Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

 

 

You never saw Him, and yet believe in Him with sublime and inexpressible joy - a joy which many desire to experience. You are assured that you have been saved by a gratuitous gift, not by our actions -no, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

-- Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God's Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God's Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God's Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit. 

-- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Saint Julius the Veteran

It was he who died for our sins to give us eternal life. This same man, Christ, is God and abides for ever and ever. Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life; whoever denies Him will have eternal punishment. 

-- Saint Julius the Veteran

Saint Philip Neri

Bear the cross and do not make the cross bear you.

-- Saint Philip Neri

Saint Bede the Venerable

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that He who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

-- Saint Bede the Venerable

Saint Louis de Montfort

 

 

He who fights even the smallest distractions faithfully when he says even the very smallest prayer, will also be faithful in great things.

-- Saint Louis de Montfort

Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus

 

 

There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.

-- Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus