Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

POWER OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY363truth thus imparted grew with their growth andtrengthened with their strength. It was strongnough to carry St. Agnes at the age of thirteen tmtempt of the world and to martyrdom. At 1me when human passions ordinarily assault theart, the grace of confirmation came to make thChristian complete. Through the whole time of hiswarfare the Bread of Life was offered to him asthe perpetual nourishment of the regenerated soul.Through the whole time of his warfare another sacramentlikewise opened to him the gate of penance,and enabled him to wipe away the spots of sin contractedthrough negligence or deeper guilt. Further,the whole triple order of the teaching, the pastoral,the sacerdotal function was conveyed by a divinegift, and was the subject of a sacrament belongingto itself. Though every act of this triple functionbelonged to the intellectual nature of man, it receiveda divine consecration of the will, an imparting ofthe power of the One Prophet, King, and Priest, andby this consecration the intellect was fertilised. Thesame divine power likewise touched that bond of thesexes by which human society is held together, andhuman love burned more brightly and lasted moresteadfastly when fed with the oil of charity. Evensickness and the danger of death were not left withouta special force to be exercised upon them by thepriests of the Church. The power of the sacraments,that is, the unction of the Prophet, Priest, and King,covered the whole ground of daily life. The humansoul is at once intellect and will, and the acts of eachrun into each other and are indivisible. So in thegreat work created by the Author of the soul theone and the other were equally provided for, and the