Acta Pii Pp. XII 835

again to-night around the altar of the Most High, « lowly bowed in ado-

ration » before the uplifted Host (Tantum ergo Sacramentum) ! As your

second National Eucharistie Oongress draws to its end, once more you

have transformed your Luneta, as it were, into one vast living osten-

sorium, and Manila Bay resounds with the perrenial supplication of

Mother Church to her divine Founder and Sustainer : « O Yict im, W h o

hast saved us, and reopened Heaven's gate, the struggle stili is fìerce :

be Thou our strength, Thine aid bestow! » (O salutaris Hostia).

Surely nothing but an alert Christian instinct, kindled and fortified

throngh these four hundred years of your Catholic witness and combat

in the East, could have led you to entrust this year your precious con-

tribution to the Church's prayer and planning « for a better world »

to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These days of prayerful study and discus-

sion, guided by Our dear Son, the Cardinal Legate, and graced by the

présence of so many of your civil and religi ous leaders, cannot f ail to

point the lesson, for all to heed, that you are the members of a living

Christ, and not merely the jealous guardians of a pious Christian me-

mory or tradition; that the better world, for which the nations are

yearning, will be born and nourished of His sanctifying and hearing

grace, or it will not come to birth at a l l ; that victory for divine and

human values in the global struggle for men's souls is assured to those

alone who are loyal to His cause and obedient to His commands.

Better far than words or song, your Christian deeds will show your

trust in His Eucharistie Présence. He is the sacramental bond of your

Filipino unity. Within the sanctuary of your homes, in the hearts of

your boys and girls, in the private and public institutions of your coun-

try, He must be counted the silent but ardent Associate of your work

and your worship, as you have so nobly acknowledged this week by a

triple consécration to His Sacred Heart. His is the abiding Spirit that

would animate your schools and athenaeums and universities, your

missions for the afflicted, your Catholic Action, your institutes of social

Order.

W h o then will complain that the bürden of your Congress resolutions

is too heavy, the ideal too high for a frail, isolated people to achieve?

You are not frail as long as He sustains you. Spurn this ali too sedu-

ctive myth of isolation, while ali the infinite resources of His body and

blood, soul and divinity, are ypurs for the asking ! Trust in His Eucha-

ristie power, and see that it is made daily more abundantly available by

the generous gift of your sons to the priesthood and religious life. Put ye