Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/307



THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 301

it Vv'ell, at the present moment, to offer to you on the study of Holy Scripture. It will now be your province to see that what We have said be observed and put in practice with all due reverence and exactness; 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 so much to be desired may be realized, especially as they affect the training of the students of the Church, which is our own great solicitude and the Church's hope. Exert yourselves with wilhng alacrity, and use your authority and j^our persuasion in order that these studies may be held in just regard and may flourish in seminaries and in educational institutions which are under your jurisdiction. Let them flourish in completeness and in happy success, under the direction of the Church, in accordance with the salutary teaching and example of the holy Fathers, and the laudable traditions of antiquity; and, as time goes on, let them be widened and extended as the interests and glory of truth may require â€” the interests of that Catholic truth which comes from above, the never-failing source of man's salvation. Finally, We admonish with paternal love all students and ministers of the Church al ways to approach the sacred waitings with reverence and piety; for it is impossible to attain to the profitable understanding thereof unless the arrogance o f "earthly" science be laid aside, and the ^^ be pY^1^^^orlâ– i n the heart the holy desire for that wisdom " which is from above." In this way the intelligence which is once admitted to these sacred studies, and thereby illuminated ^ and strengthened, will acquire a marvellous facility in ^^{?n^ detecting and avoidin g the fallacies of human science^ //t^- and in gathermg and "u sing for eternal salvation^aU^ that j^

is valuable and precious; whilst, at the same time, the /*-fv<l^^- heart will grow warm, and will strive, with ardent longing, ^U/ to advance in virtue and in divine love. Blessed are tlvey V^^% who examine His testimonies; they shall seek Him with -^i â– â€¢ '^ their whole heart}

' Ps. cxviii. 2.