The Catholic World, Vol. 25, April 1877 to September 1877Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 25, April 1877 to September 1877
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
“But it is just here that she betrays her weakness; for when it is a
practical question of undertaking and nourishing this spiritual
life, where can she go to seek the living words, the sermons, the
books, the apostolic men whom she requires? Where and from what
source can one draw the vital force of this true and daily life, of
this _living_ life, if I may hazard the expression, always similar
to itself, yet unceasingly renovated like the seasons of the year?
Where can this vivifying influence be found, except in that same
Catholic Church which, although it makes the mind bend under the
necessary and salutary yoke of authority, never permits uniformity
to engender tediousness, and possesses in its completeness that
deposit a part of which the Greek Church suffered to escape on the
day when it broke the bond of unity? Since then, although apparently
rich, she has remained empty-handed; and while the Basils, the
Athanasiuses, the Gregories, the Chrysostoms, and the numerous other
holy and immortal doctors have had immortal successors in the
Occident, the church of the Orient, once queen of eloquence and
science, has become mute; and her children know not to-day whether
she can speak or even write, since it is not given to them to hear
her any more break silence; and, if they would warm up their piety
by holy reading, and give their minds the sustenance they require,
they are forced to have recourse to the Catholic Church, since it is
there alone they can find their necessary aliment. Truly, we cannot
help thinking that if the barrier which separates Greeks from
Catholics were not upheld by hatred, it must fall down in an
instant. This hatred is something which has no argument whatever in
its justification, and which accepts, in behalf of the church which
it covers as a shield of defence, the very conditions of death,
immobility and silence, in lieu of a living existence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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