Ewangeliczne etapy rozwoju postawy miłosierdzia w świetle wybranych fragmentów pism ojców Kościoła
Evangelical Stages of the Development of Mercy’s Attitude in the View of Selected Extracts from Scripts of the Fathers of the Church

Summary/Abstract: In the article there is shown an outline of evangelical stages of the Church’s development of mercy’s attitudes in the material dimension in view of selected extracts from scripts of the Fathers of the Church, matching them with pre ¬baptism initiation in the ancient Church. For this purpose, an initiation method was used to interpret the text of the New Testament. Thanks to this method, mercy was extracted at the entry period of pre ¬initiation. Works of Mercy that is taken for the good of a human person called philanthropy. At the precatechumenate period the initiated one was called to perform merciful acts because of God whereas the target of catechumenate period was to improve one sensitivity towards mercy. At the end of this period, a catechumen was called to be free with material goods, which were to be shared with the poor more than before. The catechumenate ended with the improvement of the attitude expressed by love to enemies. At the same time it was the moment of the baptism and entrance into the experience of the fulfilment of precept of mutual love.

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