Spiritual Food for Thought

We confess that there is only one Church which is holy, catholic and apostolic. All those who have truly loved the Church have known how to relate these four marks to the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, which is the most ineffable mystery of our faith...

We need to meditate frequently on the fact that the Church is a deep, great mystery, so that we never forget it...

Let us strengthen our faith in the supernatural character of the Church. Let us profess it with shouts, if necessary, for there are many, physically within the Church and even in high places, who have forgotten these capital truths. They try to propose an image of the Church which is neither holy nor one. Neither would it be apostolic since it is not founded on the rock of Peter. Their substance is not catholic, because it is riddled with unwarranted irregularities which are mere human caprices...

Faith. We need faith. If we look with the eyes of faith, we will see that the Church carries within herself the explanation for her existence and purpose. Anyone who contemplates her with eyes filled with love for the truth, must recognize that, quite independently of those who are her members and the ways in which the reality that is the Church is expressed in the material world, she carries within herself a unique and universal message of light, which is liberating, necessary and divine. (Leo XIII, "Divinum illud munus")

We cannot but help feel sadness invade our soul when we hear heretical voices around us. And that is what they are, for I have never liked euphemisms. We see that the sanctity of marriage and of the priesthood is attacked without fear of rebuke. We see people deny the immaculat econception and the perpetual virginity of our holy mother Mary, along with all the other privileges and gifts with which God adorned her. We see the perpetual miracle of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the primacy of Peter and even the resurrection of our Lord put in doubt. How can anyone not feel tempted to sadness? Have confidence, for the Church is incorruptible. The Church will shake if her foundation shifts; but can Christ be moved? As long as Christ remains her immovable base, the Church will remain strong until the end of time. (Paul VI, 23 June 1966)

~St. Josemaria Escriva

Taken from his homily The Supernatural Aim of the Church, 28 May 1972, Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity.