And Esdras blessed the Lord the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands: and they bowed down, and adored God, with their faces to the ground.
2 Esd. 8:1-10
Inquisitive speculation destroys that simplicity which seeks only to bend to authority, and submit the reason and will to the weight of the Divine Word, without wishing to penetrate the depth of the mysteries, and entering into vain and useless arguments. This simplicity is founded on the respect due to God, and on the deference we ought to pay to His Word.
Esprit Fléchier
Brothers, this blind man is the Jew, who in the synagogue that is, in the house of faithlessness, and in the village, that is, in the assembly of the wicked, was confined, stuck in his seat, and burdened by ignorance, by blindness. This is why it was not he who came to Christ, but Christ who came to him and grasped his hand, so that he might boast that he had been cured by the gift of the One who called him, and not by any help from the Law or by his own decision. And he leads him outside, so that he who used to endure the darkness of faithlessness within the synagogue may see the light of faith within the Church, and he who used to see nothing under the veil of the Law, may have sight through the freedom that comes from grace.
St Peter Chrysologus
Wo often hear worldly people say, ‘Let me but witness but one miracle, and I will be converted.’ They deceive themselves. Their wonder would be excited, but it would leave no impression on their hearts. They would admire the power of the Almighty, but they would not increase in love and charity. They might be convinced, but they would not be converted, and since neither the authority of Holy Writ, nor the interior voice of conscience, nor the preaching of the gospel, nor the inspirations of heaven, do not induce them to believe, the light impression of a miracle would be very soon effaced.
Esprit Fléchier
I need not tell you with St Chrysostom and St Augustine, that it is a purely gratuitous gift of God, preceded by no merit, but from which proceed all merits, and that is the source and beginning of the righteousness of men. I will not tell you, with St Bernadine of Siena, that it is the most excellent homage that man can render to God, by subjecting his reason, which is the most ungovernable and the proudest of his faculties, by a blind deference to all the truths He has revealed, however incomprehensible they may be.
Pere Pedro La Font (18th century)
Faith is the truth, which, being revealed, causes the joy and happiness of the blessed, and which, even when veiled, is the hope and comfort of the saints on earth.
Esprit Fléchier
