“While men, indeed, cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of matter already existing, yet God is in this point preeminently superior to men, that He Himself called into being the substance of His creation, when previously it had no existence.” St. Irenaeus (2nd-3rd centuries) “For God, being...
“If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.” St. Peter Chrysologus (5th century, Doctor of the Church) “We can be excused for not...
“O name of Mary! Joy in the heart, honey in the mouth, melody to the ear of her devout clients!” St. Anthony of Padua (12th-13th centuries, Doctor of the Church) “Never has it been known, dearest Lady and Mother, that anyone who fled to your protection was left unaided.” Bl....
“There is no remedy so powerful against the heat of concupiscence as the remembrance of our Saviour’s Passion. In all my difficulties, I never found anything so efficacious as the wounds of Christ. In them I sleep secure. From them, I derive new life.” St. Augustine of Hippo (4th-5th centuries,...
“When Peter preached the Word publicly at Rome and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had been a long time his follower and who remembered his saying, should write down what had been proclaimed.” St. Clement of Alexandria (2nd-3rd centuries) “The study...
“Pray without ceasing on behalf of other men…for cannot he that falls rise again.” St. Ignatius of Antioch (1st -2nd centuries) “In charity, follow the deceased with sorrow and with offerings, and pray that he may have rest in the hidden place where he is going.” St. Ephraim the Syrian...
“Realize, O Christian, your dignity. Once made a partaker in the divine nature, do not return to your former baseness by a life unworthy of that dignity.” Pope St. Leo the Great (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church) “Obviously, those who claim to abide in Christ ought to walk as...
“The Son of God is the Word of the Father in thought and activity. By Him and through Him all things were made, the Father and the Son being one. Since the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son by the unity and power of...
“What among all things that exist is unoriginate? The Godhead. For no one can tell the origin of God, that otherwise would be older than God. But what is the cause of the Manhood, which for our sake God assumed? It was surely our salvation. What else could it be?”...
“Christ suffered all that He had to suffer; nothing at all is lacking to the number of His sufferings. Therefore His sufferings are complete, but in Him as in the head; there remain even now sufferings of Christ to be endured in the body.” St. Augustine of Hippo (4th-5th centuries,...