9781644135945

The Light of the World
fidelity to Him. In communion with Him we shall find the right way to heaven under His
loving protection and guidance.
Prayer
O almighty and eternal God, who in the abundance of Thy loving kindness art wont to give
beyond the deserts and desires of those who humbly pray; pour down upon us Thy mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and granting us those blessings
which we dare not presume to ask. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tuesday
“God in His holy place; God who maketh men of one mind to dwell in a house” (Introit). The
Lord guides those who are of one mind towards their eternal destiny in His Father’s house. You
are “one body and one spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith,
one baptism” (Eph 4:4 f.); the unity of God’s Church is founded on the unity of the faith (Epistle).
“I make known unto you the gospel which I preached to you” (Epistle). The Apostle wishes to
assure the Corinthians: You have accepted the gospel; you stand by it staunchly; you want to
keep it, thus saving your souls; but if it does not lead you to eternal happiness, you have accepted
it in vain. “I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day”
(Epistle). The whole structure of our faith depends on the fact of Christ’s resurrection. What
leads us to heaven and matters most of all is our faith. We must have blind faith in the gospel as
preached by the apostles and announced to us by the Church. There is but “one faith.” In this
matter the Church admits no different opinion. What God has revealed to us and what Christ
the Lord in His gospel or through His apostles and His Church has required us to believe, we
must accept with unquestioning faith. Reason must give its assent to supernatural truth. As
children of the Church we give our assent, even in the twentieth century, to the immutable
teachings of God, of Christ, and of His Church. We accept the sacraments, Holy Scripture, belief
in eternal life and the resurrection, just as did the early Christians of Jerusalem and Rome, of
Corinth and Ephesus, of Philippi and Thessalonike. There is no difference between our faith
today and the faith of antiquity, when persecution made so many glorious martyrs. It is the same
faith whether it is preached to the people of Europe, America, Africa, or Australia; there is but
one creed in all the languages of the world, one Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, which the
Church confesses with all her children everywhere. To those who are of one mind the Lord
gives a dwelling in His holy place in heaven. In this one faith of the Church, if we accept it, we
shall gain life eternal, providing that we live up to it after the manner preached to us by Christ
and His apostles. The one faith of the Church is, therefore, the only way to our Father’s house.
“You stand . . . in the gospel which I preached to you” (Epistle). In today’s Epistle the
Church expresses her concern that we stand in the faith which we once accepted and to which
we swore fidelity at our baptism. In the ages of faith Catholics felt as safe in their faith as a child
walking at the side of its mother. To them God’s existence admitted no doubt; He was near at
hand like an earthly father. Christ with His saints was near at hand like a friend and brother;
the Church had a place in their everyday life, and they loved her like a mother. The will of God
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