The Complete Manual of Catholic Piety: Containing a Selection of Fervent Prayers, Pious Reflection, and Solid Instructions, Adapted to Every State of Life. To Which is Annexed a Supplement, Containing Excellent and Approved Devotions, With the Epistles and Gospels for All the Sundays and Festivals of the Year.Gahan, William
Religion
The Complete Manual of Catholic Piety: Containing a Selection of Fervent Prayers, Pious Reflection, and Solid Instructions, Adapted to Every State of Life. To Which is Annexed a Supplement, Containing Excellent and Approved Devotions, With the Epistles and Gospels for All the Sundays and Festivals of the Year.
Gahan, William
Catholic Church -- Liturgy; Catholic Church -- Prayers and devotions -- English
_"I believe in the Holy Ghost._"--Let us now meditate on the
great work of our sanctification, which is particularly
attributed to the Holy Ghost, the third person of the ever
blessed Trinity; because he is the love of the Father and the
Son, and because it is from God's love to us that all sanctity,
all grace, all justification and virtue flow. For which reason
the apostle says, "the charity of God is poured into our hearts
by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us." We first receive the Holy
Ghost, and are made his living temples at the font of baptism,
and afterwards we receive him in a more perfect manner in the
sacrament of confirmation, &c.
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O what a happiness it is to possess this divine and heavenly
guest in our souls! and how solicitous should we be to invite him
into our hearts, to engage him to stay with us, and to make our
souls his dwelling-place for time and eternity! Let us devoutly
implore this greatest of blessings; saying, "Our Father," &c.
"Hail Mary," &c.
Ninth Article.
"_The holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints_."--We
are now to meditate on the infinite goodness and mercy of God,
who, by a special grace, has vouchsafed to call us to the light
of his true and saving faith, and to include us within the pale
and bosom of his One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, in
preference to so many thousands in different parts of the world,
left in ignorance, or buried in the darkness of error and
infidelity. This grace of our vocation is so signal a blessing,
that it calls upon us for our most grateful acknowledgments, and
will render us more culpable at the last day than pagans or
infidels, if, instead of living up to our holy profession, we
dishonour it by the immorality of our lives.
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On the contrary, if we square our actions according to our
belief; if we show the purity of our religion by the purity of
our morals, and live as becomes worthy members of the Catholic
Church, we shall assuredly be made partakers of all spiritual
blessings and treasures thereof, and benefit by all the prayers,
sacrifices, and good works, which are wrought therein by our
fellow-members; for as there subsists a common union between all
the parts of the human body, there subsists, in like manner, a
common or general union in spirituals between all the parts of
Christ's mystical body, the holy Catholic Church. O what an
inestimable blessing then must it be, to live and die in the
communion of his church! and, on the contrary, what a grievous
loss and misfortune to be cut off therefrom by excommunication,
like rotten and dead members separated from a natural body by
amputation! Let us beware of incurring the like misfortune, and
beseech the Almighty to grant us grace to be always obedient
hearers of the pastors of his church, those spiritual guides to
whom he has committed the care of our souls; saying for this end,
"Our Father," &c. "Hail Mary," &c.
Tenth Article.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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