On Faith, Love, Charity
Conferences of the Rev. Père Lacordaire, p. 175*
Men believe only in proportion as they love; to believe in eternity, to love good for its own sake, justice for itself, it is necessary to begin by gratuitous love, which is a virtue… faith is a free act of the mind, caused by the love of truth and good… It is virtue which first acts, which opens the heart and becomes faith there; faith reacts in its turn, changes into charity the initial love which produced it; and thus a marvellous action and reaction commences within man, in which virtue shines forth the first and the last… Yes, faith saves the world.
Jean-Baptiste-Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802-1861) was a renowned preacher and restorer of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in France. He was a great friend of Frederic Ozanam (in fact, he is the author of a very interesting biography on Ozanam) and very close to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Image: Lacordaire, painted by Louis Janmot (1814-1892), friend of Frederic Ozanam and an early member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
*Source: Conferences of the Rev. Père Lacordaire: Delivered in the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame, in Paris. Author: Jean Baptiste Henri Dominique Lacordaire. Translated from the French by Henry Langdon. Publisher: T. Richardson in 1853.
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