Cyprian Quotes

#1. The spouse of Christ cannot be defiled; she is uncorrupted and chaste.

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#2. May all Christians be found worthy of either the pure white crown of a holy life or the royal red crown of martyrdom.

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#3. Since the baptismal rebirth takes place only with the one Bride of Christ, where could he be born who is not a son of the Church?

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#4. But later, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years was washed away, and a light from above - serene and pure - was infused into my reconciled heart. Then through the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth restored me to a new man.

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#5. Think not that you are thus maintaining the Gospel of Christ when you separate yourselves from the flock of Christ.

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#6. If He prayed who was without sin, how much more it becometh a sinner to pray!

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#7. If a murder is committed privately it is considered a crime. But if it happens with the authority of the state, they call it courage.

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#8. "If any man thirst, let him come and drink from the rivers of living water" (cf. John 7:38). Where shall he who thirsts come? To heretics where the fountain and river of water is in no way life-giving? Or to the Church, which is One?

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#9. He [Christ] protects their faith and gives strength to believers in proportion to the trust that each man who receives that strength is willing to place in him.

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#10. The world is going mad in mutual extermination, and murder, considered as a crime when committed individually, becomes a virtue when it is committed by large numbers. It is the multiplication of the frenzy that assures impunity to the assassins.

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#11. Murder, considered a crime when people commit it singly, is transformed into a virtue when they do it en masse.

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#12. This supernatural bread and this consecrated chalice are for the health and salvation of mankind.

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#13. There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering.

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#14. Knowing that there is one Baptism, we who hold the head and root of the One Church know for certain that to him who is outside the Church nothing is lawful.

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#15. Be constantly committed to prayer or to reading [Scripture]; by praying, you speak to God, in reading, God speaks to you.

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#16. Baptism pertains to the Church alone.

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#17. The Lord withdraws when He is denied, and what is taken by the undeserving does not avail them unto salvation, since the saving grace is turned into ashes and holiness departs.

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#18. In proportion to the size of the vessel of faith, brought by us to the Lord, is the measure we draw out of His overflowing grace.

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#19. Let us, then, who in Baptism have both died and been buried in respect to the carnal sins of the old man, who have risen again with Christ in the heavenly regeneration, both think upon and do the things that are Christ's.

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#20. It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.

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#21. Whatever a man prefers to God, that he makes a god to himself.

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#22. The wretched bodies of the condemned shall simmer and blaze in those living fires.

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#23. Persevere in labors that lead to salvation. Always be busy in spiritual actions. In this way, no matter how often the enemy of our souls approaches, no matter how many times he may try to come near us, he'll find our hearts closed and armed against him.

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#24. None of us offers resistance when he is seized, or avenges himself for your unjust violence, although our people are numerous and plentiful ... it is not lawful for us to hate, and so we please God more when we render no requital for injury ... we repay your hatred with kindness.

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#25. No one is strong in his own strength, but he is safe by the grace and mercy of God.

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#26. No one can have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.

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#27. The beard must not be plucked. 'You will not deface the figure of your beard'.

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#28. When we pray to God with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of prayer.

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#29. Custom is often only the antiquity of error.

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#30. For the helmsman is recognized in the tempest; in the warfare the soldier is proved.

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#31. Custom, though never so ancient, without truth, is but an old error.

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#32. Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion.

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#33. Our prayers and fastings are of less avail, unless they are aided by almsgiving.

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