Do you remember the hymn, “Faith of our Fathers”? These days we would, of course, want to explicitly name the extraordinary faith of “our mothers” as well. Many of us will recall standing and bellowing out on top note:
Faith of our fathers! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword …
Our Fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free:
How sweet would be their children’s
fate,
If they, like them, could die for thee!
Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
In one of his letters, St Ignatius Loyola tells us we should never pray for something we don’t want, because we might just get it. Let’s think about what we ask for in this hymn – that, if needs be, we would happily die for our Catholic faith.
