Tuesday, August 26
Moretto da Brescia. Allegory of Faith. c. 1530. In the Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Holy Orthodoxy
From Cardinal Ratzinger: "For the early Christians, there was no difference between what today is distinguished as orthodoxy and orthopraxis, as right doctrine and right action. Indeed, when this distinction is made, there generally is a suggestion that the word orthodoxy is to be disdained: those who hold fast to rigid doctrine are seen as people of narrow sympathy, rigid, potentially intolerant [...]. Such a [distinction] would have been incomprehensible and unacceptible for those in the ancient Church, for they rightly understood the word "orthodoxy" not to mean "right doctrine" but [...] the authentic adoration and glorification of God. They were convinced that everything depended on being in the right relationship with God, on knowing what pleases Him and what one can do to respond to Him in the right way. For this reason, Israel loved the law: from it, they knew God's will, they knew how to live justly and how to honor God in the right way: by acting in accord with His will, bringing order into the world, opening it to the transcendent." Thus Ratzinger.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
