Creator.”

    I could probably gather alot more for you, but you've caught me at a rather bad time. Hopefully someone else can help you out until I've finished my exams.

    Peace.
  • Here’s a unique one concerning the relationship and link between physical purity and certain spiritual virtues:

    John Cassian:

    "True chastity cannot be maintained simply with the help of strict discipline. It does not subsist thanks to rigorous defence, but rather by love of itself and by delight in its own purity. Harmful desires for present things cannot be simply repressed or plucked out: salutary dispositions have to be introduced to replace them. Rather than attempt to uproot all feelings of desire or fear, joy or sadness, we should strive to turn them to good use. Therefore if we want to cast carnal desires from our hearts, we must at once plant spiritual pleasures in their place, so that our mind may abide in them constantly and spurn the allurements of present and temporal joys. Then eventually the flesh will stop lusting against the spirit (Gal 5:17) and will give in to spiritual desires and to virtue. Then the two begin to be mutually joined in a most stable peace, and they dwell as 'brothers in unity' according to the words of the psalmist (Ps 132/133:1). We can therefore distinguish perfect chastity from mere abstinence by the perpetual tranquillity of soul it brings about."

    And from the same letter:

    “As a person progresses in mildness and patience of the heart, so also does he in purity of the body. Andf the further he has driven away the passion of anger, the more tightly will he hold on to chastity”

    Peace.
  • Thanks for the quotes Iqbal ;D

    i still need more, if anyone has more they'd like to share! .... plz & thanks

    take care and God bless
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