Chalcedon, Oxford, Blackfen

After Mass this morning, I motored down to Cowfold to talk to the Carthusians about the Monophysite heresy and the Council of Chalcedon. With the various expressions for person and nature being rather confused, it was a triumph of Pope St Leo to provide the basis for a formula of faith that preserved the best of both the Antiochene and the Alexandrian schools, proclaiming for all time that the Incarnate Word is one person in two natures, divine and human. Here is the magnificent statement of the Fathers of Chalcedon:
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all teach that with one accord we confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in human nature, truly God and the same with a rational soul and a body truly man, consubstantial with the Father according to divinity, and consubstantial with us according to human nature, like unto us in all things except sin, [cf. Heb. 4:15]; indeed born of the Father before the ages according to divine nature, but in the last days the same born of the virgin Mary, Mother of God according to human nature; for us and for our deliverance, one and the same Christ only begotten Son, our Lord, acknowledged in two natures,' without mingling, without change, indivisibly, undividedly, the distinction of the natures nowhere removed on account of the union but rather the peculiarity of each nature being kept, and uniting in one person and hypostasis, not divided or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son only begotten God Word, Lord Jesus Christ, just as from the beginning the prophets taught about Him and the Lord Jesus Himself taught us, and the creed of our fathers has handed down to us.
After all that, I travelled to central London for a meeting of the Society of St Catherine of Siena which was addressed by Fr Sebastian Jones on the new St Bede's Hall.

On returning back to the ranch, I discovered that the Mulier Fortis was celebrating her birthday as an Octava Simplex with copious amounts of cake provided by various well-wishers.

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