The first thing that is necessary for every Christian is faith, without which no one is truly called a faithful Christian. Faith brings about four good effects. The first is that through faith the soul is united to God, and by it there is between the soul and God a union akin to marriage.
➡️“I will espouse you in faith” [Hosea 2:20].
When a man is baptized the first question that is asked him is: “Do you believe in God?” This is because Baptism is the first Sacrament of faith. Hence, the Lord said:
➡️“He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” [Mk 16:16].
Baptism without faith is of no value. Indeed, it must be known that no one is acceptable before God unless he have faith.
➡️“Without faith it is impossible to please God” [Heb 11:6].
St. Augustine explains these words of St. Paul, “All that is not of faith is sin” [Rom 14:23], in this way:
➡️“Where there is no knowledge of the eternal and unchanging Truth, virtue even in the midst of the best moral life is false.”

This error finds no support in Matthew’s statement that Joseph “knew her not” i.e., Mary, “till she brought forth her first-born Son”; as tho he knew her after she gave birth to Christ. The word “till” in this text does not signify definite time but indicates indeterminate time.

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Sacred Scripture frequently asserts with emphasis that something was done or not done up to a certain time, as long as the issue could remain in doubt. Thus we read in Psalm 109:1: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”

1/ Beauty is the same as goodness, differing only in concept. Since goodness is what all things desire, it is of the nature of goodness that the appetite finds rest in it.





2/ However, it belongs to the concept of beauty that the appetite finds rest in the contemplation or apprehension of it. Hence, those senses which are most cognitive, namely sight and hearing, are especially related to beauty.

This present life is a battle waged by soldiers who live in a camp: “The life of man on earth is a war” (Job 7:1). And so the place where the faithful live is called a camp. And the Church is like a camp: “This is the camp of God” (Gen 32:2). This camp is attacked in three ways. First, by those aggressors who openly rise against the Church.

Secondly, this camp is deceitfully undermined by heretics.

Thirdly, it is attacked by some of its own members who have become depraved from sins that spring from the corruption of the flesh.

There are three possible ways to think of love of one’s enemies:

First, that one’s enemies are loved insofar as they are enemies. This is perverse and contrary to charity, since it is to love what is bad in the other person. /1 Second, love of one’s enemies can be understood as directed toward the nature in general. And love of one’s enemies in this sense necessarily belongs to charity, so that, namely, one who loves God and neighbor does not exclude his enemies from the general love of one’s neighbor/2

Among all the things in this world, there seems to be nothing more worth pursuing than friendship. Friendship unites good men and preserves and promotes virtue. Friendship is needed by all men in whatsoever occupations they engage. /1 In prosperity friendship does not thrust itself unwanted upon us, nor does it desert us in adversity. It is what brings the greatest delight such that all that pleases becomes weary when friends are absent, and all difficult things become easy and as nothing by love. /2

Jesus said: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. As if to say: You think it is impossible and unbecoming to eat my flesh. But it is not only possible, but very necessary /1 so much so that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have, i.e., you will not be able to have, life in you, that is, spiritual life. /2

Note that there are several kinds of freedom: There is a perverted freedom, when one abuses his freedom in order to sin. There is a freedom from justice, a freedom that no one is compelled to keep: "Be free, and do not make your freedom a cloak for evil," as we read in 1 Peter (2:16).

The twelve degrees of pride mentioned by Bernard of Clairvaux are set off against the twelve degrees of humility. /0 The first degree of humility is to "be humble in heart, and to show it in one's very person, one's eyes fixed on the ground": and to this is opposed "curiosity," which consists in looking around in all directions curiously and inordinately. /1