“I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that everywhere, wherever you…”

I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that everywhere, wherever you may be, the least plant may bring to you the clear remembrance of the Creator.

Basil of Caesarea · The Hexaemeron · NPNF2 VIII, The Hexaemeron, Homily V, 2

Preached to a congregation of working men in Lent, on the third day of creation. The Hexaemeron reads the natural world with the science of the fourth century and asks it for one thing only — that a man who has looked at a plant should have remembered God.

How this is known

These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.

Quoted from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translation this project holds in full, and checked against those bytes at every rebuild — the words, the work and the place in it.

Read in Jackson, NPNF series 2 vol. 8 (1895) · Blomfield Jackson

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Basil of Caesarea every saying recorded of this person, and their page