George Matulaitis Journal

The human mind is the source of all kinds of ideas which eventually reach the masses and spread throughout the world. The human will is a power which either draws people to itself, lifts them up, inclines, and directs them toward a positive goal or, on the other hand, drags them down—moves them toward happiness or misery. The human heart, burn- ing with emotion, can be a powerful source of energy that warms, enkin- dles, and energizes others—like steam or electricity—inspiring people to do good, or it can be an evil and destructive force. This is why the formation of the human spirit is so important: we must train the mind to receive the light of truth; the will—to accept and be guided by the will of God as expressed through the commandments, counsels, duties, vocation, inspirations, and circumstances of our lives and also to be docile to the graces generously given by God through the Church and the sacraments that strengthen it. Finally, we must enkindle the heart with an ardent love of God and man. Our Congregation, therefore, should take special pains to educate and train the people needed by the Church. On the one hand, we should carefully consider what the needs of the Church are in every nation. We should study and understand them well, beginning with the most important and pressing ones. And on the other hand, we should try to find suitable people and then train, educate, and prepare them to work effectively to meet those needs. Our first care, of course, must be for each person’s interior, spiritual life; to form each one so that he becomes a person according to the heart of God—“Homo secundum cor Dei” 1 —a person able to be a source of spiritual life and rebirth for others. Then we must train him in other fields—of learning, manual labor, or social action so that he would be skilled in some field and, thus, of greater use to the Church and society. In that way he would be able to use his natural gifts and talents, exercised through his own hard work in the service of God and man. Having perfected these natural gifts by education and training so that a person would not be inferior to non-believers or even to believers who have not especially dedicated themselves to God, but 49 1 Cf., 1 Kings 13, 14, according to the Vulgate and translations that correspond to it.