• The Church (…) has always continued along the same path, and even today it does not proceed differently. Who does not know how Our Predecessor Pius, of holy memory, opened widely to the faithful, and especially to children, the doors to the Eucharistic sources of grace? However, it would be a disastrous illusion to believe that the efficacy of the sacrament, the work done, dispense souls from cooperation in procuring their salvation. One of the effects of the Holy Eucharist, "like an antidote, by which we are freed from our daily sins, and let us be preserved from mortal sins" (Conc. Trident. Sess. Chapter XIII. 2), it consists precisely in giving strength to fight against sin. The life of the Christian, which is informed by the example of Christ, it is a life of fighting against the devil, the world and the flesh. Indulging in quietism has never been a good thing, and a good thing (non) it's today, less than ever, in the Church as a society, and in the religious life of any person. May the faithful, who hear the word of God from the pulpits, open their spirits with avid desire to the knowledge of truth and supernatural life, that is offered to them; but this knowledge must be followed by the observance of the commandments and that, persevering in good works, may they grow and be strengthened in grace. • It is not our intention to encourage harsh rigorism. Those who care for souls know how to treat people and circumstances with benevolent understanding, who advise meekness and adaptation in non-essential things. But the inflexibility of reason and duty has a large irreducible field where the commandments of God reign, always and everywhere obliging them to voluntary submission and abnegation of themselves and their passions, to the dominion of evil inclinations and the strengthening of one's conscientious will for the moments of the most serious resolutions.
• Heroism, He did not find Christ in everyone; to anyone who showed even a trace of good will, (They) he held out his hand and inspired courage; at the same time, but, he did not refrain from stating the loftiest questions: «If anyone wants to keep up with me, let him deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me" (Luc., IX, 23). «Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt., V, 48). To lead men to such a high goal, the Church helps everyone, always with the intention of bringing those who believe in Christ and practice his teachings and commands closer to the perfection of the heavenly Father.
• It is on the mountain, visible to all, «mother of' santi, image of the supernal city" while it appears that the de-Christianization around her has gained and is still gaining ground. But this fact, however painful, should perhaps discourage you (…)? The Church is there on its foundation, inflexible to defections and persecutions, because it is the strength of God and Christ. It was said that, if God did not exist, we would have to invent it [Cf. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Karamázov brothers (translation from Russian) lib. 2 n.. 6 e lib. 5 n. 3]: without a God who has marked for men the distinction and the boundaries of good and evil, a law of morality on this earth would not shine upon reason. Where faith dominates (In the) Personal God, the moral order remains strong, determined by the ten precepts of the Decalogue; otherwise, or sooner or later, collapses miserably. Only where this order illuminates the mind, directs the heart and conquers the passions, the life of individuals and communities has support and vigor, and shows herself worthy of the reasonable creature. For it alone ensures and ennobles human dignity, whose features are identified with those of the Decalogue; cosicché solamente se opera entro quell’ordine, entro quel limite dei dieci comandamenti, la libera volontà grandeggia nella virtù e nei suoi atti, come (il maggior dono che Dio, per Sua grandezza, fece creando) all’uomo. When instead (the man)esce da quei confini e fa lecito ogni suo libito (Cf. Inf. 5, 56), voi la vedete tramutarsi in un torrente impetuoso, che ha lasciato il suo alveo e, varcati gli argini, si riversa attraverso la regione, recando devastazione e morte. Non è forse vero che senza quei legami la libera volontà è più pericolosa e audace che il naturale istinto degli animali selvatici o feroci? Le masse umane, che non conoscono Dio nella (vera) religion, non si possono alla lunga frenare e reggere se non col terrore; ma il terrore è la fine e la morte della dignità e della libertà umana.
• Nowadays humanity, who did not turn a blind eye to social movements, he sees and contemplates this concatenation of sad causes and effects and their bitter and painful consequences. If the high material prosperity of recent generations somehow kept away the ruinous evils deriving from estrangement from God, or at least covered them, when humanly speaking there could have been cause for discouragement; to the present, in this time of misery, without name and help, which made every high economic prosperity disappear, here in the midst of the disintegration of public systems, while human coexistence would need religious and moral forces even more, instead, the decrease in faith in God and in the observance of His commandments is sadly felt. What the experience and contemplation of this tragic hour teach us is almost an intuitive teaching of the warning of Holy Scripture, which proclaims that man, free to resolve, he must know what he chooses, water or fire, life or death: whatever he prefers will be given to him (Cf. Eccles., XV, 17-18). The time, which so proudly turns and drags so many peoples and nations into blood and pain [the Pope is teaching in times of war, ndR], it is truly such as to make God's commandments heard and listened to, not as a voice of annoying compulsion, (as well as) we loved to represent them in days of external prosperity and material well-being, but as happy news, as a promise, of protection, salvation and redemption; and so may you (Parish priests) announce them to the people!
[Dal Speech of His Holiness Pius XII to the parish priests and Lenten followers of Rome, Tuesday 23 February 1944; cf. Speeches and Radio Messages of His Holiness Pius XII, V, Fifth year of Pontificate, 2 March 1943 – 1° March 1944, pp. 185-207. Vatican Polyglot Typography. Document full of infallible sentences and very current].
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