Words from the Saints -- January 21, 2021
Gerald Largent
"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." --St. Jerome
"Men are often called intelligent wrongly. Intelligent men are not those who are erudite in the sayings and books of the wise men of old, but those who have an intelligent soul and can discriminate between good and evil. They avoid what is sinful and harms the soul; and with deep gratitude to God they resolutely adhere by dint of practice to what is good and benefits the soul. These men alone should truly be called intelligent." --St. Anthony the Great
"The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and to conform to the God of all. With this single aim in view, he disciplines his soul, and whatever he may encounter in the course of his life, he gives thanks to God for the compass and depth of His providential ordering of all things. For it is absurd to be grateful to doctors who give us bitter and unpleasant medicines to cure our bodies, and yet to be ungrateful to God for what appears to us to be harsh, not grasping that all we encounter is for our benefit and in accordance with His providence. For knowledge of God and faith in Him is the salvation and perfection of the soul." --St. Anthony the Great
"We have a love for the causes of involuntary thoughts, and that is why they come. In the case of voluntary thoughts we clearly have a love not only for the causes but also for the objects with which they are concerned." --St. Mark the Ascetic
"Ascetic struggle--fasting, vigils, patience, forbearance--produces a clear conscience." --St. Thalassios the Libyan
"Many have fought in various ways against circumstances; but without prayer and repentance no one has escaped evil." --St. Mark the Ascetic
"The Lord frequently hides from us even the perfections we have obtained. But the man who praises us, or, rather, who misleads us, opens our eyes with his words and once our eyes are opened our treasures vanish." --St. John Climacus
"The Wise Thief’s whole life had been one of theft and crime. But evidently his conscience had not died, and in the depths of his heart something good remained. Church Tradition even holds that he was that very thief who, during Christ’s flight into Egypt, took pity on the beautiful Baby and forbade his accomplices to kill Him when they attacked the holy family. Did he perhaps recall the face of that Child when he looked upon the face of the One hanging next to him on the Cross?" --St. John the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco