[1] This translation is the official form that appeared in the
London _Tablet_, June 5, 1897.
VENERABLE BRETHREN,
HEALTH AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION
That divine office which Jesus Christ received from His Father for
the welfare of mankind, and most perfectly fulfilled, had for its
final object to put men in possession of the eternal life of
glory, and proximately during the course of ages to secure to them
the life of divine grace, which is destined eventually to blossom
into the life of heaven. Wherefore, our Saviour never ceases to
invite, with infinite affection, all men, of every race and
tongue, into the bosom of His Church: "Come ye all to Me," "I am
the Life," "I am the Good Shepherd." Nevertheless, according to
His inscrutable counsels, He did not will entirely to complete and
finish this office Himself on earth, but as He had received it
from the Father, so He transmitted it for its completion to the
Holy Ghost. It is consoling to recall those assurances which
Christ gave to the body of His disciples a little before He left
the earth: "It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the
Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to
you" (1 John 16.7). In these words He gave as the chief reason of
His departure and His return to the Father, the advantage which
would most certainly accrue to His followers from the coming of
the Holy Ghost, and, at the same time, He made it clear that the
Holy Ghost is equally sent by--and therefore proceeds from--
Himself and the Father; that He would complete, in His office of
Intercessor, Consoler, and Teacher, the work which Christ Himself
had begun in His mortal life. For, in the redemption of the world,
the completion of the work was by Divine Providence reserved to
the manifold power of that Spirit who, in the creation, "adorned
the heavens" (Job 26.13), and "filled the whole world" (Wisdom
1.7).