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Saturday, January 27, 2001

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St. Angela Merici


Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Luke 1:69-75
Mark 4:35-41

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what is faith?

"Why are you lacking in faith?" —Mark 4:40

Faith is:

  • confidence and assurance about things hoped for (Heb 11:1),
  • conviction or evidence about things not seen (Heb 11:1),
  • the complete submission of our intellects and wills to God (Catechism (CCC), 143),
  • assent to God with our whole being (CCC, 143),
  • free submission to God's word (CCC, 144),
  • "first of all a personal adherence of man to God" (CCC, 150),
  • "a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed" (CCC, 150),
  • "an entirely free gift" (CCC, 162),
  • "the free response of the human person to the initiative of God Who reveals Himself" (CCC, 166),
  • "a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Comp. theol. 1, 2; quoted in CCC, 184),
  • "a lived knowledge of Christ" (The Splendor of Truth (VS), 88),
  • "a decision involving one's whole existence" (VS, 88), and
  • "an act of trusting abandonment to Christ" (VS, 88).

Lord, "increase our faith" (Lk 17:5).

Prayer:  Father, I believe! Help my lack of faith! (Mk 9:24, our transl)

Promise:  "A great awe overcame them at this. They kept saying to one another, 'Who can this be that the wind and the sea obey Him?' " —Mk 4:41

Praise:  St. Angela's faith was so alive that the Congregation she founded in 1565 is still flourishing. It has been described as "the oldest and most considerable teaching order of women in the Roman Catholic Church."

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Edward J. Gratsch, July 15, 2000


Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, July 17, 2000