The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-07-08
THE NEED OF VocATloNs: THE
MEANS BY WHICH VocATloNS
MAY BE FosTERED.
To the Clergy and the Laity of the
Diocese of st. Paul.

To the Clergy and the Laity OF the
Diocese of ST. Paul.
Beloved Brethren:
TIE great, the sublime act of the AL
mighty God in the life of our humanity
is told in the two words-Bethlehem
and Calvary-Incarnation and Re-
demption.
Great, sublime, the act by which
the Second Person of the Blessed Trim
ity was made man, uniting into His
own divine personality human nature,
mortal and passible, with His own
eternal and Interchangeable divine
nature: great, sublime, the act by
which He inundated Himself on the
Cross, the victim of His love and
mercy, in order that propitiation be Of
fered for the sins of men, and gfaces,
needed for their salvation, be secured
through the merits of His suffering
and death.
The Incarnation brought the Al
mighty God into our humanity, to
speak His love in our human language,
to teach us the truths of eternity, to
put before us, in His own very self,
the example of the manner of life that
we should lead, so that we be incor-
porated into His own life and blessed
ness. The Incarnation and the Re-
demption paid the penalty due to the
sins of men, removed the barriers sep
arating them from His love, and open
ed to them the perennial source of di-
vine favor and grace.
Yet, of themselves, Bethlehem and
Calvary did not suffice. There was
needed this other act-the institution
of the Church, the creation of an ever
living, strengthening organism,
through which the fruits of the inscrut-
able mysteries of the Incarnation and
the Redemption were continued
through the ages, and put within the
immediate reach of every child of hui
manity, willing to receive them, where
ever he be in time or in space. Slfh-
out the Church, Bethlshem and 1AI-
vary were facts of remote history, to
which ready means of entrance were
refused to succeeding generations OF
humanity. Without the Church, the
revelation, made by the Saviour, were
the mere echo, necessarily vague and
confused, of words spoken in far
off land, in a far-off epoch of time:
without the Church, the graces, mer-
tied upon Calvary, were not assured of
direct and immediate flow into souls,
into each and every soul, in all points
-, fc nf tir1n An
organism of communication was need
ed, widespread over earth, abiding
there until the end of time so long as
humanity itself is predestined there
to abide.
Hence the institution of the Church
of Christ: con this rock | will build
my Church; and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it," Going ye,
therefore, teach all nations: baptizing
them in the name of the Father and OF
the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teach
ing them to observe all things what
soever have commanded you: and be
hold / am with you all days, even to
the consummation of the world
The Church of Christ-we hail it, as
we hail Christ Himself; it is the widen
ing into space, the perpetuation into
time of the Incarnation and the Re
demption. The Church of Christ-we
revere and love it, as We revere anC
love Christ: it is His mouthpiece, re
peating daily the truths once breatheC
across the plains of Palestine: it is the
channel, through which the mercies oi
Calvary pour their sweetness into oul
souls, whenever and wherever they are
open to the reception of His divine
gifts.