1 Thessalonians 2:9

And to how much in want and poverty he was testify the fact that once until he had sold his clothing they were not able to buy food for him and for those who were with him, and the constant labour which he did with …

Perhaps someone says: Who can always be thinking of God and eternal bliss, since all men must be concerned for food, clothing and the management of their household? God does not bid us be free from all anxiety over the present life, for he instructs …

The teacher ought to do nothing with a feeling of being burdened, that tends to the salvation of his disciples. For if the blessed Jacob was buffeted night and day in keeping his flocks, much more ought he, to whom the care of souls is entrusted, to endure all toils, though the work be laborious and mean, looking only to one thing, the salvation of his disciples, and the glory thence arising to God. See then, Paul, a man that was a Preacher, an Apostle of the world, and raised to so great honor, worked with his hands that he might not be burdensome to his disciples. "For ye remember," he says, "my brethren, our labor and travail." He had said previously, "we might have been burdensome as the Apostles of Christ," as he also says in the Epistle to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that they which minister about sacred things eat of the things of the Temple? Even so also did Christ ordain that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel." (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14) But I, he says, would not, but I labored; and he did not merely work, but with much diligence. Observe then what he says; "For ye remember," he has not said, the benefits received from me, but, "our labor and travail: for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God." And to the Corinthians he said a different thing, "I robbed other Churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you." (2 Cor. xi. 8) And yet even there he worked, but of this he made no mention, but urged what was more striking, as if he had said, I was maintained by others when ministering to you. But here it is not so. But what? "Working night and day." And there indeed he says, "And when I was present with you, and was in want, I was not a burden on any man," and, "I took wages that I might minister unto you." (2 Cor. xi. […]

He did not say: remember our benefactions, but "labor," and not simply that, but also "toil," that is, labor with great diligence. And not only during the day, but also at night. Such is the zeal and such is the care — so as not …

Then when Paul says: for you remember our labor and toil, brethren, he proceeds in accordance with what he had said above, that is: we never used a cloak for greed, for we have asked nothing of you, but an effort, for you remember our …