Faith, conviction
See also: Hope, Love, Charity, To Love, Virtues, Religion.
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Faith, a free gift from God accessible to those who ask for it with humility, is the necessary [[Virtues|supernatural virtue]] for being saved. The act of faith is a human act, that is to say an act of the intellect of man who, under the motion of the will moved by God, freely gives his adherence to the divine truth. Furthermore, faith is certain, because it is founded on the Word of God; it is active "through charity" [1]; it always grows especially through listening to the Word of God and prayer. Already now, it gives the foretaste of the joy of heaven.[2]
In "The Gospel as Revealed to Me"[edit | edit source]
- Joseph believed unwaveringly the word of the heavenly messenger. He only wanted to To Believe because he was sincerely convinced that God is good and that to him, who had hoped in the Lord, the Lord would not reserve the pain of being betrayed.[3]
- "Gospel of Faith".[4]
- Profession of Faith of John.[5]
- The testimony of true faith to convert the pagan Romans.[6]
- Act of faith of John and Simon the Zealot (Apostle).[7]
- How a struggler combats the weakening of Faith.[8]
- Faith of the centurion; Healing of his servant at Capernaum "Lord, I am not worthy…"[9]
- Faith without instruction: Do you have sufficient knowledge of the Law to know its ten commandments? ... then you know enough to be holy.[10]
- Faith is not imposed. It is preached through Peace, gentleness, patience, constancy.[11]
- When someone comes to To Believe that I can heal a disease without remedies, he is already advanced in faith. First mission in evangelization of Andrew the Apostle and Philip, the strength of conviction.[12]
- Parable of the vine (symbol of faith) and the elm tree support that ends up choking it.[13]
- The different faith of the Disciples before the multiplication of the loaves.[14]
- Man of little faith. Why did you doubt Me?[15]
- See then how necessary humility is to have quick faith and how one is rewarded to know To Believe, even against contrary appearances.[16]
- He who possesses faith possesses the way of Life. He who knows how to believe does not wander.[17]
- But when the Son of Man returns, will He perhaps still find faith on the Earth?[18] and [19]
- "To love is to know how to hope and To Believe beyond all measure and beyond any reality that could deny faith and hope. Well then, for these reasons I tell you to know how to hope and believe despite every contrary reality. Do you understand me? I say: know how to hope and believe despite every contrary reality." (Jesus to Martha and Mary Magdalene, regarding the dying Lazarus).[20]
- Mary Magdalene: The Master said that we must hope beyond what it is possible to hope for, and in God alone. And we shall do so.[21]
- (...) to teach you all the great virtue which, like the arms of a yoke, supports Faith and Charity. Bridge of the Soul, so that it may release its flight into the Light, and it is placed in the middle between the indispensable Faith and the most perfect Charity, because without Hope there can be no Faith, and without hope Charity dies. (Jesus details this in [22]).
- (...) Faith presupposes a hope full of certainty. How to Believe God if we do not hope in His Goodness? How to find support in life if we do not hope for an eternity? How to persevere in justice if we are not animated by the hope that each of our good Actions is seen by God and that we will receive from Him a reward?
In the same way, how to sustain Charity if there is no hope within us? Hope precedes Charity and prepares it. For a man needs to hope in order to love. The desperate no longer love.
Here is the framework made of bars and uprights: Faith is the bars, Hope the uprights; on top is Charity towards which one climbs by means of the two others. Man hopes to Believe, he believes to love.[23]
In other works of Maria Valtorta[edit | edit source]
Notebooks 1943[edit | edit source]
- Dictation of December 29: Seeing collapse the idols of filth you have erected in place of the true God, you will know that you have worshiped filthy things and you will no longer have faith. Faith in nothing. Neither in the true, nor in the false.[24]
In fundamental Christian texts[edit | edit source]
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church[edit | edit source]
- Faith, a free gift from God accessible to those who ask for it with humility, is the necessary [[Virtues|supernatural virtue]] for being saved. The act of faith is a human act, that is to say an act of the intellect of man who, under the motion of the will moved by God, freely gives his adherence to the divine truth. Furthermore, faith is certain, because it is founded on the Word of God; it is active "through charity" [25]; it always grows especially through listening to the Word of God and prayer. Already now, it gives the foretaste of the joy of heaven.[26]
- There are three theological Virtues: faith, hope, and charity (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:13).
- The theological Virtues found, animate, and characterize the moral action of the Christian. They inform and vivify all moral Virtues. They are infused by God into the soul of the faithful to make them able to act as His children and to deserve eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.[27]
- Virtue of Faith: CEC 1814 to 1816.[28]
- Virtue of Hope: CEC 1817 to 1821.[29]
- Virtue of Charity: CEC 1822 to 1829.[30]
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Ga 5:6
- ↑ Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 28
- ↑ EMV 26
- ↑ EMV 34
- ↑ EMV 49
- ↑ EMV 86
- ↑ EMV 116
- ↑ EMV 165
- ↑ EMV 177
- ↑ EMV 182
- ↑ EMV 199
- ↑ EMV 215
- ↑ EMV 252
- ↑ EMV 273
- ↑ EMV 274
- ↑ EMV 324
- ↑ EMV 390
- ↑ Luke 18:8
- ↑ EMV 505
- ↑ EMV 536.11
- ↑ EMV 542
- ↑ EMV 268.7
- ↑ EMV 256.6-7
- ↑ Dictation of December 29, 1943
- ↑ Ga 5,6
- ↑ Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 28
- ↑ CEC 1813
- ↑ CEC 1814 to 1816
- ↑ CEC 1817 to 1821
- ↑ CEC 1822 to 1829