"Without faith it is impossible to please God." Until faith exists in the soul it is dead in the sight of God, and an outcast from the kingdom of heaven. The innocent child born into the world is not the child of God or pleasing in His sight, until it receive in Baptism the infused gift of faith, nor will it ever see the face of God unless Divine faith be found in its heart. Thank God that He has given you this priceless gift, and remember the greater responsibility that it involves.
Faith must precede all other virtues. It is the door into the Church of God. He who has not entered in may be possessed of the most brilliant talents and of a very high degree of natural virtue, yet these are of no account in the sight of God, and receive no reward in heaven. A man may be generous, charitable, kind, affectionate, resolute, persevering, courageous, but these natural virtues will not avail him hereafter unless he has faith. How we ought to pity those who have not this gift of faith, and still more those who have lost it through sin and pride.
Faith is a privilege which belongs as of right only to the children of the Catholic Church. Yet those outside the Church, if they have not willfully rejected grace and light, may nevertheless possess this grace of faith in some degree. Perhaps it was poured into them at Baptism, and they have not forfeited it; or God, seeing their good will amidst all their ignorance and prejudice, has in His mercy given them the grace to make an act of faith and submission to His authority. Thank God for His mercy, which extends to all.
- text from Beautiful Pearls of Catholic Truth; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, Diocese of New York, 6 October 1897