Sayings of St. Antony:

"I HAVE RECEIVED THIS GREAT FIERY SPIRIT: RECEIVE HIM NOW YOURSELVES. IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE HIM THAT HE MAY DWELL IN YOU, FIRST OFFER HARD LABOURS OF THE FLESH AND HUMILITY OF THE HEART. RAISE YOUR THOUGHTS UP TO HEAVEN NIGHT AND DAY. ASK IN UPRIGHTNESS OF HEART FOR THIS FIERY SPIRIT AND HE WILL THEN BE GIVEN TO YOU.... PERSIST IN PRAYER DILIGENTLY, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND HE WILL BE GIVEN YOU, FOR THIS SPIRIT DWELLS IN UPRIGHT HEARTS. HE WILL REVEAL TO YOU HIGHER MYSTERIES AND OTHER THINGS WHICH I CANNOT EXPRESS IN INK AND PAPER.... CELESTIAL JOY WILL THEN BE YOUR PORTION DAY AND NIGHT.

When Abba Anthony thought about the depth of God's judgments, he asked,

Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age?
Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich?
Why do the wicked prosper, and why are the just in need?
He heard a voice answering him,
Anthony, keep your attention on yourself;
these things are according to God's judgment,
and you do not need to know anything about them.

When blessed Anthony was praying in his cell, a voice spoke to him, saying, "Anthony, you have not yet come to the measure of the tanner who is in Alexandria." When he heard this, the old man arose and took his stick and hurried into the city. When he had found the tanner...he said to him, "Tell me about your work, for today I have left the desert and come here to see you."

He replied, "I am not aware that I have done anything good. When I get up in the morning, before I sit down to work, I say that the whole of this city, small and great, will go into the Kingdom of God because of their good deeds, while I alone will go into eternal punishment because of my evil deeds. Every evening I repeat the same words and believe them in my heart."

When blessed Anthony heard this he said, "My son, you sit in your own house and work well, and you have the peace of the Kingdom of God; but I spend all my time in solitude with no distractions, and I have not come near the measure of such words."

Now therefore know that the saints and the righteous, clothed in the Spirit, pray for us always that we may be humbled before God, and put on again the garment that we had put off, in our intellectual substance. For often also has that voice come from God the Father to all who are clothed in the Spirit, saying to them, 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord: priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.' (Isa. 40:1-2) For God always visits His creatures, and bestows His goodness upon them.

Sayings of St. Athanasius:

Singing psalms is a medicine for healing the soul.

The End of Darkness

Since the Savior has come among us, idolatry not only has no longer increased, but what there was is diminishing and gradually coming to an end.
Not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer advance, but what there is is now fading away.
Demons, so far from cheating any more by illusions and prophecies and magic arts--if they so much as dare to make the attempt--are put to shame by the sign of the cross.
For as when the sun is come, darkness no longer prevails, so now that the Word of God is come, the darkness of idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are illumined by his teaching.

For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God comes to our realm, howbeit He was not far from us before. For no part of creation is left void of Him: He has filled all things everywhere, remaining present with His own Father. But He comes in condescension to show loving kindness upon us, and to visit us. And seeing the race of rational creatures in the way to perish, and death reigning over them by corruption; seeing, too, that the threat against transgression gave a firm hold to the corruption which was upon us, and that it was monstrous that before the law was fulfilled it should fall through: seeing, once more, the unseemliness of what was come to pass: that the things whereof He Himself was Artificer were passing away: seeing further, the exceeding wickedness of men, and how by little and little they had increased it to an intolerable pitch against themselves: and seeing, lastly, how all men were under penalty of death: He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our infirmity, and condescended to our corruption, and unable to bear that death should have the mastery-lest the creature should perish, and His Father's handiwork in men be spent for nought - He takes unto Himself a body, and that of no different sort from outs.

"God became man that man might become god."

For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God comes to our realm, howbeit He was not far from us before. For no part of creation is left void of Him: He has filled all things everywhere, remaining present with His own Father. But He comes in condescension to show loving kindness upon us, and to visit us. And seeing the race of rational creatures in the way to perish, and death reigning over them by corruption; seeing, too, that the threat against transgression gave a firm hold to the corruption which was upon us, and that it was monstrous that before the law was fulfilled it should fall through: seeing, once more, the unseemliness of what was come to pass: that the things whereof He Himself was Artificer were passing away: seeing further, the exceeding wickedness of men, and how by little and little they had increased it to an intolerable pitch against themselves: and seeing, lastly, how all men were under penalty of death: He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our infirmity, and condescended to our corruption, and unable to bear that death should have the mastery-lest the creature should perish, and His Father's handiwork in men be spent for nought - He takes unto Himself a body, and that of no different sort from outs.

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word

For I believe that the whole of human existence, both the dispositions of the soul and the movements of the thoughts, have been measured out and encompassed in those very words of the Psalter. And nothing beyond these is found among men. For whether there was necessity of repentance or confession, or tribulation and trial befell us, or someone was persecuted, or, being plotted against, he was protected, ... or he wants to sing praises and give thanks to the Lord - for any such eventuality he has instruction in the divine Psalms.

If the point needs to be put more forcefully, let us say that the entire Holy Scripture is a teacher of virtues and of the truths of faith, while the Book of Psalms possesses somehow the perfect image for the souls' course of life. For as one who comes into the presence of a king assumes a certain attitude, both of posture and expression, lest speaking differently he be thrown out as boorish, so also the one who is running the race of virtue and wishes to know the life of the Savior in the body, the sacred book first calls to mind the emotions of the soul through the reading, and in this way represents the other things in succession, and teaches the readers by those words.

St. Athanasius the Great, The Letter to Marcellinus

The Word of God thus acted consistently in assuming a body and using a human instrument to vitalize the body. He was consistent in working through man to reveal Himself everywhere, as well as through the other parts of His creation, so that nothing was left void of His Divinity and knowledge. For I take up now the point I made before, namely that the Savior did this in order that He might fill all things everywhere with the knowledge of Himself, just as they are already filled with His presence, even as the Divine Scripture says, "The whole universe was filled with the knowledge of the Lord."

St. Athanasius, On The Incarnation