The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem Quotes

“Be still,25 and know that I am God, saith the Scripture. Excuse thyself from talking many idle words: neither backbite, nor lend a willing ear to backbiters; but rather be prompt to prayer. Shew in ascetic exercise that thy heart is nerved.26 Cleanse thy vessel, that thou mayest receive grace more abundantly. For though remission of sins is given equally to all, the communion of the Holy Ghost is bestowed in proportion to each man’s faith. If thou hast laboured little, thou receivest little; but if thou hast wrought much, the reward is great. Thou art running for thyself, see to thine own interest.”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“Great is the Baptism that lies before you:44 a ransom to captives; a remission of offences; a death of sin; a new-birth of the soul; a garment of light; a holy indissoluble seal; a chariot to heaven; the delight of Paradise; a welcome into the kingdom; the gift of adoption!”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“Even of itself the teaching of the Blessed Paul is sufficient to give you a full assurance concerning those Divine Mysteries, of which having been deemed worthy, ye are become of the same body and blood with Christ. For you have just heard him say distinctly, That our Lord Jesus Christ in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks He brake it, and gave to His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is My Body: and having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, Take, drink, this is My Blood.1 Since then He Himself declared and said of the Bread, This is My Body, who shall dare to doubt any longer? And since He has Himself affirmed and said, This is My Blood, who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood?”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“And as Christ was in reality crucified, and buried, and raised, and you are in Baptism accounted worthy of being crucified, buried, and raised together with Him in a likeness, so is it with the unction also. As He was anointed with an ideal15 oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Ghost, called oil of gladness, because He is the author of spiritual gladness, so ye were anointed with ointment, having been made partakers and fellows of Christ. 3. But beware of supposing this to be plain ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread no longer,16 but the Body of Christ, so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after invocation, but it is Christ’s gift of grace, and, by the advent of the Holy Ghost, is made fit to impart His Divine Nature. Which ointment is symbolically applied to thy forehead and thy other senses; and while thy body is anointed with the visible ointment, thy soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“Having been baptized into Christ, and put on Christ,1 ye have been made conformable to the Son of God; for God having foreordained us unto adoption as sons,2 made us to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory.3 Having therefore become partakers of Christ,4 ye are properly called Christs, and of you God said, Touch not My Christs,5 or anointed. Now ye have been made Christs, by receiving the antitype6 of the Holy Ghost; and all things have been wrought in you by imitation,7 because ye are images of Christ. He washed in the river Jordan, and having imparted of the fragrance8 of His Godhead to the waters, He came up from them; and the Holy Ghost in the fulness of His being9 lighted on Him, like resting upon like.10 And to you in like manner, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, there was given an Unction,11 the anti-type of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Ghost; of whom also the blessed Esaias, in his prophecy respecting Him, said in the person of the Lord, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me: He hath sent Me to preach glad tidings to the poor.12”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“13. Moreover, when thou hast been deemed worthy of the grace, He then giveth thee strength to wrestle against the adverse powers. For as after His Baptism He was tempted forty days (not that He was unable to gain the victory before, but because He wished to do all things in due order and succession), so thou likewise, though not daring before thy baptism to wrestle with the adversaries, yet after thou hast received the grace and art henceforth confident in the armour of righteousness,54 must then do battle, and preach the Gospel, if thou wilt.”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“For thou goest down into the water, bearing thy sins, but the invocation of grace,51 having sealed thy soul, suffereth thee not afterwards to be swallowed up by the terrible dragon. Having gone down dead in sins, thou comest up quickened in righteousness. For if thou hast been united with the likeness of the Saviour’s death,52 thou shalt also be deemed worthy of His Resurrection. For as Jesus took upon Him the sins of the world, and died, that by putting sin to death He might rise again in righteousness; so thou by going down into the water, and being in a manner buried in the waters, as He was in the rock, art raised again walking in newness of life.53”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“But some one will say, What can sin be? Is it a living thing? Is it an angel? Is it a demon? What is this which works within us? It is not an enemy, O man, that assails thee from without, but an evil shoot growing up out of thyself. Look right on with thine eyes,5 and there is no lust. [Keep thine own, and ] seize not the things of others, and robbery has ceased.6 Remember the Judgment, and neither fornication, nor adultery, nor murder, nor any transgression of the law shall prevail with thee. But whenever thou forgettest God, forthwith thou beginnest to devise wickedness and to commit iniquity.”
― Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem