Photo Prayer:
Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
The law of progress which rules the spiritual as well as the material world requires that the servants of God should forever advance in the supereminent virtue of Charity. That virtue, as we are told, is the sum of the goodness and grace by which our souls are made holy and pleasing in the sight of God; it is the source and the sum of all obedience, all virtue, all supernatural actions; it is the one out of the theological virtues which will never fail but abide forever in a degree of consummate perfection. The progress of our lives may then be summed up as an advance in Charity. The Old Testament says: "The path of the just, like a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day" (Prov. iv. 18). The Apostle expresses the same doctrine when he says: "This I pray, that your charity may more and more abound" (Phil. i. 9). Charity may be increased in us,
1. in the sense that God infuses into us a larger amount of that grace equally with sanctifying grace;
2. in the sense that our sentiment of love for God rises to a greater intensity, or that it extends to a greater number of objects, either men or angels;
3. in the sense that the facility of producing actions of Charity becomes greater as a result of more frequent exercise. The increase of Charity in each of these ways is effected primarily by the action of God upon the soul, and secondarily by the Sacraments, which are the channels of God's grace. Strive to advance every day and every hour of your life from virtue to virtue, till you attain that degree of perfection which God has appointed for you.
