Newman on the Fathers.

Since a head cold has me thinking thoughts about as deep as a rain puddle, I'll let the incomparable Bl. John Henry Newman do the talking. We've been reading the Church Fathers--a dose a day--for Lent, and it's been fabulous.

Here's one reason why.

“The world is to them a book, to which they are drawn for its own sake, which they read fluently, which interests them naturally–though, by reason of the grace which dwells within them, they study it and hold converse with it for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Thus they have the thoughts, feelings, frames of mind, attractions, sympathies, antipathies of other men, so far as these are not sinful, only they have these properties of human nature purified, sanctified, and exalted; and they are only made more eloquent, more poetical, more profound, more intellectual, by reason of their being more holy. In this latter class I may perhaps without presumption place many of the early Fathers, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Athanasius, and above all, the great Saint of this day, St. Paul the Apostle.”

~Occasional Sermons