March 22nd
St Basil of Ancyra (362), Priest, Martyr; Ankara, Turkey

"You know how many pieces of flesh have been torn from my body, yet look on my shoulders and sides:  see if any wounds appear.  Know that Jesus Christ this night has healed me.  Send this news to your master Julian, that he may know the power of God whom he has forsaken.  He has overturned his altars, who was himself concealed under them when he was sought by Constantius to be put to death.  But god has discovered to  me that his tyranny will be shortly extinguished with his life."

"O Christ, my Light! O Jesus, my Hope!  Quiet Haven from the stormy sea, I thank You, O Lord God of my fathers, that You have snatched my soul from the pit of Hell and preserved Your name in me unstained!  Let me finish my life a victor and inherit eternal life according to the promise You gave my fathers.  Now accept my soul in peace, plying steadfast in this confession!  For You are merciful and great is Your mercy, You Who live and sojourn throughout all the ages.  Amen."

"My chief name is 'Christian,' derived from 'Christ,' the Name that is eternal and beyond human understanding."

"The Son is in all things like the Father, in will as well as hypostasis, in existence and in being."

St John of the Cross (1542-1591), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Fontiveros, Spain; Feast day November 24th

"Some pursue their own taste and satisfaction in spiritual things in preference to the way of perfection which consists in denying their own wishes and tastes for the love of God.  If such persons perform some exercise through obedience, even though it suit their inclination, they soon lose the wish for it, and all devotion in it, because their only pleasure is in doing what their own will directs, which ordinarily would be better left undone.  The Saints did not act thus."