The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

charity and humility, which stifle all the motions of anger, envy, and
pride: holy joy, which banishes carnal sadness, sloth, and all disrelish
in spiritual exercises; peace, which crushes the seeds of discord, and
the love and relish of heavenly things, which extinguish the love of
earthly goods and sensual pleasures. One whose soul is slothful,
sensual, and earthly, deserves not to bear the name of a Christian, much
less of a minister of the gospel. There never was a saint who did not
carry his cross, and walk in the steps of Christ crucified. St.
Alexander would have thought a day lost in which he did not add
something to the sacrifice of his penance in order to continue and
complete it. By this he prepared himself to die a victim of fidelity and
charity. This is the continued martyrdom by which every true Christian
earnestly labors to render himself every day more and more pleasing to
God, making his body a pure holocaust to him by mortification, and his
soul, by the fervor of his charity and compunction.
Footnotes:
1. Eus. b. 6, c. 14. S. Hieron. in Catal.
SAINT CYRIL, CONFESSOR,
ARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM.
From the church historians, and his works collected by Dom Touttée in
his excellent edition of them at Paris, in 1720.
A.D. 386.
www.freecatholicebooks.com
CYRIL was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the year 315. So
perfectly was he versed in the holy scriptures, that many of his
discourses,{608} and some of these pronounced extempore, are only
passages of the sacred writings connected and interwoven with each
other. He had read diligently both the fathers and the pagan
philosophers. Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, ordained him priest about
the year 345, and soon after appointed him his preacher to the people,
likewise his catechist to instruct and prepare the catechumens for
baptism; thus committing to his care the two principal functions of his
own pastoral charge. St. Cyril mentions his sermons to the faithful
every Sunday.[1] Catechumens ordinarily remained two years in the course
of instruction and prayer, and were not admitted to baptism till they
had given proof of their morals and conduct, as well as of their
constancy in the faith.[2] This office St. Cyril performed for several
years; but we have only the course of his catechetical sermons for the
year 348, or 347. Perhaps the others were never committed to writing. He
succeeded Maximus in the see of Jerusalem about the end of the year 350.