Saint Melito of Sardis Quote

The Lord, though he was God, became man.

He suffered for the sake of whose who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: “Who will contend with me?

Let him confront me.”

I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves.

Who has anything to say against me?

I, he said, am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.

Come, then, all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you.

I am your forgiveness.

I am the Passover that brings salvation.

I am the lamb who was immolated for you.

I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king.

I will bring you to the heights of heaven.

With my own right hand I will raise you up, and I will show you the eternal Father.

-- Saint Melito of Sardis from a letter

Saint John Chrysostom Quote

How many these days say, " I wish I could see His form, His appearance, His sandals!" Only look! You see Him! You touch Him! You eat Him!

-- Saint John Chrysostom

Saint John Climacus Quote

A chaste man is completely oblivious to the difference between bodies. The rule and limit of absolute chastity is to have the same feelings regarding animate and inanimate beings, rational and irrational.

-- Saint John Climacus

Saint Andrew of Crete Quote

So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.

-- Saint Andrew of Crete from a Palm Sunday sermon

Pope Saint Gregory the Great Quote

A weak minded person is frequently diverted toward pursuing exterior happiness when the breath of popular favor accompanies his good actions. So he gives up his own personal choices, prefering to remain at the mercy of whatever he hears from others. Thus, he rejoices not so much to become but to be called blessed. Eager for praise, he gives up what he had begun to be; and so he is severed from God by the very means by which he appeared to be commendable in God.

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Teresa of Avila Quote

It is by humility that the Lord allows Himself to be conquered, so that He will do all we ask of Him.

-- Saint Teresa of Avila

Pope Saint Leo the Great Quote

Lowliness is assumed by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that was incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.

He who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true man, whole in his own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it.

For in the Savior there was no trace of what the deceiver introduced and man, being misled, allowed to enter. It does not follow that because he submitted to sharing in our human weakness he therefore shared in our sins.

He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself.

-- Saint Leo the Great from a letter