Him into a spiritual abode here on earth, we may be received by Him into the mansions of bliss, hereafter in heaven.
Faith, therefore, was the foundation of the spiritual' mansion in which Mary received her Lord, and we, too, if we wish Him to visit and abide with us, must build Him an abode founded on faith. " Without faith," says St. Paul, " it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and is a rewarder to them that seek Him." This foundation must be laid, not on the earth or the shifting sand, but on the firm rock, and that rock is Christ Jesus. " No one," says St. Paul, " must lay any other foundation but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus." Heretics and Jews and even Pagans believe in the doctrine of good works, and some even have a smattering of faith, but still they do not please God, because their faith is not the faith of Christ. Our Lord does not dwell with them, because the abodes they offer Him are unstable structures with false foundations. But if perchance they believe in Christ still do they err in rejecting from their faith Christ's earthly Vicar. For although it is forbidden to lay any foundation but that already laid, Christ Jesus, yet Christ is, as it were, the solid bed of rock and Peter is the first stone laid thereon by Christ Himself when He said: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church." For we receive revealed truths relying on the infallibility of Christ; and when question arises which truth is revealed and which is not, we look for answer to Peter or his suc-
