Saint Paul writes to the Hebrews

Vol 8 Issue 25 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
June 20, 2015 ~ Our Lady on Saturday

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (21)
2. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St Aloysius Gonzaga
4. Marriage and Parenthood (25)
5. Articles and notices

 

Dear Reader:

A Blessed Fathers’ Day to all our truly faithful fathers. Though the introduction of this remembrance of fathers is recent and may have more to do with commercialism, it is still providential as today the world needs to be reminded of the responsibilities of fatherhood which has abandoned the connection of man and woman being united to form a family with the offspring both produce. Every serious study shows that when the father (biological) is with the mother (biological) the children (biological) develop in all areas of life in a more positive way, be it physical, intellectual, spiritual, material. The sacrifice the mother makes in devoting herself to the family is not offset by the father, rather supported and enhanced when the father makes the same sacrifice to devote himself to his family by the financial security, protection and modeling of manhood and fatherhood that is seen in families where the father is present. For this reason, we want to thank our fathers who have recognized their responsibility and have toiled daily to provide the daily bread, the clothes and shelter, the freedom from fear that inhibits their child’s development, the role model that inspires the child to strive for the ends for which God placed the child in the parents’ hands.

The article on Faith in today’s issue may seem senseless with the Hebrew and Greek, but it is necessary to convince the reader that there is not ignorance among the clergy as some lay folks would like to imply in their opinionated and unfounded protestantized (self-inspired) writings. There is also, for your information an article on a revolting event (to faithful Catholics) that was participated in by Jorge Bergolio. As to the recent encyclical Laudatio si, it seems to hold nothing spectacularly notable; but if there is a need and opportunity, I will try to provide a commentary.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor

____________________

Baptism

Means of Salvation

Preparation for Grace

Introduction (a)

 

Salvation has already been seen to consist in Faith in the Promise, where, for the descendants and household of Abraham, that faith was expressed externally by the rite of Circumcision of the male children on the eighth day. Since a definition of faith has not been presented, nor that of justification or righteousness, the next few papers will be on examining the definitions of Faith, Justification or Righteousness, and Sanctifying Grace.

 

Faith

 

It may be summarized that those in the Old Testament who believed in God and kept his Law were justified. If they broke the Law, repentance was sufficient for the restoration of grace. This faith could not be a presumptuous trust or predestination: Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance; and do not begin to say, We have Abraham for our father. For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. (Luke 3:8; cf. Matt. 3:9). Therefore, what is faith?

In Genesis 15:6, one reads: Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice (צְדָקָֽה׃ לֹּ֖ו וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ בַּֽיהוָ֑ה וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן) where we have the root letters alef-min-nun as also seen in the word faith in Habaccuc 2:4: but the just shall live in his faith (יִחְיֶֽה׃ בֶּאֱמוּנָתֹ֥ו וְצַדִּ֖יק) and are the same root letters found in the word truthful (אמיתי) and the two root letters of truth alef-min (אמת) One might recognize it in the expression: Amen (truly).

The Rabbis, in translating the Hebrew to the Greek, chose the Greek wordἐπίστευσεν in the passage of Genesis 15:6: καὶ ἐπίστευσεν ῞Αβραμ τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην. In Habaccuc 2:4, the Rabbis translated faith asπίστεώς: ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεώς μου ζήσεται.

The significance of this is that it is the same Greek word root that is used in the New Testament to express faith and believe.  In Mark 2:5 [I will not take Matthew, since it may be objected that Matthew wrote in Aramaic—although the immediate Greek translations take to believe and faith from the same Greek root pistis as the other Apostles.] it is written: And when Jesus had seen their faith, he saith to the sick of the palsy: Son, thy sins are forgiven thee(καὶ ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὴν πίστιν αὐτῶν λέγει τῷ παραλυτικῷ· Τέκνον, ἀφίενταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι). And Mark concludes his Gospel, without the command to Baptize: He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned (16:16; ὁ πιστεύσας καὶ βαπτισθεὶς σωθήσεται, ὁ δὲἀπιστήσας κατακριθήσεται). When one considers Paul, it is evident that Paul dwells on this connection, that is, that there cannot be two different faiths though there may be two different requirements of the one faith:

 

Every attentive reader is struck by the fact that St Paul, as the editor of the Epistle to the Hebrews, likes to connect the Christian faith with the faith of the Old Testament, and seems to make no difference between them; a fact all the more curious from the circumstance that in the Old Testament the role of faith seems at first quite obliterated; one hopes in God, obeys him, fears him, loves him, but never thinks of esteeming it meritorious to believe in him, for to refuse to do that is the error of a “fool” only. Faith is scarcely mentioned save in exceptional cases where it has obstacles to overcome, doubts to surmount or serious duties to fulfil; then, it is true, it is the principal virtue, just as its opposite, unbelief, is the most odious crime. The salvation or the ruin of the people depended on its faith: “If you will /235/ not believe, you shall not continue.” [Is. vii, 9. Cf. xliii, 10.] “Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be secure.” [2 Paral. xx, 20.] Such was the faith of Abraham, and of the Ninivites, the faith of which Habacuc speaks, and the faith of Israel at the time of the flight from Egypt: “They believed the Lord and in Moses, his servant.” [3 Exod. xiv, 31.] Everywhere faith is stated as an assent to the Word of God or of his prophet, but the intellectual element is rarely isolated; there is almost always added to it a sentiment of security, confidence, abandonment, obedience, and filial love; the adhesion of the mind produces a thrill of the heart.

In passing from the Old Testament to the New, we measure at a glance the road we have traversed. Faith is no more pointed out as an exceptional fact, it is henceforth the normal attitude of the Christian; the two words “faith” and “to believe” are found on every page in almost equal proportions; the profane sense, completely eliminated from the substantive, tends to disappear also from the verb; finally, “the two terms have acquired a technical sense which allows us to employ them absolutely; faith is the acceptance of the Gospel, and to believe is to profess Christianity. The fulness of meaning renders the analysis of the Christian faith difficult; however, a careful comparison of the texts suggests to us the following remarks. Faith is not a pure intuition, a mystical tendency towards an object more suspected than known; it presupposes preaching: Fides ex auditu; it is the yielding of the mind to divine testimony. [Rom. x, 17 (ἡ πίστις ἐξ ἀκοῆς); Gal. iii, 2-5 (ἀκοῆς πίστεως); 1 Thess ii, 13 (λόγος ἀκοή). ]—Faith is opposed to sight, both as regards the object known and the manner of knowing; one is immediate and intuitive, the other takes place through an intermediate agent. [2 Cor. v, 7: διὰ πίστεως γὰρ περιπατοῦμεν οὐ διὰ εἴδους.]—Nevertheless, faith is not blind; it is ready to give a reason for itself, and aspires always to more clearness.—It is closely united, on the one hand, to charity and hope, with which it forms an inseparable trio, and, on the other hand, to obedience and to the conversion of the heart.—Faith, however firm and unshakable it is in its adhesion, has nevertheless degrees, and can increase in intensity and perfection. —Finally, being derived from grace, it possesses an intrinsic value which renders it agreeable to God. . . . (Prat, I, 235-37)

 

Accepting the congruity of faith in both the Old and New Testament settings, one must now ask again, What is Faith?

 

Saint Paul writes to the Hebrews (11:1): Now faith [pistis] is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.

 

One should be first reminded what faith is not. Charles Callan, O. P., gives this synopsis:

 

Outside the Catholic Church there is, indeed, great confusion as to the real meaning of faith—as to what it requires, what it stands for, what it promises in reward or threatens by way of punishment. To the majority of those without the Church it stands dimly for a kind of emotion or unregulated subjective disposition, the cause of which is now impulse or sentiment, now immanent instincts, now the round of individual experience. “My faith,” they tell us, “is my religious experience; I believe what my own reflections on the interior and exterior world—what I have felt and thought and seen in my own life and in the lives of others—have led me to believe.” [Dr. Lyman Abbott, Outlook, March I, 1913, p. 482 ff., also May 3, 1913, p. 20 ff.]

This was not, however, from the beginning the prevailing Protestant view of faith. The early promoters of the movement of the sixteenth century considered faith as an “intellectual confidence in one’s own justification.” Faith alone sufficed, according to the first reformers. [Cf. McHugh, O. P., Lutheranism, Cath. Encycl., Vol. IX.] But as this conception, when examined, seemed entirely out of harmony with the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, who made charity the life-giving principle of faith, there was an attempt to make the essence of faith, considered as an act, consist in the will. Charity, or love of God, is an act of the will; and therefore faith, which must be quickened by charity, must also be an act of the will. So they reasoned. And since the time of Immanuel Kant, non-Catholics, for the most part, have quite settled down to this view of faith. (Callan, 6-7)

 

To the Modernist (Catholic) Faith:

 

. . . [M]ust, therefore, be looked for in man; and since religion is a form of life, the explanation must certainly be found in the life of man. Hence the principle of religious immanence is formulated. Moreover, the first actuation, so to say, of every vital phenomenon, and religion, as has been said, belongs to this category, is due to a certain necessity or impulsion; but it has its origin, speaking more particularly of life, in a movement of the heart, which movement is called a sentiment. Therefore, since God is the object of religion, we must conclude that faith, which is the basis and the foundation of all religion, consists in a sentiment which originates from a need of the divine.This need of the divine, which is experienced only in special and favourable circumstances, cannot, of itself, appertain to the domain of consciousness; it is at first latent within the consciousness, or, to borrow a term from modern philosophy, in the subconsciousness, where also its roots lies hidden and undetected. (Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis)

 

To the so-called believer today there is this generally accepted and propagated notion:

 

Faith is not about belief. Faith in fact has very little to do with what beliefs you hold, other than that it allows you to hold them. Faith is a sacred, deep, emotionally involved kind of trust. Faith is the kind of trust that you enter into with your whole being. Faith is the kind of trust that, when it has been broken, it hurts deep inside… but faith is the kind of trust that finds a way to trust again despite the hurt. (Patheos, The Meaning of Faith, Rev. David Pyle. Retrieved June 19, 2015 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/uucollective/2012/07/the-meaning-of-faith/)

 

Contrary to this, the Catholic holds faith to be as follows:

 

Objectively, it stands for the sum of truths revealed by God in Scripture and tradition and which the Church presents to us in a brief form in her creeds, subjectively, faith stands for the habit or virtue by which we assent to those truths. (Pope, CE, Faith) For the Old Testament and for those without Scripture, it would be the acceptance of the sum truths revealed by God and the habit or virtue by which one assents to those truths.

This is what Callan defines as faith in opposition to erroneous notions of faith:

It is plain, then, that the faith which alone deserves to be called Christian cannot be grounded on personal impulse or sentiment or inclinations of the human heart and will, but rather on objective truths which God, through revelation, has declared to the world. My faith is not what I would like to believe, or what my nature inclines me to believe, but what God has told me to believe. It is not what we have chosen, but what God has chosen that constitutes the object of faith. [9 S. Th. 2-2ae, q. I., a. 1]

Hence it follows also, that there is not so much liberty in regard to faith as many would pretend. Like science, history and philosophy, faith too, has its objects, its range, its data beyond which it cannot be rightly exercised.

With so much said, we may now presume to give a clear and accurate definition of Christian faith in the /14/ precise and proper sense of the term. But first it must be noted that faith can be correctly considered under two distinct aspects, namely, it may be regarded as a habit or permanent quality of the soul, or as an act by which this habit or quality is reduced to action. Faith, considered as a habit of the soul, is a supernatural and theological virtue which disposes the mind firmly to assent on divine authority to all things that have been revealed by God. That is to say, the habit of faith is a gift or quality or power infused into the soul by God which disposes the soul, both intellect and will, to give unhesitating assent because of divine authority to all that God has made known to the world through the Scriptures and authentic tradition. As an act it is nothing more than the exercise of this infused gift or power. Faith means, then, first the power to believe, and secondly, the act of believing. (14-15)

That God can reveal Himself is one of the essential necessities of Faith. Without accepting God can reveal Himself, speak to man, there is no faith. Joseph Pieper states the following:

One essential condition is this: that Someone exists Who stands incomparably higher above the mature man than the latter stands above the immature man, and that this Someone has spoken in a manner audible to the mature man.

Only on this assumption is it proper for a man simply to believe. Only then is it permissible; only then can belief be demanded of him. To be sure, if that is so, then belief is both demanded and necessary. If that condition is met, then belief is above all “natural” to man: that is to say, it is consonant with both his limitations and his dignity. (23-24)

(To be continued)

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Week of Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

The interior life

1. “Master, we have labored all the night and have taken nothing.” The work has been long and tiring. But it was nocturnal work, work without Jesus, done without the command of the Lord and not dependent on His will and intentions. How could it have been successful?
2. “We have labored all the night and have taken nothing.” These words sound as if they had been spoken by ourselves. Work is the battle cry of the age. Day and night men are consumed by the frantic press of business. Work is also the watchword of those who try to live a life of piety. We make martyrs of ourselves and groan under burdens which we are not able to carry (Matt. 23:4). We begin a thousand good works and scarcely bring one to completion. We assume numerous spiritual exercises and regulations, yet we do not approach true holiness. We make trial of every new fashion in the spiritual life, and yet we are not satisfied. We set out in search of new methods, new meditations, and new saints; we keep accounts and make frequent inventories, and we know that all is not well.

Work is also the battle cry of all those who work for the salvation of souls, who live a life of charity and Catholic action. They work feverishly in their offices and pound furiously on their typewriters. They found new organizations and start new projects; new members are sought and new guilds started. Innumerable books are written, and countless periodicals are prepared and distributed. Conventions meet on every hand. All has been splendidly organized, and yet, where are the fruits of all these industrious works of piety? What have we to show for all our charitable undertakings? What harvest have we reaped from our apostolate? What results have we obtained from all our social and religious activity? Must we not often approach the Master and confess with Peter, “Master, we have labored all the night and have taken nothing”?

“But at Thy word.” At the command of Jesus, Peter again cast forth his net. He acted at the express command of the Master, conformed entirely to His will. His second attempt is crowned with astonishing success. Only work that is blessed by the Lord Himself will be successful. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, . . . and all these things shall be added unto you” (Luke 12:31). A multitude of external works and projects and an ever increasing activity are no guarantee of success. Not the number of our pious undertakings makes us holy, but the power springing from our interior life, from our attempts at union with Christ, from our search for true holiness, gives us the guarantee of success. The breath of life must go forth from our interior life into our external works, just as the sap must flow from the heart of the tree into the branches and the blossoms. The source of this interior life is, first of all, the interior virtues, such as a vivifying faith, humble subjection to the will of God, the spirit of self-denial, the spirit of prayer, the love of God and of Christ. Our efforts must first of all be centered on strengthening this inner life. We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, with God, who lives and works in us; we must listen to His voice speaking to us and guiding us.

Only when inordinate passion has been subjected within us, when the spirit of God and of Christ has conquered in us, when our actions proceed from a spirit of self-detachment, then shall we be able to work with a selfless love, with a pure intention, and for the sake of God alone. Only then will our work be blessed and be fruitful. Only such an interior life can make us generous in adversity, patient in suffering, magnanimous and persistent; only such an interior life gives us the strength to conquer self, to be faithful to our obligations, to perform our duties perfectly both interiorly and exteriorly, and to subject ourselves entirely to the will of God. This life gives us the ability to bear our trials and adversities with calmness and resignation for the love of God, and to make use of them for our own improvement. This cultivation of the interior life is our best guarantee that God’s blessing will rest upon our work, and that our efforts will bear fruit.

3. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? My enemies that trouble me have themselves been weakened and have fallen” (Introit). Thus speaks the man who lives a true interior life. He sees God in everything that happens to him. By his intentions he directs all his actions to God; he never relies on himself, but depends entirely and completely on God, trusting in His merciful protection.

The Lord wishes to continue His life in us-the vine living in its branches. He comes to us in Holy Communion in order to fill us yet more with His life and His spirit. He desires to make our souls His mansion. In His earthly mission He performs a threefold task: He lives His life of seclusion in the tabernacle, He lives in the prayers and virtues of His saints, He lives a life of continuous suffering in the souls of men. To cultivate this interior life is our primary task, for the fruitfulness of our activity depends on it. A worthy reception of Holy Communion spurs us on to a higher interior life.

PRAYER

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the course of this world, may be so peaceably ordered by Thee that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in quiet devotion. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus our teacher

1. “And going up into one of the ships that was Simon’s, He desired him to draw back a little from the land; and sitting He taught the multitudes out of the ship” (Gospel).
2. Jesus teaches the multitudes, who are always attracted to Him. Do they not have scribes and Pharisees to teach them? Yes, indeed; but Christ teaches in a manner quite different from that of the scribes and Pharisees. “He was teaching them as one having power,” and all “were in admiration at His doctrine” (Matt. 7:28 f.). He accommodates Himself to the simple by the use of parables. The kingdom of heaven He likens to a sower who went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and was devoured by the birds of the air; some fell upon a rock and could not grow; some fell among thorns and was choked; some fell upon good ground and brought forth fruit a hundredfold (Matt., chap. 13). Christ spoke of merciful love: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matt. 5:21 f.). “And you have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27 f.). He tells us how we can gain the kingdom of heaven and what is the true meaning of life. The world cannot supply the real answer to the purpose of life. It cannot be the enjoyment of earthly possessions or worldly goods, which can be taken away from us against our will by force or fraud. The true purpose of human life is to be found only in the striving for spiritual perfection and the proper direction of human acts in their relationship to God. The true task of man in this world is to struggle for justice, mercy, and purity in the midst of a world which is swayed by injustice, selfishness, impurity, and neglect of God. “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth . . . . Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6: 19 f.). “Enter ye at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leadeth to life; and few there are that find it” (Matt. 7: 13). These are the principles and the lessons which Christ taught the multitudes who followed Him. These are the words of eternal life.

Jesus teaches us also, coming as He does daily in the Sacrifice of the Mass. He ever abides in His Church. “Behold. I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. 28:20). He, the Lord and Master, is the power that supports St. Peter and the priests and doctors of the Church. The pope, the bishops, and the priests are the instruments which Christ uses to instruct us; He, the Lord, the divine truth that never fails, teaches, commands, and works through them. The priests and the various officials of the Church work in the name and at the command of the Lord, for they derive all their power and authority from Him. There is but one properly constituted authority in the Church, and that is the authority founded on St. Peter. Christ has said, “He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me” (Luke 10:16). The Catholic priest preaching the word of God speaks not as a mere man, not as the mere human creature we see standing before us, but as the representative of Christ. It is not Peter, nor Gregory, nor Pius who speaks from the bark of Peter, but Christ the Lord. The Church is guided in her teaching by Christ Himself, and she can endure no compromise with the spirit of the world. “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today, and the same forever” (Heb. 13:8). This thought gives us confidence and consolation. We are listening to the word and the preaching of Christ. It is really He who teaches us through His priests and bishops.

3. “He that heareth you, heareth Me.” We must be prepared to support Christ in the person of His priests. We are not to be misled by human frailties, nor scandalized by any moral shortcomings we may find in the person of individual priests. We know that these deficiencies do not touch the Lord, who is the real Master and who works through His priests. “All things whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works do ye not” (Matt. 23:3)·

Even a man like St. Peter could make mistakes, but in spite of this fact Christ founded His Church on him. By his fall Peter was drawn closer to the Lord. “Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? . . . Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee” John 21:17).

PRAYER

Almighty and eternal God, whose Spirit sanctifieth and penetrateth the entire body of Thy Church, answer our prayer for all ranks of Thy priesthood, that with the assistance of Thy grace they may all serve Thee faithfully. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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JUNE 21

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor

1. Born on March 9, 1568, near Mantua, of the noble Gonzaga family, Aloysius was regarded by his mother as a special gift from God; she reared this first-born with care, desiring to see him consecrated to the service of the Church. His father, however, took him to camp at the age of six to make a soldier out of him. Having been once in evident danger of death and escaping, happily, Aloysius gave up the military life. He always regretted that he had repeated bad words he picked up from the common talk of soldiers.

He was sent to school in Florence at the age of eight, and here made the vow of chastity. From that time he was free of temptation, and so remained pure as an angel. He was zealous in prayer, mortification, and the practice of humility. At twelve years of age he was advised by St. Charles Borromeo to receive Holy Communion frequently. In 1581 Aloysius was taken by his father to the Spanish Court. At the end of three years he begged permission to join the Jesuits, but was refused that year and the following year as well; only in 1585 did he obtain his father’s permission to enter the Society’s college in Rome; then he breathed his satisfaction in the words: “Here is the place of my rest; here I want to dwell.” Two years later he pronounced his vows and began the study of theology. His generous service to the stricken in a Roman epidemic brought about his death on June 21, 1591. “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” were his last words.

2. “Thou has placed him only a little below the angels, crowning him with glory and honor” (Introit). An “angel in the flesh,” Aloysius receives the praise of the Church today as “the angelic youth.” His life was so pure that he might have been thought of as living in a glorified state. As the Gospel says: “When the dead rise again, there is no marrying and giving in marriage; they are as the angels in heaven are.” In one so perfectly settled in chastity, all thoughts are directed to the Good; the body is on the earth, but the spirit wings to the heights of heaven, unimpeded by the weight of sensuality that fallen man inherits. There is, then, no battle between reason and passion. All the powers of the soul are easily directed toward the one thing necessary. A heavenly foretaste of peace and quiet prevails, and the heart swells with joys more deeply satisfying than those of the flesh, being the joys of the angels. For us, this state of soul can be kept only at the cost of rigid watchfulness over the senses, and of far reaching mortification of the human tendencies toward comfort and unrestrained passions. There must be serious prayer, Scripture study, meditation on the last things and on God’s redemptive gifts. “Blessed is the man who lives unreproved, who has no greed for gold, puts no trust in his store of riches. Show us such a man, and we will be loud in his praise: here is a life to wonder at” (Lesson). Such a man was St. Aloysius. “Master, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thy whole soul and thy whole mind” (Gospel). These liturgy words expose the roots of St. Aloysius’ purity: his love of God, of Christ. Love penetrates to the heart of God and holds fast His goodness and beauty, so far as life on earth permits. Love means satisfaction with God, joyful familiarity with the things of God. By taking delight in God, we appropriate, spiritually and by desire, what belongs to God. This, in the words of St. Francis de Sales, is “the sweet and noble robbery of love, which bedecks itself in the colors of the Beloved without robbing Him of His colorful magnificence, which clothes itself in His garment without depriving Him of it.” Love unites the soul with God; it seizes our minds and keeps them always in some degree concentrated on Him; it engrosses the will, keeping it subject to the will of God in all things; it captivates the heart so that it no longer knows any attraction or wish save that of loving God; it controls our faculties, bending them to the service of God and His kingdom on earth.

Love transforms the beloved. One who loves God as St. Aloysius did goes out of himself in order to receive the stamp of the spirit and the perfections of God on his own soul. Love gives a lover the power to understand God more profoundly, to taste His sweetness, to share His blessedness. Love confers new powers: he who loves easily overcomes difficulties which to the loveless one seem insuperable; he makes the greatest sacrifices as if they were child’s play; he performs acts of virtue that amaze others. “Not death itself is so strong as love” (Song of Songs 8:6). The secret of St. Aloysius was his heart’s captivity from childhood onward by the love of God. He nourished this love by frequent prayer and hours of fasting, and worthy feasting on the Holy Eucharist: “Man ate the food of angels” (Communion). 3. A passage from St. Cyril of Jerusalem is in place here: “Let us, with the grace of God, walk the way of chastity boys and girls, old and young. Let us not fail to appreciate the dignity of chastity, for this is a crown that belongs to angels; it is superhuman perfection” (Catech. 12, 34).

Collect: God, who apportionest the gifts of heaven, and who in the angelical youth Aloysius didst unite wonderful innocence of character with no less marvelous penance; by his merits and prayers grant that we who have not followed him in innocence may imitate his penance. Amen. 

MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD

The Catholic Ideal

By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard

(1911)

CHAPTER XII 

CATHOLIC EDUCATION

THE science of education is still young. What is known as “method” in education has made its best development in comparatively recent years. And one of the chief characteristics of this new science is that the best teachers should be appointed to the youngest children. It used to be thought that anyone who knew figures and letters could teach the same to a class of babies. But now it has been discovered that the teacher must not only know all about letters and figures, but also all about babies. He must be skilled in the psychology of the child mind. The young intellect may be made or marred forever, according as its first operations are well or ill directed. The boy is the father of the man. The results of child training reach out into youth, manhood, old age, and life eternal. Hence the greatest importance is to be attached to the education of children. Thus it is that educationists are realizing ever more and more the rich content of the principle, “Train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it.”

If this is true of education in general, it is eminently true of Catholic education in particular. The future of the Catholic Church in any country depends on the Catholic education of the children. “Give me the children of England and I will make England Catholic.” That was one of the favorite sentiments of the late Cardinal Manning. And as so much concerning Catholic education pertains to family life, all Catholic parents ought to know the leading principles. In the field of politics the education of the people plays a very important role. And in scarcely any country of the world does the Church have its full desire in the matter. It nevertheless continues to work for its ideal, a completely Catholic education for every Catholic child.

Education, in the best sense of the word, is the formation of habits. The formation of good habits is good education. The formation of bad habits is bad education. Education is not merely the acquisition of knowledge. The necessity of examination, especially competitive examinations, is largely responsible for the impression which identifies erudition and education. Mere erudition, however, is only a small part of education. It pertains to the faculty of memory. Now, the memory must be trained, but not only the memory. All the powers of the child must be brought out to the highest perfection possible. Its intellect must be trained to perceive the truth. Its senses, internal and external, must be trained to perceive what is beautiful. And, above all, its will must be trained to do what is good. Moreover, since the soul, while in this life, depends on the body for its due operation, the body also must be so trained as to keep in a healthy condition. “A sound mind in a sound body” is an axiom as old as the hills. A training in the fundamental laws of hygiene, therefore, is ministrant to the training of the child’s intellectual, esthetical, and moral faculties.

Further, since man is destined to an eternal life and must attain that eternal life through a life of the spirit in this world, all his natural powers must be made ministrant to this spiritual life. His bodily health, his habits of memory, feeling, taste, intellect, and will must be so trained and directed as to bring forth the best possible fruits in the spiritual life. The supernatural is that which is built on the natural, not that which is built up in mid-air above – separated from the natural. The two merge, one into the other, in such a way that the natural becomes supernaturalized, the psychic becomes spiritualized. In modern parlance the training of the natural faculties, without regard to their supernatural destiny, is called secular education. It is an education adapted merely to the affairs of this world. On the other hand, the training of the natural faculties with a view to their supernatural destiny, is called religious education. It is an education adapted to the life of the spirit both here and hereafter.

From the foregoing fact certain principles follow which have an important bearing on present-day educational questions. If man is destined to an eternal life, then he cannot be satisfied with a merely secular education. If grace is ever playing around nature and spiritualizing it, then, under such circumstances, nature will not be satisfied with merely natural occupations and interests, Being spiritualized by a supernatural gift, it must seek a supernatural end and live a supernatural life. A father, then, who leaves a child to choose its own religion, and make its first efforts in spirituality, only in after years does the child a grievous wrong. What should we say of a father who only taught his child to walk and did not teach it to use its hands, on the assumption that it would learn that better in its age of discretion? Yet that, and something worse, is what the father does when he leaves the child to choose its own religion. He leaves its spiritual limbs undeveloped, rudimentary, useless: And, since to the Catholic the Catholic religion is the divinely appointed means by which the spiritual life is developed, the Catholic father does his child a grievous wrong if he does not provide it with the best Catholic education possible.

Again, if, on the one hand, secular education ought to be spiritualized by the Catholic faith, on the other hand Catholic education should avail itself of the advantages of secular subjects. The Catholic religion being the revelation of Truth itself must appeal to the faculty which has truth for its object. Being a reasonable religion it must appeal to the reason. The more the reason is cultivated, therefore, the better is it able to apprehend the divine revelation. If, as some educationists hold, Euclid and Latin composition are the best means of making a boy think, then proficiency in Euclid and Latin composition must be a help in giving the boy a grasp of his religion.

(To be continued)

For anyone who knows history and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, this evil man caused the early disruption of the Unity of Faith in Eastern Europe through his heretical concepts of the Sacraments and the Church which would be eventually incorporated into the Protestant sects. Today the Czech people, except a remnant, are without the faith due to the contriving of this apostate and those who put him forward as a national and religious leader.—The Editor.

Francis commemorates the reformer Jan Hus on the 600th anniversary of his death

Vatican City, 15 June 2015 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis received in audience the representatives of the Czech Hussite Church and the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, in Rome to celebrate a liturgy of reconciliation on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the reformer Jan Hus, distinguished preacher and rector of the University of Prague, whose execution was lamented by St. John Paul II in 1999, who included him among the reformers of the Church.

“In the light of this consideration”, said Francis, “it is necessary to continue our studies of the figure and work of Jan Hus, which has long been a matter of controversy between Christians, but which has today become a reason for dialogue. This research, conducted without any form of ideological conditioning, will be an important service to historical truth, to all Christians and to society as a whole, even beyond your national borders”.

“Today’s meeting gives us the opportunity to renew and deepen the relations between our communities”, he added. “Many disputes of the past ask to be revisited in the light of the new context in which we live, and agreements and convergences will be reached if we face the traditional conflictual questions with a new outlook. Above all, we cannot forget that the shared profession of faith in God the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, in which we have been baptised, already unites us in bonds of authentic fraternity”.

“Vatican Council II affirmed that ‘every renewal of the Church is essentially grounded in an increase of fidelity to her own calling. Undoubtedly this is the basis of the movement toward unity. … Church renewal has therefore notable ecumenical importance’. Nowadays, in particular, the need for a new evangelisation of many men and women who seem indifferent to the joyful news of the Gospel makes it urgent to renovate every ecclesial structure so as to promote a positive response from all those to whom Jesus offers His friendship. And visible communion between Christians will certainly make this announcement more credible”.

“Responding to the call of Christ to continual conversion, of which we are all in need, we can progress together on the path of reconciliation and peace. Along this road let us learn, by God’s grace, to recognise each other as friends and to consider the motivations of others in the best light possible. In this sense I hope that bonds of friendship may develop also at the level of local and parish communities. With these sentiments, I join spiritually in the penitential liturgy you will celebrate here in Rome”, concluded the Holy Father. “May God, rich in mercy, grant us the grace to recognise ourselves all as sinners and to know how to forgive each other”.

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Father Courtney Edward will be in San Diego July 1-2, Los Angeles July 7, and Eureka July 16.

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