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Show T The Catholic who has never felt his heart warm and expand with thrilling emotions of love and veneration at the mention of his Church must be possessed of a torpid mind and frigid affections. He is essentially a pagan: for the man who does not love God can have no vital conception of the Supreme Being. A knowledge of God that does not elicit sentiments of ardent love and devotion is devoid of that soul-consciousness which alone renders faith vital and effective. And so with reference to Holy Church. To passively accord to her a nominal allegiance, devoid of all sentiment of ardent devotion, is to proclaim oneself a Christian in name only. A ''Christian" who lores not God is an anomally, and a Catholic who can regard his Church with a sentiment of indifference cannot be animated, in his heart, by a vitalizing love of God: for is not the Church really our only means of knowing and loving God? If she is not, in the divine economy, the absolutely necessary mediator between the Creator and the creature, it nevertheless neverthe-less remains true that she was instituted by Christ as the means of salvation under His loving dispensation, dis-pensation, and is the means placed at our command com-mand for holding communion with God, through her sacraments and sacrifices. What knowledge could we, of today, possess of the loving prone. hue of God save that which is vouchsafed us by Holy Church! As therefore we esteem and cherish the love of God and the blessed privilege of loving Him, shall we not love and cherish the Church with an ardent and abiding love that is His devoted de-voted sponsor and our divinely ordained media- j tor? A. Look pleasant! Our smiles are as sunshine inspiring in-spiring and gladdening to the hearts of our fel-lowmen. fel-lowmen. whilst a countenance disfigured by frown j or scowl strikes dismay io. or engenders resent- j ment in. the hearts of those who are so unfortunate j to to behold it. . ; If it saddens, dismays or irritates us to behold, be-hold, on the countenances of our friends or associates, asso-ciates, indications of distress or displeasure, should we not carefully guard against inflicting pain upon them by such manifestation? If we' feel that we must relieve our sorrow or distress burdened luar.ts by coufid-nrj- in another, let us carefully choose our subject, time and cir- j cmnstanoe. To thus parade our mental burdens in the sipht of our fellowmen that all may see and j pity will but add to their grievousness, by making manifest the poverty of human sympathv and rendering ourselves repugnant to all with whom wo come in contact. There is but one Being who will never weary of our loving plaints: it is always safe never amiss to appeal for sympathy and solace to the infinitely loving God of our hearts. . -y- Even the affections of the heart are subject in the will of man. Having been taught by expe.-i 'iiee i that some heart-emotions are sweet and pL'.iiRiit whilst others cause us pain and sorrow, let us nurture nur-ture the one and banish the other. Love and sympathy sym-pathy are always grateful; hatred or aversion al-wavs al-wavs painful. Wisdom, therefore, as well as the precepts of Christ, counsels universal good will among the children of God. 4 Duty, like death, enters every abode and delivers de-livers its message;.- Conscience, like reason and judgment, is universal. Bancroft. |