On the Baptism of Christ

Name: On the Baptism of Christ
Author: Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)

A Sermon for the Day of the Lights.

Now I recognize my own flock: to-day I behold the wonted figure of the Church, when, tuning with aversion from the occupation even of the cares of the flesh, you come together in your undiminished numbers for the service of God-when the people crowds the house, coming within the sacred sanctuary, and when the multitude that can find no place within fills the space outside in the precincts like bees. For of them some are at their labours within, while others outside hum around the hive. So do, my children: and never abandon this zeal. For I confess that I feel a shepherd's affections, and I wish, when I am set upon this watch-tower, to see the flock gathered round about the mountain's foot: and when it so happens to me, I am filled with wonderful earnestness, and work with pleasure at my sermon, as the shepherds do at their rustic strains. But when things are otherwise, and you are straying in distant wanderings, as you did but lately, the last Lord's Day, I am much troubled, and glad to be silent; and I consider the question of flight from hence, and seek for the Carmel of the prophet Elijah, or for some rock without inhabitant; for men in…

On the Baptism of Christ

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