FAITH AND SACRED SCRIPTURE
It is good to read the testimonies of Scripture; it is good to seek the Lord our God in them. As for me, however, I have already made so much of Scripture my own that I have more than enough to meditate on and turn over in my mind. I need no more ... I know Christ, the poor crucified One.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Saint Paul tells us, "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life" [2 Cor 3:6]. A man has been killed by the letter of the Sacred Scripture when he wants to quote it only so that people will think him to be very learned, ... when he has no desire to follow the spirit of Sacred Scripture, but wants to know what it says only so he can explain it to others.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Faith is the beginning of human salvation. Without faith no one can pertain to the number of the sons of God, be- cause without it neither will anyone obtain the grace of justification in this life nor possess eternal life in the future. If anyone does not walk now in faith, he will not arrive at the actuality.
- St. Fulgentius
Persist in the true faith and ground your life on the rock of the Church, lest your many tears and good works avail you nothing separated from the true faith. For as the branches wither without a root, so works, however good they may seem, are nothing if separated from the solidarity of the faith.
- Pope St. Gregory the Great
Unbelief is like a sandy soil. It produces no fruit, howsoever much rain falls upon it.
- St. John Chrysostom
He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned.
- St. Mark 16:16
If you die as an unbeliever, you will be damned and lost forever.
- St. John Bosco
All who die without the faith are in Hell.
- St. Francis Xavier
Certainly, they who are unbelievers cannot be participants in grace, nor can they believe if it is found that the preaching of the faith has never come to them at all.
- St. Fulgentius
When faith grows weak, all virtues are weakened. When faith is lost, all virtues are lost.
- St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori
What, then? Is it that no works can precede faith; that is, that, prior to faith, no works can be called "well done"? For those works which are said to have been done prior to faith, although they appear to men to be worthy of praise, are really in vain. It seems to me that they are like the great power of the fastest runner whose race, however, is on the wrong track.
- St. Augustine
Without faith, every human labor is empty.
- St. Fulgentius
Without faith, it is impossible to please God, and without faith there is nothing holy, nothing pure, nothing living, for "the just man lives by faith" (Romans 1:17). Which faith, whosoever shall have lost, having been deceived by the devil, he is dead even while living.
- Pope St. Leo the Great
Wherefore, let us be fruitful ... in no other place: not in paganism, not in Judaism, not in any evil heresy, but in the House of God, that is, in faith and godliness; for the ungodly bring forth fruits in vain outside the Church.
- St. Nilus
In unbelievers, there is neither true chastity nor any other virtue.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
Certainly such people can possess a certain kind of goodness, which pertains to the justice of human society, but because it is not the product of faith in God or love of God it is not able to help them.
- St. Fulgentius
What is more fruitful than works of mercy? What is more blessed than humanitarian deeds? ... But such people do not attain to eternal rewards because they do not proceed from the fountain of faith. The status of heavenly works is one thing, that of earthly works, another.
- Pope St. Leo the Great
To have merit each act must not only be a natural work, but also a supernatural good work; and this cannot be said of the works of an infidel who, because he is without the faith, cannot perform supernatural works.
- St. Alphonsus Liguori
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