Clement of Alexandria

                                        Collect for the First Sunday of Advent 

Grant 

us 

grace 

to 

cast 

away 

the 

works 

of darkness and put on the armor of light 

grant 

to your 

Church … 

grace 

to discern 

your Word 

wherever truth is…

      (Episcopal Collect) 

Clement of Alexandria ,born Titus Flavius Clemens lived circa 155 -210. He was a Greek philosopher who after studding many schools of philosophy, became a Christian and an priest. Holy Women, Holy Men, the Episcopal book that succeeded Lesser Feats and Fasts says “Clement was born in a time of Gnosticism, a comprehensive term for many theories or ways of salvation current in the 2nd and 3rd centuries , all emphasizing “Gnosis” or “knowledge.” Salvation, for Gnostics, was to be had trough a secret and rather esoteric knowledge accessible only to a few. It was salvation FROM the world rather than salvation of the world. Clement asserted that there was a true Christian Gnosis. to be found in the Scriptures, available to all... the understanding [of which is ]ultimately knowledge of Christ...”