Saint Alphonsus Maria
Liguori
Jesus Christ and the faithful are one single Body.
The Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the only true Church, outside the pale of which no one can be saved.
The Catholic faith alone produces miracles, which are never seen among heretics. Plants of this sort cannot grow in soil cursed by God; they can take root only in that Church where the true faith is professed. God cannot sanction the performance of a miracle except in favor of the true religion; were He to permit it in support of error, He would deceive us.
These unfortunate people do not see that, in refusing to submit to the Church, they reduce themselves to a state of believing in nothing.
We must believe, moreover, that the Catholic Church alone is the true one; that, consequently, those whom it does not contain in its bosom, or who have separated from it, cannot be saved ... There is only one true Church, the Roman Catholic Church, outside which there is no salvation.
O God! How many graces has my Savior bestowed on me to enable me to save my soul! He has caused me to be born in the bosom of the true Church: in a word, how many means of salvation has He granted to me which He has not granted to others!
Consider, moreover, the special love of God towards you, in allowing you to be born in a Christian land and in the bosom of the true Church. How many people are born of idolaters, Jews, Mohammedans, or heretics: and all of them are lost!
We must believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true Church; hence, they who are out of our Church, or they who are separated from it, cannot be saved.
When we say that faith is necessary for the remission of sins, we mean to speak of the Catholic faith, not heretical faith ... Without the habit of this faith, no man is justified.
The truth of our faith is established by so many manifest proofs that he who does not embrace it can only be called a fool.
How thankful we ought to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith! What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, Africa, America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics? He who does not believe is lost. This, then, was the first and greatest grace bestowed on us: our calling to the true faith. O Savior of the world, what would have become of us if Thou hadst not enlightened us? We would have been like our fathers of old, who adored animals and blocks of stone and wood; and thus we all would have perished!
The truth of our faith is established by so many manifest proofs that he who does not embrace it can only be called a fool.
How thankful we ought to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith! What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, Africa, America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics? He who does not believe is lost. This, then, was the first and greatest grace bestowed on us: our calling to the true faith. O Savior of the world, what would have become of us if Thou hadst not enlightened us? We would have been like our fathers of old, who adored animals and blocks of stone and wood; and thus we all would have perished!
O ye atheists who do not believe in God, what fools you are! If you do not believe there is a God, tell me: who created you? ... Poor wretches! You try to persuade yourselves that the soul dies like the body; but, O God! What will you say when, in the next world, you find that your souls are immortal and that, throughout eternity, you will be unable to make up for the ruin you have incurred? But if you do believe there is a God, you must also believe that there is a true religion; and if you do not believe that the Roman Catholic is the true one, tell me, which one is? Perhaps that of the pagans who admit many gods, and thus destroy and deny them all. Perhaps that of Mohammed ... a religion invented by an infamous impostor and framed for beasts rather than humans. Perhaps that of the Jews who indeed at one time had the true faith but, because they rejected their expected Redeemer, have lost their faith, their country, their everything. Perhaps that of those heretics who, separating themselves from our Church ... have confused all revealed dogmas in such a way that the belief of one of them is contrary to that of his neighbor. O holy faith! Enlighten all those poor blind creatures who run to eternal perdition! But this light always shines forth and enlightens all men, both the faithful and the unbelievers ... How is it, then, that so many are lost? O cursed sin, it is you who blind the minds of so many poor souls who open their eyes only when they enter eternity, but can then no more remedy their error! ... O ye damned souls! Speak and tell me from the prison in which you live, what torments you most in Hell, the fire that burns you or the love which Jesus Christ has borne you? Ah, assuredly, the hell of your Hell is this: to see that a God came down from Heaven to earth to save you, but you, shutting your eyes to the light, have chosen of your own free will to be lost, and to lose this Infinite Good, your very God, Who will be yours no longer, nor will you ever be able to regain Him!
Several practices of the early ages were not committed to writing, but were handed down by tradition to succeeding generations; and therefore the heretics, because they reject tradition, have denied several dogmas of faith.
He is blind who refuses to believe in the truths of the Catholic faith!
The so-called Reformers have revived ancient heresies, and have sought by sophisms and false doctrines to destroy the faith of Jesus Christ, and, if possible, to bring with themselves all souls to eternal perdition.
The gates of Hell are the heresies and heresiarchs who have caused so many miserable, deluded souls to wander from the right way.
Jesus Christ and the faithful are one single Body.
The Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the only true Church, outside the pale of which no one can be saved.
The Catholic faith alone produces miracles, which are never seen among heretics. Plants of this sort cannot grow in soil cursed by God; they can take root only in that Church where the true faith is professed. God cannot sanction the performance of a miracle except in favor of the true religion; were He to permit it in support of error, He would deceive us.
These unfortunate people do not see that, in refusing to submit to the Church, they reduce themselves to a state of believing in nothing.
We must believe, moreover, that the Catholic Church alone is the true one; that, consequently, those whom it does not contain in its bosom, or who have separated from it, cannot be saved ... There is only one true Church, the Roman Catholic Church, outside which there is no salvation.
O God! How many graces has my Savior bestowed on me to enable me to save my soul! He has caused me to be born in the bosom of the true Church: in a word, how many means of salvation has He granted to me which He has not granted to others!
Consider, moreover, the special love of God towards you, in allowing you to be born in a Christian land and in the bosom of the true Church. How many people are born of idolaters, Jews, Mohammedans, or heretics: and all of them are lost!
We must believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true Church; hence, they who are out of our Church, or they who are separated from it, cannot be saved.
When we say that faith is necessary for the remission of sins, we mean to speak of the Catholic faith, not heretical faith ... Without the habit of this faith, no man is justified.
The truth of our faith is established by so many manifest proofs that he who does not embrace it can only be called a fool.
How thankful we ought to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith! What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, Africa, America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics? He who does not believe is lost. This, then, was the first and greatest grace bestowed on us: our calling to the true faith. O Savior of the world, what would have become of us if Thou hadst not enlightened us? We would have been like our fathers of old, who adored animals and blocks of stone and wood; and thus we all would have perished!
The truth of our faith is established by so many manifest proofs that he who does not embrace it can only be called a fool.
How thankful we ought to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith! What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, Africa, America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics? He who does not believe is lost. This, then, was the first and greatest grace bestowed on us: our calling to the true faith. O Savior of the world, what would have become of us if Thou hadst not enlightened us? We would have been like our fathers of old, who adored animals and blocks of stone and wood; and thus we all would have perished!
O ye atheists who do not believe in God, what fools you are! If you do not believe there is a God, tell me: who created you? ... Poor wretches! You try to persuade yourselves that the soul dies like the body; but, O God! What will you say when, in the next world, you find that your souls are immortal and that, throughout eternity, you will be unable to make up for the ruin you have incurred? But if you do believe there is a God, you must also believe that there is a true religion; and if you do not believe that the Roman Catholic is the true one, tell me, which one is? Perhaps that of the pagans who admit many gods, and thus destroy and deny them all. Perhaps that of Mohammed ... a religion invented by an infamous impostor and framed for beasts rather than humans. Perhaps that of the Jews who indeed at one time had the true faith but, because they rejected their expected Redeemer, have lost their faith, their country, their everything. Perhaps that of those heretics who, separating themselves from our Church ... have confused all revealed dogmas in such a way that the belief of one of them is contrary to that of his neighbor. O holy faith! Enlighten all those poor blind creatures who run to eternal perdition! But this light always shines forth and enlightens all men, both the faithful and the unbelievers ... How is it, then, that so many are lost? O cursed sin, it is you who blind the minds of so many poor souls who open their eyes only when they enter eternity, but can then no more remedy their error! ... O ye damned souls! Speak and tell me from the prison in which you live, what torments you most in Hell, the fire that burns you or the love which Jesus Christ has borne you? Ah, assuredly, the hell of your Hell is this: to see that a God came down from Heaven to earth to save you, but you, shutting your eyes to the light, have chosen of your own free will to be lost, and to lose this Infinite Good, your very God, Who will be yours no longer, nor will you ever be able to regain Him!
Several practices of the early ages were not committed to writing, but were handed down by tradition to succeeding generations; and therefore the heretics, because they reject tradition, have denied several dogmas of faith.
He is blind who refuses to believe in the truths of the Catholic faith!
The so-called Reformers have revived ancient heresies, and have sought by sophisms and false doctrines to destroy the faith of Jesus Christ, and, if possible, to bring with themselves all souls to eternal perdition.
The gates of Hell are the heresies and heresiarchs who have caused so many miserable, deluded souls to wander from the right way.
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