If we go on crying out and do not receive any answer, this is for our advantage: instead of losing heart and growing weary, we should go on brazenly asking God, for it is certain that “at an acceptable time” and at the appropriate hour he will answer us and deliver us.
–Sahdona (b. 600-649)
Faith causes the barren to sprout forth. It delivers from the sword. It raises up from the pit. It enriches the poor. It releases the captives. It delivers the persecuted. It brings down the fire. It divides the sea. It cleaves the rock, and gives to the thirsty water to drink. It satisfies the hungry It raises the dead, and brings them up from Sheol. It stills the billows. It heals the sick. It conquers hosts. It overthrows walls. It stops the mouths of lions and quenches the flame of fire. It humiliates the proud and brings the humble to honor. All these mighty works are wrought by faith.
–Saint Aphrahat (c. 270–c. 345)
One who claims to abide in Christ ought to walk as he walked. Would you follow Christ? Then be humble as he was humble. Do not scorn his lowliness if you want to reach his exaltation. Human sin made the road rough. Christ’s resurrection leveled it. By passing over it himself he transformed the narrowest of tracks into a royal highway way Two feet are needed to run along this highway; they are humility and charity. Everyone wants to get to the top- well, the first step to take is humility. Why take strides that are too big for you-do you want to fall instead of going up? Begin with the first step, humility, and you will already be climbing.
–Saint Caesarius of Arles (460-542)
When the Lord tells us in the Gospel that anyone who wants to be his follower must renounce himself, the injunction seems harsh; we think he is imposing posing a burden on us. But an order is no burden when it is given by one who helps in carrying it out. To what place are we to follow Christ if not where he has already gone? We know that he has risen and ascended cended into heaven; there, then, we must follow him. There is no cause for despair-by ourselves we can do nothing, but we have Christ’s promise.
–Saint Caesarius of Arles (460-542)
Anxiety proceeds from an inordinate desire to be freed from present evil or to acquire a hoped for good. Yet there is nothing that tends more to increase evil and prevent enjoyment of good that to be disturbed and anxious. Birds stay caught in nets and traps because when they find themselves ensnared they flutter about wildly trying to escape and in so doing entangle themselves all the more.Whenever you urgently desire to escape from a certain evil or obtain a certain good you must be especially careful both to put your mind at rest and in peace and to have a calm judgment and will. Then try gently and meekly to accomplish your desire,taking in regular order the most convenient means.
–Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
‘What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.’ What does that mean? God, creating the human race, took flesh out of flesh and joined them in a union, and thus established that this connection must not hastily be broken. How? Because in the union of man and woman flesh will be united to flesh and blood to blood by a legal ceremony, so they cannot be divided from each other in foolish haste.
–Saint Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179)
