Saint Basil the Great was a giant of the early Church and helped to snuff out Arianism. He also fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, denounced evil wherever he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia.
In addition to being revered as a saint, Basil is also known as a Doctor of the Church. The Catholic Church celebrates his feast day on January 2. Below are ten inspiring quotes from this incredible bishop and apologist:
1. “As thou takest thy seat at table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity.”
2. “We should not express our prayer merely in syllables, but the power of prayer should be expressed in the moral attitude of our soul and in the virtuous actions that extend throughout our life… This is how you pray continually — not by offering prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so that your life becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer.”
3. “If you see your neighbor in sin, don’t look only at this, but also think about what he has done or does that is good, and infrequently trying this in general, while not partially judging, you will find that he is better than you.”
4. “There is nothing unpremeditated, nothing neglected by God. His unsleeping eye beholds all things.”
5. “Leisure without the fear of God is, for those who do not know how to use time, the teacher of wickedness.”
6. “When someone steals another’s clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”
7. “I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and demonstrate every manner of piety, so long as it costs them nothing, yet would not part with a penny to help those in distress.”
8. “Lust has these three companions: the first, blindness of understanding; the second, hardness of heart; the third, want of grace. “
9. “There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside.”
