Letter from Broadstairs August 2026

LETTER FROM BROADSTAIRS August 2026

Nova et Vetera

Monsignor Louis-Gaston de Segur (1820-1881) was a prominent French prelate and writer. His mother was the famed children’s author the Countess de Segur. Ordained in 1847, he would be afflicted with total blindness whilst working in Rome in 1856. This trial led him to return to an extensive apostolate amongst the poor and destitute in Paris, as well as the apostolate of the written word, composing numerous devotional and apologetic works. Known as the blind apostle he championed frequent Communion, catechism and works of charity until his death in 1881. His work entitled ‘The good combat for the Faith,’ aimed at the conservation, preservation and defence of the Faith by Catholics of all conditions, was praised by the Sovereign Pontiff Pope Pius IX in 1871, and accorded the Apostolic Blessing: ‘In your latest writing you have desired to forewarn against the grave dangers which threaten the Faith in our time. You present the motives and the means by which the Faith may be preserved whole and entire, developed and fruitful. We do not doubt that in this new work you have attained this goal.’ &&&&&&&

Chapter One – The importance of a great esteem for the sacred gift of the Faith Our author introduces this brief work as being a means to help consolidate the Faith in the souls of the believer given that it is assaulted on every side in teaching, education, private and public habits, newspapers, politics and public opinion. The Faith-the supernatural gift which which enables the soul to believe in all that God has revealed- is the substance and the basis of salvation. The whole Christian life is based on the Faith. Eternal life itself is none other than than the perfect development and divine reward for the Christian life as practised upon earth. To appreciate and esteem one’s faith is to esteem one’s salvation. To strengthen one’s faith is to strengthen one’s salvation and to consolidate one’s eternal happiness. In the same way as we take care of our health and our possessions, so much the more should we take care of our eternal happiness in the purity and the vitality of our Faith. If you would ask why there are so few fervent Catholics, so few souls of prayer, of penance and of sacrifice, it is because even amongst practising and fervent souls the Faith is not sufficiently living and fruitful. When we judge the tree by its fruits, and measure the grace of our Faith by the fruits of our Christian lives, interior and exterior, we should be suitably humbled.

‘I repeat,’ writes Mgr de Segur, ‘it is the vigour of the Faith which provides our entire spiritual strength; it is the Faith which engenders holy thoughts and religious dedication; it is the Faith which leads to prayer, to zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, to the love of the Church, to energy in the combats of life, and in all the outpouring of Christian virtues. It is the Faith which which leads to holiness: the greatness of a saint is measured by the proportion of his faith.’ The gift of Faith is the first of the graces received at baptism, at the moment when the person becomes a child of God and a member of the Church. And it is upon this foundation that the Church will work without ceasing to build up the living and immortal edifice of the sanctification of each individual. Hence the first object of Catholic education, of prayer, of the Sacraments, of Holy Communion, and in general of the life of piety, is, in the mind of the Church, to consolidate and to increase the Faith of her children, so as to produce in them the excellent fruits awaited by Our Blessed Lord. ‘The first function of the priesthood, of the episcopacy, and of the papacy itself, is non other than to give the light of the Faith to those who have not yet received it, and for those who have the happiness of possessing it already, to conserve its purity, its vitality, its energy and its fervour.’ The light which will shine for us for all eternity, and which theologians call the intuitive vision, will be the light of the Faith, developed and perfected, and divested of any veils. The divine truths which, by the mercy of God, we will see one day revealed in heaven, are the same truths which we know here below, without fully understanding them and without seeing them. So it is that we see how profound are the words of the Holy Ghost Who declares in the inspired writings of Saint Paul that, ‘the Faith is the substance of those realities here below which constitute our hope, and the essence of the celestial vision which we do not yet see.’ Hence the true Faith, the Catholic Faith, is the divine truth, infallible and eternal, which enlightens the our souls. It is the light of eternity which shines for us in time; the light of angels which is reflected upon earth so as to illuminate our terrestrial pilgrimage. The Faith is the treasure of treasures, the grace of graces. It should be more precious to us than life itself. [To be continued. Next time, the need to combat to keep one’s faith in the present time]

• Paul Morgan