"What does the phrase mean, 'The word is near you'? It means, 'It is easy.' For in your heart and on your tongue is your salvation. There is no long journey to go on, no seas to sail over, no mountains to climb, to get saved. But if you be not minded to cross so much as the threshold, you may even be saved while you sit at home. For 'in your mouth and heart' is the source of salvation. On another score, Paul also makes the word of faith easy, and says, 'God raised Him from the dead.' For just reflect upon the worthiness of the Worker, and you will no longer see any difficulty in the thing." John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407 C. E.)
"Let us draw from the fountain of the garden [of Scripture] continual and pure waters springing up to eternal life. Here let us be in luxury, let us revel to the full, for the Scriptures possess inexhaustible grace. But if we are able to pluck anything profitable from outside sources, there is nothing to forbid that." John Damascene (ca. 676-749 C. E.)
"After this, we say: 'Hallowed be thy name,' not that we wish for God to be hallowed by our prayers, but to beseech Him that His name be hallowed in us. But by whom is God sanctified, since He Himself sanctifies? Well, because He says: 'Be ye holy, even as I am holy,' we ask and entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we have begun to be." St. Cyprian of Carthage (died 258 C. E.)
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