ACC ~ 1 Thessalonians 5 v6

AFFLICTION AND WATCHFULNESS. CHRYSOSTOM: So that you may know that the prayers which are uttered in time of affliction would have the best chance of being heard, hear what the prophet says, “In my affliction I cried to the Lord, and he listened to me.” Therefore, let us stir up our conscience to fervor, let us afflict our soul with the memory of our sins, not so that it is crushed with anxiety but so that we may make it ready to be heard, so that we make it live in sobriety and watchfulness and ready to attain heaven itself. Nothing puts carelessness and negligence to flight the way grief and affliction do. They bring together our thoughts from every side and make our mind turn back to ponder itself. The man who prays in this way, in his affliction, after many a prayer, can bring joy into his own soul. ON THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD 5.6.

SLEEP HALF-AWAKE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: We should sleep half-awake. … A man who is asleep is not good for anything, any more than a man who is dead. Therefore, even during the night we should rouse ourselves from sleep often and give praise to God. Blessed are they who have kept watch for him, for they make themselves like the angels whom we speak of as ever watchful. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 2.9.79.

THE FRUIT OF OUR EFFORT. LEO THE GREAT: Wherefore, let us honor this sacred day, the day on which the author of our salvation appeared. Whom the wise men revered as an infant in his crib, let us worship as all-powerful in heaven. Just as they offered to the Lord mystical kinds of gifts from their treasures, let us bring forth from our hearts things that are worthy of God. Although he himself bestows all good things, he nevertheless asks for the fruit of our effort. For the kingdom of heaven comes not to those who sleep but to those who work and watch according to the Lord’s command. If we do not render his gifts ineffective, we may deserve to receive what he promised through the very things which he has given. SERMONS 32.1.

DAWN’S APPROACH. PRUDENTIUS:

The winged messenger of day

Sings loud, foretelling dawn’s approach,

And Christ in stirring accents calls

Our slumbering souls to life with him.

“Away,” he cries, “with dull repose,

The sleep of death and sinful sloth;

With hearts now sober, just and pure,

Keep watch, for I am very near.”

HYMNS 1.1-8.

1 Thess