Father Thomas Price
by VP
Posted on Tuesday September 12, 2023 at 01:00AM in From the Past
"Rev. Thomas Price: What explanation can be given to the
questions: When a person has been thoroughly educated in the Catholic
Faith, having had great care bestowed on his training, but who when he
reaches manhood falls away from the Church and says he does not believe
in the religion of his childhood?
The general reply is that faith
is a gift of God whereby we trust God and all that He says simply
because He says it, and that a person loses this trust in God because of
his faithlessness to God's grace. Education and training, the very best
education and training, are after all only a means, a great means, but
after all only a means, to strengthen this trust in God and what He
says, and after it is all done a person may and sometimes does through
faithlessness to God's grace fall, that is, lose this belief in God and
God's words. No man ever loses faith in God or the Catholic Church
except by his own fault. The fault may be hidden. It may be pride,
especially of intellect; it may be wilful trifling with temptations
against faith, it may be a loss of grace through immoral life, or it may
be a neglect of the means of grace, the sacraments, etc. But in every
particular case, if the truth can be reached, it will be found to be
faithlessness to God's grace. Neither any amount of education nor
training nor anything else can save a man against his own will, nor
cause him to retain Catholic faith if he is untrue to God's grace. Such
persons as you speak of are usually led away from the Church by pride,
or baneful associations of one kind or another, terminating in
faithlessness to the graces of faith. They often yield to these
influences for a time and then return to God and the Church. Let our
correspondent pray, as St. Monica prayed for St. Augustine, and the same
God who listened to Monica's prayers will not fail our correspondent."
Source: Truth Magazine page 74. June 1908 Founded 1897 by Rev. Thomas Frederick Price
The diocesan phase for the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Father Price was opened on March 9, 2012.
Please join us in prayer for
its success.
Heavenly Father, You so inspired Father Thomas
Frederick Price with love for You and zeal for the Gospel that he
dedicated his life to serve You and Your Church,
first in North Carolina, his home state, and then in
the foreign missions. Grant that by his example we may grow in holiness
and into a deeper union with Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Help us to be authentic witnesses of
the Gospel and proclaim the Holy Name of Jesus throughout the Diocese of
Raleigh and to all the people and in
all the places we are sent to love and serve.
If it be according to Your Will, glorify Your servant, Father Thomas Frederick Price, by granting the favor I (we) now request through his prayerful intercession (mention your request here). I (we) make this prayer confidently through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Source: Cure d'Ars Prayer Group