This is very beautiful. We are so very blessed to belong to the One,
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church!
May we never take it for granted, but nurture
our love for it each day! It is from
the Catholic Girl's Guide and is written
for young ladies. But it is inspiring for all!
The Sunflower— Faith
1. There is a flower which possesses this
peculiarity, that it turns constantly
to the sun, following it in its course; on this account
it is called the sunflower.
Our faith may be compared to this flower, since its gaze
is ever fixed above, and turned toward the glorious sun of
divine truth. The first flower in the maiden's
blooming garland of virtues is and ought to be
the faith of which we speak. For this faith, a
clear, living, steadfast, unalterable faith is supremely
necessary and all important for the maiden, es-
pecially in the present day. Therefore make it
the subject of your present meditation, my child,
and consider first how great a blessing it is to
possess the one true, Catholic faith.
2. Our Lord said upon one occasion: "Blessed
are they that have not seen and have believed."
Why did He thus speak? Why are those blessed
who possess the true faith?
The first reason is this: by faith we please God.
The desire for happiness is deeply implanted in
every human breast, and the history of mankind
is merely the recital of a ceaseless search for
happiness. But where is man to find happiness,
and where alone?
The following lines will tell you:
Would you be happy, this is the way:
Please God and do His will day by day;
Saint-like your duty do; fervently pray.
3. Note well that we must strive to be pleasing
to God, and it is only by believing in Him that we
can please Him. This is so true that the Apostle
Paul says expressly: " Without faith it is impossible
to please God."
And if you wish to understand
the matter more clearly, reflect upon the relation
in which you stand to your earthly father. When
do you please him best, when do you honor him
most? Is it not when you believe in him most
firmly, and show a childlike confidence in him?
And how much more is this the case in regard to
your heavenly Father, our Lord and God. For
it is the will of the eternal Father that we should
believe what He once taught and commanded us
by the voice of His Son, and now continues to
teach us by the voice of holy Church.
And if St.Paul says: "This is the will of God, your sancti-
fication," it is also the will of God that we should be-
lieve in Him, for faith is the beginning, foundation,
and root of all righteousness. Therefore when
we believe in God we do His will, and by so doing
we please Him, and are ourselves rendered happy.
4. Our holy Catholic faith is the source of our
greatest happiness even while we are yet on earth.
Simply reflect upon a few ordinary events of life.
What is the brightest and happiest day of one's -
life?
You know quite well; for you are reminded
of it every year, when you see a procession of
children entering the church, their heads adorned
with wreaths, their faces beaming with joy.
Do you not feel deeply, yet not without a certain tinge
of melancholy, that the day of your first communion
was the brightest and happiest day of your life?
Yet would the external solemnity, the magnificent
ceremonial of Catholic worship alone make so deep
an impression upon the heart? Is it not rather
our holy Catholic faith, which enables us to appre-
ciate the beauty, and understand the happiness of
the pure and innocent soul of the girl, who is
privileged to enter, for the first time, into the
closest union with the Author of life, with the
supreme Good, with the Source of all happiness,
that is, with God Himself?
5. We will take another example. Have you
perhaps beheld a pious and believing Catholic
mother at the moment of her greatest happiness,
her highest joy, a moment when her heart would
adopt as its own the language of the Magnificat, and
her eyes weep tears of joy? But when and where
was this?
Was it perhaps on the day when her child
approached for the first time the table of the
Lord with a pure and innocent soul, and a heart
filled with the love of God? No, it was not then.
Was it on the wedding-day of her son or daughter?
It was not on this occasion either. There is yet
another day which comprises in itself the happi-
ness of both the others. The greatest joy, the
highest happiness of the pious Catholic mother,
is experienced on the day when the bells ring out
from the church tower with gladsome yet solemn
voice, calling the faithful to enter the sacred edifice,
whither a devout and expectant throng is hastening,
and where her son, the most promising of all her
children, is about to ascend the steps of the altar,
in order to offer for the first time the spotless Lamb
of God to the Eternal Father. What is the source
of this happiness and joy? In the heart of a pious
Mother it can be nothing but the holy Catholic
faith, which teaches her that her son is now the
representative of Christ, and that he can win so
many souls for heaven, and save so many poor
sinners from hell.
6. But this happiness is vouchsafed only to a
few mortals. If it is true that sorrow and suffering
enter into the life of every child of man, and if
it is equally true that the poor human heart needs
some solid consolation amid grief and tribulation,
in this case also it is the Catholic faith which is
able to supply this consolation, and which can
impart peace of mind under every form of sorrow
and suffering.
You, my daughter, know as yet but little of sorrow
and suffering. But ask those — and their number
is large indeed — who have often and painfully
felt that this world is a valley of tears, ask them
what has sustained them in their darkest hours of
sorrow and suffering, what has poured the healing
balm of consolation into their wounded hearts,
and even enabled them to rejoice in tribulation.
Ask them, and they will tell you that it is faith which
has done all this.
7. And what will faith do in the decisive moment,
the supreme and terrible moment of death? When
the mother of Melancthon was lying on her death-
bed, she suddenly opened her eyes and asked her
son, who was standing beside her, whether she
should keep to the ancient Catholic faith or embrace
the new one, that of Martin Luther, as he had done.
With deep emotion Melancthon, though himself
an apostate, replied as follows: "Dear mother,
keep to your ancient, Catholic faith. The new-
faith is indeed easier to live by, but the old faith
is easier and happier to die by."
Listen attentively to this, my daughter, and never forget
that the Catholic faith renders death easier and happier.
Cling therefore closely to this holy faith, never
relinquish it, but prize it highly, prize it above
everything else, as your happiness and consolation
both in life and in death.
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