October 28
“We are celebrating a feast day, consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. Let us love their faith, their lives, their labors, their sufferings, their confession of faith, their preaching. We make progress ourselves, you see, by loving them, not by celebrating these things just for worldly pleasure and enjoyment. After all, what are the martyrs looking for from us? They must have very little, if they are still looking for human praises, they haven’t yet overcome. But if they have overcome, they are not looking for anything from us for their own sakes; but they are looking for it for our sakes. So, let our way be directed toward the Lord. It was a narrow way, a thorny way, a rough way; but with the passage of so many and such wonderful feet it has become smooth. The Lord himself went along it first, the apostles went along it fearlessly; after them the martyrs, boys, women, girls. But who was in them? The one who said, ‘Without me you can do nothing.’”
Sermon 295, 8
