The Illuminating Grace of the Early Church Fathers

I first encountered the Early Church Fathers while in Catholic graduate school writing my thesis, and they opened up a whole new world to me. I was amazed at their brilliance, deep spirituality, permeation with scripture, profound beauty – and so prolific! Beautiful teaching, some of which I’d never heard before. And, to my surprise, certain things that appeared to contradict certain things in Catholicism, raising questions in my mind. They were a revelation.

This post is the fourth and final in a short series. Click here to read the introduction.


If I were to choose just one thing that really stands out to me in Orthodox Christianity, which is also the thing that brought me to it, it is reading and studying the Early Church Fathers.

I first became curious about them after becoming Catholic, as the Catholic Church teaches that it is based on scripture and tradition. Tradition meaning the Early Church Fathers, the teachers and defenders of the faith who followed in the footsteps of the Apostles.

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A Light Above This World

A long time ago, years before I became a Christian, while I was on the spiritual journey seeking God, I had a dream. In it I floated up out the window of a large house, floated up in the air and started moving over the earth. Looking up I saw a brilliant light in the sky, higher than the sky, brighter and more brilliant than the sun.

Floating along and gradually ascending toward the light in the sky, I came to a large city, floated over a crowded, busy downtown area with skyscrapers towering over sidewalks full of people. The streets were shadowed, the people all dressed in heavy, dark clothes, heads down, crowded together and jostling one another as they hurried along.

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