“The Doctor of our souls has placed the remedy in the hidden regions of the soul.”
+ St. John Cassian, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 1), “On the Eight Vices: On the Demon of Unchasity and the Desire of the Flesh”
“If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
— St. Augustine of Hippo
To lovers of the truth, nothing can be put before God and hope in Him.”
St. Basil The Great
God is not accustomed to refusing a good gift to those who ask for one. Since he is good, and especially to those who are faithful to him, let us hold fast to him with all our soul, our heart, our strength, and so enjoy his light and see his glory and possess the grace of supernatural joy.
-Saint Ambrose of Milan
The Son, whose birth is beyond investigation, underwent another birth which can be investigated.
In one fell swoop, St. Ephrem eviscerates both empiricism (everything must be investigated scientifically) and fideism (faith in God means we don’t need reason)
— St. Ephraim the Syrian
“Let no man then accuse poverty as being the cause of innumerable evils, nor let him contradict Christ, who declared it to be the perfection of virtue, saying, ‘If you will be perfect.’ [Matthew 19:21] For this He both uttered in His words, and showed by His acts, and taught by His disciples. Let us therefore follow after poverty, it is the greatest good to the sober-minded.
Perhaps some of those who hear me, avoid it as a thing of ill omen. I do not doubt it. For this disease is great among most men, and such is the tyranny of wealth, that they cannot even as far as words endure the renunciation of it, but avoid it as of ill omen. Far be this from the Christian’s soul: for nothing is richer than he who chooses poverty of his own accord, and with a ready mind.”
+ St. John Chrysostom, Homily 18 on Hebrews
