Thursday, October 3 : Saint Pius X

“No one,” the Apostle admonishes us, “can lay other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Cor 3:11). It is Christ alone “whom the Father sanctified and sent into this world” (Jn 10:36), “the splendor of the Father and the image of His substance” (Heb 1:3), true God and true man: without whom nobody can know God with the knowledge for salvation, “neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27). Hence it follows that to restore all things in Christ and to lead men back to submission to God is one and the same aim. To this, then, it behoves Us to devote Our care – to lead back mankind under the dominion of Christ; this done, We shall have brought it back to God. When We say “to God” We do not mean to that inert being heedless of all things human which the dream of certain philosophers has imagined, but to the true and living God, one in nature, triple in person, Creator of the world, most wise Ordainer of all things, Lawgiver most just, who punishes the wicked and has reward in store for virtue. Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the Church. Rightly does Chrysostom inculcate: “The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge.” It was for this that Christ founded it, gaining it at the price of His blood, and made it the depositary of His doctrine and His laws, bestowing upon it at the same time an inexhaustible treasury of graces for the sanctification and salvation of men. You see, then, Venerable Brethren, the duty that has been imposed upon Us…:? To form Christ in those who are destined from the duty of their vocation to form Him in others… It is the same mission… as that which Paul proclaimed in these tender words: “My little children, of whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19). But how will they be able to perform this duty if they be not first clothed with Christ themselves? and so clothed with Christ as to be able to say with the Apostle: “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team