Letter 241: It is not to increase your distress that I am so lavish of painful topics in my letters to your excellency. My object is to get some comfort for myself in the lamentations which are a kind of natural means of dispersing deep-seated pain whenever they are produced, and further to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behal...
Basil of Caesarea→Eusebius, Archbishop of Thessalonica|c. 371 AD|basil caesarea
grief death
Military conflict; Miracles & relics
I am not piling painful topics into my letters to increase your distress. My purpose is twofold: to find some comfort for myself -- lamentation being a natural way to release deep-seated grief -- and to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behalf of the churches.
We know that Moses prayed continually for the people. Yet when his battle with Amalek began, he did not lower his hands from morning to evening. The uplifting of the saint's hands ended only when the fight ended. Let us follow his example. The battle is not over.
ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA
To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.
It is not to increase your distress that I am so lavish of painful topics in my letters to your excellency. My object is to get some comfort for myself in the lamentations which are a kind of natural means of dispersing deep-seated pain whenever they are produced, and further to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behalf of the Churches. We know that Moses prayed continually for the people; yet, when his battle with Amalek had begun, he did not let down his hands from morning to evening, and the uplifting of the hands of the saint only ended with the end of the fight.
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Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202241.htm>.
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I am not piling painful topics into my letters to increase your distress. My purpose is twofold: to find some comfort for myself -- lamentation being a natural way to release deep-seated grief -- and to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behalf of the churches.
We know that Moses prayed continually for the people. Yet when his battle with Amalek began, he did not lower his hands from morning to evening. The uplifting of the saint's hands ended only when the fight ended. Let us follow his example. The battle is not over.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.