When to say "thank you"

St John Chrysostom (c.349-407) on thankgiving:

If you have suffered evil, give thanks and it is changed to good.

He has not sinned who suffered the evil but he who has done the evil.

Give thanks even in disease, lack of possessions, or false accusations.

Quoted on Glory to God for All Things.

The trials of life

St. Jerome Emiliani (1481-1537) on the struggles of everyday living:

As we say in our prayer, we are to place our trust in God and in no one else. In his kindness, our Lord wished to strengthen your faith.

[...] He also wished to listen to your prayer, and so he ordained that you experience poverty, distress, abandonment, weariness and scorn.

[...] Our blessed Lord is telling you that he desires to include you among his beloved sons, provided that you remain steadfast in his ways, for this is the way he treats his friends and makes them holy.

[...] God wishes to test you like gold in the furnace. The dross is consumed by the fire, but the pure gold remains and its value increases.

It is in this manner than God acts with his good servant, who puts his hope in him and remains unshaken in times of distress.

God raises him up and, in return for the things he has left out of love for God, he repays him a hundredfold in this life and with eternal life hereafter.

If then you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world, and for ever in the next.

Extracted from the second reading at the Office of Readings for February 8th (memoria of St jerome Emiliani), which you can read online in a more complete version at The Apostolate of Hannah's Tears.

Sophronius of Jerusalem on the Presentation

Sophronius of Jerusalem (d. 638) on the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (from today's Office of Readings and at Crossroad Initiative):

Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves.

As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.

By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God.

Our eyes have seen God incarnate, and because we have seen him present among us and have mentally received him into our arms, we are called the new Israel.

Never shall we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in his honor.

Feast of the Presentation

Hymns for the Feast of the Presentation from the Byzantine liturgy:

Apolytikion (First Tone)
Hail Virgin Theotokos [Mother of God] full of Grace, for Christ our God, the Sun of Righteousness, has dawned from you, granting light to those in darkness. And you, O Righteous Elder, rejoice, taking in Your arms, the Deliverance of our souls, who grants us Resurrection.

Kontakion (First Tone)
Your birth sanctified a Virgin's womb and properly blessed the hands of Symeon. Having now come and saved us O Christ our God, give peace to your commonwealth in troubled times and strengthen those in authority, whom you love, as only the loving one.

Source.