Thursday, October 26 : Saint John Henry Newman

The Church has scandals, she has a reproach, she has a shame: no Catholic will deny it. She has ever had the reproach and shame of being the mother of children unworthy of her. She has good children;—she has many more bad… God might have formed a pure Church; but He has expressly predicted that the cockle, sown by the enemy, shall remain with the wheat, even to the harvest at the end of the world. He pronounced that His Church should be like a fisher’s net, “gathering fish of every kind,” and not examined till the evening (Mt 13,47f.). Nay, more than this, He declared that the bad and imperfect should far surpass the good. “Many are called,” He said, “but few are chosen” (Mt 22,14); and His Apostle speaks of “a remnant saved according to the election of grace” (Rom 11,5). There is ever, then, an abundance of materials in the lives and the histories of Catholics ready to the use of her opponents… But we do not bury our faces in our hands, we raise our hands and our faces to our Redeemer. “As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us” (Ps 123[122],2)… To Thee do we appeal, O true Judge, for Thou seest us. We care not for man while we have Thee…, while we have Thy presence in our assemblies, and Thy witness and Thy approval in our hearts.
maronite readings – rosary,team