Patristic Quote of the Day

We do not what we would, but what we hate, that we perform. Sin works many things in us. Very often, pleasures revive and rise up against us though we resist them. We must struggle against the flesh. Paul struggled against it, and at last he said: "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me prisoner to the law of sin." Are you stronger than Paul? Have no confidence in the sedulous flesh and do not entrust yourself to it, since the Apostle exclaims: "For I know that in me, that is, my flesh, no good dwells, because to wish is within my power, but I do not find the strength to accomplish what is good. For I do not the good that I wish, but the evil that I do not wish, that I perform. Now if I do what I do not wish, it is no longer I who do it,but the sin that dwells in me." -- St. Ambrose (De Paradiso) cited by St. Augustine in Contra Julian II, Chapter 5 [Note Ambrose clearly applies Romans 7 to the Christian's CURRENT state; not to a state prior to Baptism]