The Faith of Our Fathers

ess Of Th

Church; for in the Creed we say, "I

vance their temporal interests; and a third for the purpose of promoting literary pursuits. The Catholic Church is a society founded by our Lord Jesus Christ for t

he Sacraments He has instituted-all tend to our sanctification. They all concentre themselves

hold the sublime Model that is placed before us! It is not man, nor angel, nor [pg 017] archangel, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, "who is the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance."31 The Church places His image over our altars, admonishing us

but we are reminded that it has annexed to it a corresponding obligation. It is not an idle name, but one full of solemn significance; for a Christian, as the very name implies, is a follower or disciple of Christ-one who walks in the footsteps of his Master by observing His precepts; who reproduces in his own life the ch

, that His blood might purify us? If He sent forth Apostles to preach the Gospel to the whole world; if in His name temples are built in every nation, and missionaries are sent to the extremities of the globe, all this is done that we may be Saints. "God," says St. Paul, "gave some Apost

n is the highest and holiest standard of perfection ever presente

e and consoling lessons of morality which Jesus gave on the Mount-these are the lessons which the Church teaches from January till December. The Catholic preacher do

e said: "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt tell them to thy children;

ough they had the riches of Dives, and the glory and pleasures of Solomon, and yet fail to be righteous, they have missed their vocation, and are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."38 "For, what doth it profit a man, if he gain the who

igor of God's judgments, who "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest t

ose lives are there recorded serve like bright stars to guide them over the stormy ocean of life to the shores of eternity; while the history of those

d without spiritual profit such works as the almost inspired Following of Christ by Thomas à Kempis; the Christian Perfection of

yrs. You lay down Butler with a sweet and tranquil devotion, and with a profound admiration for the Christian heroes whose lives he records; while you put aside Foxe with a troubled mind and a sense of vindictive bitterness. I do not speak of the Book o

ite books of devotion were our standard works of piety. In saying this, he paid a

the Sacraments. She exhorts us to frequent communion with God by prayer and meditation, and so imperative is this obligation in our eyes that we woul

His bone and flesh of His flesh;" "for as many of you," says the Apostle, "as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ."40 And as the Holy Ghost is inseparable from Christ, our bodies are made the temples of the Spirit of God and our souls His Sanctuary. "Christ loved t

races and new strength to battle

d with the living Bread wh

way the stains we have

we find in the Sacraments of Orders and Matrimony ample graces

wherein we receive the Divine succor necessary to f

accompanies us from the cradle to the grave, supplying u

mother of saints. Our Ecclesiastical calendar is not confined to the names of the twelve Apostles. It is emblazoned with the lists of heroic Martyrs who "were stoned, and cut asunder, and put to death by the sword;"42 of innumerabl

in every department of life, the Church continues to rai

g the Bishops of Germany, who are now displaying in pris

c missioners who die Martyrs to the Faith

amily ties, annually go forth to preach the Gospel in foreign lands. Their worldly

m a life of shame, and bringing them back to the sweet influences of religion; who snatch the abandoned offspring of sin from temporal and spiritual death, and make them

ound who exhibit a fervent piety and a zeal for religion which render them worthy of being named after the Annas, the Aquilas and the Priscillas of the

professing Catholics. We cannot close our eyes to the painful fact that too many of them, far from living up to the teachings of their Church, are sources of melancholy scandal. "It must be that sca

ience. To all He says by the mouth of His Prophet: "Behold [pg 024] I set before you

disowns them as her children. The Church is animated by the spirit of her Founder, Jesus Christ. He "came into this world to save sinners."44 He "came not to call the jus

w grievous or notorious may be their moral delinquencies; not because she connives at their sin, but because she wishes to reclai

ender compassion for the victims of poverty, which has its train of peculiar temptations and infirmities

testant Communions. And as for the poor, the public press often complains that little or no provision is made for them in Protestant Chu

descriptive of this Church which our Lord employed also clearly teach us that the good and bad shall be joined together in the Church as long as her earthly mission lasts. The kingdom of God is like a field in which the cockle is allowed to grow up wit

as in that, so in this there are men of every race and character. As in that were the leopard and the kids, the wolf and the lambs,

are mingled with the bad, the reprobate with the elect, it is rig

clean and unclean animals, and you will see that the Church from [pg 026] now until the judgment day contains not only sheep and oxen-that is, saintly laymen and holy minis

of her "who cometh forth as the morning star, fair as the moon, bright as the sun."52 The cockle that grows amidst the wheat does not destroy the beauty of the ripened harvest. The sanctity of Jesus was not sullied by the presence of Ju

xteenth century to such an extent as to call for a sweeping refor

inst iniquity within the Church; for there was not a single weapon which men could use in waging war with vice outside the Church, which they could not wield with more effective power when fighting under the author

of sanctification. With the weapons I have named she purified morals in the first century, and with the same weapons she went to work wi

ecrees are directed to the reformation of abuses among the clergy and the l

p of Braga, in Portugal, preached an incessant crusade against iniquity in high and low places. St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Alphonsus, with their companions, were conspicuous and successful reformer

the fruit or their labors? The private lives of these pseudo-reformers were stained by cruelty, rapine, and licentiousness; and [pg 028] as the result of

ens fly from the citadel which they had vowed to defend; then joining the enemy, they hasten back to fan the conflagration, and to increase the commotion. And th

they would be hailed as true soldiers of the cross. They would be welcomed by the Pope, the Bishops and clergy, and by all good men. They might be honored today on our altars, and might have a niche in our temples, side by side with those o

g