“Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.” St. Luke the Evangelist (1st century)
“Love Holy Scripture and wisdom will love you. Love her, and she will keep you. Honor her, and she will embrace you.” St. Jerome (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts” St. John Chrysostom (4th Century, Doctor of the Church)
“A letter from our fatherland.” St. Augustine (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“In the Old Testament the New is concealed, and in the New the Old is revealed.” St. Augustine (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“Reading the Holy Scriptures confers two benefits. It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man’s attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God.” St. Isidore of Seville (6th-7th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“Holy Scripture, by the manner of its language transcends every science, because while it describes a fact, it reveals a mystery.” Pope St. Gregory the Great (6th-7th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“Learn the heart of God from the Word of God.” Pope St. Gregory the Great
“The Holy Bible is like a mirror before our mind’s eye. In it we see our inner face. From the Scriptures we can learn our spiritual deformities and beauties. And there too we discover the progress we are making and how far we are from perfection” Pope St. Gregory the Great
“I am pleased for my friars to study the Scriptures as long as they do not neglect application to prayer. After the example of Christ, of Whom we read that He prayed more than He read.” St. Francis of Assisi (12th-13th centuries)
“The Word of the Lord is a light for the mind and a fire for the will, so that man may know and love God…It is a weapon against a heart stubbornly entrenched in vice. It is a sword against the flesh, the world, and the devil, to destroy every sin.” St. Lawrence of Brindisi (16th-17th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“Every passage in the history of our Lord and Savior is of unfathomable depth, and affords inexhaustible matter of contemplation.” St. John Henry Newman (19th century)
“The idea of this future Redeemer fills all the Ancient Law; all the symbols, all the rites and sacrifices prefigure Him…All desires converge toward Him.” Bl. Columba Marmion (19th-20th centuries)
“The Gospel cries out from one end to the other that God alone is, that the world on its own is incapable of producing life, truth, or love.” Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel (20th century)