Some great quotes from some very old people...

I have just been in such a reading and researching mode in terms of my faith and history and so here are some good quotes I found from the early church leaders...

St. Augustine (354 a.d)

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

St. Patrick (385 a.d)

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.

I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of many.

St. Jerome (347 a.d)

The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. 

The friendship that can cease has never been real.

Ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and the dying as on a battlefield. 

A fat stomach never breeds fine thoughts.

St. Francis of Assisi (1182 a.d)

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.