Yearn deeply…

Augustine (354-430), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)

For it is no small thing that God is going to give to those who thus yearn (for God); no half-efforts will get them to the goal. What God is going to give them is not something he has made; he is going to give himself… Toil, then, to lay hold of God; yearn deeply for what you are going to possess forever.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

The covenant of Baptism…

Grace, Page: Quotes, Quote Topic

For this cause the Lord, who gives us our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the promise of life… Like a tomb, the water receives the body, symbolizing death; while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin into their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the water bringing the necessary death while the Spirit creates life within us.
–Saint Basil the Great (330-379)

Through the Holy Spirit…

Grace, Page: Quotes, Quote Topic

Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the status of adopted sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory – in a word, our being brought into a state of all fullness of blessing both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us.
–Saint Basil the Great (330-379)