VIRTUE FOR JANUARY - FAITH

First Vatican Council described Faith as an assent of the mind in co-operation with the will under the influence of grace and a free gift of God.

St. Robert Bellarmine of Italy embodies this virtue in his defense of revealed truths.He was born in Tuscany in 1542 around the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. He was known to be an excellent scholar and entered the Society of Jesus in 1560 and was ordained in 1570.

He taught Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae at the University of Louvain and then taught theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. In 1597 Robert was appointed theologian to Pope Clement VIII. In 1599 he was elected to the College of Cardinals.He played "a leading role in revising the Vulgate translation of the Bible and wrote an important catechism.

When King James I tried to defend his position as head of the English Church, Robert refuted him." (1) He distinguished himself by outstanding disputations in defense of the Catholic faith and the papacy. His best known work is Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei (Disputations) written to refute and convert Protestants.

He died in Rome in 1621 and was canonized in 1930.St. Robert Bellarmine's Feast Day is September 17. He is the Patron of Catechists, Canonists, and Catechumens.

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH

God, our Father, you gave Robert Bellarmine wisdom and goodness to defend the faith of your Church. By his prayers may we always rejoice in the profession of our faith. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (2)

THOUGHTS FROM ST. ROBERT BELLARMINE

In a letter to Chinese Mandarins in 1616 rejoicing that they have allowed the introduction of the faith of Jesus Christ in the "immense Empire of China," St. Robert remarks that the teaching of the Gospel does not take away earthly kingdoms but bestows a heavenly one.

"But as faith in God the Father and His Divine Son does not by itself suffice for salvation, unless we also live soberly, justly, and piously in this world, I exhort you to run in the way of God's commandments without offence, abstaining from all injustice, impurity, lying, and deceit, abounding in every good work, making progress in holy virtues and especially in trustful love of God and real charity towards one another.

"If for the love of God you have to suffer any trouble or persecution, be glad and rejoice for your reward is very great in Heaven. This is the will of God, our Father, that our faith, hope, and charity should be proved by patience as gold is tried in the furnace.

"It would not be difficult for Him to free us at once from all tribulation and sorrow, but instead He permits His friends to suffer much in this world that He may crown them all the more gloriously in Heaven, and make them more like His only-begotten Son, who never ceased to do good and to suffer injury while He was on earth that He might teach us patience by His example.

"Just as He humbled Himself, being made obedient even unto death, the death of the cross, and just as God the Father for that reason exalted Him to the throne of His glory, and gave Him a Name that is above all other names, ...so, too, will the Son of God exalt us and make the body of our lowliness like the body of His glory, if we bear persecutions and adversities with steadfast patience of soul." (3)

Footnotes

1. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, "Teaching and Sharing" 6/322.

2. Magnificat, September 2004, pg. 2543.

3. Letters from the Saints, Hawthorne Books 1964, pg. 53