1. A Lively and Supernatural Faith

First of all, a faith proud, alert, fearless, firm and alive to truth, to the triumph of Catholic doctrine. The intellectual and political forces more or less impregnated with atheism are set to destroy Christian civilization. Facing them, we perceive the many for whom the specifically religious foundations of that Christian civilization are out of date and henceforth without objective value, but who would nevertheless preserve something of their prestige to safeguard a civic order which cannot survive without them. Lifeless or paralyzed bodies, they cannot block the subversive forces of atheism!

But you, you are completely otherwise! Surely the battle will be hard, especially the battle for the rights of the family, the dignity of woman, the child, and the school. But you have nature on your side, and consequently those of right mind and good sense, who are after all the majority -- you have, above all, God. Bear witness then to the thought of St. Paul: Your faith has made of you heroes in the fight (Hebr. 11:33 ff).

We call firm faith: an absolute faith, without reservations or reticence, a faith which does not falter before the ultimate consequences of truth, which does not draw back from its most rigorous applications. Do not let yourselves be deceived, like so many others, after thousands of disastrous experiences, with the empty hope of winning over the adversary by walking in his wake and taking him as your model.

Your young generation expresses, in its charter¹ the hope of "rallying to your principles all the young women of the world who accept as a foundation the natural law which has its source in God, and even more surely all those who, being Christian, believe in Christ the Redeemer." We applaud your spirit, your youthful optimism, and approve your intention. But take care: the great secret of winning others is, above all, to give them evidence that for a Catholic, her faith is a solid and living reality.

Furthermore, a firm and living faith is one which, day by day, is expressed in acts of humility, prayer, and sacrifice. Precisely because you intend to battle the anti-Christian forces which are "totalitarian," the first condition is to oppose them by carrying out in your life the law of God spontaneously, joyously, and fully accepted. To take this law lightly, would be a confession of a deplorable frivolity and a fatal instability. Do not forget it: -- We now address those who because of their age and social environment are more especially exposed to these dangers -- no matter how well intentioned you may be, you share like others the weakness of a fallen nature. Satan does not accept defeat: as in Eden, he continues to cajole woman to her downfall, playing upon her nature to seduce her. You know the world of today well enough, dear daughters, to realize that you yourselves who live in it, need strength and courage at each step, to triumph over the temptations and seductions of your own tendencies by an energetic "No!" But how can you say this "no" and repeat it tirelessly, unless you understand and humbly recognize, in the presence of God, that as human creatures you are powerless and need the grace of God. Now you cannot expect to obtain this grace without prayer and sacrifice.

You who so praiseworthily wish to lead an apostolic life, each according to her individual situation, know well enough the world of today to realize that in your battle against unbelief and immorality, natural resources and all purely human means are radically insufficient. What you absolutely need is an intimate union with Christ, and that intimate union absolutely presupposes prayer and sacrifice.

Every step you have taken here in Rome must have left a profound impression on your minds and in your hearts, recalling to you the lives of the early Christians. Those Christians were men and women who understood what is meant by sacrifice; otherwise they could not have won over hatred, irreligion, and lust, the splendid triumphs the telling of which fills you with admiration, as it fills with amazement even the unbeliever. Are conditions today so different? As has been well said: to live today in our great cities without loss of faith and purity requires no less heroism than was needed in the days of bloody persecution.