An edition of The mirror of faith: your likness in it
(1875)
The mirror of faith
your likness in it
by William of Saint-Thierry, Abbot of Saint...
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April 2, 2020 | History
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Table of Contents
CONTENTS.
PART FIRST.
GOD MADE YOU.
STRANGE NEWS — OUR PRESENT PLATFORM (introductory) 1
1. What it comes to 1
2. The child's new power — its dangers — the key of knowledge 4
3. Holy Mother the Church and the new platform 6
4. "The Mirror of Faith" 9
Chapter I.— OUT OF NOTHING 10
1. Almost a gloomy thought 10
2. A pleasure to which it gives birth 11
3. Love and confidence more than filial 12
4. The duties of a child 13
Chapter II.— YOUR BODY 13
1. A caution to those who would learn 13
2. Your body wonderful in its construction 14
3. The most learned acknowledge they know little about it 16
4. He who made it tells us to leave the care of it to Him — natural guides 17
5. Your body a sacred charge — your duties concerning it 19
Chapter III.— YOUR SENSES 19
1. The anatomy of your senses not our present business 19
2. How your senses serve you 20
3. Likes and dislikes 20
4. The sense of touch — pain a defender against harm 23
5. Another providential arrangement 24
6. Cleanliness is next to godliness 25
Chapter IV— YOUR SENSES (contd.)
— Sight and hearing 27
1. Sight and hearing blessings not fully appreciated 27
2. Your sight gives knowledge to your soul 27
3. Your hearing extends that knowledge — how far? 28
4. The first fruits of these senses — what you must do with them 28
5. Sight, hearing and the will — a word about the deaf and dumb 29
6. The senses instruments of the soul 30
7. The senses good servants, but bad masters — a little lecture 31
Chapter V.— GOD'S IMAGE AND LIKENESS 34
1. Revelation and exact knowledge about the soul 34
2. Those fall into absurdities who reject revelation 35
3. A second absurdity 37
4. The privilege faith gives you 38
5. Faith — wisdom — and the Catechism 39
6. The Catechism on our present subject — the end attained by philosophy without its trouble 39
7. And what no human philosophy can tell, over and above 41
8. One answer in the Catechism contains more than we need at present 41
9. We know more of what a spirit is not than what it is — why so? 41
10. Your soul is a spirit — a contrast, yet a likeness 42
Chapter VI.— GOD'S IMAGE AND LIKENESS (continued) — UNDERSTANDING AND WILL 43
1. A spirit known by its powers — the understanding 43
2. Various uses of your understanding — the superiority it imparts 44
3. Free will — does it make man like God? — a question 45
4. Why God gave you free will — God's will — your liberty and the end for which God gave it 46
5. Something in which your will is still like to God 48
6. Lessons to be drawn from this 49
7. Summing up 50
Chapter VII. — GOD'S IMAGE AND LIKENESS (continued) — immortality 50
1. Immortality a free gift — the doctrine of preservation 50
2. Gives new features to your whole being 51
3. No picture a likeness without it — the saxon warrior's parable 52
4. The significance this gift gives to life — it makes time precious 53
5. The value of your actions for immortality is in proportion to the amount of love they contain 54
6. The effect of this gift on the joys and sorrows of life 55
7. It renders eternal all other gifts — it gives us God 55
8. It makes life the beginning of eternity 57
9. Your growing debt of gratitude 58
Chapter VIII.— YOURSELVES 59
1. "And he became a living soul" — God's description of man 59
2. The union of many separate things — nearly all soul 60
3. Mutual dependence between soul and body 60
4. A link between the soul and the visible world — mutual good offices 61
5. Sympathy between body and soul 61
6. Your will a power of the soul — an ascetical maxim explained 62
7. Summing up of our first part 63
8. Love — conformity to God's will - our Blessed Lady your model and teacher 64
PART SECOND.
WHAT SIN DID TO YOU.
Chapter I.— YOUR PROSPECTS 65
1. Life an accumulated joy — our conclusions so far from "The Mirror of Faith" 65
2. An impulse to be cherished 66
3. The effect of obeying this impulse 67
4. A game rendered earnest by opposition 68
5. A great mistake 69
6. An uncalled for proceeding — a storm that has come and gone — a warfare in which you have more strength with than against you 69
Chapter II.— THE STORM 71
1. A sin and a mistake — the preliminary error of Lucifer 71
2. The first rebel and his followers 72
3. St. Michael — true nobility — first act of humility 74
4. The Christian's watchword 76
5. God determines to create man — an humble inquiry 76
6. The devil meditates mischief 77
7. How he goes about it — Eve's mistake 77
8. A few lessons for us 78
Chapter III. — ITS EFFECTS 80
1. An unenviable acquaintance 80
2. A concert-room turned into a Bedlam — a double parable 80
3. Man — what he was — and what he still may be — explanations 81
4. Our first parents' eyes opened to a great uproar 83
5. How many make themselves subject to the same misery — second part of parable explained 84
Chapter IV.— THE SUN OF JUSTICE 85
1. A picture of what happened to you 85
2. A storm in the night — a bright morning — a gentle shower 86
3. God's compassion — the promise 86
4. The sun of justice — the traces of the storm — the way — the truth and the life 87
Chapter V.— HE IS WELL CARED WHOM GOD TAKES CARE OF 88
1. A glance at our loss and gain 88
2. Man at best little able to take care of himself 89
3. Sin's traces and the remedies 89
4. The refreshing shower — our position altered, hardly for the worse 90
Chapter VI.— THE BLINDED UNDERSTANDING AND FAITH 90
1. A well proved fact — idolatry a creation of the passions 90
2. A curious way of satisfying a desire to be like God 92
3. More folly — manufactured gods — devilry and roguery 92
4. A lesson paganism should teach 93
5. We need not, however, go so far to learn it 93
6. The worst form of blindness 94
7. The flood-gates of extravagance opened 95
8. Quarrelling Christianity 96
9. A happy family 96
10. Faith God's remedy for our blindness 98
11. Jesus Christ points out the relation evidence bears to faith 100
12. Why, in spite of evidence, men refuse to believe God's word 100
13. A sense in which it is necessary to become as little children 101
14. The spirit of childhood the spirit of faith 102
15. Faith the safeguard and the guide 102
16. The greatest of all certainties 103
17. Practical remarks 103
18. The blessings of a living faith 103
Chapter VII.— THE WEAK WILL AND THE GOSPEL 104
1. Twofold weakness of the will 104
2. How the passions draw the will by blinding the understanding 105
3. Two remedies for a double weakness 105
4. Reason for describing absurdities 106
5. Evils it is a misfortune to know much of 106
6. The inaction of an engine without fire 106
7. An opportunity worse than wasted 107
8. A mistake with two had effects 108
9. An advice to the wise 109
10. Innocence without love, a doomed beauty 110
11. A reason for what we see 111
12. Is the devil's a pleasant yoke? 111
13. The remedy — Gospel influence 112
14. Awe 112
15. The first spark of love 113
16. The first prayer 113
17. The true love-story of redemption, etc. 113
18. Something to be deplored 114
19. Gospel warnings 114
20. Gospel promises 116
21. A Gospel reminder 116
22. A guide for every circumstance in life 116
23. The Gospel is yours — use it 117
Chapter VIII. — THE POWER THAT RULES THE STORM 118
1. Why absurdities must not be treated seriously 118
2. Religions made by passion, versus common sense 118
3 Calvinism — degradation — blasphemy — false humility and cant 119
4. A new rendering of Scripture required 122
5. Canting literature wide-spread 122
6. Calvinism and the Church, contraries 123
7. How the children of the Church become the slaves of passion 123
8. About grace 124
9. A conqueror or a slave — an important epoch 126
10. A time to become strong or weak in 126
11. The importance of the involved question, etc 127
12. Your case stated 127
13. The start, half the battle, etc 128
14. Grace to be had for the asking — intercession 129
15. Practical conclusions 130
Chapter IX.— YOUR LEADER IN SUFFERING AND DEATH 130
1. The best path through this vale of tears 130
2. Subjection to God, the truest freedom 131
3. A narrow path — a bridge over a precipice 131
4. A rough place after all for enjoyment 132
5. The ardour of childhood joined to the courage of a soldier 132
6. What makes the world a vale of tears 132
7. The image which banishes complaint 133
8. The sufferings of God's children small compared with those of others 134
9. Hardly sufficient to make you like Jesus Christ 134
10. Sufferings rendered glorious 134
11. Death sweet to those who have served God 134
12. Sufferings almost a joy 135
13. Tour leader — His imitation 135
14. What is your cross after all? — necessary self-denial 135
Chapter X.— DIVINE COMPASSION 136
1. Feelings suggested by this subject — the inheritance of fallen man 136
2. Compassion immediately succeeds the fall, etc 137
3. Jonas and Nineva — compassion and petulance 138
4. Our inheritance — it has given faith to our blindness — the Gospel to our weakness — grace to the passions 139
5. A stretch of divine compassion 140
6. Danger of venial sin 140
7. Conversion of the sinner — the Sacrament of compassion 141
8. Small requirements for receiving 141
9. Patience — the holy sacrifice — refuge of sinners — saint's prayers — power of God's word, etc. 141
10. The obvious effect of the study of divine compassion 141
PART THIRD. REDEEMING LOVE.
Chapter I. — AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD 142
1. In what sense we understand redeeming love 142
2. A coincidence 143
3. The virtuous pride which comes from its contemplation — the second throne near Jesus 144
4. Jesus and Mary representatives of restored nature in heaven 145
5. The reason for bringing this prominently before you 145
6. No new theory 146
7. God's method of silencing the voice of man's degradation 147
8. Jesus sanctifies each stage of life 147
9. To be like Jesus no unattainable desire, etc 148
10. A pride which truly humbles — its value 149
Chapter II.— THE ETERNAL FATHER'S GIFT 150
1. What simplicity really means 150
2. An unreasonable use of reason 150
3. Ground on which simplicity is wisdom 151
4. The eternal Father's gift 152
5. A childlike inquiry — wisdom and goodness 152
6. Providence 153
7. Justice and mercy reconciled by this gift 154
8. The only place in which God's justice does not get its due 155
9. Prayer for the conversion of sinners therefore acceptable 156
10. Practical lessons 156
11. The love of the Giver measured by the greatness of His gift 157
12. Conversion only the beginning of sanctification 158
13. Forgetfulness of this turns the life of many upside down 159
14. A Scripture parable 160
15. The sum of the effects of the eternal Father's gifts 162
Chapter III.— BOUGHT BY JESUS' BLOOD 163
1. The language of faith 163
2. Its different effect on different people, etc 163
3. In what sense Jesus' blood bought you 164
4. A subject, not for speculation, but for meditation 164
5. Jesus accepts His office of Redeemer 165
6. His eagerness to shed His blood for you 165
7. Jesus, gives, to purchase your love, what was not necessary to buy your redemption 166
8. The effects of this familiar truth 167
Chapter IV.— YOUR ELDEST BROTHER 168
1. A preliminary remark 168
2. Adoption 168
3. Your family likeness — St. Paul again 170
4. Your acquired nobility — Christ's merits 171
5. His kindness for you 171
6. His compassion — His sufferings — His protection 172
7. Practical conclusions - 172
8. A dangerous power — the effect it should have 173
Chapter V.— YOUR DIVINE GUEST 174
1. A necessary explanation 174
2. An incontestable fact 174
3. " The Mirror of Faith," a corrective 175
4. More than a relationship — a power within 175
5. St. Paul on this subject 176
6. An important question, etc 176
7. The conditions of the Holy Ghost's indwelling 177
8. How you should treat your Divine Guest 178
9. A lamentable fact — who is to blame? 180
10. Why I put the remedy in your own hands 181
11. A Scripture symbol explained 182
12. The necessity of listening to the voice of the Holy Ghost — inspirations, etc 184
13. Begin at the beginning — effects of this devotion 185
Chapter VI.— GOD'S FRIENDS 186
1. "As familiar as household words" 186
2. No matter of chance — cause and effect 187
3. Catechism 188
4. God's condescension 188
5. How low God puts the requirements of this friendship, etc 190
6. The effect this knowledge should have 191
7. Tepidity — a warning 191
8. Indeliberate frailties not tepidity 193
9. How indulgent God is to those who love Him 194
10. The main object of God's friendship — perfection 194
11. The method of its increase 195
12. Correspondence with grace 196
13. Why you should do your best 196
14. Your teacher and helper 197
Chapter VII.— YOUR DIVINE FOOD 198
1. Reasons for my selection 198
2. Why the Blessed Sacrament necessarily comes in here 199
3. The Christian's sacrifice, companion and food — the sacrifice 199
4. A truth which should make you anxious to hear Mass 200
5. An apology 201
6. The Christian's food — an argument against exaggeration 202
7. A natural inference — a parable, etc. 202
8. A pause to consider the holiness of your vocation 204
9. God's great condescension again — the parable of the marriage feast 205
10. Why so many keep from this divine banquet 206
11. The invitation of Jesus to His children 207
Chapter VIII. — HEAVENLY COMPANIONS 207
1. An old adage reversed 207
2. Familiarity between the saints and God's friends 208
3. A household practice akin "to the language of faith" 208
4. Doctrine of the communion of saints 208
5. The Blessed Virgin — patron saints, etc 209
6. The power this heavenly society gives us 210
7. Other effects — encouragement in good 210
8. The memory of saints we have known and conversed with 211
9. Your angel guardian — a tradition - — his watchfulness 212
10. His patient concern for your salvation 213
11. A word about spiritualism 214
12. In conclusion 215
Chapter IX.— THE HAPPY CHOICE 215
1. A Scriptural illustration of our course in this third part 215
2. A course the more allowable by reason of infant Baptism 216
3. A fact which makes early choice imperative 217
4. A warning voice needed 217
5. Children the best choosers — childhood the best time to make the choice 218
6. The way of the commandments — the way of sin and self-will 218
7. An universal intention — a road easily kept on, with much difficulty regained 218
8. The real question — a choice you have no right to make 219
9. How men come to choose the wrong road — the effect of ignorance 220
10. Phantom giants in the way 220
11. First and second giant 220
12. The attack on the two giants 221
13. The slaughter of the second giant — the death of the soul 222
14. God's sacrament of compassion — an apparent difficulty becomes a proof 223
15. Your case stated — the difference between the two roads 224
16. The benefit of remembering these things 226
17. A consideration more powerful than self-interest 226
PART FOURTH BAPTISM.
Chapter I. — COMING HOME TO OUR SUBJECT 227
1. An artist's lay figure, etc 227
2. Assistance in an artist's task, etc 227
3. A description of you worse than useless 228
4. Creation lost sight of in the blaze of redeeming love 229
5. Hence my course 230
6. In the second and third part the same 231
Chapter II.— THE AVERTED DOOM 232
1. Home from our rambles 232
2. An undecided question 232
3. The real question, etc 233
4. What the doom might have been, and is not 233
5. A sad dilemma — on one side despair 234
6. On the other ignorance and false hope, etc 235
7. An argument from what is which shows what might have been 235
8. A proof of what ignorance can do 236
9. A third source of evil averted 237
10. A double reason for speaking of the tyranny of passion 237
11. Something more important even than ignorance of evil 238
12. The lesson of passion read aright 238
13. What that lesson has always been 239
14. An objection answered 240
15. The averted doom again 242
Chapter III.— DIVINE HASTE 243
1. Shadow throws out the beauty of our picture 243
2. A sublime sacrament bestowed upon an unconscious infant 244
3. Some of its accompanying graces 244
4. God's reasons for this haste 245
5. Lay Baptism 245
6. Anxious provisions against dangers 246
7. A prerogative of want of confidence 246
Chapter IV.— ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE CHURCH 247
1. Ceremonies the groundwork of an instruction — sponsors, etc. 247
2. The first question, etc. 249
3. A common fallacy explained, etc. 249
4. The second question, answer, etc. 252
5. The first hint to the devil to begone 252
6. The sign of the cross on the forehead and breast 253
7. A word about the sign of the cross 253
8. The two following prayers explained, etc. 254
9. The humiliation of the devil, etc. 256
10. A prayer for the gift of knowledge, etc. 256
Chapter V.— WITHIN THE DOORS 257
1. A resume — admission into the Church 257
2. Baptism a contract — the invitation, and what it contains 258
3. A relationship we have scarcely mentioned 259
4. The profession of faith, etc. 260
5. The obligation of faith incurred 260
6. The child's first prayer 260
7. Approaching the font — second exorcism 261
8. The ceremony of the Gospel miracle, etc 262
9. The declaration of war, etc 262
10. The devil's agents more to be feared than the devil himself — in what sense the flesh is an enemy 263
11. Distorted, ideas — one-sided quotation of St. Paul 263
12. In what sense the flesh is renounced 264
13. Where the real evil lies 267
14. How God's children rule themselves 268
15. A few words of advice 268
16. About the affections 269
17. Something requiring caution 271
18. A truly happy omen — why I give the world a chapter to itself 271
Chapter VI.— GOD'S GREAT ENEMY 272
1. The advantages of warfare 272
2. An enemy more to be feared than war 273
3. The world a moral pestilence, etc. 273
4. Important question — Does the world exist? 275
5. Jesus Christ and the world 275
6. The world which God hates 276
7. Condemnations from the Gospel 276
8. From the epistles — St. Paul — St. James — St. John 277
9. Symptoms the only proof of the existence of a pestilence — St. John's definition 278
10. Impiety its first ingredient 281
11. Impenitence a quality of the world 281
12. Pride of life 282
13. Concupiscence of the eyes — a self-seeking world 283
14. A test of true unworldliness — vocations 284
15. A smothered fire 286
16. The enemy of "The Mirror of Faith" 286
17. The only antidote 287
Chapter VII.— BAPTISM 288
1. New proofs of a sacred consecration 288
2. Anointed with holy oil, etc. 288
3. What the changing of the stole means 290
4. Baptism a choice to be ratified 290
5. The solemn sacramental act 290
6. The Blessed Trinity and the baptized child — a family picture 291
7. This picture not an imaginary one 292
8. The Holy Ghost and the baptized child, etc. 298
9. The anointing with chrism 294
10. The two concluding ceremonies — the light and the white garment 294
11. The pax 295
Chapter VIII.— YOUR FINISHED PICTURE 296
1. Lights and shades 296
2. Its component parts — creation 297
3. Your body — its senses 297
4. Your soul, its powers — immortality, etc. 298
5. The shadow — lessons and conclusions 298
6. Our tour into the promised land, etc. 299
7. The averted doom — ceremonies — engagements — enemies — the great sacrament 300
8. Two questions and their answers 301
Chapter IX.— GROWN-UP CHILDREN AND PARENTS 303
1. A providential arrangement 303
2. A propensity with an object — a proposal 304
3. Example of St. Paul — a chasm to be bridged over 304
4. Objections answered 305
5. A personal benefit to be derived from this proposal 306
6. A word about the special subject chosen 307
7. Address to parents — Blanche of Castile the type of a class — the peculiarities of the times, etc. 308
APPENDIX.
The ceremonies of Holy Baptism, according to the Roman Ritual 309
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| April 2, 2020 | Edited by Camillo Pellizzari | merge authors |
| December 17, 2015 | Edited by ww2archive | added book |
| January 30, 2010 | Edited by WorkBot | add more information to works |
| December 9, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |