S. Zeno, L.C.O.[1]-In a discourse on Continence, he exhorts the Christian woman not to marry an infidel,“ lest she betray to him the law of secrecy. Know you not,” he adds, that the sacrifice of the unbeliever is public, but yours secret? That any one may freely approach to his, while even for Christians, if they are not consecrated, it would be a sacrilege to contemplate yours !"
S. Basil, G. C.-We receive the dogmas transmitted to us by writing, and those which have descended to us from the Apostles, beneath the veil and mystery of oral tradition. The words of invocation in the consecration of the bread, and of the Eucharistic chalice, which of the Saints have left us them in writing? The Apostles and Fathers, who prescribed from the beginning certain rites to the Church, knew how to preserve the dignity of the mysteries, by the secrecy and silence in which they enveloped them: for what is open to the ear and the eye, can no longer be mysteries. For this reason, several things have been handed down to us without writing, lest the vulgar, too familiar with our dogmas, should pass from being accustomed to them, to the contempt of them. A dogma is very different from a sermon.-Beautiful and admirable discipline! For how could it be proper to write or circulate among the public, what the uninitiated are forbidden to contemplate ?” De Spir. Sancto, c. xxvii. T. ill. p. 55.
S. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, G. C.-“We do not speak clearly before the Catechumens on the mysteries ; but are obliged often to use obscure expressions, in order, that while we are understood by the faithful, who are instructed, those, who are not so, may not suffer injury.” Cat. vi. n. xxix. p.60. Paris. 1631.-“ Give these Catecheses, (the last five of which
- ↑ Was made Bishop of Verona, in Italy, about 362: was contemporary with St. Ambrose, who extols his eminent sanctity, and died in 380. He has left us many Sermons, or Treatises, which were published by P. and J. Ballerini, at Verona, in folio, an. 1739.
