St. Cyprian: "Peter, upon whom He built His Church"

“FOR first of all the Lord gave that power [i.e. to remit sins] to Peter, upon whom He built His Church, and whence He appointed and showed the source of unity—the power, namely that whatsoever he loosed on earth should be loosed in heaven.”

~St. Cyprian: Letters, 72:7.

Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, by Giovanni Battista Castello.
Illumination on vellum, 1598; Musée du Louvre, Paris.

St. Augustine: Creation is a Great Book

“SOME people read books in order to find God. Yet there is a great book, the very appearance of created things. Look above you; look below you! Note it; read it! God, whom you wish to find, never wrote this book in... ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? Why, heaven and earth cry out to you: “God made me!” ”

~St. Augustine: ‘Sermon,’ 126:6.

 (Photo is copyrighted)

"Avarice"

“HAPPY is the man who has been able to cut out the root of vices, avarice…what do superfluous riches profit in this world when they do not assist our birth or impede our dying? We are born into this world naked, we leave it without a cent, and we are buried without our inheritance.”

~St. Ambrose: Letters, 2. (A.D. 379)

Eusebius: "The Catholic and only true Church"

"FOR the machinations of its enemies were refuted by its power and speedily vanished. One new heresy arose after another, and the former ones always passed away, and now at one time, now at another, now in one way, now in other ways, were lost in ideas of various kinds and various forms. But the splendor of the Catholic and only true Church, which is always the same, grew in magnitude and power, and reflected its piety and simplicity and freedom, and the modesty and purity of its inspired life and philosophy to every nation both of Greeks and of Barbarians."

~Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-340):  Ecclesiastical History, Bk. IV, Ch. 7, para. 13.

St. Augustine: Kingdoms as large scale robberies

"JUSTICE being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.” "

~St. Augustine: The City of God, Bk IV, Ch. 4.

St. Ephraim: Prayer the the Mother of God.

“But, O Virgin lady, immaculate Mother of God, my lady most glorious, most gracious, higher than heaven, much purer than the sun’s splendor, rays or light…budding staff of Aaron, you appeared as a true staff, and the flower is your Son our true Christ, my God and Maker. You bore God and the Word according to the flesh, preserving your virginity before childbirth, a virgin after childbirth, and we have been reconciled with Christ God your Son.”

~St. Ephraim the Syrian (c. 306 – 373): Prayer to the most holy Mother of God.

Romanian Orthodox Icon of St. Ephraim.

St. Gregory the Great: "The heart is subdued under discipline"

"FOR commonly in the school of adversity the heart is subdued under discipline, while, on sudden attainment of supreme rule, it is immediately changed and becomes elated through familiarity with glory. Thus Saul, who had before fled in consideration of his unworthiness, no sooner had assumed the government of the kingdom than he was puffed up (1 Kgs 10:22; 15:17-30); for, desirous of being honoured before the people while unwilling to be publicly blamed, he cut off from himself even him who had anointed him to the kingdom."

~St. Gregory the Great: Pastoral Care, Bk. I, Ch. 3.

St. Augustine: "God knows all things"

“WHAT man is there who can comprehend that wisdom by which God knows all things, in such wise that neither what we call things future are therein looked for as coming, as though they were absent; but both past and future things together with those actually present are all present.”

~St. Augustine: De Trinitate, 15, 7, 13.