Thursday, December 07, 2006

Feast of St. Ambrose

Where do you begin to sing the praises of St. Ambrose?

  • Made it to the "final four" - the four great "Doctors of the Western Church" (so declared Pope Boniface VIII in 1298).
  • Memorialized as one of the four Saints supporting the Altar of the Chair of Peter in GianLorenzo Bernini's bronze masterpiece in St. Peter's Basilica.
  • The guy who tells St. Monica as she complained about her wayward son, Augustine, "Woman, you need to talk more to God about your son than to your son about God".
  • The guy who would eventually baptize St. Augustine.
  • The guy who puts the smackdown on the Roman Emperor, saying, "The Emperor is in the Church, not above it!"
  • The bishop who wrote to his brother bishops, "He who reads much and understands much, receives his fill. He who is full, refreshes others. ... Therefore, let your words be rivers, clean and limpid, so that in your exhortations you may charm the ears of your people. And by the grace of your words win them over to follow your leadership. Let your sermons be full of understanding. ... Let no word escape your lips in vain or be uttered without depth of meaning."
  • the homilies, the writings, even the little known "Ambrosian Rite of the Mass", and Ambrosian chant.

How do you pick?

I guess you don't "pick"; you just take a step back and appreciate.

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