Few miracles done because of their unbelief

[Weedy]

Few miracles done because of their unbelief

"It seems to me that the production of miracles is similar in some
ways to the case of physical things. Cultivation is not sufficient to
produce a harvest of fruits unless the soil, or rather the atmosphere,
cooperates to this end. And the atmosphere of itself is not sufficient
to produce a harvest without cultivation. The one who providentially
orders creation did not design things to spring up from the earth
without cultivation. Only in the first instance did he do so when he
said, 'Let the earth bring forth vegetation, with the seed sowing
according to its kind and according to its likeness' (Genesis 1:11).
It is just this way in regard to the production of miracles. The
complete work resulting in a healing is not displayed without those
being healed exercising faith. Faith, of whatever quality it might be,
does not produce a healing without divine power.'
by Origen of Alexandria (excerpt from the COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.19)

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August 7th – St. Cajetan of Thienna, Confessor
from the Liturgical Year, 1901

Cajetan appeared in all his zeal for the sanctuary at the time when
the false reform was spreading rebellion throughout the world. The
great cause of the danger had been the incapacity of the guardians of
the holy City, or their connivance by complicity of heart or of mind
with pagan doctrines and manners introduced by an ill-advised revival.
Wasted by the wild boar of the forest, could the vineyard of the Lord
recover the fertility of its better days? Cajetan learned from Eternal
Wisdom the new method of culture required by an exhausted soil.

The urgent need of those unfortunate times was that the clergy should
be raised up again by worthy life, zeal, and knowledge. For this
object men were required, who being clerks themselves in the full
acceptation of the word, with all the obligations it involves, should
be to the members of the holy hierarchy a permanent model of its
primitive perfection, a supplement to their shortcomings, and a
leaven, little by little raising the whole mass. But where, save in
the life of the counsels with the stability of its three vows, could
be found the impulse, the power, and the permanence necessary for such
an enterprise? The inexhaustible fecundity of the religious life was
no more wanting in the Church in those days of decadence than in the
periods of her glory. After the monks, turning to God in their
solitudes and drawing down light and love upon the earth seemingly so
forgotten by them; after the mendicant Orders, keeping up in the midst
of the world their claustral habits of life and the austerity of the
desert: the regular clerks entered upon the battle-field, whereby
their position in the fight, their exterior manner of life, their very
dress, they were to mingle with the ranks of the secular clergy; just
as a few veterans are sent into the midst of a wavering troop, to act
upon the rest by word and example and dash.

Like the initiators of the great ancient forms of religious life,
Cajetan was the Patriarch of the Regular Clerks. Under this name
Clement VII., by a brief dated 24th June, 1524, approved the institute
he had founded that very year in concert with the Bishop of Theati,
from whom the new religious were also called Theatines. Soon the
Barnabites, the Society of Jesus, the Somasques of St. Jerome Emilian,
the Regular Clerks Minor of St. Francis Carracciolo, the Regular
Clerks ministering to the sick, the Regular Clerks of the Pious
Schools, the Regular Clerks of the Mother of God, and others, hastened
to follow in the track, and proved that the Church is ever beautiful,
ever worthy of her Spouse; while the accusation of barrenness hurled
against her by heresy, rebounded upon the thrower.

Cajetan began and carried forward his reform chiefly by means of
detachment from riches, the love of which had caused many evils in the
Church. The Theatines offered to the world a spectacle unknown since
the days of the Apostles; pushing their zeal for renouncement so far
as not to allow themselves even to beg, but to rely on the spontaneous
charity of the faithful. While Luther was denying the very existence
of God's Providence, their heroic trust in It was often rewarded by
prodigies.


Saint Quote:
He who trusts in himself is lost. He who trusts in God can do all things.
-- Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Bible Quote:
Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you
are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be
able to bear it. (1 Cor. 10:13) DRB


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Jesus! my Lord, my God, my All! How can I love Thee as I ought?
And how revere this wondrous gift, So far surpassing hope or thought?

Had I but Mary's sinless heart To love Thee with, my dearest King!
O, with what bursts of fervent praise Thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing!
Sweet Sacrament! We Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more!