The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

""42 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.married stale, we find in the Sacraments of Ordersand Matrimony, ample graces corresponding with thecondition of life which we have embraced.And our last illness is consoled by Extreme Unction, wherein we receive the divine succor necessaryto fortifyand purify us before departing from thisworld.In a word, the Church, like a watchful mother,accompanies us from the cradle to the grave, supplying us at each step with the medicine of life andimmortality.As the Church offers to her children the strongestmotives and the most powerful means -for attainingto sanctity of life, so does she reap among themthe most abundant fruits of holiness. In every ageand country she is the fruitful mother of saints.Our Ecclesiastical calendar is not confined to thenames of the twelve Apostles. It is emblazonedwith the lists of heroic martyrs who were storied,and cut asunder, and put to death by the sword ;of innumerable confessors and hermits who left allthings and followed Christ ;of spotless virgins whoof heaven spreserved their chastity for the kingdomsake. Every day in the isyear consecrated in ourMartyrology to a large number of saints.And in our own times, in every quarter of theglobe and in every department of life, the Churchcontinues to raise up saints worthy of the primitivedays of Christianity.Heh xi. 37.