“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” St. John the Apostle and Evangelist (1st century)

“There certainly was not a time when God was not the Father…[The Son] being the brightness of eternal Light, He Himself also is absolutely eternal. For since light is always in existence, it is manifest that its brightness also exists, because light is perceived to exist from the fact that it shines, and it is impossible that light should not shine…Since, therefore, the Father is eternal, the Son also is eternal, Light of Light. For where there is the begetter, there is also the offspring. And if there is no offspring, how and of what can He be the begetter? But both are, and always are.” St. Dionysius of Alexandria (2nd-3rd centuries)

“The Word, Who in the beginning bestowed on us life as Creator when He formed us, taught us to live well when He appeared as our Teacher; that as God He might afterwards conduct us to the life which never ends.” St. Clement of Alexandria (2nd-3rd centuries)

We assert that the Son is naturally and essentially the Son of the Father, of the same substance with Him, His Only-begotten Wisdom, the true and only Word of God; that He was not made nor created, but begotten of one substance with the Father. Therefore, we say that He is true God, being of one substance with God the Father…The Son is the representation of the Person of the Father. He is Light of Light…He always was, and is, and never was not; for the Word and Wisdom of the Father must certainly be eternal as well as the Father.” St. Athanasius (3rd-4th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“Christ prays for us, prays in us, is prayed to by us. He prays for us as our Priest; He prays in us as our Head, is prayed to by us as our God. We therefore recognize our voice in Him and His in us.” St. Augustine of Hippo (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“Darkness of the ancient night has yielded to true light. Christian people are invited to the wealth of paradise, and the way has been thrown open to all believers for returning to their lost paradise.” Pope St. Leo the Great (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“So strong was this love…and so constant, that neither the devil nor anyone else could dampen its perseverance. It was not dampened by the wrongs people did Him then, nor is it dampened by the wrongs we do Him now. It is not dampened by our ingratitude or theirs, or by the devil’s either. For we cannot by our maltreatment keep Him from loving us or make Him forsake His obedience to His eternal Father…This gentle loving Word, God’s only-begotten Son, by His steady perseverance revealed to us the eternal Father’s will and sweet truth. His will is that we be made holy. This is the truth, and for this destiny God created us…I want you to contemplate the overflowing depths of His charity in choosing to stoop down to our humanity, because our sin had blinded us and made us ignorant of this sweet truth and gentle will of His! Oh wretched pride! How ashamed we should be to be proud while God is humbled, and has given us the Word clothed and veiled in our humanity!” St. Catherine of Siena (14th century, Doctor of the Church)

“But what still more evinces the depth of the divine love towards the human race is, that the Son of God should come in search of him, whilst man was fleeing away from Him…Thus God came from heaven to arrest, as it were, ungrateful man in his flight from Him. It is as if He had said, ‘O man! Behold, it is nothing but the love of thee that has brought Me on earth to seek after thee. Why wilt thou flee from Me? Stay with Me, love Me; do not avoid Me, for I greatly love thee.’” St. Alphonsus Liguori (18th century, Doctor of the Church)

“The price [He] paid was nothing short of the whole treasure of His blood, poured forth to the last drop from His veins and Sacred Heart. He shed His whole life for us; He left Himself empty of His all. He left His throne on high; He gave up His home on earth; He parted with His Mother, He gave His strength and His toil, He gave His body and soul, He offered up His passion, His crucifixion, and His death, that man should not be bought for nothing.” St. John Henry Newman (19th century)

“When God with His divine nature came down to this world and took upon Himself the human nature from the womb of His Blessed Mother, He took upon Himself an instrument. Once God took upon Himself our human nature, He could act in our name. And every one of the actions of that human nature would have an infinite value. Not a sigh, a word, a tear, a step of that human nature was inseparable from the Person of God. That is why one breath of God-made-man would have been enough to have redeemed the world. Why? Because it was the breath of God, and therefore had an infinite value. Why then did God suffer so much when He took upon Himself our human nature? God’s love knows no limits. The only way to prove perfect love is by surrender of all that one has in oneself. God took upon Himself our human nature, and He said that He loved us unto the end, even to death.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)