"Francis, go and build up My house, which as thou seest, is falling into ruin." To fulfill this command of Our Lord, St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) began by restoring physical churches and continued by building up the spiritual Church. Francis' humility, purity, and true joy inspired many men and women to conversion and a deeper faith. Others joined with him in serving God and the poor; thus began the Franciscan Order.

Never ordained to the priesthood, St. Francis nonetheless was a preacher of great renown and a miracle-worker of the first order curing, prophesying, casting out devils, turning water into wine, and raising people from the dead. Indeed, though not arranged in typical biographical form, The Life of St. Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure conveys a picture of the Saint through his miracles, his sayings, and his holy life that renders an indelible impression of a man totally transformed in God and by God.

ON entering the church, ask yourself, as Blessed Berchmans was accustomed to do: Where am I going? I am going to present myself before the Eternal Father, to offer Him the sacrifice of His Divine Son. Then, knowing that you are in the presence of God, kneel with deepest respect before the holy altar. Renew your general intention to honour God; add to it expressly the offering of your Communion in union with the objects of the Sacrifice. Propose to yourself a special intention, which you may plainly express, so as not to content yourself with vague prayer; which are apt to be made without sufficient fervour. Consider this meditation: THE soul, a simple and spiritual being, has need of motion, of food, and of rest, like the body. Being created in sympathy with God, it finds in Jesus Christ its type, its sphere, its aliment Being made in the divine image, its activity is thought, its light is truth, its rest is in confiding prayer. In the soul, all activity and all lively or profound feelings tend to produce actions equivalent to their strength; it is then necessary for its welfare that it should be united to Jesus Christ on earth, because He alone can feed it with food suitable for it, capable of developing its activity; of satisfying its needs. In the Holy Eucharist our Lord places Himself at the disposal of the soul. One Communion ought to be enough to attach us irrevocably to Him. Between God and the soul there exists a resemblance, and therefore a harmony; in the beginning there was even a close intimacy. But sin has destroyed the resemblance, and turned the harmony into discord. And now the infinite greatness of God, and our littleness, are brought near to each other, by means of the Incarnation and the Holy Eucharist. Nothing more venerable or more tender can be imagined than the relationship established between Jesus in the Eucharist and the soul of man. This relationship begins upon the blessed day of first Communion, which develops the germ of supernatural life first implanted in us at baptism: and in everyone of our future Communions our Saviour increases and perfects that supernatural life in the soul. I have had a spiritual childhood of which I remember even less than of my bodily infancy. Perhaps the first awakening of reason implanted in my mind the remembrance of some early fault. My youth, though marked by precious graces, yet leaves me the regret that at that age I did not do good without constraint. I deluded myself with passing desires which had not Jesus for their object and end. How carefully I observed the rules laid down for my studies, but how little solicitude I showed to keep faithfully the solemn compact made with my God in presence of the Sacred Host Still more do I grieve for having afterwards tarnished the beauty of my soul by contact with the world. My soul perhaps loved that imperfect life and desired not its own revival. If I dwell upon those days of error and illusion, it is in order to feel more deeply how much I ought to love Jesus who has delivered me from them. o my Saviour, it was not Thine intention to come into my soul to form with it a passing union only, neither to dwell inactively therein. Thine intention was to make it better. Thou didst seal it with Thy Blood, with the intent that it should retain a sign to call ever to my remembrance Him who for my sake delivered Himself up freely to the bitter death of the Cross for me. Thou hast signed me with that sacred unction which Thou hast Thyself received, and caused my name of Christian to be formed out of Thy name of Christ. May that mysterious sign shield me from all my enemies. Preserve to my soul the health which Thou hast restored to it, and keep it ever under the direction of Thy grace.

This also contains a piece entitled "Is Divorce Wrong?" Let me suppose that I am an unbeliever in Christianity, and that some friend should make me promise to examine the evidence to show that Christianity is a Divine revelation; I should then sift and test the evidence as strictly as if it were in a court of law, and in a cause of life and death; my will would be in suspense: it would in no way control the process of my intellect. If it had any inclination from the equilibrium, it would be towards mercy and hope; but this would not add afeather's weight to the evidence, nor sway the intellect a hair's breadth. After the examination has been completed, and my intellect convinced, the evidence being sufficient to prove that Christianity is a divine revelation, nevertheless I am not yet a Christian. All this sifting brings me to the conclusion of a chain of reasoning; but I am not yet a believer. The last act of reason has brought me to the brink of the first act of faith. They are generically distinct and separable. The acts of reason are intellectual, and jealous of the interference of the will. The act of faith is an imperative act of the will, founded on and justified by the process and conviction of the intellect. Hitherto I have been a critic: henceforward, if I will, I become a disciple. It may here be objected that no man can so far suspend the inclination of the will when the question is, has God indeed spoken to man or no? is the revealed law of purity, generosity, perfection, divine, or only the poetry of imagination? Can a man be indifferent between two such sides of the problem? Will he not desire the higher and better side to be true? And if he desire, will he not incline to the side that he desires to find true? Can a moral being be absolutely indifferent between two such issues? and can two such issues be equally attractive to a moral agent? Can it be indifferent and all the same to us whether God has made Himself and His will known to us or not? Is there no attraction in light, no repulsion in darkness? Does not the intrinsic and eternal distinction of good and evil make itself felt in spite of the will? Are we not responsible to "receive the truth in the love of it ? " Nevertheless, evidence has its own limits and quantities, and cannot be made more or less by any act of the will. And yet, what is good or bad, high or mean, lovely or hateful, ennobling or degrading, must attract or repel men as they are better or worse in their moral sense; for an equilibrium between good and evil, to God or to man, is impossible.

This is a new release of the original 1931 edition.

Henry Edward Cardinal Manning wrote this in 1877 after the Catholic Church had been despoiled of all of her possessions and the Pope had become the prisoner of the Vatican. The need for the Pope to be free not only spiritually, but also politically is laid out very well by Cardinal Manning. In fact, this independence is essential to world peace. Cardinal Manning says: "All Christians believe that when our Lord sent out His Apostles, He gave to them a supreme spiritual power to govern the Church. Catholics further believe that He had already given that power in its fulness to Peter, their head and chief, the foundation of His Church; and, after He ascended into Heaven, His Vicar upon earth. We believe also that this Divine power exists in the world at this moment. It exists in the office of Peter, perpetuated in the person of his successor." "My purpose then will be to make clear the four following points: First, What is the sovereignty or independence, or temporal power, if men like so to call it, with which God in His Providence has invested the Head of His Church upon earth. Secondly, What is the violation of that independence and sovereignty by the acts of violence which have been perpetrated in the last seven years. Thirdly, What have been and what must be the consequences of that violation. And, lastly, What is, therefore, the duty of every Catholic throughout the world. And I will go further: I will say, What is the duty of every Christian who believes that the Word of God is supreme over all human law, and that the authority of the Christian Church on earth is independent of all civil government. And in this I shall appeal to the multitudes of upright Christian hearts in these three kingdoms, who, though they be separated from us by, I am sorry to say, many points of faith, by more, I fear, than points, by many wide distances, which I would fain see closed up, nevertheless do openly, manfully, and justly defend the liberty of the truth and of the Church of God in the sense in which they understand it. This sovereignty I cannot better explain than in these two sentences-It is the dependence of the Head of the Church upon God alone; and his consequent independence of any human authority. These two sentences include the whole subject. Now, we often hear it said, and I have heard it said within these last days, that "in the beginning the Head of the Church, or the Bishop of Rome, as men call him, had no temporal power. Why should he have now what he had not then?" Secondly, they say "He was subject to the Roman Emperors then; why can he not be subject to any civil power now?" Thirdly, they ask, "If it had been the will of God to give him a sovereignty of his own He would have done so; but, if He did, as you affirm, then He has taken it away." Now, these are three common objections. There is a fourth, indeed, which I may mention in passing only to dismiss it. They say, "If the temporal power be essential to the spiritual, how was it that for so many centuries the Popes exercised their spiritual power without it?"

This book was compiled from four lectures given by Henry Cardinal Manning in 1861 on the present crisis of the Catholic Church. He correctly saw that a grave crisis was approaching and described the theological basis of the Great Apostasy and the more common speculations of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church on this most important subject. Further in several places he cites the Universal Agreement of the Fathers of the Church, which we know to be an infallible guide in discerning the truth in doctrinal matters. This book is even more appropriate today, when many of these prophecies appear to be being fulfilled. This book is even more important today, when many fear the advent of Antichrist. Saint Pius X said: "Who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is-apostasy from God... When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the "Son of Perdition" of whom the Apostle speaks." (E Supremi, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903) However, there is hope as Saint John Eudes tells us: "All the holy Fathers agree that after the death of antichrist the whole world will be converted, and although some of them assert that the world will last but a few days after his death, while others say a few months, some authorities insist that it will continue to exist many years after. St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Francis of Paula, and a number of other saints have predicted this ultimate universal conversion." A small chapter has been added on the authority of the Fathers, when they are in unanimous agreement, as Manning cites them thusly on several occasions. Cardinal Manning says: "Next, the Fathers believed that Antichrist will be of the Jewish race. Such was the opinion of St. Irenaeus, St. Jerome, and of the author of the work De Consummatione Mundi, ascribed to St. Hippolytus, and of a writer of a Commentary on the Epistle to the Thessalonians, ascribed to St. Ambrose, of many others, who add, that he will be of the tribe of Dan: as, for instance, St. Gregory the Great, Theodoret, Aretas of Caesarea, and many more. Such also is the opinion of Bellarmine, who calls it certain. Lessius affirms that the Fathers, with unanimous consent, teach as undoubted, that Antichrist will be a Jew." And further on: "The holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist, and of these prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know, and they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the Latin Church-all of them unanimously, -say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the holy sacrifice of the altar will cease. In the work on the end of the world, ascribed to St. Hippolytus, after a long description of the afflictions of the last days, we read as follows: "The Churches shall lament with a great lamentation, for there shall be offered no more oblation, nor incense, nor worship acceptable to God. The sacred buildings of the churches shall be as hovels; and the precious body and blood of Christ shall not be manifest in those days; the Liturgy shall be extinct; the chanting of psalms shall cease; the reading of Holy Scripture shall be heard no more.""

This sermon was given in 1864 at the consecration of the pro-Cathedral in York. This was recorded and is an excellent exposition of the doctrine of the Blessed Sacrament. Of the Protestants Manning says: "Having denied the substantial presence of Jesus, it was but consequent that they should deny also His Mystical Body, ... His Church." We have added a biography of Cardinal Manning as well, which is quite fascinating, discussing his conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism. St. Alphonsus writes: "a single bad book will be sufficient to cause the destruction of a monastery." Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947 at the beatification of Blessed Maria Goretti: "There rises to Our lips the cry of the Saviour: 'Woe to the world because of scandals ' (Matthew 18:7). Woe to those who consciously and deliberately spread corruption-in novels, newspapers, magazines, theaters, films, in a world of immodesty " We at St. Pius X Press are calling for a crusade of good books. We want to restore 1,000 old Catholic books to the market. We ask for your assistance and prayers. This book is a photographic reprint of the original The original has been inspected and many imperfections in the existing copy have been corrected. At Saint Pius X Press our goal is to remain faithful to the original in both photographic reproductions and in textual reproductions that are reprinted. Photographic reproductions are given a page by page inspection, whereas textual reproductions are proofread to correct any errors in reproduction.

St. Alphonsus writes: "a single bad book will be sufficient to cause the destruction of a monastery." Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947 at the beatification of Blessed Maria Goretti: "There rises to Our lips the cry of the Saviour: 'Woe to the world because of scandals ' (Matthew 18:7). Woe to those who consciously and deliberately spread corruption-in novels, newspapers, magazines, theaters, films, in a world of immodesty " We at St. Pius X Press are calling for a crusade of good books. We want to restore 1,000 old Catholic books to the market. We ask for your assistance and prayers. This book is a photographic reprint of the original. The original has been inspected and some imperfections may remain. At Saint Pius X Press our goal is to remain faithful to the original in both photographic reproductions and in textual reproductions that are reprinted. Photographic reproductions are given a page by page inspection, whereas textual reproductions are proofread to correct any errors in reproduction.

THIS 20 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 18 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 20 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 18 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 18 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 20 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 20 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 22 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 22 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

As It Appeared In The Daily Telegraph And In The Press And St. James's Chronicle.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

THIS 18 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.

THIS 20 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Eternal Priesthood, by Cardinal Manning. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766126927.