"Sustain the struggle for your soul, especially in these days!"

We're introducing a new figure today: St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a fourth-century bishop whose feast is March 18.

We've only a few extant works from St. Cyril: a letter, a homily, some fragments, and a series of 24 lectures known as the Lenten or Catechetical Lectures.

These were pre-baptismal catechetical lectures given by Cyril to catechumens in the Lent of probably 349 A.D. Of these lectures, the most well known are perhaps the final five, also known as the Mystagogical Lectures. In these, Cyril deals with each of the three sacraments the then-neophytes would have received: baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist.

This first Catechetical Lecture serves as a good introduction to the others, as well as a welcome return to the basics. "Lay aside things of the present," Cyril says, "and put your faith in things to come."

Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120469/the-works-of-saint-cyril-of-jerusalem-vol-1

Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2409

Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.