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200.1 First Point
Consider that since you should be working in your ministry for the
building of the Church on the foundation which has been laid by the holy
apostles by the instruction you are giving to the children whom God
has entrusted to your care and who are entering into the construction
of this building,[i]
you must do your work as the apostles carried out their ministry.
As told in the Acts of the Apostles, every day both in
the temple and in homes, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming Jesus
Christ.[ii]
It followed that every day the Lord increased the number of faithful
and the union of those who were being saved.[iii]
The zeal that the holy apostles had to announce the
teaching of Jesus Christ caused the number of disciples to increase, so
they chose seven deacons to distribute the alms to the faithful and take
care of their other needs,[iv]
so greatly did these holy apostles fear to find any obstacles able to
distract them from preaching the word of God.
If the holy apostles acted this way, it was because Jesus
Christ had given them the example, for it is said of him that he was
teaching every day in the temple where all the people listened to him with
attention,[v]
and at night he would withdraw and go to pray on the Mount of Olives.[vi]
You, then, who have succeeded the apostles in their work of
catechizing and instructing the poor, if you want to make your ministry as
useful to the Church as it can be, you must every day, teach them
catechism, helping them learn the basic truths of our religion, following
the example of the apostles, which is that of Jesus Christ himself, who
devoted himself every day to this task.
Like them, also, you must afterwards withdraw in
order to devote yourselves to reading and prayer, to instruct yourselves
thoroughly in the truths and the holy maxims which you wish to teach, and
to draw upon yourselves by prayer the grace of God that you need to do
this work according to the Spirit and the intention of the Church, which
entrusts it to you.
200.2 Second Point
It
would have been of little use if the holy apostles had instructed the
first Christians in the essential truths of our religion, if they did not
lead them to live the Christian way of life and conform to what they
themselves had lived with Jesus Christ. The apostles were not satisfied
with teaching doctrine, but they had a marvelous care to bring the first
Christians to practice their religion.
God blessed their care in such a way that it is said that
those who first received the faith persevered in the teaching of the
apostles, in the communion of the breaking of bread, and in prayers, and
they continued to go to the temple every day united in the same spirit.[vii]
In other words, after they were baptized they were living in harmony with
the teaching of the apostles.
Following his conversion Saint Paul did the same, for it is
said of him that after instructing the people of Ephesus for three
months in the Jewish synagogue, he then taught every day in the
school of a man named Tyrannus, and continued this practice for two years,[viii]
with the result that
the disciples of that
city were baptized in the name of the Lord and received the Holy Spirit
through the laying on of hands.[ix]
The chief care, then, of the apostles, after instructing
the first faithful, was to have them receive the sacraments, assemble for
prayer together, and live according to the Christian spirit.
Above everything else, this is what you are obliged to do
in your work. In imitation of the apostles you must give an altogether
special care that those whom you instruct receive the sacraments, in
particular, that they are made ready to receive Confirmation with the
proper dispositions in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the
graces which this sacrament produces. You must see to it that they go to
confession often after learning how to do this well. You must dispose them
to receive their first Communion with holy dispositions and to receive
Communion frequently thereafter in order to be able to preserve the grace
they received the first time they performed this action.
Oh! if you knew the great good that you do for them by
procuring the preservation and increase of grace by their frequent use of
the sacraments, you would never let up instructing them about this!
200.3 Third Point
Saint James says, If someone says that he has the faith and that he
does not have the works, of what use to him is his faith; can it save him?[x]
What would it benefit you, then, to teach your disciples the truths of the
faith, if you do not teach them to practice good works? For faith that
is not accompanied by works is dead.[xi]
It will not, then, be enough for you to have instructed
your disciples about the mysteries and the truths of our holy religion, if
you have not helped them learn the chief Christian virtues, and if you
have not taken an altogether special care to help them put these virtues
into practice, as well as all the good of which they are capable at their
age. For no matter how much faith they may have, nor how lively it may be,
if they do not commit themselves to practice good works, their faith will
be of no use to them.
You must especially teach this maxim to those whom you
instruct if you want to put them on the road to heaven, so that you are
able to say to them, you have acted in a way that is beyond reproach and
it is this that has given consolation to us.[xii]
Inspire them also with piety and self-control[xiii]
in church and in the exercises of piety you have them perform in the
schools. Instill in them the innocence and humility[xiv]
that Our Lord recommends so strongly in the Gospel. Do not forget to help
them acquire gentleness, patience,[xv]
love and respect for their parents,[xvi]
and all the conduct that is proper to a Christian child, in a word, all
that our religion demands of them.
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