2-9-2013- PATRISTIC QUOTATIONS FROM 50-150AD PART 8
**************************NATIVITY*************************
"HE WHO IS CARNAL, IS INCARNATE; THE SON OF GOD, BECAME THE SON OF MAN."
*GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS*
***************************OBEDIENCE**********************
"ONLY WHEN I AM COMMANDED TO NOT OBEY HIM,(JESUS), WILL I NOT OBEY."
*TAITAN*
"FOR HE WHO MAKES IT HIS PURPOSE TO PLEASE MEN, CANNOT PLEASE GOD, SINCE THE MULTITUDE CHOOSE NOT WHAT IS PROFITABLE, BUT WHAT IS PLEASANT."
*CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA*
"IT IS OUR DUTY NOT TO LEAD RELIGION WHERE WE WOULD, BUT RATHER, TO FOLLOW RELIGION, WHERE IT LEADS.
*VINCENT OF LERINS*
"HONOR YOUR FATHER, THE COMMANDMENT SAYS, BUT ONLY IF HE DOES NOT SEPARATE YOU FROM YOUR TRUE FATHER."
*JEROME*
"THE SAVIOR ASKS NEITHER WHAT IS IMPOSSIBLE, NOR WHAT IS IMPRACTICAL, NOR WHAT IS CONTRARY TO THE WILL OF THE FATHER."
*DIONYSIUS*
"WHY DEBATE? GOD COMMANDS."
*AUGUSTINE*
****************************PARDON**************************
"LET NO ONE CHEAT HIMSELF, LET NO ONE DECEIVE HIMSELF: THE LORD ALONE CAN HAVE MERCY. HE ALONE CAN BESTOW PARDON FOR SINS WHICH HAVE BEEN COMMITTED AGAINST HIMSELF..."
*CYPRIAN*
"SIN IS EFFACED NEITHER BY TEARS, NOR BY PENITENCE; NEITHER ANGEL, NOR ARCHANGEL, CAN REMOVE ITS STAIN; GOD, AND GOD ONLY, CAN TAKE AWAY SIN."
*AMBROSE*
"THE WONDERFUL THING IS NOT SIMPLY THAT GOD FORGIVES OUR SINS, BUT HE DOES THIS WITHOUT REVEALING THEM, OR MAKING THEM MANIFEST AND EVIDENT."
*JOHN CHRYSOSTOM*
*************************PEACE********************************
"PEACE IS A GOOD SO GREAT, THAT EVEN IN THIS EARTHLY AND MORTAL LIFE, THERE IS NO WORD WE HEAR WITH SUCH PLEASURE, NOTHING WE DESIRE WITH SUCH ZEST, OR FIND, TO BE MORE THOROUGHLY GRATIFYINGLY."
*AUGUSTINE*
"CORRUPTED BY THE EVIL OF A LENGTHENED PEACE, THEY, (CHILDREN OF ISRAEL), BEGAN TO SACRIFICE TO IDOLS."
*SULPITIUS*
***********************PERFECTION************************
"THE SPIRIT IS PERFECT WHEN, THANKS TO REAL FAITH, IT POSSESS IN SUPER IGNORANCE, THE SUPER KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUPREMELY UN-KNOWABLE."
*MAXIMUS*
"JUST AS A MOTHER IS ABLE TO OFFER FOOD TO AN INFANT, BUT THE INFANT IS NOT YET ABLE TO RECEIVE FOOD UNSUITED TO ITS AGE, SO GOD COULD HAVE OFFERED PERFECTION TO MAN AT THE BEGINNING, BUT MAN, BEING YET AN INFANT, COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN IT."
*IRENAEUS*
*****************************PERSECUTION*********************
"THUS, THEN, HAVE THEY PERSECUTED HIM, CHRIST JESUS, THAT WAS SMITTEN BY GOD, ADDING THE PAIN OF HIS WOUNDS."
*HILARY OF POITIERS*
"THIS PERSECUTION IS THE FAN WHICH EVEN NOW, CLEANS THE LORDS THRESHING FLOOR, THE CHURCH, I MEAN WINNOWING THE MIXED HEAP OF BELIEVERS, AND SEPARATING THE GRAIN OF THE MARTYRS, FROM THE CHAFF OF THE DENIERS."
*TERTULLIAN*
"YOU ARE DECEIVED IF YOU THINK THAT A CHRISTIAN CAN LIVE WITHOUT PERSECUTION. HE SUFFERS THE GREATEST PERSECUTION OF ALL WHO LIVES UNDER NONE."
*JEROME*
************************PERSEVERANCE*****************
"WE ASSERT THEREFORE, THAT PERSEVERANCE, BY WHICH ONE PERSEVERES IN CHRIST, EVEN TO THE END, IS A GIFT OF GOD."
*AUGUSTINE*
"TO BE CALLED AND TO BE CLEANSED, WAS A THING OF GRACE. BUT WHEN CALLED AND CLOTHED IN CLEAN GARMENTS, TO CONTINUE TO KEEP THOSE GARMENTS CLEAN, PERTAINED TO THE DILIGENCE OF THOSE WHO ARE CALLED."
*JOHN CHRYSOSTOM*
***************************POVERTY**************************
"BUT I WILL TELL YOU WHAT I THINK; NO ONE IS AS POOR AS HE WAS BORN."
*MINUCIUS*
HE IS RICH ENOUGH, WHO IS POOR----WITH CHRIST."
*JEROME*
"AS A MAN, WHEN WALKING, MAKES THE GREATER PROGRESS THE MORE LIGHTLY HE IS BURDENED, SO IN THIS JOURNEY OF LIFE, THE MAN WHO LIGHTENS HIS BURDEN BY POVERTY, IS HAPPIER THAN ONE WHO GROANS, BENEATH THE WEIGHT OF RICHES."
*MINUCIUS*
*************************PRAISE*******************************
"THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE AN ALLELUIA, FROM HEAD TO FOOT."
*AUGUSTINE*
"THE PRAISE OF GOD COULD NOT BE EXPRESSED IN FEWER WORDS THAN THESE, FOR HE IS GOOD."
*AUGUSTINE*
****************************PRAYER***************************
"BY PRAYER I MEAN, WHICH IS CONSTANTLY ACTIVE IN THE INNERMOST SECRET PLACES OF THE SOUL, SO THAT THE ENEMY, IN HIS SECRET ONSLAUGHTS, IS INVISIBLY FLOGGED AND SCORCHED, BY CALLING ON THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."
*HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM*
"THE PRAYER WHICH IS NOT MADE THROUGH CHRIST, NOT ONLY CANNOT BLOT SIN, BUT IS ITSELF, TURNED INTO SIN."
*AUGUSTINE*
" BY THEIR PRAYERS, CHRISTIANS ARE OF MORE SERVICE TO THE REALM, THAN IF THEY HAD FOUGHT FOR IT IN THE LEGIONS, FOR BY THEIR PETITIONS, THEY VANQUISH ALL DEMONS WHO STIR UP WAR AND DISTURB THE PEACE."
*ORIGEN*
WE ARE CLEANSED ONCE BY BAPTISM; BY PRAYER, WE ARE CLEANSED DAILY."
*AUGUSTINE*
"THERE ARE THREE THINGS WHICH MAKE A SHIFTING HEART STEADFAST----WATCHING, MEDITATION, AND PRAYER."
*JOHN CASSIAN*
DO NOT GIVE THE FRAIL BODY REST, UNTIL THE SOUL IS FED."
*JEROME*
"WE OUGHT TO BE MINDFUL OF MODESTY AND DISCIPLINE----NOT TO THROW ABROAD OUR PRAYERS INDISCRIMINATELY, WITH SUBDUED VOICES, NOR TO CAST TO GOD WITH TUMULTUOUS WORDINESS, IN A PETITION THAT OUGHT TO BE COMMENDED TO GOD BY MODESTY; FOR GOD IS THE HEARER, NOT OF THE VOICE, BUT OF THE HEART."
*CYPRIAN*
PRAYER IS, AFTER ALL, CONVERSATION WITH GOD."
*JOHN CHRYSOSTOM*
"THE PRAYER OF THE MIND IS NOT PERFECT UNTIL, HE NO LONGER REALIZES HIMSELF, OR, THE FACT THAT HE IS PRAYING."
*ANTHONY OF EGYPT*
"A MAN SHOULD BE ON GUARD AGAINST TWO THINGS WHEN HE PRAYS: TO ASK FOR SOMETHING HE SHOULD NOT ASK FOR, AND TO ADDRESS THE PETITION TO ONE WHO MUST NOT BE INVOKED."
*AUGUSTINE*
"THE FORM OF HIS PRAYER IS THANKSGIVING FOR THE PAST, FOR THE PRESENT AND FOR THE FUTURE, AS ALREADY THROUGH FAITH PRESENT."
*CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA*
"IT WAS OUR LORD WHO PUT AN END TO LONG WINDED PRAYERS, THAT YOU WOULD NOT APPROACH GOD IN TOO MANY WORDS, AS THOUGH YOU WANTED TO TEACH GOD BY YOUR MANY WORDS. PIETY, NOT VERBOSITY, IS IN ORDER WHEN YOU PRAY."
*AUGUSTINE*
"WE OUGHT TO PRAY OFTEN, BUT BRIEFLY, LEST IF WE ARE LONG ABOUT IT, OUR CRAFTY FOE MAY SUCCEED, IN IMPLANTING SOMETHING IN OUR HEART."
*JOHN CASSIAN*
"THERE ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRAYER, WHICH THE APOSTLE DIVIDES INTO FOURFOLD MANNER.........I EXHORT THEREFORE, FIRST OF ALL THAT SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, THANKSGIVING, BE MADE. AND WE CANNOT POSSIBLY DOUBT THAT THIS DIVISION WAS NOT IDLY MADE BY THE APOSTLE....THE FIRST SEEMS TO BELONG MORE ESPECIALLY TO BEGINNERS, WHO ARE STILL TROUBLED BY THE STINGS AND RECOLLECTION OF THEIR SINS; THE SECOND, TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY ATTAINED TO SOME LOFTINESS OF MIND, IN THEIR SPIRITUAL PROGRESS AND THE QUEST FOR VIRTUE; THE THIRD, TO THOSE WHO FULFILL THE COMPLETENESS OF THEIR VOWS, BY THEIR WORKS, AND ARE SO STIMULATED TO INTERCEDE FOR OTHERS............; THE FOURTH, TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY TORN FROM THEIR HEARTS, THE GUILTY THORNS OF CONSCIENCE AND THUS, BEING NOW FREE FROM CARE, CAN CONTEMPLATE WITH A PURE MIND, THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD AND HIS COMPASSION'S."
*JOHN CASSIAN*
"IS HE UNABLE THEN TO PRESENT HIS GIFTS WITHOUT OUR ASKING? IT IS FOR THIS REASON, THAT HE WAITS: SO THAT HE MAY HAVE OCCASION FROM US, OF JUSTLY MAKING US WORTHY OF HIS PROVIDENTIAL CARE;"
*JOHN CHRYSOSTOM*
" HOW MUCH MORE EFFECTUALLY DO WE OBTAIN WHAT WE ASK IN CHRISTS NAME, IF WE ASK FOR IT IN THE LORDS PRAYER."
*CYPRIAN*
"FEED PRAYERS, ON FASTING."
*TERTULLIAN*