From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

December 21st - St. Thomas

Reflections.
I. St. Thomas, for three years, accompanied Christ our Lord; was
present at His divine instructions; saw the many miracles He wrought;
and yet became incredulous and remained so for eight days, and might
have remained still longer, had not Christ mercifully restored his
faith. Go, O man, and build upon your own strength, or if you have
lived piously for some time, imagine you are secure against falling!
Oh! how foolish, how presumptuous you are! That which happened to an
apostle may surely happen to you. The sad fall of our holy Apostle,
ought not, however, to make you despondent or fearful; it ought only
to incite you not to trust too much in your own strength, but to walk continually in the fear of the Lord, and to pray to Him daily, that He
may give you the grace not to offend Him, but to remain constant in
His service If you remain continually in the fear of the Lord, you
will walk carefully and not fall into any great sin. For, it is
written: "The fear of the Lord is unto life; and he shall abide in
fullness without being visited with evil," (without falling into sin.) (Proverbs, xix.) Tertullian writes: "Fear is the foundation of our
salvation. Whoever fears is careful. Through fear we shall become
careful, and through carefulness we shall be saved. Whoever is careful
is sure." If we cease to fear God, then we are near falling, even if
we have reached the highest pinnacle of perfection. This the Holy
Ghost indicates in the following words: "Unless thou hold thyself
diligently in the fear of the Lord, thy house shall quickly be
overthrown." (Eccles. xxvii.)

II. Thomas is called unbelieving by Christ, although he disbelieved
only one article, the resurrection. Hence, it is clear that he who
doubts, or rejects only one article of faith, cannot be counted among
true Catholics, although he believes all the others. A Catholic must
believe every truth revealed by the Almighty, be it great or small, as
God cannot fail either in small things or great. The offence which we
do to God by denying even the smallest article of faith, is as great
as if we denied an important one, or all of them together; for, it is
just as if we said: God has been deceived, or He has deceived us in
revealing this article. Whether this is said of great and important
articles, or of one that is small, makes but little difference; or if
we desire to make a difference, we must say that it is a greater
offence to God to ascribe to Him a fault in a small matter than in a
great; for, what can be more blasphemous than to maintain that the
Almighty has been deceived in a trifling matter, or that He intends to
deceive us? They should ponder on this, who sometimes entertain doubts
about an article of faith, or even go so far as to say that in some
matters, they agree with non-Catholics, and consider them right. These
are no longer Catholics. Their faith is lost; and if they do not
repent, as St. Thomas did, they will go to perdition, because they are incredulous. They are disobedient who obey nine of the Commandments
but not the tenth. What is the fate of the incredulous? Christ Himself
pointed it out when He said: "Who believes not in the Son, will not
see life, but the wrath of God will remain with him." (John viii.)


Saint Quote:
''Be assured that we shall obtain more grace and merit in one day by
suffering patiently the afflictions that come to us from God or from
our neighbor than we would acquire in ten years by mortifications and
other exercises that are of our own choice."
--St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church, 1567-1622

Bible Quote:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides
that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said
before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides
that which you have received, let him be anathema.=C2 (Galatians 1:8-9)


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Prayer Against Envy

O my God, Thou so lovest the world that Thou gaveth Thy only begotten
Son so that all who believe in Thee might not perish, but may have
eternal life. Thou maketh the sun rise upon the good and the bad, and
Thou raineth upon the just and the unjust. Yet I am filled with
jealousy while others prosper. I want everything to come to me, and I
am saddened by my neighbor's least good fortune! O what inhuman
malice! O infernal poison! Forgive, o most loving Father what up to
this point has been my sin. Gentle is Thy mercy. From the depths of
that mercy, grant that henceforth I may be robed in kindness as a
chosen one of God. May I also, above all, strive to have charity,
which is the bond of perfection. (Col. 3:14)

Ant. Remember not, Lord, my offenses, nor the offenses of my fathers,
nor takest Thou vengeance upon them.

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* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)