Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/26

20 towards the person of a successor so much inferior. For these splendid tokens of Catholic piety We humbly confess to the Lord that He is good and gracious, while to you, Venerable Brothers, and to all Our beloved children from whom We have received them. We publicly, from the bottom of Our heart, avow the grateful feelings of Our soul, cherishing the fullest confidence that, in the present critical state of things and in the difficulties of the times, this your devotion and love and the devotion and love of the faithful will never fail Us. Nor have We any doubt that these conspicuous examples of filial piety and Christian virtue will be of such avail as to make Our most merciful God, moved by these dutiful deeds, look with favor on His flock and grant the Church peace and victory. But as We are sure that this peace and victory will more quickly and more readily be given Us, if the faithful are unremitting in their prayers and supplications to obtain it, We earnestly exhort you, Venerable Brothers, to stir up for this end the zeal and ardor of the faithful, taking the Immaculate Queen of heaven as their intercessor with God, and having recourse as their advocates to St. Joseph, the heavenly Patron of the Church, and to SS. Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles. To the powerful patronage of all these We humbly commit Our lowliness, all ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and all the flock of Christ our Lord.

For the rest. We trust that these days, on which We renew the memory of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, may be to you. Venerable Brothers, and to all the fold of God, a source of blessing and salvation and fulness of holy joy, praying our most gracious God that by the blood of the Lamb without spot, which blotted out the handwriting that was against Us, the sins We have committed may be washed away, and the judgment We are suffering for them may mercifully be mitigated.

The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you