May 12th
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Roccasecca, Italy; Feast day March 7th

"God with patience and mercy awaits the sinner until his death in order to have pity upon him, should he, even in this last moment, regret his evil ways and turn toward Him.  For the Lord who is merciful does not rejoice in the loss of the living.  But we, in our impatience, before the grave is even dug for the sinner, cursing him and crying out for justice, would like to see him swallowed up at that very instant.  We reproach God for bearing so long with the evil that the wicked cause the just to suffer, and we do not wish to consider the good that His wisdom expects to draw even from the malice of the impious.... it demonstrates God's tremendous mercy to take pity on and spare the sinner."

"God forgives immediately the gravest and most numerous offenses, if we make a firm resolution to turn from them and truly to amend.  Even more, God forgets those offenses in return for a single lamentation of a contrite heart...nor does He contemplate reproaching us with them in order to dismay us, nor charging us with them in order to love us less, nor driving us away from Him by withdrawing His intimacy....[I]t is with difficulty that we agree from the heart to forgive a single small offense of one who implores our forgiveness!  If it happens that we do forgive, we almost never forget; we rejoice in the embarrassment of our debtor; we have small pity for him in adversity; or else we love him less than we did before.  If we do not reproach him it is certain, however, that we exclude him from our intimacy, and that even in times of trial we refuse him our counsel and our support."

St John Chrysostom (347-407), Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Antioch; Feast day September 13th

"Nothing makes us more like God than to allow ourselves to be easily appeased and to be pitiful to the wayward and to those who harm us.  For the height of perfection is to love our enemies, and to pray for them as did the Lord Jesus."

"God wishes that all should become holy and that none should neglect the practice of virtue.  You make a great mistake if you think that anything different is required from people in the world than from monks.  The one difference is that the one takes a wife and the other does not.  In all other things the same reckoning will be demanded from each."