May 2nd
St Athanasius (296-373); Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Alexandria, Egypt

"The Son of God took upon Himself our poverty and miseries, that He might impart to us a share of His riches.  His sufferings will render us one day impassible, and His death immortal.  His tears will be our joy, His burial our resurrection, and His baptism is our sanctification, according to what He says in His gospel: For them I sanctify myself, that they also may be made holy in fruits."

"Hold fast to the tradition, teaching, and faith proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers."

"Jesus that I know as my Redeemer cannot be less than God."

"Both from the confession of the evil spirits and from the daily witness of His works, it is manifest, then, and let none presume to doubt it, that the Savior has raised His own body, and that He is very Son of God, having His being from God as from a Father, Whose Word and Wisdom and Whose Power He is.  He it is Who in these latter days assumed a body for the salvation of us all, and taught the world concerning the Father.  He it is Who has destroyed death and freely graced us all with incorruption through the promise of the resurrection, having raised His own body as its first-fruits, and displayed it by the sign of the cross as the monument to His victory over death and its corruption."

"But for the searching and right understanding of the Scriptures there is need of a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind to grasp, so far as human nature can, the truth concerning God the Word.  One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life.  Anyone who wants to look at sunlight naturally wipes his eye clear first, in order to make, at any rate, some approximation to the purity of that on which he looks; and a person wishing to see a city or country goes to the place in order to do so.  Similarly, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds.  Thus united to them in the fellowship of life, he will both understand the things revealed to them by God and, thenceforth escaping the peril that threatens sinners in the judgment, will receive that which is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven."

"These are fountains of salvation that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain.  In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness.  Let no man add to these, neither let him take out from these.  For concerning these, the Lord put to shame the Sadducees, and said, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures" and He reproved the Jews, saying, "Search the Scriptures, for these are they that testify of ME."

"The Son of God became man so that we might become God."