and triumph by Your silence. Where is Your power and providence? Must we then doubt either Your Divine government or Your love for us?..... "All men are as children before God: all, even the most profound thinkers and the most experienced leaders of peoples. They judge events with the foreshortened vision of time, which passes and flies past irreparably; God, on the other hand, sees events from on high from the unmoved center of eternity. Men have before their eyes the limited view of a few years; God has before Him the all-embracing panorama of the ages.

"They think of human events in relation to their proximate causes and immediate effects; God sees them in their remote causes and judges them in their remote effects. They stop to single out this or that particular responsible hand; God sees a whole hidden complicated convergence of responsibilities because His exalted providence does not exclude the free choice of evil and good in human selection. They would have immediate justice, and are scandal – ized at the ephemeral power of the enemies of God; at the sufferings of the innocent permitted by God; but our Heavenly Father, Who in the light of His eternity embraces, penetrates, and dominates the vicissitudes of time as much as the serene peace of the endless ages, God Who is the Blessed Trinity, full of compassion for the weaknesses, ignorance and impatience of men, but Who loves men too much for their faults to turn Him from the ways of His wisdom and love, continues and will continue to make His sun to rise on the good and evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. V, 45), to guide their childlike steps with firmness and kindness if only they will let themselves be led by Him and have trust in the power and wisdom of His love for them.

"What does it mean to trust God?.....

It means believing that God at times lets trials befall individuals and peoples, trials of which the malice of men is the instrument in a design of justice directed toward the punishment of sin, toward purifying persons and peoples through the expiations of this present life and bringing them back by this way to Himself; but it means believing at the same time that this justice always remains here below the justice of a Father inspired and dominated by love.

"However cruel may seem the hand of the Divine Surgeon when He cuts with the lancet into the live flesh, it is always an active love that guides it and drives it in, and only the good of men and peoples makes Him interfere to cause Buch sorrow.... The hour of God will come, the hour of mercy, the hour of holy rejoicing, the hour in which, after having let the hurricane loose for a moment on humanity, the all-powerful Hand of the Heavenly Father with an imperceptible motion will detain it and disperse it; and, by ways little known to the mind or to the hopes of men, justice, calm, and peace will be restored to the nations....

"Through the languishing of faith in men's hearts, through the pleasure-seeking that molds and captivates their lives, men are driven to judge as evil, and as unmixed evil, all the physical mishaps of this earth. They have forgotten that suffering stands at the threshold of life as the way that leads to the smiles of the cradle; they have forgotten that it is more often than not the shadow of the Cross of Calvary thrown on the path of the Resurrection; they have forgotten that the cross is frequently a gift of God, a gift which is needed in order to offer to the Divine Justice our share of expiation; they have forgotten that the only real evil is the sin that offends God; they

have forgotten what the Apostle says: 'The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us, ' (Romans, VIII, 18) that we ought to look on 'the author and finisher of faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured a cross.' (Hebrews, XII, 2).....

"Look on your sufferings and difficulties in the light of the sufferings of the Crucified, in the light of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin, the most innocent of creatures and the most intimate sharer in the Passion of Our Lord, and you will be able to understand that to be like the Exemplar, the Son of God, King of Sufferings, is the noblest and safest way to Heaven and victory. Do not look merely at the thorns which afflict you and cause you pain, but think also of the merit which sprouts from your sufferings like the rose of the heavenly garland; and you will find then, with the grace of God, the courage and strength of that Christian heroism which is at once sacrifice and victory, and peace surpassing all understanding; heroism which your Faith has the right to exact from you.

Chapter II!

RELIGION IN GENERAL; ITS NATURE AND NECESSITY

Up to the present we have been studying the world about us. From a study of ourselves and other creatures we have arrived at the knowledge of the existence of God who is infinitely good and powerful, who created us and who watches over us. Such considerations naturally lead us to thank Him for His gifts to us: for reason, free will and an untold number of other favors; to adore Him, recognizing in Him our Master, the One Who made us and the world in which we live and Who preserves it in good order and with infinite care; to ask His pardon for having so frequently forgotten Him by acting contrary to the law He planted in the hearts of each one of us, conscience; to beg His graces and blessings, grace to serve Him better and courage to make proper use of that grace. All these acts and all that they imply constitute man's relations with God. That is what we call religion. Religion is the sum of man's relations with God.

Religion is not, as so many seem to believe, a feeling of holiness, of sanctity, of being good. Religion consists essentially in acknowledging Almighty God as our Creator, Preserver, Sanctifier and the end of our existence by rendering to Him the homage which is His due. This homage is based on reason and free will and not on feelings or inclinations. God gave us intelligence to recognize His infinite goodness and therefore expects us to honor Him freely with a rational worship. We ought, then, as intelligent men; (1) to adore God, as our Master; (2) to thank Him as our Benefactor; (3) to ask His favor, as being infinitely good and possessing all things; (4) to beg His pardon for having offended Him, trusting in His infinite mercy.

Man is a creature composed of soul and body. Both parts of him must be used to honor God. That is, he is bound to offer Him an internal and an external worship. By internal worship we mean those acts of homage which are made in the soul without any external manifestations. Among such acts may be listed adoration, thanksgiving, petition, faith, hope, charity, etc. By external worship of God we mean those acts of homage which are made by the body as, for example, prayers of adoration, thanksgiving petition, etc., said aloud, or kneeling, or while walking in a religious procession or by the singing of hymns. These acts of public worship are absolute ly necessary. Without them religion would quickly disappear from society and man would fail to render honor where honor is due.

All those things which man can learn about God and how he should act towards Him which he acquires by reason constitutes what is called natural religion. Natural religion is the sum of all those truths and precepts concerning man's relation with God which human reason is capable of discovering and demonstrating. Among such truths are the existence of God, His Providence, the obligations of paying Him an interior and exterior worship of love and obedience, the spirituality and immortality of the soul, the reward of the good and the punishment of the wicked in a future life. We shall show, presently, that profession of natural religion alone is insufficient if man is to offer God a true worship. It is obvious that, if God should tell man how he is to honor Him, man must honor Him in that way. We shall prove that Almighty God has made such a revelation; that the Catholic Church possesses it entirely and that no where else can it be found.

Natural religion, religion based on reason alone, is insufficient to give God the homage that is His due. Reason tells us that we must worship God but it does not tell us how to worship or what acts of homage would be most pleasing and acceptable