𝔗𝔯𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔢 𝔖𝔬𝔲𝔩

Finally, Jesus cautions her when he says, Go, and do not sin again. There were two things in that woman: her nature and her sin. Our Lord could have condemned both. For example, he could have condemned her nature if he had ordered them to stone her, and he could have condemned her sin if he had not forgiven her. He was also able to absolve each. For example, if he had given her license to sin, saying: “Go, live as you wish, and put your hope in my freeing you. No matter how much you sin, I will free you even from Gehenna and from the tortures of hell.” But our Lord does not love sin, and does not favor wrongdoing, and so he condemned her sin but not her nature, saying, Go, and do not sin again. We see here how kind our Lord is because of his gentleness, and how just he is because of his truth. St. Thomas Aquinas (Commentary on the Gospel of John)

"The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity." ~Seneca IMPERIVM

Saint Augustine in lib. de natura et gratia, cap. 67, where the holy Doctor says: "Since, however, he is everywhere present who calls in many ways through the creature serving him as Lord: calls the turned away one, teaches the believing one, consoles the hoping one, exhorts the loving one, aids the striving one, hears the praying one."

“For who is drawn, if he was already willing? And yet no man comes unless he is willing. Therefore he is drawn in wondrous ways to will, by Him who knows how to work within the very hearts of men. Not that men who are unwilling should believe, which cannot be, but that they should be made willing from being unwilling.” – St. Augustine, Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Book I, ch. 37

St. Augustine wrote that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. For Augustine, keeping death in mind strips away the temporal illusions and that earthly things can never fully satisfy a heart made for heaven, refocusing our gaze on what is eternal. St. Alphonsus Liguori: “You are a creature of time, but you are destined for eternity. Make good use of the present, for it passes quickly and will never return.”

Thus, too, Christ willed to die for us on the Cross at the hour irrevocably decreed. So also the good thief and the centurion were converted as God efficaciously willed. St. Thomas considers this the normal consequence of God’s omnipotent will and love. The great mystery in this begins especially with sin. What is manifest for both St. Thomas and St. Augustine is this, that every good, even the free determination to perform a salutary act, comes from God, and entirely from Him as first cause, even though this determination comes entirely from us as secondary cause. As St. Thomas says: “There is no distinction between what flows from free will and what is of predestination; as there is no distinction between what flows from a secondary cause and from a first cause.

St. Augustine pray for us!

#edit@forestkingdomgnome

"For they have decided that they should speak to those who approach them not about what accords with holy Scripture; rather, what their disreputable minds have dreamed up on their own is what they persuade them to think, knowing neither what they are saying nor the matters about which they make their affirmations. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned,” as Paul says, abandoning vain disputes about words, spitting from your mouth the silly chatter of the heretics, turning away from aimless myths, keeping your faith within simple arguments, and placing the tradition of the Church in the storerooms of your heart like a treasure; thus hold fast to those pursuits which are pleasing to God, so that you may be not only notable for your faith, but henceforth fully conspicuous as well for your achievements in piety." —St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Festal Letter 8, pg. 139

-1 Corinthians 6:2- Revelation 20:4 “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed

Look down upon us with mercy O Lord and forgive our sins and heal our land

On Galatians 3:22: "Law without grace, then, can expose disease but cannot heal. It can reveal the wounds but does not administer the remedy. But so that the law‘s precepts may be fulfilled, grace provides assistance within." St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, On The Truth of Predestination and Grace, 1.41.

"Indeed, apostolic authority tells us that 'without faith, it is impossible to please God.' For faith is the foundation of all things. Faith is the beginning of human salvation. Without it, no one can belong to the number of the children of God, because without it neither will anyone gain the grace of justification in this world nor possess eternal life in the world to come. If anyone here will not walk by faith, he will not attain the vision. Without faith, all human effort is empty. A person trying to please God through contempt for the world, but without the true faith, is like someone striving toward the homeland where he knows he will live in blessedness, but who leaves the path of righteousness and foolishly embarks on the path of error. Such a person will never arrive at the blessed city, but will fall into the abyss—that place where joy is not the lot of the one who arrives, but death is inflicted on the one fallen." —St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, To Peter on the Faith (Ad Petrum de Fide), 1.

“The short-lived pleasure of this world is nothing. True joy belongs to the soul that recognizes its sustenance, its breath, and its labor as gifts given directly by the hand of the Creator.” -St. Jerome

My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I pray you to enlarge it. It is in ruins, but I ask you to remake it. It contains much that you will not be pleased to see: this I know and do not hide. -St Augustine

“Thus from the first they spared not even Liberius, Bishop of Rome, but extended their fury even to those parts; they respected not his bishopric, because it was an Apostolical throne; they felt no reverence for Rome… When they perceived that he was an orthodox man and hated the Arian heresy, and earnestly endeavoured to persuade all persons to renounce and withdraw from it, these impious men reasoned thus with themselves: 'If we can persuade Liberius, we shall soon prevail over all'” St Athanasius on Pope Liberius and the Arians

Homily 1 "Do you not see that this is their old disease? From the beginning they have been rebels. They killed the prophets, they stoned those sent to them, they rejected the rulers whom God set over them. Therefore, do not wonder that they have now crucified Christ. This is the fruit of their ancient root; it is the natural consequence of their ancestral madness." Homily 6 "If you look back to their wilderness journey, you will find nothing but a history of provocation. God divided the sea for them, and they made an idol. God rained down manna, and they murmured for onions. They rose up against Moses; they rejected the priesthood. From the very cradle of their nation, they have been fighters against God (theomachoi). This is why their temple is destroyed and their house is left desolate." -St. John Chrysostom