“What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!”

 -Saint John Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church

Letter of Saint Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria
To His Flock
The Catholic Church Ravaged in the Fourth Century   "May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises -- but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle -- the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ... "You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. "Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."
- (Coll. Selecta SS.Eccl.Patrum, Caillau and Guillou Vol. 32, pp. 411-412)

Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved.

Many begin well, but there are few who persevere.

So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Saviour intended to say: The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern, that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it, because it is so irregular and overgrown.

-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church

 
 Mary with Child and John the Baptist (first half of 16th century), Bernard van Orley


The morning light shines before the sun, so does meekness precede humility. Meekness is that unalterable condition of the soul in which it remains always the same in praise as in blame, without confusion, without disturbance, and without vexation.

Meekness aids obedience, and is a quality of the Angels. A meek soul is enlightened by the spirit of discernment, and is the seat of simplicity. The simple soul is far removed from all vain, curious, and perverse thoughts; it goes directly and sincerely to God, as a scholar to his master.

-Saint John Climacus

 
 The Vale of Rest (1858-1859), John Everett Millais


The Highest Pleasures
The highest, the best, the most permanent pleasures are those which are not sought, but which come from the faithful fulfillment of life’s duties and obligations.
Indeed, eager search after pleasure in any direction is always fruitless, because it implies a condition of mind to which enduring happiness is a stranger.
Selfishness and enjoyment may dwell together for a brief season, but the latter will soon wither away under the absorbing influence of the former.

Don’t Go To Heaven Alone
 
Don’t go to heaven alone! Take somebody with you. Mothers, take your children with you. Pray as long as you have breath in your body – never despair and never give up the hope that your loved ones, no matter how far their footsteps have wandered, will one day stand with you before the Great White Throne.

 
 All Souls Day (1888), Jakub Schikaneder

Let Us Go About Doing Good
If we are educated, let us, in the Master’s name, instruct the ignorant; if we possess wealth, let us use it as God intended; if we have health, let us cheer some drooping soul.
If we enjoy any singular opportunities, consider them prayerfully, and in so doing we shall find that the moments that really shine out in our lives are those in which we have buried self and gone out into this busy and sinful world, and have endeavored, by prayer and effort to do the will of Him, whose one great mission was to go about doing good.
Fr. Lasance