Fathers of the Church

Epistle LXXXI

Description

A brief letter of friendship to Gregory of Nyssa.

Provenance

Basil the Great died Jan. 1, A.D. 379. Gregory of Nazianzus was prevented by very serious illness from attending his funeral, and therefore wrote as follows to Gregory of Nyssa.

by Gregory Nazianzen in 379 | translated by Charles Gordon Browne, M.A., James Edward Swallow, M.A

You are distressed by your travels, and think yourself unsteady, like a stick carried along by a stream. But, my dear friend, you must not let yourself feel so at all. For the travels of the stick are involuntary, but your course is ordained by God, and your stability is in doing good to others, even though you are not fixed to a place; unless indeed one ought to find fault with the sun, for going about the world scattering his rays, and giving life to all thins on which he shines; or, while praising the fixed stars, one should revile the planets, whose very wandering is harmonious.

Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in 1867. (LNPF II/VII, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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