Saint Ambrose
Bishop, Doctor
of the Church
Feast day – December 07
One of Ambrose’s biographers observed that at the Last
Judgment people would still be divided between those who admired Ambrose and
those who heartily disliked him. He emerges as the man of action who cut a
furrow through the lives of his contemporaries. Even royal personages were
numbered among those who were to suffer crushing divine punishments for
standing in Ambrose’s way. When the Empress Justina attempted to wrest two
basilicas from Ambrose’s Catholics and give them to the Arians, he dared the
eunuchs of the court to execute him. His own people rallied behind him in the
face of imperial troops. In the midst of riots he both spurred and calmed his
people with bewitching new hymns set to exciting Eastern melodies. In his
disputes with the Emperor Auxentius, he coined the principle: “The emperor is
in the Church, not above the Church.” He publicly admonished Emperor Theodosius
for the massacre of 7,000 innocent people. The emperor did public penance for
his crime. This was Ambrose, the fighter, sent to Milan as Roman governor and
chosen while yet a catechumen to be the people’s bishop.
There is yet another side of Ambrose — one which influenced
Augustine, whom Ambrose converted. Ambrose was a passionate little man with a
high forehead, a long melancholy face and great eyes. We can picture him as a
frail figure clasping the codex of sacred Scripture. This was the Ambrose of
aristocratic heritage and learning. Augustine found the oratory of Ambrose less
soothing and entertaining but far more learned than that of other
contemporaries. Ambrose’s sermons were often modelled on Cicero and his ideas
betrayed the influence of contemporary thinkers and philosophers. He had no
scruples in borrowing at length from pagan authors. He gloried in the pulpit in
his ability to parade his spoils — “gold of the Egyptians” — taken over from
the pagan philosophers. His sermons, his writings and his personal life reveal
him as an otherworldly man involved in the great issues of his day. Humanity,
for Ambrose, was, above all, spirit. In order to think rightly of God and the
human soul, the closest thing to God, no material reality at all was to be
dwelt upon. He was an enthusiastic champion of consecrated virginity. The
influence of Ambrose on Augustine will always be open for discussion. The
Confessions reveal some manly, brusque encounters between Ambrose and
Augustine, but there can be no doubt of Augustine’s profound esteem for the
learned bishop. Neither is there any doubt that Monica loved Ambrose as an
angel of God who uprooted her son from his former ways and led him to his
convictions about Christ. It was Ambrose, after all, who placed his hands on
the shoulders of the naked Augustine as he descended into the baptismal
fountain to put on Christ.
Ambrose exemplifies for us the truly catholic character of
Christianity. He is a man steeped in the learning, law and culture of the
ancients and of his contemporaries. Yet, in the midst of active involvement in
this world, this thought runs through Ambrose’s life and preaching: The hidden
meaning of the Scriptures calls our spirit to rise to another world.
“Women and men are not mistaken when they regard themselves
as superior to mere bodily creatures and as more than mere particles of nature
or nameless units in modern society. For by their power to know themselves in
the depths of their being they rise above the entire universe of mere
objects.... Endowed with wisdom, women and men are led through visible
realities to those which are invisible” (Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World, 14–15).
Sources for this article were taken from: AmericanCatholic.org
Prayer
Prayer That We May Seek God and Find Him
Lord, teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you. For I cannot seek you unless you first teach me, nor find you unless you first reveal yourself to me. Let me seek you in longing and long for you in seeking. Let me find you in love, and love you in finding.
~ St Ambrose of Milan, Bishop, Writer, Doctor
Prayer of St. Ambrose to Imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary
May the life of Blessed Mary be ever-present to our awareness. In her, as in a mirror the form of virtue, and beauty of chastity shine forth. She was a virgin, not only in body, but in mind and spirit. She never sullied the pure affection of her heart by unworthy feelings. She was humble of heart. She was serious in her conversations. She was prudent in her counsels. She preferred to pray rather than to speak. She united in her heart the prayers of the poor. And avoided the uncertainty of worldly riches. She was ever-faithful to her daily duties, Reserved in her conversations, and always accustomed to recognize God as the Witness of her thoughts. Blessed be the name of Jesus! Amen.
Lord, teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you. For I cannot seek you unless you first teach me, nor find you unless you first reveal yourself to me. Let me seek you in longing and long for you in seeking. Let me find you in love, and love you in finding.
~ St Ambrose of Milan, Bishop, Writer, Doctor
Prayer of St. Ambrose to Imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary
May the life of Blessed Mary be ever-present to our awareness. In her, as in a mirror the form of virtue, and beauty of chastity shine forth. She was a virgin, not only in body, but in mind and spirit. She never sullied the pure affection of her heart by unworthy feelings. She was humble of heart. She was serious in her conversations. She was prudent in her counsels. She preferred to pray rather than to speak. She united in her heart the prayers of the poor. And avoided the uncertainty of worldly riches. She was ever-faithful to her daily duties, Reserved in her conversations, and always accustomed to recognize God as the Witness of her thoughts. Blessed be the name of Jesus! Amen.
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