AAS 31 (1939), p. 540
who have abandoned it? What heart is not inflamed, is not swept forward
to help at the sight of so many brothers and sisters who, misled by error,
passion, temptation and prejudice, have strayed away from faith in
the true God, and have lost contact with the joyful and life-giving
message of Christ? Who among the soldiers of Christ—ecclesiastic or
layman—does not feel himself incited and spurred on to a greater vigilance,
to a more determined resistance, by the sight of the ever increasing
host of Christ's enemies; as he perceives the spokesmen of these tendencies
deny or in practice neglect the vivifying truths and the values
inherent in belief in God and in Christ; as he perceives them wantonly
break the tables of God's commandments to substitute other tables and
other standards stripped of the ethical content of the Revelation on Sinai,
standards in which the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the
Cross has no place? Who could observe without profound grief the
tragic harvest of such desertions among those who in days of calm and
security were numbered among the followers of Christ, but who—Christians
unfortunately more in name than in fact—-in the hour that called
for endurance, for effort, for suffering, for a stout heart in face of hidden
or open persecution, fell victims of cowardice, weakness, uncertainty;
who, terror-stricken before the sacrifices entailed by a profession of their
Christian faith, could not steel themselves to drink the bitter chalice
awaiting those faithful to Christ?
In such dispositions of time and temperament, Venerable Brethren,
may the approaching feast of Christ the King, on which this Our first
Encyclical will reach you, be a day of grace and of thorough renewal
and revival in the spirit of the Kingdom of Christ. May it be a day when
the consecration of the human race to the divine Heart, which should
be celebrated in a particularly solemn manner, will gather the faithful
of all peoples and all nations around the throne of the Eternal King, in
adoration and in reparation, to renew now and for ever their oath of
allegiance to Him and to His law of truth and of love. May it be for
the faithful a day of grace, on which the fire, that Our Lord came to
cast upon the earth, will kindle with ever greater light and purity. May
it be a day of grace for the lukewarm, for the weary, for the afflicted,
that their hearts, which have become faint, may give proofs of interior
renewal and regeneration of spirit. May it be a day of grace also for
those who have not known Christ or who have lost Him; a day when
from millions of faithful hearts will rise to heaven the prayer that
the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world
(St. John, 1, 9) may make clear to them the way of salvation, that His
to help at the sight of so many brothers and sisters who, misled by error,
passion, temptation and prejudice, have strayed away from faith in
the true God, and have lost contact with the joyful and life-giving
message of Christ? Who among the soldiers of Christ—ecclesiastic or
layman—does not feel himself incited and spurred on to a greater vigilance,
to a more determined resistance, by the sight of the ever increasing
host of Christ's enemies; as he perceives the spokesmen of these tendencies
deny or in practice neglect the vivifying truths and the values
inherent in belief in God and in Christ; as he perceives them wantonly
break the tables of God's commandments to substitute other tables and
other standards stripped of the ethical content of the Revelation on Sinai,
standards in which the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the
Cross has no place? Who could observe without profound grief the
tragic harvest of such desertions among those who in days of calm and
security were numbered among the followers of Christ, but who—Christians
unfortunately more in name than in fact—-in the hour that called
for endurance, for effort, for suffering, for a stout heart in face of hidden
or open persecution, fell victims of cowardice, weakness, uncertainty;
who, terror-stricken before the sacrifices entailed by a profession of their
Christian faith, could not steel themselves to drink the bitter chalice
awaiting those faithful to Christ?
In such dispositions of time and temperament, Venerable Brethren,
may the approaching feast of Christ the King, on which this Our first
Encyclical will reach you, be a day of grace and of thorough renewal
and revival in the spirit of the Kingdom of Christ. May it be a day when
the consecration of the human race to the divine Heart, which should
be celebrated in a particularly solemn manner, will gather the faithful
of all peoples and all nations around the throne of the Eternal King, in
adoration and in reparation, to renew now and for ever their oath of
allegiance to Him and to His law of truth and of love. May it be for
the faithful a day of grace, on which the fire, that Our Lord came to
cast upon the earth, will kindle with ever greater light and purity. May
it be a day of grace for the lukewarm, for the weary, for the afflicted,
that their hearts, which have become faint, may give proofs of interior
renewal and regeneration of spirit. May it be a day of grace also for
those who have not known Christ or who have lost Him; a day when
from millions of faithful hearts will rise to heaven the prayer that
the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world
(St. John, 1, 9) may make clear to them the way of salvation, that His