Patristic Quote of the Day

We can never sufficiently thank Him for the gifts of nature: that we exist and are alive, that we have a reasoning mind by which we can seek HIm who has made all these things. Yet, for the greater gifts of grace there are not hearts enough or tongues enough in all the world even to try to thank Him. For, when we were burdened and broken by our sins, and our minds were turned from His light and blinded by the love of the darkness of iniquity, He did not leave us to ourselves but sent His Word, who is His only Son, so that by His birth and passion in the flesh He assumed for our salvation, we might learn how highly God esteemed our human nature, and that we might be cleansed from all sins by His unique Sacrifice and, by His Spirit, have Love poured into our hearts, so that, with all our warring over, we might come to everlasting rest in the supreme blessedness of gazing on His face. - St. Augustine, City of God, Book VII, Chapter 31