Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Mark 10:13

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

The wickedness of the Pharisees in tempting Christ, has been related above, and now is shown the great faith of the multitude, who believed that Christ conferred a blessing on the children whom they brought to Him, by the mere laying on of His hands. Wherefore it is said: And they brought young children to him, that he might touch them.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

When any people, you see, who are already of an age to make free decisions of will, approach the sacraments of the faithful, they cannot begin the new life unless they repent of the old. It's only babies that are exempt from this kind of repentance when they are baptized; after all they are not yet capable of making free choices.However, the faith of those who present them for baptism can avail them for sanctification and the remission of original sin; thus whatever defilement of wrongdoing they may have contracted through others, of …

Sermon 351.2 ↗

Bede

And they brought little children to Him that He might touch them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Not that they did not want them to be blessed by the voice and hand of the Savior, but because, not yet having complete faith, they thought He would be worn out by the importunity of those who brought them.

On the Gospel of Mark ↗