|
Misc. |
"For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come."
(Heb. 13:14)
"The
greatest thing about every Catholic is that he is one." (Ayscough)
"The
object of religion is that the soul should serve God, not that God
should serve the soul." (Benson)
"There is only one
Christian faith, that is: Catholic." (St. Bridget of Sweden)
"Catholicism
is not a pick and chose religion - you don't get to take out what
doesn't appeal to you."
"Our
body is like armor, our soul like the warrior. Take care of both,
and you will be ready for what comes." (St. Syncletice)
"If
a man cannot bear being reviled, he will not see glory. If he is
not cleansed of bitterness, he will not savor sweetness."
(St. Barsanuphius)
"The
eyes see no further than this life, as mine see no further than
this wall when the church door is shut. The eyes of the Christian
see deep into eternity." (St. John Vianney)
"You
are a portrait, O man, a portrait painted by your Lord God. Yours
is a good artist and painter. Do not deface the good picture"
(St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church)
"[T]he
religion established by the sacrament of the Cross of Christ
cannot be destroyed by any kind of cruelty" (St. Leo the
Great, Doctor of the Church)
"[S]ome
men nobler than some angels." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of
the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
"[M]an's
ultimate good consists in his soul cleaving to God" (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian
in the history of the Church")
"The Catholic doctrine is so ancient and well-grounded,
so certain and clear in these words of the Apostolic See, that it
would be criminal in a Christian to doubt of this truth."
(St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"If
the evils and the assaults of the wicked increase, so likewise
must the piety of all good people increase and become ever more
vigorous." (Pope Pius XII, "Ingruentium Malorum",
1951 A.D.)
"Whether
your immediate task be to assist, to protect, to heal, to make
peace, let your one aim and most ardent desire be to win or to
secure souls for Christ." (Pope St. Pius X, "Haerent
Animo", 1908 A.D.)
"Miss
no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a
smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest
things right, and doing it all for love." (St. Therese of
Lisieux, Doctor of the Church)
"Error
concerning a matter of faith or of conduct will imperil salvation
if (a) it can be corrected by moral diligence, or (b) if it is due
to a direct refusal to see the truth (affected error)"
(Catholic Dictionary)
"Whether
they be bond or free, Greek or Barbarian, wise or unwise, women or
men, the young or the aged, all are made meet for the honor, which
the Evangelist now proceeds to mention. To them gave He power to
become the sons of God." (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the
Church)
"If
anyone says that a human being cannot be divinely elevated to a
knowledge and perfection which exceeds the natural, but of himself
can and must reach finally the possession of all truth and
goodness by continual development: let him be anathema."
(First Vatican Council)
"If
anyone says that human studies are to be treated with such a
degree of liberty that their assertions may be maintained as true
even when they are opposed to divine revelation, and that they may
not be forbidden by the Church: let him be anathema." (First
Vatican Council)
"Lord our God, save your people, and bless your inheritance;
guard the fullness of your Church: hallow them that love the
beauty of your house. Glorify them in recompense with your divine
power: and forsake not them that put their trust in you." (St.
John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)
"Freedom
of will weakened in the first man cannot be repaired except
through the grace of baptism; 'once it has been lost, it cannot be
restored except by Him by whom it could be given. Thus Truth
itself says: If the Son liberates you, then you will be truly
free'" (Council of Orange II, 529 A.D.)
"Bishops should be revered by the
faithful as divinely appointed successors of the Apostles, and to
them, even more than to the highest civil authorities should be
applied the words: 'Touch not my anointed ones.' For the Bishops
have been anointed with the chrism of the Holy Spirit." (Pope
Pius XII, "Mystici
Coporis Christi", 1943 A.D.)
"[A]ll
faithful Christians are forbidden to defend as the legitimate
conclusions of science those opinions which are known to be
contrary to the doctrine of faith, particularly if they have been
condemned by the Church; and furthermore they are absolutely bound
to hold them to be errors which wear the deceptive appearance of
truth." (First Vatican Council)
"See,
my children, we must reflect that we have a soul to save, and an
eternity that awaits us. The world, its riches, pleasures, and honors
will pass away. Let us take care, then. The saints did not all
begin well; but they all ended well. We have begun badly; let us
end well, and we shall go one day and meet them in Heaven."
(Catechism of the Cure of Ars)
"If anyone in word and mind does not properly and truly confess
according to the holy Fathers all even to the last portion that
has been handed down and preached in the holy, Catholic, and
apostolic Church of God, and likewise by the holy Fathers and the
five venerable universal Councils, let him be condemned." (Lateran Council, 649 A.D.)
"We distribute the human
race into two kinds of men, one living according to man, the other
living according to God. Mystically, we call them the two cities,
or two societies of men: the one of which is predestined to reign
eternally with God, the other to suffer eternal punishment with
the devil." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"Indeed,
through the first Adam, we offended God by not observing His
command. Through the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, and
are made obedient even unto death. For we were debtors to none
other except to Him whose commandment we transgressed at the
beginning." (St. Irenaeus, 2nd century A.D.)
"We are
poor exiles here below, far away from heaven, our true home; we
therefore constantly suffer the pain of exile. We are never
satisfied in this world. We always crave for something more,
something higher, something better. Whence is this continual
restlessness which haunts us through life and ever pursues us to
the grave? It is the homesickness of the soul. It is the soul's
craving after God." (Muller)
"If
anyone shall have said that the condition of the faithful and of
those who have not yet come to the true faith is equal, so that
Catholics can have a just cause of doubting the faith which they
have accepted under the teaching power of the Church, by
withholding assent until they have completed the scientific
demonstration of the credibility and truth of their faith: let him
be anathema." (Vatican Council I, 1870 A.D.)
"[W]orldly
labor hardly produces fruit to last our life; and if it does,
death comes at last, and deprives us of it all. But the fruit of
our spiritual labors endures even after death; and begins to be
seen at the very time that the results of our carnal labor begin
to disappear. Let us then produce such fruits as may remain, and
of which death, which destroys every thing, will be the
commencement." (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of the
Church)
"From
this, therefore, it is clear that the knowledge of good and evil
is one thing, but virtue is another; for knowledge can exist
without virtue... Virtue is not the knowing of good and evil.
Rather, virtue is the doing of good and not-doing of evil.
Knowledge, however, is in fact joined to virtue in such wise that
knowledge precedes virtue and virtue follows knowledge. Cognition
is of no value unless it is followed by action." (Lactantius,
c. 304-310 A.D.)
"Founded
by Him who came to bring peace to the world and to reconcile man
with God, a Messenger of peace upon earth, the Church could only
seek religious war by repudiating her high mission and belying it
before the eyes of all. To this mission of patient sweetness and
love she rests and will remain always faithful... The Church then
does not wish for war, and religious war least of all. To affirm
the contrary is an outrageous calumny." (Pope St. Pius X,
"Une Fois Encore", 1907 A.D.)
"If
a prince, an emperor, were to cause one of his subjects to appear
before him, and should say to him, 'I wish to make you happy;
stay with me, enjoy all my possessions, but be careful not to give
me any just cause of displeasure,' with what care, with what
ardor, would not that subject endeavor to satisfy his prince!
Well, God makes the same proposals to us...and we do not care for
His friendship, we make no account of His promises... What a
pity!"
(Catechism of the Cure of Ars)
"Man
has a spiritual and immortal soul. He is a person, marvelously
endowed by his Creator with gifts of body and mind. He is a true
'microcosm,' as the ancients said, a world in miniature, with a
value far surpassing that of the vast inanimate cosmos. God alone
is his last end, in this life and the next. By sanctifying grace
he is raised to the dignity of a son of God, and incorporated into
the Kingdom of God in the Mystical Body of Christ." (Pope
Pius XI, "Divini Redemptoris", 1937 A.D.)
"The
angels sin, and are cast into Hell. Man sins, and God promises him
a Deliverer. What have we done to deserve this favor? What have we
done to deserve to be born in the Catholic religion, while so many
souls are every day lost in other religions? What have we done to
deserve to be baptized, while so many little children in France,
as well as in China and America, die without Baptism? What have we
done to deserve the pardon of all the sins that we commit after
the age of reason, while so many are deprived of the Sacrament of
Penance?" (Catechism of the Cure de Ars)
"In
these words a description of the justification of a sinner is
given as being a translation from that state in which man is born
a child of the first Adam to the state of grace and of the
'adoption of the sons' [Rom. 8:15] of God through the second Adam,
Jesus Christ, our Savior; and this translation after the
promulgation of the Gospel cannot be effected except through the
laver of regeneration, or a desire for it, as it
is written: 'Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' [John 3:5]."
(Council of Trent, 1547 A.D.)
"The
frequent holding of general councils is a pre-eminent means of
cultivating the Lord's patrimony. It roots out the briars, thorns
and thistles of heresies, errors and schisms, corrects deviations,
reforms what is deformed and produces a richly fertile crop for
the Lord's vineyard. Neglect of councils, on the other hand,
spreads and fosters the aforesaid evils. This conclusion is
brought before our eyes by the memory of past times and reflection
on the present situation." (Council of Constance)
"Indeed,
one man's sin, that of Adam, had the power to bring death to the
world. If by the transgression of one, death reigned over the
world, why should not life more fittingly reign by the
righteousness of one? If they were cast out of paradise because of
the tree and the eating thereof, shall not believers now enter
more easily into paradise because of the tree of Jesus? If that
man first formed out of the earth ushered in universal death,
shall not He that formed him out of the earth bring in eternal
life since He Himself is Life?" (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of
the Church, c. 350
A.D.)
"In
what concerns these two men [Adam and Christ], by one of whom we
are sold under sin, by the other of whom we are redeemed from
sins, by one of whom we are precipitated into death, by the other
of whom we are liberated unto life, because the one who ruined us
in himself by doing his own will and not of Him by whom we has
made, while the other has saved us in Himself not by doing His own
will but that of Him by whom He was sent - in what concerns these
two men, therefore the Christian faith properly consists."
(St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 418 A.D.)
"More
than all other men, we are your helpers and allies in maintaining
peace; for it is our position that it is no more
possible for the evil-doer, the avaricious and the treacherous, to
hide from God, than it is for the virtuous; and that every man
will receive the eternal punishment or reward which his actions
deserve. Indeed, if all men recognized this, no one would choose
evil even for a short time, knowing that he would incur the
eternal sentence of fire. On the contrary, he would take every
means to control himself and to adorn himself in virtue, so that
he might obtain the good gifts of God and escape the
punishments." (St. Justin the Martyr, c. 148-161 A.D.)
"Now
let us seal the whole argument with a brief summarization. The
world was made for this reason, that we might be born. We, in
turn, are born, that we might know God, the Maker of the world and
of us. We know, in turn, that we may worship. And again, we
worship so that we may receive immortality as the reward of our
labors - for the worship of God entails great labors indeed. And,
in turn, we are recompensed with the reward of immortality so
that, having been made like the angels, we may serve the Most High
Father and Lord forever, and may be an everlasting kingdom unto
God. This is the sum of things; this is the secret of God; this,
the mystery of the world." (Lactantius,
c. 304-310 A.D.)
"Can.
2331 § 1 Whoever pertinaciously does not obey the Roman Pontiff
or a proper Ordinary or another [competent authority] legitimately
precepting or prohibiting shall be punished with appropriate
penalties, not excluding censures, according to the gravity of the
fault. § 2 But those conspiring against the authority of the
Roman Pontiff or his Legates or a proper Ordinary or against their
legitimate mandates, and likewise those provoking their subjects
to disobedience regarding same, are to be coerced with censures
and other penalties; and if they are clerics, [they are deprived
of] dignities, benefices, and other duties; [and they are deprived
of] active and passive voice and office, if they are
religious." (1917 Code of Canon Law)
"The
difference between Christians and the rest of men is neither in
country, nor in language, nor in customs... They dwell in their own
fatherlands, but as temporary inhabitants. They take part in all
things as citizens, while enduring the hardships of foreigners.
Every foreign place is their fatherland, and every fatherland is
to them a foreign place. Like all others, they marry and beget
children; but they do not expose their offspring. Their board they
set for all, but not their bed. Their lot is cast in the flesh;
but they do not live for the flesh. They pass their time on earth;
but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws,
and in their private lives they surpass the laws... To put it
briefly, what the soul is in the body, that the Christians are in
the world." (Letter to Diognetus, c. 2nd century A.D.)
"Although
every individual that is called has his own order, and all the
sons of the Church are separated from one another by intervals of
time, yet as the entire body of the faithful being born in the
font of baptism is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised
again in His resurrection, and placed at the Father's right hand
in His ascension, so with Him are they born in this nativity. For
any believer in whatever part of the world that is re-born in
Christ, quits the old paths of his original nature and passes
into a new man by being re-born; and no longer is he reckoned of
his earthly father's stock but among the seed of the Savior, Who
became the Son of man in order that we might have the power to be
the sons of God. For unless He came down to us in this
humiliation, no one would reach His presence by any merits of his
own." (Pope St. Leo the Great, Doctor of the Church)
"This is the thrilling romance of orthodoxy.
People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy
as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so
perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It was sanity: and to be
sane is more dramatic than to be mad. It was the equilibrium of a
man behind madly rushing horses, seeming to stoop this way and
that, yet in every attitude having the grace of statuary and the
accuracy of arithmetic... She swerved to left and right, so exactly
as to avoid enormous obstacles... To have fallen into any one of
the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have
been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them all has been one
whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies
thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and
prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect." (Chesterton)
"This is not the place to give
a detailed account of what thereupon ensued. Very rapidly did the
light of the Gospel shine upon the savage tribes discovered by the
Ligourian. For it is sufficiently well known how many of the
children of Francis, as well as of Dominic and of Loyola, were
accustomed during the two following centuries to voyage thither
for this purpose; how they cared for the colonies brought over
from Europe; but primarily and chiefly how they converted the
natives from superstition to Christianity, sealing their labors in
many instances with the testimony of their blood. The names newly
given to so many of your towns and rivers and mountains and lakes
teach and clearly witness how deeply your beginnings [in the
United States] were marked
with the footprints of the Catholic Church." (Pope Leo XIII,
"Longinqua", 1895 A.D.)
"The
care of funeral, bestowal in sepulture, pomp of obsequies are more
for the comfort of the living, than for the help to the dead. Yet
is follows not that the bodies of the departed are to be despised
and flung aside, and above all of just and faithful men, which
bodies as organs and vessels to all good works their spirit hath
holily used. For if a father's garment and ring, and whatever such
like, is the more dear to those whom they leave behind, the
greater their affection is towards their parents, in no wise are
the bodies themselves to be spurned, which truly we wear in more
familiar and close conjunction than any of our putting on. For
these pertain not to ornament or aid which is applied from
without, but to the very nature of man. Whence also the funerals
of the just men of old were with dutiful piety cared for, and
their obsequies celebrated and sepulture provided: and themselves
while living did touching burial or even translation of their
bodies give charge to their sons." (St. Augustine, Doctor of
the Church)
"[L]et
the faithful also be on their guard against the overrated
independence of private judgment and that false autonomy of human
reason. For it is quite foreign to everyone bearing the name of a
Christian to trust his own mental powers with such pride as to
agree only with those things which he can examine from their inner
nature, and to imagine that the Church, sent by God to teach and
guide all nations, is not conversant with present affairs and
circumstances; or even that they must obey only in those matters
which she has decreed by solemn definition as though her other
decisions might be presumed to be false or putting forward
insufficient motive for truth and honesty. Quite to the contrary,
a characteristic of all true followers of Christ, lettered or
unlettered, is to suffer themselves to be guided and led in all
things that touch upon faith or morals by the Holy Church of God
through its Supreme Pastor the Roman Pontiff, who is himself
guided by Jesus Christ Our Lord." (Pope Pius XI, "Casti
Connubii", 1930 A.D.)
"...whether
the situation in which we have found ourselves during the last
hundred and fifty years or so is destined to endure or not, it
accustomed us to strict order within the Catholic body and it has
made us regard an equable, peaceful, united Catholic life as
normal to Catholic culture. That the life of the Church was one
fierce conflict throughout the first three centuries is a
commonplace; but that conflict did not cease with Constantinople;
it continued in other forms. It continued without ceasing for
century after century. Almost exactly coinciding with the great
movement of conversion about 320-330, whereby people began to come
by swarms into the official religion (which had hitherto counted,
perhaps, not more than a tenth or an eighth of the whole
population), the very nature of the faith was threatened by the
Arian perversion... Now, Arianism lay heavenly upon the Church
for centuries... The Catholic Church then, though triumphant over
paganism after A.D. 300, entered into a new conflict which was not
achieved for another three hundred years. But the date A.D. 600
does not roughly mark the beginning of peace. It only marks the
origins of a new battle following the death of Arianism..."
(Belloc)
"Christ
Our Lord entrusted the truth which He had brought from heaven to
the Apostles, and through them to their successors. He sent His
Apostles, as He had been sent by the Father (Jn. 20:21), to teach
all nations everything they had heard from Him (cf. Matt. 28:19
f.). The Apostles are, therefore, by divine right the true doctors
and teachers in the Church. Besides the lawful successors of the
Apostles, namely the Roman Pontiff for the universal Church and
Bishops for the faithful entrusted to their care (cf. can. 1326),
there are no other teachers divinely constituted in the Church of
Christ. But both the Bishops and, first of all, the Supreme
Teacher and Vicar of Christ on earth, may associate others with
themselves in their work of teacher, and use their advice; they
delegate to them the faculty to teach, either by special grant, or
by conferring an office to which the faculty is attached (cf. can.
1328). Those who are so called teach not in their own name, nor by
reason of their theological knowledge, but by reason of the
mandate which they have received from the lawful Teaching
Authority. Their faculty always remains subject to that Authority,
nor is it ever exercised in its own right or independently.
Bishops, for their part, by conferring this faculty are not
deprived of the right to teach; they retain the very grave
obligation of supervising the doctrine, which others propose, in
order to help them, and of seeing to its integrity and
security." (Pope Pius XII, "Si Diligis", 1954
A.D.)
"From
these considerations, the proof develops on these lines: if Mary,
in taking an active part in the work of salvation, was, by God's
design, associated with Jesus Christ, the source of salvation
itself, in a manner comparable to that in which Eve was associated
with Adam, the source of death, so that it may be stated that the
work of our salvation was accomplished by a kind of
'recapitulation,' in which a virgin was instrumental in the
salvation of the human race, just as a virgin had been closely
associated with its death; if, moreover, it can likewise be stated
that this glorious Lady had been chosen Mother of Christ 'in order
that she might become a partner in the redemption of the human
race'; and if, in truth, 'it was she who, free of the stain of
actual and original sin, and ever most closely bound to her Son,
on Golgotha offered that Son to the Eternal Father together with
the complete sacrifice of her maternal rights and maternal love,
like a new Eve, for all the sons of Adam, stained as they were by
his lamentable fall,' then it may be legitimately concluded that
as Christ, the new Adam, must be called a King not merely because
He is Son of God, but also because He is our Redeemer, so,
analogously, the Most Blessed Virgin is queen not only because she
is Mother of God, but also because, as the new Eve, she was
associated with the new Adam." (Pope Pius XII, "Ad Caeli
Reginam", 1954 A.D.)
"Whoever
then thou art that devoutly and faithfully boastest of the
Christian name, estimate this atonement at its right worth. For to
thee who wast a castaway, banished from the realms of paradise,
dying of thy weary exile, reduced to dust and ashes, without
further hope of living, by the Incarnation of the Word was given
the power to return from afar to thy Maker, to recognize thy
parentage, to become free after slavery, to be promoted from being
an outcast to sonship: so that, thou who wast born of corruptible
flesh, mayest be reborn by the Spirit of God, and obtain through
grace what thou hadst not by nature, and, if thou acknowledge
thyself the son of God by the spirit of adoption, dare to call God
Father. Freed from the accusings of a bad conscience, aspire to
the kingdom of heaven, do God's will supported by the Divine help,
imitate the angels upon earth, feed on the strength of immortal
sustenance, fight fearlessly on the side of piety against hostile
temptations, and if thou keep thy allegiance in the heavenly
warfare, doubt not that thou wilt be crowned for thy victory in
the triumphant camp of the Eternal King, when the resurrection
that is prepared for the faithful has raised thee to participate
in the heavenly Kingdom." (Pope St. Leo the Great, Doctor of
the Church)
"It
is well known how much the Church values human reason, in what is
concerned with definitely demonstrating the existence of one
personal God; and likewise with proving irrefutably from divine
signs the foundations of the Christian faith itself; and, in like
manner, with expressing rightly the law which the Creator has
placed in the souls of men; and finally, with attaining some
understanding, and this a most fruitful understanding, of the
mysteries. Yet reason will be able to fulfill this function only
when it has been trained in the required manner; namely, when it
has become imbued with that sound philosophy which has long stood
out as a patrimony handed down from the earlier Christian ages,
and so possesses the authority of an even higher order, because
the magisterium of the Church has carefully weighed its principles
and chief assertions, which were gradually made clear and defined
by men of great genius, by the test of divine 'revelation' itself.
Indeed, this philosophy, recognized and accepted within the
Church, protects the true and sincere value of human
understanding, and constant metaphysical principles - namely, of
sufficient reason, causality, and finality - and, finally, the
acquisition of certain and immutable truth." (Pope Pius XII,
"Humani Generis", 1950 A.D.)
"Since,
however, both these faculties are imperfect, it is possible, as is
often seen, that the reason should propose something which is not
really good, but which has the appearance of good, and that the
will should choose accordingly. For, as the possibility of error,
and actual error, are defects of the mind and attest its
imperfection, so the pursuit of what has a false appearance of
good, though a proof of our freedom, just as a disease is a proof
of our vitality, implies defect in human liberty. The will also,
simply because of its dependence on the reason, no sooner desires
anything contrary thereto than it abuses its freedom of choice and
corrupts its very essence. Thus it is that the infinitely perfect
God, although supremely free, because of the supremacy of His
intellect and of His essential goodness, nevertheless cannot
choose evil; neither can the angels and saints, who enjoy the
beatific vision. St. Augustine and others urged most admirably
against the Pelagians that, if the possibility of deflection from
good belonged to the essence or perfection of liberty, then God,
Jesus Christ, and the angels and saints, who have not this power,
would have no liberty at all, or would have less liberty than man
has in his state of pilgrimage and imperfection. This subject is
often discussed by the Angelic Doctor in his demonstration that
the possibility of sinning is not freedom, but slavery."
(Pope Leo XIII, "Libertas Praestantissimum", 1888 A.D.)
"When
Jesus Christ had blotted out the handwriting of the decree that
was against us, fastening it to the cross, at once God's wrath was
appeased, the primeval fetters of slavery were struck off from
unhappy and erring man, God's favor was won back, grace restored,
the gates of Heaven opened, the right to enter them revived, and
the means afforded of doing so. Then man, as though awakening from
a long-continued and deadly lethargy, beheld at length the light
of the truth, for long ages desired, yet sought in vain. First of
all, he realized that he was born to much higher and more glorious
things than the frail and inconstant objects of sense which had
hitherto formed the end of his thoughts and cares. He learnt that
the meaning of human life, the supreme law, the end of all things
was this: that we come from God and must return to Him. From this
first principle the consciousness of human dignity was revived:
men's hearts realized the universal brotherhood: as a consequence,
human rights and duties were either perfected or even newly
created, whilst on all sides were evoked virtues undreamt of in
pagan philosophy. Thus men's aims, life, habits and customs
received a new direction. As the knowledge of the Redeemer spread
far and wide and His power, which destroyeth ignorance and former
vices, penetrated into the very life-blood of the nations, such a
change came about that the face of the world was entirely altered
by the creation of a Christian civilization. The remembrance of
these events, Venerable Brethren, is full of infinite joy, but it
also teaches us the lesson that we must both feel and render with
our whole hearts gratitude to our Divine Savior." (Pope Leo
XIII, "Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus", 1900 A.D.)
"We
use words, in speaking to God, for one reason, and in speaking to
man, for another reason. For when speaking to man we use words in
order to tell him our thoughts which are unknown to him. Wherefore
we praise a man with our lips, in order that he or others may
learn that we have a good opinion of him: so that in consequence
we may incite him to yet better things; and that we may induce
others, who hear him praised, to think well of him, to reverence
him, and to imitate him. On the other hand we employ words, in
speaking to God, not indeed to make known our thoughts to Him Who
is the searcher of hearts, but that we may bring ourselves and our
hearers to reverence Him. Consequently we need to praise God with
our lips, not indeed for His sake, but for our own sake; since by
praising Him our devotion is aroused towards Him, according to
Psalm 50:23: 'The sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me, and there
is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God.' And
forasmuch as man, by praising God, ascends in his affections to
God, by so much is he withdrawn from things opposed to God,
according to Isaiah 48:9, 'For My praise I will bridle thee lest
thou shouldst perish.' The praise of the lips is also profitable
to others by inciting their affections towards God, wherefore it
is written (Psalm 34:1): 'His praise shall always be in my mouth,'
and farther on: 'Let the meek hear and rejoice. O magnify the Lord
with me.'... [However, it] profits one nothing to praise with the
lips if one praise not with the heart. For the heart speaks God's
praises when it fervently recalls 'the glorious things of His
works' (Ecclesiasticus 17:7,8). Yet the outward praise of the lips
avails to arouse the inward fervor of those who praise, and to
incite others to praise God, as stated [previously]." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"And
thus according to the statements of the Holy Scriptures... or the
explanations of the ancient Fathers, God being propitious, we
ought to proclaim and to believe that through the sin of the first
man free will was so changed and so weakened that afterwards no
one could either love God as he ought, or believe in God, or
perform what is good on account of God, unless the grace of divine
mercy reached him first. Therefore, we believe that in the [case
of] the just Abel, and Noah and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and
all the multitude of the ancient saints that illustrious faith
which the Apostle Paul proclaims in their praise [Heb. 11], was
conferred not by the good of nature, which had been given before
in [the case of] Adam, but through the grace of God. Even after
the coming of the Lord we know and likewise believe that this
grace was not held in the free will of all who desired to be
baptized, but was bestowed by the bounty of Christ, according to
what has already been said often, and Paul the Apostle declares:
It has been given to you for Christ, not only, that you may
believe in him, but also that you may suffer for him [Phil. 1:29];
and this: God, who has begun a good work in you, will perfect it
even to the day of our Lord [Phil. 1:6]; and this: By grace you
are made safe through faith, and this not of yourselves: for it is
the gift of God [Eph. 2:8]; and that which the Apostle says about
himself: I have obtained mercy, that I may be faithful [1 Cor.
7:25; 1 Tim. 1:13]; he did not say: 'because I was,' but: 'that I
may be.' And that: What have you, that you have not received? [1
Cor. 4:7]. And that: Every good gift, and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights [Jas. 1:17]. And
that: No one has anything, except it has been given him from above
[John 3:27]. Innumerable are the testimonies of the Sacred
Scriptures which can be brought forward to prove grace, but they
are passed over out of a desire for brevity; also because, in
truth, more [proofs] will not profit those for whom a few do not
suffice." (Council of Orange II, 529 A.D.)
"Once
each week, on the day which she has called the Lord's Day, she
keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates
it once every year, together with His blessed Passion, at Easter,
that most solemn of all feasts. In the course of the year,
moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from the
Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, to Pentecost and the
expectation of the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord. Thus
recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the
faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these
are in some way made present for all time; the faithful lay hold
of them and are filled with saving grace. In celebrating this
annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church honors the
Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is
inseparably linked with her son's saving work. In her the Church
admires and exalts the most excellent fruit of redemption, and
joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image, that which she
herself desires and hopes wholly to be. The Church has also
included in the annual cycle memorial days of the martyrs and
other saints. Raised up to perfection by the manifold grace of God
and already in possession of eternal salvation, they sing God's
perfect praise in heaven and pray for us. By celebrating their
anniversaries the Church proclaims achievement of the paschal
mystery in the saints who have suffered and have been glorified
with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who
draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their
merits she begs for God's favors. Finally, in the various seasons
of the year and in keeping with her traditional discipline, the
Church completes the formation of the faithful by means of pious
practices for soul and body, by instruction, prayer, and works of
penance and mercy." (Second Vatican Council)
"Now
the devil, seeing His face shining in prayer, recollected Moses,
whose face was glorified. But Moses indeed was arrayed with a
glory, which came from without; our Lord, with that which
proceeded from the inherent brightness of Divine glory. For since
in the hypostatical union there is one and the same glory of the
Word and the flesh, He is transfigured not as receiving what He
was not, but manifesting to His disciples what He was. Hence,
according to Matthew, it is said, that He was transfigured before
them, and that His face shone as the sun; for what the sun is in
things of sense, God is in spiritual things. And as the sun, which
is the fountain of light, cannot be easily seen, but its light is
perceived from that which reaches the earth; so the countenance of
Christ shines more intensely, like the sun, but His raiment is
white as snow; as it follows, And his raiment was white and
glistening; that is, lighted up by its participation of the divine
light. And a little afterwards, but while these things were so,
that it might be shown there was but one Lord of the new and old
covenant, and the mouths of heretics might be shut, and men might
believe in the resurrection, and He also, who was transfigured, be
believed to be the Lord of the living and the dead, Moses and
Elias, as servants, stand by their Lord in His glory; hence it
follows, And behold there talked with him two men. For it became
men, seeing the glory and confidence of their fellow servants, to
admire indeed the merciful condescension of the Lord, but to
emulate those who had labored before them, and looking to the
pleasantness of future blessings, to be the more strengthened for
conflicts. For he who has known the reward of his labors, will the
more easily endure them." (St. John Damascene, Doctor of the
Church)
"There
are innumerable and extensive fields of thought, properly
belonging to the human mind, in which it may have free scope for
its investigations and speculations, and that not only agreeably
to its nature, but even by a necessity of its nature. But what is
unlawful and unnatural is that the human mind should refuse to be
restricted within its proper limits, and, throwing aside its
becoming modesty, should refuse to acknowledge Christ's teaching.
This teaching, upon which our salvation depends, is almost
entirely about God and the things of God. No human wisdom has
invented it, but the Son of God hath received and drunk it in
entirely from His Father: 'The words which thou gayest me, 1 have
given to them' (John xvii., 8). Hence this teaching necessarily
embraces many subjects which are not indeed contrary to reason - for
that would be an impossibility - but so exalted that we can no more
attain them by our own reasoning than we can comprehend God as He
is in Himself. If there be so many things hidden and veiled by
nature, which no human ingenuity can explain, and yet which no man
in his senses can doubt, it would be an abuse of liberty to refuse
to accept those which are entirely above nature, because their
essence cannot be discovered. To reject dogma is simply to deny
Christianity. Our intellect must bow humbly and reverently 'unto
the obedience of Christ,' so that it be held captive by His
divinity and authority: 'bringing into captivity every
understanding unto the obedience of Christ' (2 Corinthians x., 5).
Such obedience Christ requires, and justly so. For He is God, and
as such holds supreme dominion over man's intellect as well as
over his will. By obeying Christ with his intellect man by no
means acts in a servile manner, but in complete accordance with
his reason and his natural dignity. For by his will he yields, not
to the authority of any man, but to that of God, the author of his
being, and the first principle to Whom he is subject by the very
law of his nature. He does not suffer himself to be forced by the
theories of any human teacher, but by the eternal and unchangeable
truth. Hence he attains at one and the same time the natural good
of the intellect and his own liberty. For the truth which proceeds
from the teaching of Christ clearly demonstrates the real nature
and value of every being; and man, being endowed with this
knowledge, if he but obey the truth as perceived, will make all
things subject to himself, not himself to them; his appetites to
his reason, not his reason to his appetites. Thus the slavery of
sin and falsehood will be shaken off, and the most perfect liberty
attained: 'You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free' (John viii., 32)." (Pope Leo XIII, "Tametsi Futura
Prospicientibus", 1900 A.D.)
"On
account therefore, dearly-beloved, of these crafty designs of our
ancient foe, the unspeakable goodness of Christ has wished us to
know, what was to be decreed about all mankind in the day of
retribution, that, while in this life healing remedies are
legitimately offered, while restoration is not denied to the
contrite, and those who have been long barren can at length be
fruitful, the verdict on which justice has determined may be
fore-stalled and the picture of God's coming to judge the world
never depart from the mind's eye. For the Lord will come in His
glorious Majesty, as He Himself has foretold, and there will be
with Him an innumerable host of angel-legions radiant in their
splendor. Before the throne of His power will all the nations of
the world be gathered; and all the men that in all ages and on all
the face of the earth have been born, shall stand in the Judge's
sight. Then shall be separated the just from the unjust, the
guiltless from the guilty; and when the sons of piety, their works
of mercy reviewed, have received the Kingdom prepared for them,
the unjust shall be upbraided for their utter barrenness, and
those on the left having naught in common with those on the right,
shall by the condemnation of the Almighty Judge be cast into the
fire prepared for the torture of the devil and his angels, with
him to share the punishment, whose will they choose to do. Who
then would not tremble at this doom of eternal torment? Who would
not dread evils which are never to be ended? But since this
severity is only denounced in order that we may seek for mercy, we
too in this present life must show such open-handed mercy that
after perilous neglect returning to works of piety it may be
possible for us to be set free from this doom. For this is the
purpose of the Judge's might and of the Savior's graciousness,
that the unrighteous may forsake his ways and the sinner give up
his wicked habits. Let those who wish Christ to spare them, have
mercy on the poor; let them give freely to feed the wretched, who
desire to attain to the society of the blessed. Let no man
consider his fellow vile, nor despise in any one that nature which
the Creator of the world made His own. For who that labors can
deny that Christ claims that labor as done unto Himself? Your
fellow-slave is helped thereby, but it is the Lord who will repay.
The feeding of the needy is the purchase money of the heavenly
kingdom and the free dispenser of things temporal is made the heir
of things eternal. But how has such small expenditure deserved to
be valued so highly except because our works are weighed in the
balance of love, and when a man loves what God loves, he is
deservedly raised into His kingdom, whose attribute of love has in
part become his?" (Pope St. Leo the Great, Doctor of the
Church)
"It
is true, Venerable Brethren, that in this arduous task of the
restoration of the human race in Christ neither you nor your
clergy should exclude all assistance. We know that God recommended
every one to have a care for his neighbor (Eccli. xvii., 12). For
it is not priests alone, but all the faithful without exception,
who must concern themselves with the interests of God and souls -
not, of course, according to their own views, but always under the
direction and orders of the bishops; for to no one in the Church
except you is it given to preside over, to teach, to 'govern the
Church of God which the Holy Ghost has placed you to rule' (Acts
xx., 28). Our predecessors have long since approved and blessed
those Catholics who have banded together in societies of various
kinds, but always religious in their aim. We, too, have no
hesitation in awarding Our praise to this great idea, and We
earnestly desire to see it propagated and flourish in town and
country. But We wish that all such associations aim first and
chiefly at the constant maintenance of Christian life, among those
who belong to them. For truly it is of little avail to discuss
questions with nice subtlety, or to discourse eloquently of rights
and duties, when all this is unconnected with practice. The times
we live in demand action - but action which consists entirely in
observing with fidelity and zeal the divine laws and the precepts
of the Church, in the frank and open profession of religion, in
the exercise of every kind of charitable works, without regard to
self-interest or worldly advantage. Such luminous examples given
by the great army of soldiers of Christ will be of much greater
avail in moving and drawing men than words and sublime
dissertations; and it will easily come about that when human
respect has been driven out, and prejudices and doubting laid
aside, large numbers will be won to Christ, becoming in their turn
promoters of His knowledge and love which are the road to true and
solid happiness. Oh! when in every city and village the law of the
Lord is faithfully observed, when respect is shown for sacred
things, when the Sacraments are frequented, and the ordinances of
Christian life fulfilled, there will certainly be no more need for
us to labor further to see all things restored in Christ. Nor is
it for the attainment of eternal welfare alone that this will be
of service - it will also contribute largely to temporal welfare
and the advantage of human society. For when these conditions have
been secured, the upper and wealthy classes will learn to be just
and charitable to the lowly, and these will be able to bear with tranquility
and patience the trials of a very hard lot; the
citizens will obey not lust but law, reverence and love will be
deemed a duty towards those that govern, 'whose power comes only
from God' (Rom. xiii., I). And then? Then, at last, it will be
clear to all that the Church, such as it was instituted by Christ,
must enjoy full and entire liberty and independence from all
foreign dominion; and We, in demanding that same liberty, are
defending not only the sacred rights of religion, but are also
consulting the common weal and the safety of nations. For it
continues to be true that 'piety is useful for all things' (I.
Tim. iv., 8) - when this is strong and flourishing 'the people
will' truly 'sit in the fullness of peace' (Is. xxxii., 18)." (Pope
Pius X, "E Supremi", 1903 A.D.)
"The
Son of God, redeemer of the human race, our lord Jesus Christ,
promised, when about to return to his heavenly Father, that he
would be with this Church Militant upon earth all days even to the
end of the world. Hence never at any time has he ceased to stand
by his beloved bride, assisting her when she teaches, blessing her
in her labors and bringing her help when she is in danger. Now
this redemptive providence appears very clearly in unnumbered
benefits, but most especially is it manifested in the advantages
which have been secured for the Christian world by ecumenical
councils, among which the council of Trent requires special
mention, celebrated though it was in evil days. Thence came 1. a
closer definition and more fruitful exposition of the holy dogmas
of religion and 2. the condemnation and repression of errors;
thence too, 3. the restoration and vigorous strengthening of
ecclesiastical discipline, 4. the advancement of the clergy in
zeal for learning and piety, 5. the founding of colleges for the
training of the young for the service of religion; and finally 6.
the renewal of the moral life of the Christian people by a more
accurate instruction of the faithful, and a more frequent
reception of the sacraments. What is more, thence also came 7. a
closer union of the members with the visible head, and an
increased vigor in the whole mystical body of Christ. Thence came
8. the multiplication of religious orders and other organizations
of Christian piety; thence too 9. that determined and constant
ardor for the spreading of Christ's kingdom abroad in the world,
even at the cost of shedding one's blood. While we recall with
grateful hearts, as is only fitting, these and other outstanding
gains, which the divine mercy has bestowed on the Church
especially by means of the last ecumenical synod, we cannot subdue
the bitter grief that we feel at most serious evils, which have
largely arisen either because the authority of the sacred synod
was held in contempt by all too many, or because its wise decrees
were neglected. Everybody knows that those heresies, condemned by
the fathers of Trent, which rejected the divine magisterium of the
Church and allowed religious questions to be a matter for the
judgment of each individual, have gradually collapsed into a
multiplicity of sects, either at variance or in agreement with one
another; and by this means a good many people have had all faith
in Christ destroyed. Indeed even the holy Bible itself, which they
at one time claimed to be the sole source and judge of the
Christian faith, is no longer held to be divine, but they begin to
assimilate it to the inventions of myth... With this impiety
spreading in every direction, it has come about, alas, that many
even among the children of the Catholic Church have strayed from
the path of genuine piety, and as the truth was gradually diluted
in them, their Catholic sensibility was weakened. Led away by
diverse and strange teachings and confusing nature and grace,
human knowledge and divine faith, they are found to distort the
genuine sense of the dogmas which holy mother Church holds and
teaches, and to endanger the integrity and genuineness of the
faith." (First Vatican Council)
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