Quotes About Maximus

Not yet born, already John prophesies," wrote Maximus of Turin, "and while still in the enclosure of his mother's womb, confesses the coming of Christ with movements of joy.

Well, Scarborough cares, doesn't he? Maximus doesn't—not really. No doubt he's a bit compelled by the chase, but if he doesn't win"—she shrugged her shoulders—"he'll simply find another suitable heiress. She—Lady Penelope herself—doesn't really matter to him. And if it comes right down to it, wouldn't you chose passion—however old—over dispassion?

Nick! Wait!" – Kyrian 'Wait, my gluteus maximus. Vampire was shy of a few quarts of blood if he thought Nick had any intention of not going Casper on him.' – Nick

I do not think you are in any danger of starving, Maximus said. The surgeon said only two weeks ago that you are too fat. The devil! Berkley said indignantly, sitting up; and Maximus snorted in amusement at having provoked him.

I would appeal to Philip, she said, but to Philip sober.

Maximus knows and expressly states that "faith is true knowledge (?????? ??????) based on unprovable principles, because it is the testimony to things that lie beyond both theoretical and practical reason."69

Maximus remained a child of his time, a disciple of his master. But the fact that he was able to develop his own basic insight, in spite of such influences, makes him one of the greatest thinkers in Christian intellectual history.

theology, for Maximus, is Cosmic Liturgy.

Maximus, along with the tradition reaching from Philo to Gregory of Nyssa, says we can only know God's existence—know that he is14—not his essence, or what he is.

Maximus has been called unscriptural, but Scripture is the background and the presupposition for all that he does, to a wholly different degree than in the one-sided scholastic theology or spiritual works of the sixth century. The Confessor's first major work is his set of answers to the questions of his friend Thalassius on passages in the Holy Scriptures.42 Maximus offers these answers from the fullness both of the exegetical and spiritual tradition and of his own personal meditation.

Maximus expressly says that the Incarnation—more precisely, the drama of Cross, grave, and Resurrection—is not only the midpoint of world history but the foundational idea of the world itself.

But if Maximus is "a mystic like Dionysius", he is surely "a mystic who is also a metaphysician, an ascetic who has reached, through his familiarity with Aristotelian philosophy, a consistency and precision of thought that one looks for in vain in the works of the Areopagite.

Maximus envisages a naturally lasting cosmos as the supporting ground for all supernatural divinization.

is gleaned from both "books" together. The "contemplation of nature" (?????? ??????) and of the structures of meaning (?????) hidden within it, structures that are part of every single being, becomes for Maximus a necessary step, a kind of initiation, into the knowledge of God.

If you make provision for the desires of the flesh and bear a grudge against your neighbor on account of something transitory, you worship the creature instead of the Creator.

The 'contemplation of nature' can give spiritual flavour to our lives even if we lay no claim to be in any way 'mystics' in the rather particular sense that this word has acquired in the West. A little loving attention in the light of the Risen Christ is enough. The humblest objects then breathe out their secret. The person becomes the priest of the world at the altar of his heart, celebrating that 'cosmic liturgy' of which Maximus the Confessor speaks.