St Athanasius the Great LETTERS, Part I, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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Page 102

12. Wherefore let us not celebrate the feast after an earthly manner, but as keeping festival in heaven with the angels. Let us glorify the Lord, by chastity, by righteousness, and other virtues. And let us rejoice, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, that we may be inheritors with the saints. Let us keep the feast then, as Moses. Let us watch like David who rose seven times, and in the middle of the night gave thanks for the righteous judgments of God. Let us be early, as he said, 'In the morning I will stand before Thee, and Thou wilt look upon me: in the morning Thou wilt hear my voice [4124] .' Let us fast like Daniel; let us pray without ceasing, as Paul commanded; all of us recognising the season of prayer, but especially those who are honourably married; so that having borne witness to these things, and thus having kept the feast, we may be able to enter into the joy of Christ in the kingdom of heaven [4125] . But as Israel, when going up to Jerusalem, was first purified in the wilderness, being trained to forget the customs of Egypt, the Word by this typifying to us the holy fast of forty days, let us first be purified and freed from defilement [4126] , so that when we depart hence, having been careful of fasting, we may be able to ascend to the upper chamber [4127] with the Lord, to sup with Him; and may be partakers of the joy which is in heaven. In no other manner is it possible to go up to Jerusalem, and to eat the Passover, except by observing the fast of forty days.

13. We begin the fast of forty days on the first day of the month Phamenoth (Feb. 25); and having prolonged it till the fifth of Pharmuthi (Mar. 31), suspending it upon the Sundays and the Saturdays [4128] preceding them, we then begin again on the holy days of Easter, on the sixth of Pharmuthi (Apr, 1), and cease on the eleventh of the same month (Apr. 6), late in the evening [4129] of the Saturday, whence dawns on us the holy Sunday, on the twelfth of Pharmuthi (Apr. 7), which extends its beams, with unobscured grace, to all the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost. Resting on that day, let us ever keep Easter joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, through Whom, to the Father, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. All the brethren who are with me salute you. Salute one another with a holy kiss.

Here endeth the sixth Festal Letter of the holy and God-clad Athanasius.

[4124] Ps. v. 3.

[4125] A line or two is preserved here in the original Greek in Cosmas Topog. Christ. p. 316.

[4126] Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the Lenten fast as katharsis proeortios, vol. i. p. 715. S:30. ed. Ben. fol. Par. 1778.

[4127] Cf. Luke xiv. 15

[4128] The Saturdays and Sundays during Lent were not observed as fasts, with the exception of the day before Easter-day. S. Ambrose says, Quadragesima tot's praeter Sabbatum et Dominicam jejunatur diebus. vol. i. p. 545, S:34. ed. Par. 1686-90.

[4129] Cf. Dionys Alex. ad Basilid. in Routh Rell. Sac. iii. 226.

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