Why should anyone be shattered by the thought of hell?

My opinion is that it is a very extraordinary thing for anyone to be upset by such a topic. Why should anyone be shattered by the thought of hell? It is not compulsory for anyone to go there. Those who do, do so by their own choice, and against the will of God, and they can only get into hell by defying and resisting all the work of Providence and grace. It is their own will that takes them there, not God’s. In damning them He is only ratifying their own decision – a decision which He has left entirely to their own choice.

 Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain, Part Two, Chapter I.vi

St. Justin Martyr on the Eucharist

We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.

St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 66

One is the Table

One is the table that is prepared for rich and poor alike. And though a person may be rich, yet to this table the rich can give nothing. And should another be poor, this one shall have no less honor because of poverty in regard to the things which here belong to all. For this favor is from God, and what wonder that it should be for the rich and the poor alike? For the same is the table that is prepared for the poor person, sitting waiting for alms, as for the emperor adorned with the diadem and clad in the royal purple, to whom the rule of the world is given. Such are the gifts of God who gives, not according to dignity but according to the will and the mind of each.

To this table therefore let the poor and the emperor come with equal confidence and with equal profit; and here more often the poor will be the richer. And why? Because the emperor is involved in a thousand affairs, and like a ship is tossed hither and thither and brought close to many sins. But the poor have to think solely of the need for food, and such a life is passed in tranquility and freedom from responsibility, like a ship secure in harbor; and so a poor person approaches much more confidently to the sacred table.

Again, in the feasts of the outside world the poor may be sad and unhappy, the rich festive and rejoicing; and not because of food only but also because of dress. For what happens with regard to food happens also with regard to clothing. For when a needy person sees a rich one clad in fine clothing, the needy one is stricken and fancies himself the unhappiest of all. But here this is taken away, for all alike are clothed with the one saving garment: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).

St. Leo the Great

I wasted in iniquities the riches that Thou gavest me.

When I disobeyed in ignorance Thy fatherly glory,
I wasted in iniquities the riches that Thou gavest me.
Wherefore, I cry to Thee with the voice of the prodigal son, saying,
I have sinned before Thee, O compassionate Father,
Receive me repentant, and make me as one of Thy hired servants.

Kontakion for Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Why am I now all alone?

I have drunk and I have diced, gold pieces I gave with delight
to harlots with eyes the darkness of the night.
I have done what I wanted, acted out my desires,
I am now at the end of what I began.
Where are my friends that I drank with?
Why am I now all alone?

from The Prodigal Son, Benjamin Britten; libretto: William Plomer

Where this mercy is not, there is also no faith.

Where this mercy is not, there is also no faith. For if your heart is in the state of faith that you know your God has revealed himself to you to be so good and merciful, without thy merit, and purely gratuitously, while you were still his enemy and a child of eternal wrath; if you believe this, you cannot refrain from showing yourself so to your neighbor; and do all out of love to God and for the welfare of your neighbor. Therefore, see to it that you make no distinction between friend and foe, the worthy and the unworthy; for you see that all who were here mentioned, have merited from us something different than that we should love and do them good. And the Lord also teaches this, when in Luke 6:35 he says: “But love your enemies, and do good unto them, and lend, never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be sons of the Most High: for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.”

Martin Luther, “Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity,” Church Postil

Tertullian on Marriage

How shall we ever be able adequately to describe the happiness of that marriage which the Church arranges, the Sacrifice strengthens, upon which the blessing sets a seal, at which angels are present as witnesses, and to which the Father gives His consent? For not even on earth do children marry properly and legally without their fathers’ permission.

How beautiful, then, the marriage of two Christians, two who are one in hope, one in desire, one in the way of life they follow, one in the religion they practice. They are as brother and sister, both servants of the same Master. Nothing divides them, either in flesh or in spirit. They are, in very truth, two in one flesh; and where there is but one flesh there is also but one spirit. They pray together, they worship together, they fast together; instructing one another, encouraging one another, strengthening one another. Side by side they visit God’s church and partake of God’s Banquet; side by side they face difficulties and persecution, share their consolations. They have no secrets from one another; they never shun each other’s company; they never bring sorrow to each other’s hearts. Unembarrassed they visit the sick and assist the needy. They give alms without anxiety; they attend the Sacrifice without difficulty; they perform their daily exercises of piety without hindrance. They need not be furtive about making the Sign of the Cross, nor timorous in greeting the brethren, nor silent in asking a blessing of God. Psalms and hymns they sing to one another, striving to see which one of them will chant more beautifully the praises of their Lord. Hearing and seeing this, Christ rejoices. To such as these He gives His peace. Where there are two together, there also He is present; and where He is, there evil is not.

Tertullian, Ad uxorem, book II

St. Gregory of Nyssa on the Miraculous Catch of Fish

When Christ commanded to let down the nets, the multitude of the fishes taken was just as great as the Lord of the sea and land willed. For the voice of the Word is the voice of power, at whose bidding at the beginning of the world light and the other creatures came forth. At these things Peter wonders, for he was astonished, and all that were with him….

St. Gregory of Nyssa, quoted in the Catena Aurea of St. Thomas Aquinas

Dr. Luther on the Purpose of the Decalogue

The cause and need of this commandment is that God well knows that the world is evil, and that this life has much unhappiness; therefore He has placed this and the other commandments between the good and the evil. Now, as there are many assaults upon all commandments, so it happens also in this commandment that we must live among many people who do us harm, so that we have cause to be hostile to them…

Thus by the devil’s incitement you will get many enemies who cannot bear to see you have any good, either bodily or spiritual. When we see such people, our hearts, in turn, would rage and bleed and take vengeance. Then there arise cursing and blows, from which follow finally misery and murder. Here, now, God like a kind father steps in ahead of us, interposes and wishes to have the quarrel settled, that no misfortune come of it, nor one destroy another. And briefly, He would hereby protect, set free, and keep in peace every one against the crime and violence of every one else; and would have this commandment placed as a wall, fortress, and refuge about our neighbor, that we do him no hurt nor harm in his body.

Dr. Martin Luther, Large Catechism, I.183, 185

I nourish myself with a life sacrificed for me.

When I nourish myself, I am always eating a being which I have killed or which I have at least prevented from living. I eat an animal which has been killed for me, my life being preferred to its life. I eat something which would have engendered life or sustained the life of another living being: the egg which contained a life in germ, milk (and its derivatives) which were meant to assure the growth of a young animal, vegetables and fruit, the grain of wheat which was a seed. Thus to ensure my life and my survival, I must take or threaten the life of another being. I must induce death. I nourish myself with a life sacrificed for me.

In every act of nourishment there is therefore presence of life and death, a struggle for life against the danger of death, theft, or gift of a life sacrificed in order to permit another to have life and to have it abundantly. The application of this to the Eucharist is evident: In receiving the consecrated bread and wine I nourish myself with the life of the wheat and the grapes sacrificed for me, but also with the Body of Christ given for me and with His Blood shed for me.

Philippe Rouillard, Human Meal to Christian Eucharist