the byzantine father

Maximus the Confessor was a late 6th- and early 7th-century monk and theologian, born in what is now Turkey. He rose to prominence battling the Monothelite heresy, and was heavily persecuted (exiled, tortured) as a result.

The book The Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ is a selection of his previously untranslated writings. It’s a wonderful window into one of church history’s most sophisticated theologians. It captures his beautiful arguments of the “two wills of Christ” and Christ as the source of all being as both God and man.

This quote is from his work The Ascetic Life: Four Centuries on Charity. This is Maximus’ book of 400 sayings (aphorisms or proverbs) from a teacher to a student.