Holiness in the Church

Father John A. Hardin S.J.

Introduction: The purpose of this small volume of reflection on the spiritual life is to encourage those who read it to become more holy. What it has to say is not new, no more than Christ or Christianity is new. Yet there are times, like our own, when the truths we have always believed take on a very new meaning because they are seen to meet a deeply felt need in the Church in our day.  The call to holiness is one of these truths granted as we casually pronounced the Creed that we believe in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.

But all that is changed now as we look upon a world strife and conflict, and whole nations suffering under the oppressive hands or organized tyranny that has given the Church thousands of martyrs and confessors. In many sectors of the Church are problems so grave that nothing but the almighty hand of God can resolve them.