Church Fathers Library

"Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."

"The union of man and woman in marriage is a great mystery, which I take to mean Christ and the Church."

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for her. This is a great mystery."

"Let the husband render to his wife what is due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does."

"Why does the Word of God show us marriage? In order that you might learn that even from the beginning, marriage was good. It was not introduced later as a concession to our weakness."

"The bread and wine are not mere figures of the body and blood of Christ, but the deified body of the Lord itself."

"What you see is bread and wine; that is what your bodily eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the Body of Christ and the wine is the Blood of Christ."

"We do not offer a new sacrifice, but make a memorial of that one offering."

"He who was once offered in sacrifice now offers Himself through the hands of the priest, that He may cleanse our sins."

"This food which you receive, this living bread which came down from heaven, gives eternal life to whoever eats of it; and he who eats shall live forever."

"Do you want to honor the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he is cold and ill-clad."

"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."

"Pray without ceasing, that is, do not give up praying when you do not receive immediately what you ask for."

"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."

"When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing else but God."

"We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance."

"The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God."

"We do not believe in three Gods, but in one God, the Trinity; for the Trinity is one God."

"Baptism is the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit."

"As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

"Baptism is the sacrament of faith, which faith has death for its beginning, seeing that it is necessary that the old man should die in order that the new man may come into being."

"When we are baptized, we are enlightened; being enlightened, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal."

"The Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it."

"What the Apostles taught in the beginning, the same the Church still teaches now, never having believed otherwise."

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."

"I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so."

"Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every kind of grace."

"The Church is the house built upon a rock. She is indeed the house of the Lord, solidly constructed."

"He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."

"The Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without."

"Being obedient, she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race."

"The Virgin Mary, being obedient to His word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God."

"Let us ask the martyrs to pray to God for us. They have made their claims on God; they have overcome all human frailty through their martyrdom."

"Mary, the holy Virgin, is truly the Mother of God, for she bore in the flesh the Word of God made flesh."

"Sins are forgiven through the ministry of the Church, which holds the keys to open and to shut."

"Those who have sinned after baptism may obtain pardon from their sins by means of penance."

"Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life."