St. Jerome: Intercessory prayer

“IF the apostles and martyrs, when they were still in the body, and had still to be solicitous on their own account, prayed for others, how much more when they have won the crown, when they have gained the victory and the triumph?”

~St. Jerome (c. 340 - 420):  Contra Vigilantium, 6.

 

St. Jerome in the Wilderness, by Albrecht Dϋrer.
Oil on panel, c. 1495; National Gallery, London.

"The devil rules over lovers of temporal goods"

“THE devil rules over lovers of temporal goods belonging to this visible world, not because he is lord of this world, but because he is ruler of those covetous desires by which we long for all that passes away.”

~St. Augustine:  De Agone Christiano, 1, 1.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: The Triune God

“IF you have sincere piety, the Holy Ghost comes down on you also, and a Father’s voice sounds over you from high—not, ‘This is My Son’ (Mt. 3:17), but, ‘This has now been made My Son’; for the ‘is’ belongs to Him alone, because ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (Jn. 1:1). To Him Belongs the ‘is’ since He is always the Son of God; but to you ‘has now been made’: since you have not the sonship by nature, but you receive it by adoption.”

~St. Cyril of Jerusalem:  Catecheses, No. 4:4.

Baptism of Christ, by Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Fresco, c. 1473; Sant'Andrea a Brozzi, San Donnino.

St. Augustine: Christians who misuse Scripture

“IT VERY OFTEN happens that there is some question as to the earth and the sky, or the other elements of this world—respecting which one who is not a Christian has knowledge derived from most certain reasoning or observation, and it is very disgraceful and mischievous and of all things to be carefully avoided, that a Christian speaking of such matters as being according to the Christian Scriptures, should be heard by an unbeliever talking such nonsense that the unbeliever perceiving him to be as wide from the mark as east is from west, can hardly restrain himself from laughing.

“And the real evil is not that a man is subjected to derision because of his error, but it is that to profane eyes, our authors (that is to say, the sacred authors) are regarded as having had such thoughts; and are also exposed to blame and scorn upon the score of ignorance, to the greatest possible misfortune of people whom we wish to save. For, in fine, these profane people happen upon a Christian busy making mistakes on the subject which they know perfectly; how, then, will they believe these holy books? How will they believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the hope of life eternal, and in the kingdom of heaven, when, according to an erroneous assumption, these books seem to them to have as their object those very things which they, the profane, know by direct experience or by calculation which admits of no doubt?

“It is impossible to say what vexation and sorrow prudent Christians meet with through these presumptuous and bold spirits who, taken to task one day for their silly and false opinion, and realizing themselves on the point of being convicted by men who are not obedient to the authority of our holy books, wish to defend their so thoughtless, so bold, and so manifestly false. For they then commence to bring forward as a proof precisely our holy books, or again they attribute to them from memory that which seems to support their opinion, and they quote numerous passages, understanding neither the texts they quote, nor the subject about which they are making statement.”

~St. Augustine:  De Genesi ad litteram, lib. I, cap. XIX.

St. Augustine: "Believing and knowing"

“WE cannot deny that believing and knowing are different things, and that in matters of great importance, pertaining to divinity, we must first believe before we seek to know.”

~St. Augustine:  On Free Will, 2, 6

St. Augustine: "Authority is well founded in the Church."

“IN the first place, I want you to hold as the basic truth of this discussion that our Lord Jesus Christ, as He Himself said in the Gospel, has subjected us to His yoke and His burden, which are light. Therefore, He has laid on the society of His new people the obligations of the sacraments, most sublime in their meaning, as, for example, baptism hallowed by the name of the Trinity, Communion of His Body and His Blood, and whatever else is commended in the canonical writings, with the exception of those burdens found in the five books of Moses, which imposed on the ancient people a servitude in accordance with their character and prophetic times in which they have lived. But, regarding those other observances which we keep and all the world keeps, and which do not derive from Scripture but from tradition, we are given to understand that they have been ordained or recommended to be kept by the Apostles themselves, or by plenary councils, whose authority is well founded in the Church.”

~St. Augustine:  Letters, 44; To Janarius.

Tetullian: "The true Christian rule and Faith"

“FOR wherever both the true Christian rule and Faith shall be shown to be, there will be the true Scriptures, and the true expositions, and all the true Christian traditions.”

~Tertullian:  The Prescription of Heretics, Chap. 19.