which, by the help of God, We have thought it well, at the present
moment, to offer to you on the study of the Sacred Scriptures. It will
now be for you to see that what We have said be held and observed with
all due reverence, that so we may prove our gratitude to God for the
communication to man of the words of His wisdom, and that all the good
results which are so much to be desired may be realized, especially as
they effect the training of the students of the Church, which is matter
of Our own great solicitude and of the Church's hope. Exert yourselves
with glad alacrity, and use your authority, and your persuasive powers,
in order that these studies may be held in just regard, and that they
may flourish in the seminaries and in the educational institutions
which are under your jurisdiction. May they flourish in the
completeness of success, under the direction of the Church, in
accordance with the salutary teaching and the example of the Holy
Fathers, and the laudable traditions of antiquity. As time goes on,
let them be widened and extended as the interests and glory of the
truth may require--the interests of that Catholic Truth which comes
down from above, the never-failing source of the salvation of all
peoples. Finally, We admonish with paternal love all students and
ministers of the Church always to approach the sacred writings with the
most profound affection of reverence and of piety. It is impossible to
attain to a profitable understanding thereof unless, laying aside the
arrogance of "earthly" science, there be excited in the heart a holy
desire for that wisdom "which is from above." In this way the mind
which has once entered on these sacred studies, and which has by means
of them been enlightened and strengthened, will acquire a marvellous
facility in detecting and avoiding the fallacies of human science, and
in gathering and utilizing solid fruit for eternal salvation. The
heart will then wax warm, and will strive with more ardent longing to
advance in virtue and in divine love. "Blessed are they who examine
His testimonies; they shall seek Him with their whole heart."
And now, filled with hope in the divine assistance, and trusting to
your pastoral solicitude--as a pledge of heavenly graces and in witness
of Our special good will--to all of you, and to the clergy, and to the
whole flock which has been intrusted to you, We most lovingly impart in
our Lord the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at St. Peter's, at Rome, the 18th day of November, 1893, the
sixteenth year of Our Pontificate.
LEO PP. XIII.
End of Project Gutenberg's Chapters of Bible Study, by Herman J. Heuser