Theodoret of Cyrrhus→Unknown|c. 440 AD|theodoret cyrrhus
From: Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus
To: [unnamed recipients, a festal letter]
Date: ~440 AD
Context: A short festal letter in which Theodoret admits that the joy of a Christian feast has lifted him from despair.
Festal greeting.
Our divine and saving celebrations both cheer the downhearted and add to the joy of the already joyful. I know this from personal experience: when I was drowning in waves of despair, the sight of the feast's harbor lifted me above the storm.
May your piety pray that I am fully rescued from these waters, and that our loving Lord grants me the mercy of forgetting my sorrow.
Letter 54
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Festal.
By our divine and saving celebrations both the down-hearted are cheered, and the joyous made yet more joyful. This I have learned by experience, for, when whelmed in the waves of despair, I have risen superior to the surge at sight of the haven of the feast. May your piety pray that I may be wholly rescued from this storm, and that our loving Lord may grant me forgetfulness of my sorrow.
◆
From:Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus
To:[unnamed recipients, a festal letter]
Date:~440 AD
Context:A short festal letter in which Theodoret admits that the joy of a Christian feast has lifted him from despair.
Festal greeting.
Our divine and saving celebrations both cheer the downhearted and add to the joy of the already joyful. I know this from personal experience: when I was drowning in waves of despair, the sight of the feast's harbor lifted me above the storm.
May your piety pray that I am fully rescued from these waters, and that our loving Lord grants me the mercy of forgetting my sorrow.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.