Didymus the Blind : May your action be according to your ability! "Do with your might!" Act, according to the might you have received.… That might consists in the gifts of grace from the Holy Spirit. The one who has might and still does not increase his spiritual capacity does not use his might. The one, however, who forcefully does more than is right, not out of real desire, but out of ambition or for another reason, commits a sin.…The beginner acts like a novice, the one who has made progress like one who is on his way, the one who has reached perfection like one who is perfect. Thus, one has to act in accordance with one's ability. If you are not weak, do not act in a way that would diminish your ability to assert your will. On the other hand, do not attempt something which you cannot do! — COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 278:16 Gregory the Dialogist : Since therefore the hours flee with their moments, act, dearest brothers, so that they may be retained in the reward of good work. Hear what the wise Solomon says: "Whatever your hand is able to do, work at it earnestly, for there will be neither work, nor knowledge, nor reason, nor wisdom in the underworld, to which you are hastening." Since therefore we do not know the time of coming death, and after death we cannot work, it remains that before death we seize the time that has been granted. For thus, yes thus, death itself when it comes will be conquered, if before it comes it is always feared. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 13 Jerome : "Whatever you are able to do with your strength, do it. For there is neither doing, nor reckoning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you are going. "Do whatever you are presently able to do, and toil at it, because when you go down to the world of the dead there will be no place for repentance. Similar to this is what is taught by the Saviour: "work hard, while there is still day left; for night will come, when none is able to work" [Ioh. 9, 4.], but he says this: "to the grave where you are going", remember too that you believe Samuel was also in the grave, and before the advent of Christ, all men were retained by the law of the dead, however holy they were. More precisely, the holy were retained after the resurrection of the Lord in vain in the grave, and the apostle notes this, remarking, "it is better to die and be with Christ" [Phil. 1, 23.]. But he is with Christ, so that he might not be held back in the grave. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes Pacian of Barcelona : Remember, my brethren, that there is no confession in the grave; nor can penance be granted when the time for repentance is past. Hurry while you are still alive. — ON PENITENTS 12:1