Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 116:17

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

O My God, let me with gratitude remember and confess unto Thee Thy mercies bestowed upon me. Let my bones be steeped in Thy love, and let them say, Who is like unto Thee, O Lord? "Thou hast loosed my bonds, I will offer unto Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving." And how Thou hast loosed them I will declare; and all who worship Thee when they hear these things shall say: "Blessed be the Lord in heaven and earth, great and wonderful is His name."

Confessions 8.1 ↗

Jerome

You have broken my bonds: to you I will sacrifice a victim of praise. Truly it is of great happiness so to go to the Lord that one has no defiled conscience. Whoever, being holy, dies his own death, although he be holy who has performed works of mercy, wrought signs, cast out demons, does not go to the Lord secure: his conscience shudders when he sees the Lord. But the martyr, even if he has sinned after baptism, yet washed by a second baptism, the baptism of martyrdom, goes secure to the Lord. You have broken my bonds. …

Homily 40, on Psalm 115 ↗