Catena Aurea Quotes

“John saw only the linen cloths. He, Peter, also saw the linen cloths because we [Gentiles] do not reject the Old Testament, for as Luke says, "Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures" (Lk 24:45). But in addition Peter saw the napkin which had been on his head: "The head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3). Thus to see the napkin which had been on the head of Jesus is to have faith in the divinity of Christ, which the Jews refused to accept. This napkin is described as not lying with the linen cloths, and rolled up, having a place by itself, because the divinity of Christ is covered over, and it is apart from every creature because of its excellence: "God who is over all be blessed for ever" (Rom 9:5); "Truly, you art a God who hides yourself" (Is 45:15).”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume IV Part 2, Gospel of St. John

“The heads of the Church ought therefore to imitate Christ in being affable, adapting Himself to women, laying His hands on children, and washing His disciples’ feet, that they also should do the same to their brethren. But we are such, that we seem to go beyond the pride even of the great ones of this world; as to the command of Christ, either not understanding it, or setting it at nought. Like princes we seek hosts to go before us, we make ourselves awful and difficult of access, especially to the poor, neither approaching them, nor suffering them to approach us.”
― Thomas Aquinas

“GREGORY OF NYSSA. How vain moreover is prayer for those who live by fate; Divine Providence is banished from the world together with piety, and man is made the mere instrument of the sidereal motions. For these they say move to action, not only the bodily members, but the thoughts of the mind. In a word, they who teach this, take away all that is in us, and the very nature of a contingency; which is nothing less than to overturn all things. For where will there be free will? but that which is in us must be free.”
― Thomas Aquinas

“For virtue consists not in our inability to sin, but in our unwillingness.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“But unless the mind is persuaded that He is very God, the sight of Him can in no way enable us to endure death. Wherefore the death of the saints is certainty of divine glory.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“But whatever be the pain of death, it ought to be conquered by the strength of love for Him, Who being our life, voluntarily also underwent death for us.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“AUGUSTINE. (xxii. Civ. Dei, xix) We are, as I know not how, afflicted with such love for the blessed martyrs, that we would wish in that kingdom to see on their bodies the marks of those wounds which they have borne for Christ’s sake. And perhaps we shall see them; for they will not have deformity, but dignity, and, though on the body, shine forth not with bodily, but with spiritual beauty (virtutis). Nor yet, if any of the limbs of martyrs have been cut off, shall they therefore appear without them in the resurrection of the dead; for it is said, There shall not an hair of your head perish. But if it be fit that in that new world, the traces of glorious wounds should still be preserved on the immortal flesh, in the places where the limbs were cut off there, though those same limbs withal be not lost but restored, shall the wounds appear. For though all the blemishes of the body shall then be no more, yet the evidences of virtue are not to be called blemishes.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“when reason fails, then is faith edified.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“AUGUSTINE. O ineffable working of Divine power even in the hearts of ignorant men!”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“Where there was a garden, that the sin which was committed in a garden, He might blot out in a garden.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“I think then that when He says, In that day ye shall ask Me nothing, He refers not to the time of His resurrection, but to that time when we shall see Him as He is: which vision is not of this present life, but of the life everlasting, when we shall ask for nothing, ask no questions, because there will remain nothing to be desired, nothing to be learnt.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“CHRYSOSTOM. As if He said, Ye must not be disturbed at having to share My sufferings; for ye are not better than I.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“GREGORY. (Hom. xxvii. in Evang.) But when all our Lord’s sacred discourses are full of His commandments, why does He give this special commandment respecting love, if it is not that every commandment teaches love, and all precepts are one? Love and love only is the fulfilment of every thing that is enjoined. As all the boughs of a tree proceed from one root, so all the virtues are produced from one love: nor hath the branch, i. e. the good work, any life, except it abide in the root of love.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“It is not that we keep His commandments first, and that then He loves; but that He loves us, and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace, which is revealed to the humble, but hidden from the proud.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“the very believing in Christ being the work of Christ, for He worketh this in us, though not without us.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“But what fruit, what reward? you ask. The next words tell you: And where I am, there shall also My servant be. Love Him for His own sake, and think it a rich reward for thy service, to be with Him.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“And one there is who lies dead in his grave, with a load of earth upon him; i. e. who is weighed down by habits of sin. But the Divine grace has regard even unto such, and enlightens them.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlix. 13) She does not say to Him, Bring my brother to life again; for how could she know that it would be good for him to come to life again; she says, I know that Thou canst do so, if Thou wilt; but what Thou wilt do is for Thy judgment, not for my presumption to determine.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“thou also careful, in the winter time, i. e. while yet in this stormy wicked world, to celebrate the dedication of thy spiritual temple, by ever renewing thyself, ever rising upward in heart. Then will Jesus be present with thee in Solomon’s porch, and give thee safety under His covering.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“An intimation this to us, that when reproached by our neighbours falsely, we should not retort upon them by bringing forward their evil deeds, however true such charges might be; lest the vehicle of a just rebuke turn into a weapon of rage.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“How many there are who seek Jesus, only to gain some temporary benefit. One man has a matter of business, in which he wants the assistance of the clergy; another is oppressed by a more powerful neighbour, and flies to the Church for refuge: Jesus is scarcely ever sought for Jesus’ sake.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“Put away these bodily notions, and if thou art simple, see the truth in simplicity. If thou canst not comprehend what God is, comprehend at least what He is not.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“Let those who wish to preach the Gospel, learn, that they should first leave their waterpots at the well.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“He who would rejoice in himself, hath sorrow; but he who would rejoice in the Lord, shall ever rejoice, because God is everlasting.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“Thou must hate thine own work, and love the work of God in thee.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“O amazing goodness! He was born the Only Son, yet would not remain so; but grudged not to admit joint heirs to His inheritance. Nor was this narrowed by many partaking of it.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“there is nothing that disturbs the mind so much, as this melting with the love of present things.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“All wickedness then is called nothing, forasmuch as it is made without the Word. Those who say however that the devil is not a creature of God, err. In so far as he is the devil, he is not a creature of God; but he, whose character it is to be the devil, is a creature of God. It is as if we should say a murderer is not a creature of God, when, so far as he is a man, he is a creature of God.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“But inasmuch as a father with us is necessarily older than his son, lest thou shouldest think that this applied to the Divine nature as well, it calls the Only-Begotten the Brightness of the Father; for brightness, though arising from the sun, is not posterior to it. Understand then that Brightness, as revealing the coeternity of the Son with the Father; Word as proving the impassibility of His birth, and Son as conveying His consubstantiality.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4

“For that the woman might not endure the everlasting reproach of guilt from men, she who had transfused sin into the man, now also transfuses grace.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary On the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers: Volumes 1 to 4