A story for every day...
A blank page.
During a conversation, one of the interlocutors asked the other, the scholar Buchenau, what faith he professed. “None, replied the other, in religious terms I am a blank page. – Beware, replied the first, lest the devil put his name to it.” These courageous words made a deep impression on the unbeliever, who never forgot them again in his life. He cooperated with grace, paying more attention to religious matters, and beginning to pray again as his mother had taught him.
Faith is a gift from God
A famous doctor once gave a learned lecture on nervousness to a large audience, and it was warmly applauded for its clarity and for the speaker’s ability to popularize it. At the end one of the listeners approached him and said, “In spite of your explanations, Doctor, I do not understand this question of nervousness.” The doctor replied with a smile, “I can indeed, sir, give clarification, but not intelligence: that is the business of talent.”
It is the same with religious truths. The preacher, the catechist can explain them, motivate them, defend them; but faith itself they cannot communicate to anyone, it is indeed a free gift of God: this grace can be obtained by a keen desire for the truth, by an honest life and by prayer.
