Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Mark 11:23

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine never exhausted, a sky unobstructed by clouds, a haven unruffled by storm. It is the root, the fountain, and the mother of a thousand blessings. It exceeds a monarch's power.… I speak not of the prayer which is cold and feeble and devoid of zeal. …

On The Incomprehensible Nature Of God 5.44, 46, 57, 58 ↗

Clement of Alexandria

This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the apostles, by the rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge, by benefiting his relations, by "removing the mountains" of his neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their soul. Although each of us is his own vineyard and labourer.

The Stromata Book 7 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Now if a gift is not God's gift, because it is wrought by us, or because we act by His gift, then it is not a work of God that "a mountain should be removed into the sea," inasmuch as, according to the Lord's statement, it is by the faith of men that this is possible. …

On The Spirit And The Letter 63 ↗

Bede

Or else, because the devil is often on account of his pride called by the name of a mountain, this mountain, at the command of those who are strong in the faith, is taken up from the earth and cast into the sea, whenever, at the preaching of the word of God by the holy doctors, the unclean spirit is expelled from the hearts of those who are fore-ordained to life, and is allowed to exert the tyranny of his power over the troubled and embittered souls of the faithless. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗