When death has been brought upon a saint, we ought not to think that an evil has happened to him but a thing indifferent; which is an evil to a wicked man, while to the good it is rest and freedom from evils. ‘For death is rest to a man whose way is hidden’ (Job 3:23 LXX). And so a good man does not suffer any loss from it.”
— John Cassian
“The bond between friends cannot be broken by chance; no interval of time or space can destroy it. Not even death itself can part true friends.”
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Do not disdain those who are deformed from birth, because all of us will go to the grave equally privileged.
+ St. Isaac of Nineveh, “Homily 5: On Keeping Oneself Remote From the World and From All Things That Disquiet the Intellect,” Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian
“And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man’s power to resolve it: At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too audacious. Now, from the time that a man begins to live, from that time it is possible for him to die. And if he die, wheresoever death may overtake him, I cannot discover on what principle he can be denied an interest in the resurrection of the dead.
— St. Augustine of Hippo
The dying person, knowing only that there is only one Savior and Liberator cries out: ‘In Thee have I put my hope, save me from my weakness’ and ‘rescue me from captivity’. For I think that the valiant athletes of God, after having kept up the good fight the whole course of their existence against the invisible enemies and escaping every trap, when they arrive at life’s end, are examined by the Prince of this world. If they are found, following the battle, to still have some wounds, stains or remnants of sin, are detained by him. However, if they are to the contrary whole and untainted, these invincible heroes remain free and are admitted by Christ to the place of rest.”
— St. Basil the Great, Homilies, On Psalm 7
If we make every effort to avoid death of the body, still more should it be our endeavor to avoid death of the soul. There is no obstacle for a man who wants to be saved other than negligence and laziness of soul.
+ St. Anthony the Great
“Always have the fear of God before your eyes. Remember Him who gives death and lives. Hate the world and all that is in it. Hate the peace that comes from the flesh. Renounce this life, so that you may be alive to God.”
— St. Anthony the Great
God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide. –
Saint Ambrose of Milan
“By the death of martyrs religion has been defended, faith increased, the Church strengthened; the dead have conquered, the persecutors have been overcome. And so we celebrate the death of those of whose lives we are ignorant. So, too, David rejoiced in prophecy at the departure of his own soul, saying: ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ He esteemed death better than life. The death itself of the martyrs is the prize of their life. And again, by the death of those at variance hatred is put an end to.”
+ St. Ambrose of Milan, On Belief in the Resurrection
With the very weapon that death had used to kill Him, He gained the victory over death…death killed natural life, but supernatural Life killed death. A pro-death culture will never make sense.
— St. Ephraim the Syrian
