Robert Bellarmine was a Jesuit, a Theologian, and a Canon Lawyer during a tough time in the Church.
Collect: O God, who adorned the Bishop Saint Robert Bellarmine with wonderful learning and virtue to vindicate the faith of your Church, grant, through his intercession, that in the integrity of that same faith your people may always find joy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ…
“O God, who adorned the Bishop Saint Robert Bellarmine with wonderful learning and virtue to vindicate the faith of your Church,”
–We understand that all good things come from God, even our own accomplishments. So, instead of thanking Robert for being so educated and virtuous, we thank God because “without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). More importantly, we know that God’s providence covers all things, even the things we do. In fact, as we become holier and wiser, so much the more does God use us in His providence. This is why we do not worship the saints, because in the end, all the credit for their holiness and for the good things that they did goes to God. God used Robert Bellarmine to “vindicate” (justify, clear from blame, defend) the faith of the Church. Even though faith is a gift, and one that transcends human reasoning, we can still see that our faith is rational. Bellarmine’s example helped to display that reasonableness, that rationality to those who would mock or deny some aspect of the Faith of the Church.
“grant, through his intercession, that in the integrity of that same faith your people may always find joy.”
— We see that joy comes not from just one part of the faith, but it’s integrity. We find true Joy in the assurance that the Faith cannot fail, that it is reliable. The fact is that the faith as a whole, all of the Church’s Teachings and Traditions, provide a foundation and a reliability that individuals cannot find on their own and that human reason alone is unable to attain. Cafeteria Catholicism tends to produce people who are arbitrary and who ultimately become bitter or half-hearted because their lives, their hearts and minds, are incomplete, divided and in conflict with themselves.
Advice: Examine yourself – first consider whether you are striving to be good on your own or with the help of Grace. Then take a moment to think about any part of the Church’s teaching you dislike or don’t understand. Pray for understanding and then look it up and see what the Church actually teaches in this area. Do yourself a favor and try to find the best defenders of this Truth, find the Robert Bellarmines of today who can vindicate for you the Faith of the Church. If you lack Joy in your Christian life, then it might be because you’ve deviated from the integrity of the faith in thoughts, words, or actions.
Also, try the “Act of Faith” – a willful commitment to some aspect of the faith. The link gives one example, but any deliberate and attentive prayer which asserts the Truth given us by God will help. Faith is a virtue, a habit. If you want to strengthen a habit, you practice it. Practice your faith by choosing to believe what was taught to you by a reliable source.
Finally, pray for our Priests, Canon Lawyers, and Bishops to accept and defend the fullness of the Truth, especially now that the world is putting so much pressure on the Church to compromise her teaching on Marriage, the Eucharist, and what it means to be Male or Female.
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| St. Robert Bellarmine, Pray for Us |