Selected quotes from St. Ambrose of Milan

"Now a good servant should make good his cost to his master, even if he is unable actually to pay the debt, lest he seem unworthy of his price. And you, also, conduct yourself as worthy of such a price so that Christ, who cleansed you, who redeemed you, may not come and find you in your sins, that He may not say to you, What profit is there in My blood? What did I benefit  you when I descended into corruption?"

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"Christ is not found in the market place or in the city squares, as He could not  be found in the market or the squares by her who said, 'I will rise now and go about the city, in the market and in the squares; and I will seek Him Whom my soul loves. I sought Him, but found Him not; I called Him, but He gave no answer.' You see, then, that we should never seek Christ where we will not find Him. Christ is not of the market place, for Christ is peace, while the market is strife; Christ is justice, the market, iniquity; Christ is at work, the market, stupidly idle; Christ is charity, the market, slander; Christ is trust, the market, fraud and faithlessness. Christ is in the Church, in the market place, idols."

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"Neither professors of philosophy nor leaders of the synagogue can offer any cure when peoples perish. It is Christ alone Who takes away the sins of the people, provided they do not refuse to submit to healing. But He does not deign to cure the unwilling and soon abandons the weak for whom it seems that His presence is a burden, like the peoples of the Gerasenes, who went out from that country, which appears to be an image of the synagogue, and besought Him to depart from them, because 'they were taken with great fear' (Lk. 8:37). For a weak mind does not grasp the Word of God, nor can it sustain the weight of wisdom; it falls apart and is dissolved."