John Cassian

In his own words on Acts

• Acts 1:1

  Do not presume to teach any one in words what you have not already performed in deed. For our Lord taught us by His own example that we ought to keep to this order, as of Him it is said: "what Jesus began to do and to teach." Take care then that you do not rush into teaching before doing, and so be reckoned among the number of those of whom the Lord speaks in the gospel to the disciples: "What they say unto you, that observe and do, but not after their words: for they say and do not. But they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." For if he who shall "break one of these commands, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven," it follows that one who has dared to despise many and greater commands and to teach men so, shall certainly be considered not least in the kingdom of heaven, but greatest in the punishment of hell.

  CONFERENCE 14.9

• Acts 3:6

  Those men who received power from God never used that power as if it were their own but referred the power to him from whom they received it; for the power itself could never have any force except through the name of him who gave it. And so both the apostles and all the servants of God never did anything in their own name but in the name and invocation of Christ. For the power itself derived its force from the same source as its origin, and it could not be given through the instrumentality of the ministers, unless it had come from the Author.

  ON THE INCARNATION OF THE LORD AGAINST NESTORIUS 7.19

• Acts 3:12

  Nor did they think that any one should be renowned for the gifts and marvels of God but rather for the fruits of his own good deeds, which are brought about by the efforts of his mind and the power of his works. For often, as was said above, people of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the truth, both cast out devils and perform the greatest miracles in the name of the Lord.

  CONFERENCE 15.6

• Acts 5:5

  And so if against those who did not covet other persons' goods but tried to be sparing of their own, and had no desire to acquire but only the wish to retain, there went forth so severe a sentence, what should we think of those who desire to amass wealth, without ever having had any of their own, and, making a show of poverty before people, are before God convicted of being rich, through the passion of avarice?

  INSTITUTES 7.25

• Acts 7:3

  [Paphnutius said,] "We read that the Lord commanded Abraham to do these three things all at once when he said to him, 'Leave your country and your kinsfolk and your father's house.' " First he spoke of "your country," namely, of the resources of this world and of earthly wealth; second, of "your kinsfolk," namely, of the former way of life and behavior and vices that have been related to us from our birth by a connection as it were of a certain affinity or consanguinity; third, of "your father's house," namely, of every vestige of this world which the eyes gaze upon.

  CONFERENCE 3.6.2

• Acts 9:17

  He sent him then to an old man and determined that he must be instructed by his teaching rather than by his own. Otherwise what might have been rightly done with regard to Paul would have given a bad example of presumption to those who came after him, since each individual would conclude that he too should be trained in similar fashion under the guidance and by the teaching of God alone rather than by the instruction of his elders.

  CONFERENCE 2.15.1

• Acts 20:34

  And although for this there were great rewards for his merits prepared, yet [Paul's] mind, however holy and sublime it might be, could not help being sometimes drawn away from that heavenly contemplation by its attention to earthly labors. Further, … he saw himself enriched with such practical fruits, and on the other hand considered in his heart the good of meditation and weighed as it were in one scale the profit of all these labors and in the other the delights of divine contemplation. For a long time he had corrected the balance in his breast, while the vast rewards for his labors delighted him on one side, and on the other the desire for unity with and the inseparable companionship of Christ inclined him to depart this life. At last in his perplexity [Paul] cries out and says, "What I shall choose I know not. For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, for it were much better: but to abide in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes." Though then in many ways he preferred this excellent good to all the fruits of his preaching, yet he submits himself in consideration of love, without which none can gain the Lord; and for their sakes, whom hitherto he had soothed with milk as nourishment from the breasts of the gospel, does not refuse to be parted from Christ, which is bad for himself though useful for others. For he is driven to choose this the rather by that excessive goodness of his whereby for the salvation of his brothers he is ready, were it possible, to incur even the last evil of an anathema.

  CONFERENCE 23.5.4-6