preaching of the Gospel is the salvation of the hearers, so a vain and inflated declamation is to the faithful scandal, and to the preacher destruction. The mysteries of the kingdom of God are not to be handled as rhetorical exercises or lucubrations of literary art. The witness of the Holy Ghost does not need the persuasive words of man's wisdom; rather the simplicity of divine truth contemns and rejects the loftiness of our speech, that our faith may not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.[1] Let all guides of souls, therefore, labour diligently, that in handling the mysteries of faith and in exhorting the faithful to piety they admit nothing that is not full of simplicity and gravity."
7. "The life of a priest is, in truth, arduous; yet it is surrounded and guarded by innumerable means and helps to acquire perfection. For our provident Mother the Church, in imposing upon the clergy the office of divine praise, vindicates and secures for its ministers in the midst of their labours of charity a time of quiet. Seven times a day it bids us ascend in heart and mind to the King of Saints and to the heavenly court; and if by the Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus once received men may be made Saints, nothing can be
- ↑ Sess. xiv.
