|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: sorcerers and madmen. Others they showed dead, struck by
thunderbolts, or beating their breasts, or being mourned over, or
in enslavement to mankind, or exiled, or, for foul and shameful
unions, taking the forms of animals. Whence men, taking occasion
by the gods themselves, took heart to pollute themselves in all
manner of uncleanness. So an horrible darkness overspread our
race in those times, and `there was none that did understand and
seek after God.'
"Now in that generation one Abraham alone was found strong in his
spiritual senses; and by contemplation of Creation he recognized
the Creator. When he considered heaven, earth and sea, the sun,
|
