This excerpt from a Easter letter by St. Athanasius was written around 340 AD to prepare the people of Alexandria, Egypt for the celebration of the Paschal Feast of Easter. It clearly demonstrates the sacramental and liturgical nature of worship in the early church....
Augustine tells Proba that praying always through the desire of the heart does not mean we should not frequent pray formally, at appointed hours, using words. Without such formal prayer at set times, desire would grow cold....
Saint John Chrysostom here speaks of the gift of prayer as continual conversation with God that proceeds from longing for God that lifts the soul into the heavens where it embraces God and brings great joy and light to the soul....
Augustine explains that constant prayer does not mean non-stop church services or recitation of prayers, but a ceaseless desire of the heart for union with God in heaven. This constant desire for God, actually, is one of the three theological virtues, namely the virtue...
Here St. Ambrose comments on the biblical theme of God as Our Refuge (Pslam 45) and emphasizes God's incomparable goodness for which we must thirst as if deer longing for fountains of water....
This Lenten and Holy Week meditation on Psalm 45 and the contemplation of beauty represents a message that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) sent to a meeting of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation in August 2002. The group was meeting in...