> [[at-sl-05|← Ch. I]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-07|Ch. II cont. →]] - [[at-sl-06#Chapter II. The Nature of the Christian Life|Chapter II. The Nature of the Christian Life]] - [[at-sl-06#Chapter II. The Nature of the Christian Life#ART. I. THE ROLE OF GOD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE|Art I The Role Of God In The Christian Life]] - [[at-sl-06#ART. I. THE ROLE OF GOD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE#§ I. The Role of the Blessed Trinity|§ I. The Role of the Blessed Trinity]] - [[at-sl-06#ART. I. THE ROLE OF GOD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE#§ II. Role of Jesus in the Christian Life[1]|§ II. Role of Jesus in the Christian Life[1]] - [[at-sl-06#ART. I. THE ROLE OF GOD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE#§ III. The Part of the Blessed Virgin, the Saints and the Angels in the Christian Life|§ III. The Part of the Blessed Virgin, the Saints and the Angels in the Christian Life]] # Chapter II. The Nature of the Christian Life 88\. The supernatural life which, by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, is a participation in God’s life, is often called the life of God in us or the life of Jesus in us. Such expressions are correct provided one takes care to explain them, so as to avoid anything savoring of pantheism. We have not a life identical with that of God or our Lord; we only have a life similar to theirs, a finite participation, yet most real. We may define it thus: a share in the divine life given us by the Holy Ghost who dwells in us, because of the merits of Jesus Christ; a life which we must protect against all destructive tendencies. 89\. We see, then, that as regards our supernatural life God plays the principal role, we a secondary one. It is the Triune God that comes Himself to confer it upon us, for He alone can make us share in His own life. He communicates it to us in virtue of the merits of Christ (n. 78), who is the meritorious, exemplary and vital cause of our sanctification. It is perfectly true that God lives in us, that Jesus lives in us; yet, our spiritual life is not identical with that of God or of our Lord. It is distinct from but similar to the one and the other. Our role consists in making use of the divine gifts in order to live with God and for God, in order to live in union with Jesus and to imitate Him. But we cannot live this supernatural life without a continual struggle against the threefold concupiscence which still remains in us (n. 83). And moreover, since God has endowed us with a supernatural organism, it is our duty to make that life increase in us by meritorious acts and the fervent reception of the sacraments. This is the meaning of the definition we have given, and this whole chapter is but its explanation and development. From it we shall draw practical conclusions concerning devotion to the Most Holy Trinity, devotion to and union with the Incarnate Word, and even concerning devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, since all these devotions flow from their relations with the Word of God-made-Flesh. Although the action of God and that of the soul have parallel developments in the Christian life, we shall for the sake of clearness treat of them in two successive articles, one on the role of God and the other on the role of man. ![[at-sl-img-04.jpeg]] ## Art. I. The Role of God in the Christian Life God acts in us either directly, by Himself, or through the Incarnate Word, or through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin, the Angels and the Saints. ### § I. The Role of the Blessed Trinity 90\. The first cause, the primary, efficient cause and the exemplary cause of the supernatural life in us is no other than the Blessed Trinity, or by appropriation, the Holy Ghost. True, the life of grace is a work common to the Three Divine Persons, for it is a work ad extra, yet, because it is a work of love, it is attributed especially to the Holy Ghost. Now the Most Adorable Trinity contributes to our sanctification in two ways: the Three Divine Persons come to dwell in our souls; there they create a supernatural organism which transforms and elevates them, thus enabling them to perform Godlike acts. I. The Indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the Soul1 91\. Since the Christian life is a participation in God’s own life, it is evident that none but God Himself can confer it upon us. This He does by coming to dwell in our souls and by giving Himself wholly to us in order that we may first of all render Him our homage, enjoy His presence and allow ourselves to be led with docility to the practice of Christ’s virtues and into the dispositions of His holy soul.[2] Theologians call this uncreated grace. Let us then examine first how the Three Divine Persons live in us, and next, what our attitude must be toward Them. #### 1° How the Three Divine Persons Dwell Within Us 92\. God, says St. Thomas,[3] is in all creatures in a threefold manner: by His power, inasmuch as all creatures are subject to His dominion; by His presence, because He sees all, even the most secret thoughts of the soul, “All things are naked and open to his eyes;”[4] by His essence, since He acts everywhere and since everywhere He is the plenitude of being itself and the first cause of whatever is real in creation, giving continually to creatures not only life and movement, but their very being: “In Him we live and move and are.”[5] Yet, His presence within us by grace is of a much higher and intimate nature. It is no longer the presence of the Creator and Preserver who sustains the beings He created; it is the presence of the Most Holy Trinity revealed to us by faith. The Father comes to us and continues to beget His Word within us. With the Father we receive the Son equal in all things to the Father, His loving and substantial image, who never ceases to love His Father with the same infinite love wherewith the Father loves Him. Out of this mutual love proceeds the Holy Spirit, a person equal to the Father and the Son and a mutual bond between Father and Son. The Three are withal distinct one from the other. These wonders go on continually within the soul in the state of grace. The presence of the Three Divine Persons, at once physical and moral, establishes the most intimate and most sanctifying relations between God and the soul. Gathering all that is found here and there in the Scriptures, we can say that God through grace is present within us as a father, as a friend, as a helper, as a sanctifier, and that in this way He is truly the very source of our interior life, its efficient and exemplary cause. 93\. A) By nature He is simply in us to give us natural endowments; by grace He gives Himself to us that we may enjoy His friendship and thus have a foretaste of the happiness of heaven. In the order of nature God is in us as the Creator and the sovereign Master; we are but His servants, His property. In the order of grace it is different; here He gives Himself to us as our Father; we are now His adopted children; an unspeakable privilege and the basis of our supernatural life. St. Paul and St. John repeat it again and again: “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear: but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry Abba (Father). For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God.”1 God, therefore, adopts us as His children and in a way more thorough and more complete than men are adopted in law. By legal adoption men are, indeed, able to transmit to others their name and their possessions, but they cannot transmit to them their blood and their life. “Legal adoption,” says Cardinal Mercier,[2] “is a fiction.” The adopted child is considered by its foster parents just as if it were their child and receives from them the heritage to which their offspring would have had a right. Society recognizes this fiction and sanctions its effects. Withal, the object of such fiction is in no wise changed. But the grace of divine adoption is by no means a fiction… it is a reality. God gives divine sonship to those who have faith in His Word, as St. John says: “He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believed in his name.”[1]This sonship is not such merely in name, but in very truth: “that we should be called and should be the sons of God.”2 By it we come into the possession of the divine nature, “partakers of the divine nature.”[3] 94\. No doubt, this divine life in us is only a participation, a sharing, “consortes,” a similitude, an assimilation which does not make us gods, but only Godlike. None the less, it constitutes no fiction, but a reality, a new life, a life not, indeed, equal but similar to God’s and which, on the testimony of Holy Writ, presupposes a new birth, a regeneration: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost… by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost… he hath regenerated us unto a lively hope… of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth.”[4] All these expressions show us that our adoption is not merely nominal, but true and real, although distinct and different from the sonship of the Word-made-Flesh. By it we become heirs, by full right, to the kingdom of heaven and coheirs of Him who is the eldest-born among our brethren: “heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ… that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren.”[5] Is it not, therefore, most fitting to repeat the touching words of St John: “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God!”[6] God has for us then the tenderness and devotedness of a father. Does He not compare Himself to a mother that can never forget the child of her womb? “Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.”[7] He has most assuredly given proof of this, since in order to save His fallen children He hesitated not to give and sacrifice His only-begotten Son: “For God so loved the world, as to give his only Begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.”[8] The same love prompts Him likewise to give Himself wholly, and from now on, in a permanent manner to His children by dwelling in their hearts: “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him.”[1] He lives in us as a most loving and most devoted Father. 95\. B) He gives Himself also as a friend. Friendship adds to the relations between father and son a sort of equality: “amicitia œquales accipit aut facit.” It adds a kind of familiarity, a reciprocity whence flows the sweetest intercourse. It is precisely such relations that grace establishes between us and God. Of course, when it is question of God on one side and man on the other, there can be no real equality, but rather a certain similarity sufficient to engender true intimacy. In fact, God confides to us His secrets. He speaks to us not only through His Church, but also interiorly through His Spirit: “He will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to you.”[2] At the Last Supper Jesus declared to His Apostles that from that time on they would not be His servants, but His friends, because He would no longer keep any secrets from them: “I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.”[3] A sweet familiarity will from now on pervade their intercourse, the same that exists between friends when they meet and speak heart to heart: “Behold that I stand at the gate and knock; if any man shall hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come into him and I will sup with him; and he with me.”[4] What an unspeakable familiarity is this! Never would man have dared dream of it or aspire to it had not the Friend Divine taken the initiative! This very intimacy has been and is an everyday fact not only between Almighty God and His Saints, but between Him and every man who by leading an interior life consents to throw open the gates of his soul to the Divine Guest. To this the author of the “Imitation” bears witness when he describes the oft-repeated visits of the Holy Spirit to interior souls, the sweet converse He holds with them, the consolations and the caresses He imparts to them, the peace He infuses, the astounding familiarity of His dealings with them: “Many are His visits to the man of interior life, and sweet the conversation that He holdeth with him; plenteous His consolation, His peace and His familiarity.”[5] The life of contemporary mystics, of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, of Elizabeth of the Blessed Trinity, of Gemma Galgani and of so many others, gives proof that the words of the Imitation are daily realized. There is no doubt that God does live in us as the most intimate of friends. 96\. C) Nor is He idle there. He acts as our most powerful ally, our most efficient helper. Knowing but too well that of ourselves we can not foster the life He has engendered in us, He supplies for our deficiencies by working with us through actual grace. Are we in need of light to perceive the truths of faith which shall from now on guide our steps? The Father of Lights will be the one to enlighten our intellect pointing out clearly our last end and the means to reach it. He will suggest to us the godly thoughts that inspire godly actions. Again, do we want strength to give our life its orientation, to direct it towards its last end, the one great object of all our strivings, of all our efforts? The same God and Father will bring to us the supernatural help that gives the power to will and to do: “for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish.”[1] When it comes to combatting and controlling our passions or overcoming the temptations that at times assail us, once more it is none other than God who gives us the power to resist them and even to draw profit from them: “God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.”[2] If weary of well-doing and if discouraged we begin to falter, He draws close to sustain us and to secure our perseverance: “He who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.”[3] No, we are never alone. Even when devoid of all consolations we think ourselves abandoned, God’s grace is ever close at hand as long as we are willing to coöperate with it: “And his grace in me hath not been void: but I have labored more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”[4] Leaning on this all-powerful Helper we become invincible: “I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me.”[5] 97\. D) This divine Helper is at the same time our Sanctifier. Coming to live in our soul He transforms it into a sacred temple enriched with all manner of virtues: “the temple of God is holy, which you are.”[1] The God that lives in us is not merely the God of nature, but the Living God, the Blessed Trinity, the infinite source of divine life, whose only longing is to make us share in His holiness. Often this indwelling of God in the soul is attributed or assigned to the Holy Ghost by appropriation, since it is a work of love; but being a work ad extra it is common to the Three Divine Persons. This is why St. Paul calls us alike the temples of God and the temples of the Holy Ghost: “Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”[2] Our soul, therefore, is made the temple of the Living God, a sanctuary reserved to the Most High, a Holy of Holies, a throne of mercy where He is pleased to be lavish with His heavenly favors and which He enriches with every virtue. It follows that the presence within us of a Thrice Holy God, as just described, cannot but sanctify us. The Most Adorable Trinity living and acting within us must, indeed, be the principle of our sanctification, the source of our interior life. This holy presence constitutes likewise its exemplary cause, for being sons of God by adoption we are bound to imitate our Father. This we shall understand better when we examine what our attitude should be towards these Three Divine Guests. #### 2° Our Duties Towards the Most Holy Trinity Living Within US[3] 98\. Possessing such a treasure as the Most Holy Trinity, we ought to make it the object of frequent meditation — “to walk inwardly with God.” Such a thought awakes in us chiefly three sentiments: adoration, love and imitation. 99\. A) The very first impulse of the heart is that of adoration: “Glorify and bear God in your body.”[4] How could we do otherwise than glorify, bless and thank that Divine Guest who transforms our soul into a sanctuary? From the time Mary received the Incarnate Word in her virginal womb her life was but one perpetual act of adoration and thanksgiving: “My soul doth magnify the Lord… He who is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name.”[5] Such are, even if lesser in degree and intensity, the sentiments that lay hold of the Christian on becoming aware of the Holy Ghost’s presence within him. He understands that being God’s dwelling he ought to offer himself constantly as a sacrifice of praise unto the glory of the Triune God. a) He begins his actions by making the Sign of the Cross, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and thus consecrates them all to the Three Divine Persons; he ends them by acknowledging that whatever good he has done must be attributed to Them: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. b) He loves to repeat the liturgical prayers that proclaim Their praises: the Gloria in excelsis Deo, which so well expresses all the religious sentiments towards the Most Holy Trinity, especially towards the Incarnate Word; the Sanctus, proclaiming the awful holiness of the Godhead; the Te Deum, the song of thanksgiving. c) This Divine Guest the Christian recognizes as his first beginning and last end. He realizes his inability to praise Him adequately and unites Himself to the Spirit of Jesus who alone can render to God that glory which by right is His: “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for, we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings.”[1] 100\. B) After having adored God and proclaimed his own nothingness, the Christian gives vent to sentiments of the most confiding love. Infinite as He is, God nevertheless stoops down to us like a loving father toward his child, asking us to love Him and to give Him our heart: “My son, give me thy heart.”[2] He has a strict right to demand this love, yet He prefers to entreat us with the sweetness of affection so that our return may be, so to speak, more spontaneous, and our recourse to Him more confident and childlike. Could we refuse our trustful love to such thoughtful advances, to a solicitude so truly maternal? Our love should be a repentant love, a love that expiates infidelities past and present; a grateful love that renders thanks to our great Benefactor, the devoted Co-worker who labors without stint and without rest. Above all, it should be the love of friend for friend holding sweet converse with the most faithful, the most generous of friends, whose part we should take, whose glory we should make known, whose name we should forever bless. This love then should not be a mere feeling, but a generous, daring love, forgetful of self to the point of sacrifice and the renunciation of our own wills, by a willing submission to the precepts and counsels of God. 101\. C) Such love will lead us to imitate the Most Adorable Trinity in the measure in which this is compatible with human weakness. Adopted children of an all-holy Father, living temples of the Holy Ghost, we can better appreciate the reason why we must be holy in body and soul. This was the lesson learned by the Apostle and repeated by him to his followers: “Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.”[1] Experience is witness to the fact that with generous souls this is the most powerful motive to turn them away from sin and incite them to the practice of virtue. Temples wherein the thrice Holy One resides can never be too rich in beauty, too glorious in sanctity. It is remarkable that when our Lord wished to propose to us an ideal, a model of perfection, He pointed to God Himself: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”[2] At first sight this ideal does seem too high. But when we recall that we are the adopted children of God and that He lives in us in order to impress upon us His image and to collaborate in our salvation, then we realize that a high rank imposes obligations, noblesse oblige, and that it is no more than our plain duty to approach ever nearer the divine perfections. It is chiefly in view of the fulfilment of the precept of fraternal charity, the love of our fellows, that Jesus Christ demands of us to keep before our eyes this perfect model, the indivisible oneness of the Three Divine Persons: “That they all may be one, as thou, Father in me and I in thee; that they also be one in us.”[3] What a tender prayer! St. Paul echoes it later on begging his dear disciples not to forget that since they are but one body and but one spirit, and since they have but one Father who lives in all just souls, they should preserve the unity of spirit in the bond of peace.[4] To sum up, we may say that the Christian life consists above all in an intimate, affectionate and sanctifying union with the Three Divine Persons who sustain us in the spirit of religion, love and sacrifice. II\. The Organism of the Christian Life [1] 102\. The three Divine Persons inhabit the sanctuary of our soul, taking their delight in enriching it with supernatural gifts and in communicating to us a Godlike life, similar to theirs, called the life of grace. All life, however, implies a threefold element: a vital principle that is, so to speak, the source of life itself; faculties which give the power to elicit vital acts; and lastly, the acts themselves which are but its development and which minister to its growth. In the supernatural order, God living within us produces the same elements, a) He first communicates to us habitual grace which plays the part of a vital, supernatural principle.[2] This principle deifies, as it were, the very substance of the soul and makes it capable, though in a remote way, of enjoying the Beatific Vision and of performing the acts that lead to it. 103\. b) Out of this grace spring the infused virtues[3] and the gifts of the Holy Ghost which perfect our faculties and endow us with the immediate power of performing Godlike, supernatural, meritorious acts. c) In order to stir these faculties into action, He gives us actual graces which enlighten our mind, strengthen our will, and aid us both to act supernaturally and to increase the measure of habitual grace that has been granted to us. 104\. Although this life of grace is entirely distinct from our natural life it is not merely superimposed on the latter; it penetrates it through and through, transforms it and makes it divine. It assimilates whatever is good in our nature, our education and our habits. It perfects and supernaturalizes all these various elements, directing them toward the last end, that is toward the possession of God through the Beatific Vision and its resultant love. In virtue of the general principle explained above, n. 54, that inferior beings are subordinated to their superiors,[4] it is the part of the supernatural life to direct and control our natural life. The former cannot develop nor endure unless it reigns supreme and keeps under its sway the acts of the mind, of the will and of the other faculties. This dominion in no way dwarfs or destroys our nature, but rather it elevates and completes it. We shall show this in the subsequent study of these three elements. #### 1° Habitual Grace [1] 105\. God out of His infinite goodness wills to lift us up to Himself in the measure that our weak nature allows, and for this purpose gives us a principle of supernatural life; a Godlike, vital principle, which is habitual grace. It is also called created grace[2] in contradistinction to uncreated grace, which is the indwelling itself of the Holy Ghost within us. Created grace makes us like unto God and unites us to Him in the closest manner: “This deification consists, in so far as is possible, in a certain resemblance to God and union with Him.”[3] These two points of view we shall explain presently by giving the traditional definition and by determining precisely the nature of the union that grace produces between God and the soul. A) Definition 106\. Sanctifying or habitual grace is commonly defined as a supernatural quality inherent in the soul, which makes us partakers of the divine nature and of the divine life in a real and formal, but accidental manner. a) Grace is a reality of the supernatural order, but not a substance, for no created substance could be supernatural. It is but a mode of being, a state of soul, a quality inherent in the soul’s substance that transforms it and raises it above all natural beings, even the most perfect. It is a permanent quality remaining in the soul as long as we do not forfeit it by mortal sin. “It is,” as Cardinal Mercier says,[4] on the authority of Bossuet, “a spiritual quality infused into our souls by Jesus Christ, which penetrates our inmost being, instils itself into the very marrow of the soul and goes forth (through the virtues) to all its faculties. The soul that possesses it is made pure and pleasing in the eyes of God. He makes such a soul His sanctuary, His temple, His tabernacle, His paradise.” 107\. b) This quality, according to the forceful expression of St. Peter, makes us “partakers of the the divine nature.”[1] According to St. Paul, it causes us to enter into communion with the Holy Ghost, “the communication of the Holy Ghost,”[2] and St. John adds that it establishes a sort of fellowship between us and the Father and the Son: “our fellowship… with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”[3] It does not make us the equals of God, but it changes us into Godlike beings, makes us like unto God. Nor does it give us the life of the Godhead itself which is incommunicable, but it imparts to us a life similar to God’s. Our task is to explain this, so far as the human mind is able to comprehend it. 108\. 1) God’s own life consists in direct self-contemplation and love of Himself. No creature whatever, no matter how perfect, could of itself contemplate the essence of the Godhead, “who dwells in light inaccessible;”[4] but God, by a privilege, gratuitous in every sense of the word, calls man to contemplate this divine essence in heaven. As man is utterly incapable of this, God lifts him up, makes his intelligence transcend its natural capacities, and confers on him this power through the light of glory. Then, says St. John, we shall be like unto God because we shall see Him as He sees Himself, that is to say, exactly as He is in Himself: “We shall be like him: because we shall see him as he is.”[5] We shall see, adds St. Paul, no longer through the mirror of creatures, but face to face with luminous clearness: “We see now through a glass in a dark manner: but then face to face.”[6] Since we shall know and love God as He knows and loves Himself, we shall also share in God’s own life, even if it be in a finite way. Theologians explain this by saying that the divine essence will come and unite itself with the soul’s inmost being, so as to allow us to contemplate the Divinity directly, with the aid of no image or of any created intermediary. 109\. 2) Habitual grace is already a preparation for the Beatific Vision and a foretaste, as it were, of that unspeakable boon; it is the bud that needs but to open to show forth the flower. Habitual grace and the Beatific Vision are, then, one in kind and one in nature. A comparison, no matter how inadequate, will not be out of place. We can know an artist in three different ways: by studying his works, through friends, or by personal intercourse with him. The first is the kind of knowledge we get of God through His works, by the contemplation of His creatures. This is an inductive, imperfect knowledge; for though creation reveals His wisdom and His power, it tells us nothing of His personal, interior life. The knowledge we derive from faith illustrates the second manner in which we come to know God. On the authority of the sacred writers and, above all, on the testimony of the Son of God we believe what it has pleased Him to disclose to us, not only concerning His works and His attributes, but concerning His personal, interior life. Thus, we believe that from all eternity He begets the Word, His Son, that there exists a mutual love between Them, and that out of this reciprocal love proceeds the Holy Ghost. We do not, indeed, understand, nor do we in any way see, but we believe with invincible certainty. This faith makes us share in the knowledge that God has of Himself. But this is a veiled knowledge, rather obscure, though none the less real. Only eventually through the Beatific Vision shall we acquire direct knowledge of Him. Still, this second mode of knowledge, as can be readily seen, is at bottom of the same nature as the first, and assuredly far superior to mere rational or reasoned knowledge. 110\. c) This participation in the divine life is formal; it is not simply virtual. Virtual participation means that we share a quality in a different way from that in which it is possessed by the principal where it is found. Thus, reason is simply a virtual participation in the divine intellect, because reason gives us a knowledge of truth, but vastly different from that knowledge of truth which God possesses. Mindful then of disparity and distinction, we can say that such is not the case between the Beatific Vision and faith. Both cause us to know God as He is, not in the same degree, it is true, but the knowledge acquired through either of them is the same in kind. 111\. d) The participation we have in God’s life is accidental, not substantial. It is thus distinct from the generation of the Word, who receives the whole substance of the Father. It is likewise distinct from the hypostatic union, which is a substantial union of the divine and human natures in the person of the Word. In our union with God we keep our personality, and therefore, this union is not substantial. This is the doctrine of St. Thomas: “Grace, being altogether above human nature, can neither be a substance nor the soul’s substantial form. It can only be its accidental form.”[1] Explaining his thought he adds that what exists in God substantially is given us accidentally, and makes us partake of the divine goodness. With such restrictions we steer clear of pantheism and still conceive a very exalted idea of the nature of grace. It reveals itself to us as a likeness of God stamped by Him on our souls: “Let us make man according to our image and likeness.”[2] 112\. In order to help us to understand this divine resemblance the Fathers have employed various comparisons. 1) Our soul, they say, is like to a living image of the Most Blessed Trinity, for the Holy Ghost Himself impresses His features on us as a seal does on molten wax, stamping and leaving there the divine likeness.[3] They conclude that the soul in the state of grace possesses an entrancing beauty since the author of that image is none other than God Himself who is infinitely perfect: “Behold thy likeness, O man; see thy likeness beautiful, made by thy God, the Great Artist, the Master-Painter.”[4] They rightly reason that, far from disfiguring or destroying such resemblance, we must perfect it more and more. At times they compare the soul to those transparent bodies that receiving the sun’s rays become all aglow and reflect in turn a marvellous light all around.[5] 113\. 2) To show further that this divine resemblance is not merely on the surface, they have recourse to the analogy of iron in the fire. As a bar of iron, they say, plunged into a glowing fire soon acquires the brightness, the heat and the pliancy of fire, so the soul in the fire of divine love is rid of impurities, burns, glows and becomes docile to God’s inspirations. 114\. 3) To express the idea that grace is a new life, the Fathers and spiritual writers liken it to a divine branch ingrafted into the wild stock of our nature, there combining with it to form a new, vital principle and, therefore, a life far superior in kind. Yet, in the same way that the branch does not give its life to the stock in all its essence and particulars but only such or such of its vital properties, so sanctifying grace does not give to us God’s entire essence but simply something of His life, which is for us a new life. We share then in the life of the Godhead, but by no means possess It in Its fulness. This resemblance of the soul to the Divinity evidently prepares it for a most intimate union with the Most Holy Trinity that dwells in it. B\) Union of God and the Soul 115\. From what we have said concerning the indwelling of the Most Blessed Trinity in the soul (n. 92) it follows that there is the closest and most sanctifying union between our souls and the Divine Guest. But is this all? Is there not something physical besides this moral union? 116\. a) The comparisons the Fathers employ would seem to imply so. 1\) A great many of them tell us that the union of God with the soul is like that of the soul and the body. There are in us two lives, says St. Augustine, the life of the body and the life of the soul; the life of the body is the soul, the life of the soul is God.[1] Evidently, these are only analogies; let us try to bring out the truth they contain. The union of body and soul is a substantial union, so much so, that they form but one nature and only one person. The union between God and the soul is different. We retain always our own nature and our own personality and thus remain essentially distinct from the Godhead. However, just, as the soul gives the body its life, so God (without becoming the form of the soul, as the soul is of the body) gives the soul supernatural life, a life not equal to His, but truly and formally like unto His, producing a union that is most real between the soul and God. This implies a concrete reality which God communicates to us and which constitutes the bond of union between Him and us. Assuredly this new relation adds nothing to God, but it perfects the soul and makes it Godlike. Thus the Holy Ghost is not the formal cause, but the efficient and exemplary cause of our sanctification. 117\. 2) The very same truth flows from the other comparison made by other authors.[2] They liken the union of the soul with God to the hypostatic union. Again, there is an essential difference. The hypostatic union is substantial and personal, for though the human and the divine natures are absolutely different, yet, they constitute but one and the same person in Jesus Christ. The union of God with the soul through grace, on the contrary, leaves us our own personality, essentially distinct from that of God, and unites us to God in a merely accidental manner. “It is brought about in fact through the medium of sanctifying grace, an accident superadded to the soul’s substance. Accidental union is the name given by the Scholastics to the union of an accident with a substance.”[1] None the less it is true that the union of the soul and God is a union of substance with substance,[2] that man and God are in contact as closely as the incandescent iron is with the fire which permeates it, as closely as the glowing crystal is with the light that penetrates it. We can sum it up briefly in these few words: the hypostatic union makes a God-man, the union of grace makes deified men. In the same way as the actions of Christ are both divine and human, theandric actions, so those of the just man are Godlike, performed at once by God and by man. They are thus meritorious, worthy of eternal life, which is nothing else but direct union with Divinity. We can say with Father de Smedt[3] that “the hypostatic union is the type, the model, of our union with God by grace and that the latter is the most perfect imitation of the former that can be found among creatures.” We conclude with this same writer that the union of God and the soul by grace is not a mere moral union, but rather one which contains a physical element and which justifies the name of physico-moral union: “The divine nature is truly and properly united to the substance of the soul by a special bond and in such a way that the soul really possesses the divine nature as if it were personally its own. As a consequence, the soul possesses a divine character, a divine perfection and a divine beauty which is infinitely superior to all possible natural perfection wherever found and in whatsoever creature, whether actually existing or capable of existing.[4] 118\. b) If we leave comparisons aside and look for the exact theological doctrine on the question, we arrive at precisely the same conclusion. 1) In heaven the Elect see God face to face without the aid of any intermediary. It is the divine essence itself that acts as the principle of knowledge or species impressa as it is called.[1] This means that there exists between God and the Elect a true and real union that can be called physical, since God can not be seen and possessed unless He be present to them by His essence, nor can He be loved unless He be actually united to their wills as the object of their love. But grace is nothing less than the beginning, the inception, the seed of glory.[2] Hence the union between the soul and God begun here on earth by grace is in fact of the same kind as that in heaven; it is real and, in a certain sense, physical, like the latter. The following is the conclusion of Father Froget in his beautiful work, “The Indwelling of the Holy Ghost.” Supported by numerous texts from St. Thomas he says: “God is then truly, physically and substantially present in the Christian in the state of grace; this is no mere presence, but a real possession with the initial enjoyment thereto attached.” 2\) We draw the same conclusion from the analysis of grace itself. According to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, based on the very texts of Holy Scripture we have quoted, habitual grace is given us in order that we may enjoy the possession not only of divine gifts but also of the Divine Persons.[3] But to enjoy anything whatever, adds a disciple of St. Bonaventure, the presence of the said thing or object is absolutely necessary, and therefore, in order to enjoy the Holy Spirit, His presence is necessary as well as the presence of the created gift which unites us to Him.[4] If the presence of the created gift is real and physical, should not that of the Holy Ghost be likewise real and physical? Therefore, our deductions from Dogma as well as the comparisons employed by the Fathers authorize us to say that the union of the soul with God is not merely moral, nor on the other hand substantial, in the strict sense of the term, but that it is so real that it may be justly called a physico-moral union. However, it remains veiled and obscure; its growth is gradual, its effects are perceived more and more clearly in proportion as we make efforts to cultivate faith and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Fervent souls who long for this divine union are ever possessed of an urgent desire to advance further each day in the practice of virtue and the use of these gifts. #### 2° The Virtues and the Gifts A\) Existence and Nature 119\. In order to act and develop, the supernatural life ingrafted into our souls by habitual grace demands faculties likewise of a supernatural character. These the bounty and liberality of God have given us in the form of infused virtues and gifts of the Holy Ghost. As Leo XIII tells us: “The just man living the life of grace and acting through the virtues that fulfil the function of faculties, stands also in need of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.”[1] In fact, it is only meet that our natural faculties which of themselves can produce but natural acts, should be perfected and deified by infused habits to place them on a supernatural plane and enable them to act supernaturally. Because God’s liberality knows no bounds, He has granted us a twofold boon: first, the virtues which, directed by prudence, enable us to act supernaturally with the help of actual grace; then, the gifts making us so docile to the influence of the Holy Ghost that we are, so to speak, moved and directed by that divine Spirit, guided by a sort of divine instinct. Here it must be noted that these gifts, conferred as they are together with the virtues and habitual grace, do not exert a frequent or an intensive action except in mortified souls who have by a prolonged practice of the moral and theological virtues acquired that supernatural docility and ease that render them completely obedient to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. 120\. The essential difference between the virtues and the gifts consists in their different mode of action within us. In the practice of virtue grace lets us act under the influence of prudence. In the use of the gifts, once they have reached their full development, grace demands docility rather than activity. We shall go deeper into this question when treating of the unitive way. In the meantime, a comparison will help us to understand it: when a mother teaches her child to walk, she at times simply leads him supporting him at the same time so that he may not fall; at other times she takes him in her arms to help him over some hindrance in the way or to let him rest a while. The first instance illustrates the influence of the virtues, the latter that of the gifts. From this it follows that normally the acts performed under the influence of the gifts are more perfect than those accomplished under the sole influence of the virtues precisely because in the former case the operation of the Holy Ghost is more active and also more fruitful. B\) The Infused Virtues 121\. It is certain from the Council of Trent that at the very moment of justification we receive the infused virtues of faith, hope and charity.[1] The common doctrine, confirmed by the Catechism of the Council of Trent,[2] is that the moral virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance are likewise communicated to us at that same moment. We must remember that these virtues endow us, not with facility, but with a supernatural, proximate power of eliciting supernatural acts. In order to acquire that facility of action which acquired habits give, we need to perform repeated acts of such virtues. Let us now see how these virtues supernaturalize our faculties. a) Some of these virtues are theological, because their material object is God, their formal object some divine attribute. Faith, for instance, unites us to God, the Supreme Truth, and aids us to see all, to view all things by His divine light. Hope unites us to God, the source of our happiness, who is ever ready to pour forth upon us all His favors so that our transformation may be perfected, and to tender us His all-powerful help to enable us to elicit acts of absolute trust in Him. Charity takes us up to God, infinitely good in Himself. Under the influence of this love, we delight in the perfections of God even more than if they were our own; we desire to make them known and have them praised; we form with Him a holy friendship and a sweet intimacy. Thus we become more and more like unto Him. 122\. b) These three theological virtues unite us directly to God; the moral virtues remove the obstacles to that union and thus prepare for and perpetuate it. The object proper of these moral virtues is a moral good distinct from God. Our actions are so regulated by them that, in spite of obstacles from within or without, they are kept in steady course towards God. Thus, prudence makes us choose those means best adapted to the pursuance of our supernatural end. Justice, by having us render to others what is due them, sanctifies our relations with them, so as to bring us close to God and to make us more like Him. Fortitude equips our soul for trials and struggles. It makes us endure suffering with patience and causes us to undertake with holy ardor and daring the most painful and laborious tasks for the glory of God. Lastly, since guilty pleasure would lead us astray, temperance controls our thirst for pleasure and brings it under subjection to the law of duty. All these virtues have their part to play either in removing obstacles or in supplying positive means to press onward towards God.[1] C\) The Gifts of the Holy Ghost 123\. Here we shall not describe the gifts in detail, but simply show how they correspond to the virtues. First, the gifts are in no way superior to the theological virtues. This becomes evident if we but think of divine charity. Their function, however, is that of perfecting the exercise of the virtues. By the gift of understanding we can penetrate farther into the truths of faith to discover the hidden treasures and discern the mysterious harmony therein contained. The gift of knowledge makes us look upon creatures from the point of view of their relation to their Maker. The gift of fear, by weaning us from the false goods of earth that might allure us into sin, fortifies the virtue of hope and intensifies the desire for the happiness of heaven. Wisdom makes us relish divine things thus increasing our love of God. The gift of counsel crowns the virtue of prudence by showing us in exceptional or difficult cases what it behooves us to do or not to do. Piety perfects the virtue of religion, making us recognize in God a Father whom we delight in glorifying by love. The gift of fortitude completes the virtue which bears the same name by urging us on to what is more heroic in endurance and in daring. The gift of fear, besides rendering easy the practice of hope, perfects temperance by begetting in us a dread of the penalty and of the ills issuing from the illicit love of pleasure. In this fashion the virtues and the gifts receive their harmonious development in our souls under the influence of actual grace, of which we must now briefly speak. #### 3° Actual Grace [1] In the order of nature we can do nothing to bring power into action without the concurrence of God. The same is true in the supernatural order; without actual grace we cannot set our faculties into operation. 124\. We shall explain: 1° the notion of actual grace, 2° its mode of action, 3° its necessity. A) Notion. Actual grace is a supernatural, transient help given us by our Lord to enlighten our mind and strengthen our will in the performance of supernatural acts. a) Its action on our spiritual faculties is direct. Now, grace acts on the mind and the will not simply to raise them to the supernatural order, but to set them in motion and cause them to elicit supernatural acts. For instance, before justification, that is, before the infusion into the soul of habitual grace, actual grace makes us see the malice and frightful consequences of sin in order to have us loathe it. After justification actual grace shows us by the light of faith God’s infinite beauty and His loving kindness, in order to have us love Him with all our heart. b) Besides these interior helps, there are others called exterior graces. These latter act directly on our senses and our sensitive faculties. They, therefore, indirectly reach the spiritual faculties, especially since they are often attended by real, interior helps. To this category of exterior graces belong, for instance, the reading of Holy Scripture or the perusal of some spiritual work, the hearing of a sermon or a piece of religious music, a pious conversation, etc. These do not of themselves strengthen the will, but they produce in us favorable impressions which by quickening the mind and rousing the will predispose them towards the supernatural good. Besides, God often gives in addition inward promptings which by enlightening the mind and giving strength to the will, move us on to amendment, conversion or advancement in the way of perfection. This is what we draw from the Book of the Acts where the Holy Ghost is spoken of as opening the heart of a woman named Lydia “to attend to those things which were said by Paul.”[1] As for the rest, God who knows that it is through things sensible that we rise to things spiritual, adapts Himself to our weakness and makes use of the visible things of this world to bring us to the practice of virtue. 125\. B) Its mode Of action. a) Actual grace exerts its influence upon us both in a moral and a physical manner. In a moral way, by means of persuasion and attraction, just as a mother might in teaching her child to walk, call him to herself with a promise of something good. It influences us physically[2] by adding new forces to our faculties, too weak to act of themselves, as a mother not only coaxes her child to try to walk, but actually takes him by the arms and helps him to take a few steps. All schools admit that operating grace acts physically by producing in our souls indeliberate impulses. As to co-operating grace various schools of theology hold different opinions; these differences, however, have but little importance in practice. We shall not discuss them here since we do not wish to base the doctrine of the spiritual life upon questions that are matter for controversy. b) From another point of view, grace either goes before the free assent of the will or accompanies it in the performance of an act. Thus, for example, the thought of making an act of love of God suggests itself to us without any effort on our part. This is a preventing grace, a good thought that God gives us. If we acquiesce in it and make an effort to perform the act of love, we then accomplish this through the help of a grace called concomitant. Another distinction analogous to this is the one between operating and co-operating grace: through the former God acts in us without us; through the latter God acts in and together with us, that is with the free co-operation of our will. 126\. C) Its necessity.[3] The general principle is that actual grace is necessary for the performance of every supernatural act, since there must be a proportion between an effect and its cause. a) Thus, when it is question of conversion, that is, of the passing from mortal sin to the state of grace, supernatural grace is needed to perform the preliminary acts of faith, hope, sorrow and love; nay, such a grace is needed even for that devout desire of believing which is the first step, the very starting point of faith. b) Our steadfastness in good, our perseverance unto the hour of death, is likewise the work of actual grace. In fact, in order to persevere one must resist temptations which assail even the justified soul so persistently and tenaciously at times, that without God’s help one could not withstand their onslaught. This is why the Savior warns His Apostles immediately after the Last Supper to watch and pray, that is to say, to rely upon grace rather upon their efforts and good will, lest they fall victims to temptation.[1] Beside the resisting of temptations, perseverance also implies the accomplishment of one’s duty. The constant and strenuous efforts we must put forth in order to fulfil it will not be made without the power of grace. He alone who has begun in us the good work of perfection can bring it to a happy close.[2] Only He who has called us unto His eternal glory can perfect and confirm and establish us.[3] 127\. This holds true especially of final perseverance, a singular and priceless gift.[4] We cannot merit it strictly speaking. To die in the state of grace in spite of all the temptations that assail us at the last hour, to escape these by a sudden or tranquil death — falling asleep in the Lord — this is truly in the language of Councils the grace of graces. We cannot ask for it insistently enough. Prayer and faithful co-operation with grace can obtain it for us.[5] c) We truly have to rely upon the divine favor. Think what this means, if one wishes not merely to persevere in grace, but to grow in holiness each day, to avoid deliberate venial faults and reduce as much as in our power lies even our faults of frailty. To pretend that we could for long escape all the faults that hinder our spiritual progress is to contradict the experience of the choicest souls, souls that sorrowed bitterly over their lapses; it would be to contradict St. John who declares that whoever imagines himself free from sin labors under a delusion;[6] in fine, it is to contradict the Council of Trent which condemns those who maintain that justified man can, without a special privilege from God, avoid all venial sin during the whole course of his life.[1] 128\. Actual grace is, therefore, needed even after justification. We obtain it of the divine mercy by prayer; hence, the stress laid in Holy Writ upon the necessity of prayer. We can also obtain it through our meritorious acts, in other words, by our co-operation with grace; for the more faithful we are in availing ourselves of the actual graces received, the more will the Almighty be moved to grant us new and greater ones. CONCLUSIONS 129\. 1° We must hold in greatest esteem the life of grace, for it is a new life which unites and assimilates us to God. It is a life much higher and richer than our own natural life. As the life of the mind, our intellectual life, is superior to vegetative or sensitive life, so the supernatural life infinitely surpasses mere rational life. This latter in fact is due to man the moment God determines to create him, whilst the former is above the activities and the merit of even the most perfect creature. What created being could ever claim the right of becoming the adopted child of God? Of being made the dwelling place of the Holy Ghost? Of seeing, contemplating God face to face as He sees and contemplates Himself? The Christian life is, therefore, the hidden treasure which we must hold dearer than all created things. 130\. 2° Once this treasure is ours, we must be ready to sacrifice all things rather than run the risk of losing it. This is the conclusion arrived at by Pope St. Leo: “Understand, O Christian, what dignity is yours! Made a partaker of the divine nature, do not by an unworthy life return to your former wretchedness.”[2] No one should be possessed of a greater reverence for self than the Christian, not indeed on account of any merits of his own, but because of that divine life in which he shares, because of the Holy Ghost whose living temple he is. The holiness of this temple must not be violated nor its beauty tarnished: “Holiness becomes Thy house, O Lord, unto length of days.”[3] 131\. 3° Our plain duty is to make use of, to develop this supernatural organism which constitutes our greatest possession. If on the one hand it has pleased the divine goodness to raise us to a superior rank, to endow us with virtues and gifts that perfect our natural powers; if at every moment God gives us His aid that we may live and act through those powers, it would be the blackest ingratitude to scorn and despise such gifts and to live a merely natural life without looking for fruits worthy of eternal glory. The more generous the giver, the more active and fruitful the co-operation expected. We shall understand this better still after we have studied the place of Christ in the life of the Christian. ### § II. Role of Jesus in the Christian Life [1] 132\. The Three Divine Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity confer upon us that participation in the life of God described above. It is granted, however, because of the merits and satisfactions of Jesus Christ. On this account He plays a signal part in our supernatural life which is, therefore, called the Christian life. According to the teaching of St. Paul, Jesus Christ is the head of regenerated humanity, just as Adam was the head of the human race; but, in a far more perfect manner. By His merits Christ regained for us our rights to grace and glory, and by His example He shows us how we are to live in order to sanctify ourselves and merit heaven. More than this, He is the head of a mystical body of which we are the members. Thus, He is the meritorious, exemplary, and vital cause of our sanctification. #### I. Jesus, the Meritorious Cause of Our Spiritual Life 133\. When we say that Jesus Christ is the meritorious cause of our sanctification, we take the term in its broader sense as implying both satisfaction and merit. “Because of the exceeding great charity wherewith He loved us, by His holy passion on the cross, He merited for us justification and made satisfaction for us”[2]. Logically, satisfaction precedes merit. The offense done to God must first of all be atoned for to obtain the pardon of sin, before grace can be merited. In reality, however, all the free acts of our Savior were at orce satisfactory and meritorious; all had an infinite moral value, as we said above, n. 78. From this truth a few conclusions follow. A) No sin is unpardonable provided that contrite and humbled we meekly ask for forgiveness. This is what we do in the tribunal of penance where the power of the Blood of Christ is applied to us by His minister. The same is effected in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There Jesus offers Himself incessantly for us by the hands of His priests as a sacrifice of propitiation, which repairing the injury done to God by sin, inclines Him to forgive us and at the same time obtains for us graces which excite in our souls sentiments of sincere contrition. Christ thus obtains for us the full pardon of our sins and remission of the temporal punishment due to them. We may add that all the acts of our Christian life, when united to those of Jesus Christ, have a satisfactory value both for ourselves and for those for whom we offer them. 134\. B) Christ likewise merited for us all the grace we need to attain our supernatural end and to develop in us the supernatural life: “Who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ.”[1] He merited for us the grace of conversion, the grace of steadfastness in good, the helps to resist temptation, the aids to profit by trial, the grace of comfort in the midst of tribulations, the grace of renewal of spirit and of final perseverance. He merited all things for us. We have the solemn word that anything we ask the Father in His name, that is, through His own merits, will be granted to us.[2] Then in order to inspire us with greater confidence, He instituted the sacraments, visible signs, which confer His grace in all the important events of life and which give us a right to actual graces in time of need. 135\. C) He has gone further still. In His desire to associate us with Himself in the work of our own sanctification, He has given us the power of satisfying and meriting, thus making us the secondary causes, the agents of our own sanctification. He has, as a matter of fact, made this co-operation a law and an essential condition of our spiritual life. If He has carried His cross, it is that we may follow Him bearing ours: “If any many will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”[1] It was thus understood by the Apostles. If we would share in His glory, says St. Paul, we must share in His sufferings: “Yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.”[2] St. Peter adds that if Christ suffered for us it is that we may follow in His footsteps.[3] Moreover, self-sacrificing souls are urged, after the manner of the Apostle of the Gentiles, to undergo suffering joyfully in union with Christ for the sake of the Church, His mystical body: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church.”[4] In this wise these souls share in the redeeming power of Christ’s passion and become secondary agents of the salvation of their brethren. How true, how sublime, how consoling is this doctrine! Compare it with the incredible affirmation of certain Protestants who assert, that since Christ suffered to the full for us, there remains for us only to enjoy the fruits of His plentiful redemption without drinking of His chalice. They thus pretend to pay homage to the fulness of Christ’s merits. Does not our Christ-given power to merit show forth better the fulness of the redemption by Christ? Does it not do more honor to Christ to manifest the power of His satisfaction by enabling us to join in His work of atonement and co-operate with Him even though in a secondary manner? #### II\. Jesus, the Exemplary Cause of Our Spiritual Life 136\. Jesus was not content to merit for us; He willed to be the exemplary cause, the model of our supernatural life. In order to develop a life that is no less than a participation in the life of God, we must strive as far as it possible, to live a divine life. Hence, the need we had of a divine model. As St. Augustine remarks, men whom we see were too imperfect to serve us as a pattern and God, who is holiness itself, was too far beyond our gaze. Then, the eternal Son of God, His living image, became man and showed us by His example how man could here on earth approach the perfection of God. Son of God and son of man, He lived a Godlike life and could say: “Who seeth me seeth the Father.”[5] Having revealed the holiness of God in His actions, He can present to us as practical the imitation of the divine perfections: “Be you therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect.”[1] Therefore, the Eternal Father proposes Him to us as our model. At His haptism and His transfiguration He said: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”[2] Because He is well pleased in Him, the Eternal Father wills that we imitate His only-begotten Son. Thus with perfect assurance our Lord tells us: “I am the way… no man cometh to the Father but by me… learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart… I have given you an example that as I have done to you so you do also.”[3] At bottom the Gospel is no more than a relation of the deeds and traits of our Lord’s sacred person proposed to us as a model for our imitation: “Jesus began to do and to teach.”[4] Christianity in turn is nothing more than the imitation of Christ. St. Paul gave this as the sum-total of all our duties: “Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ.”[5] 137\. a) The following are the qualities of the model given us. Jesus is a perfect model. On the admitted testimony of even those who do not believe in His divinity, He is the highest type of virtue ever seen among men. He practised all virtues to the degree of heroism. His motives were the most perfect: religion towards God, love of His fellow-men, utter self-effacement and horror of sin and its approaches.[6] And yet, this model is withal capable of imitation; it is universal, magnetic, powerful. 138\. b) All men can imitate Him. Indeed, He willed to bear all our weaknesses and miseries and even our temptations; He willed to be like us in all things, sin excepted. “For we have not a high-priest who can not have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like we are, without sin.”[7] During thirty years He lived an ordinary life, hidden and obscure; He was Subject to Mary and Joseph, working as an apprentice, a wage-earner, a toiler, “the carpenter’s son.”[8] This has made Him the perfect model for the great mass of men who have but lowly duties to perform and who must work out their sanctification amid humble occupations. His public life was one of zeal. This He exercised, now by training His Apostles, His chosen ones, now by evangelizing the multitudes. He underwent hunger and fatigue, enjoyed the friendship of a few, and had to bear the ingratitude and even the enmity of others. He had His successes and reverses, His joys and His sorrows. In a word, He passed through the vicissitudes of the man who lives close to his friends and in daily contact with the people. The sufferings of His passion have given us the example of heroic patience in the midst of physical and moral torture, endured not only without complaint but with a prayer for His persecutors. And we must not reason that because He was God He suffered less. He was also man, a man possessed of the most perfect, and therefore the most delicate sensibility. So, He felt and felt more keenly, more vividly than we ever could, the ingratitude of men, the defection of His friends, the treason of Judas. He tasted weariness and grief and terror to the full, so that He could not stay the groaning of His heart, He could not halt the prayer that if possible the bitter chalice might pass from Him. Lastly, on the cross He let escape that woeful cry of utter dereliction, torn from the recesses of His soul, and revealing abysmal depths of interior sorrow: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!”[1] 139\. c) A universal model is also a magnetic one. Speaking of the manner of His death, He foretold that once He be lifted up from the earth He would draw all things to Himself: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.”[2] The prophecy has come true. Gazing upon what Jesus has done and suffered for them, generous souls are smitten with love for Him and for His Cross.[3] In spite of the abhorrence of nature they bravely carry their interior or exterior crosses to become more like their Lord and Master, to give Him a proof of their love by suffering with Him and for Him, to share more richly in the fruits of His redemption, to join Him in working for the sanctification of men. This is revealed in the lives of the Saints who seek after crosses more eagerly than worldlings do after pleasure. 140\. d) This attraction is all the stronger since He adds thereto all the power of His grace. All the actions of Christ before His death were meritorious; they merited for us the grace of performing actions similar to His own. When we observe His humility, His poverty, His mortification and all His other virtues, we are drawn to imitate Him, not merely by the persuasive force of His example, but by the impelling power, the efficaciousness of the graces which He merited for us by practising such virtues. 141\. There are especially certain actions of our divine Savior that transcend all others. To these we must unite ourselves since they are the source of greater grace; they are His mysteries. At His incarnation our Lord offered us all with Himself to the Eternal Father to consecrate us to Him. This mystery then merited for us the grace of self-renunciation and of union with God. The mystery of His crucifixion gained for us the grace of crucifying our flesh and its concupiscences. The mystery of His death obtained for us the grace of dying to sin and to the causes of sin.[1] The truth of this will be better realized by considering how Jesus is the head of a mystical body of which we are the members. #### III\. Jesus the Head of a Mystical Body or the Source of Our Spiritual Life [2] 142\. The doctrine of the mystical body is contained in substance in the words of our Lord:[3] “I am the vine and you the branches.” Here He asserts that we draw our life from Him as the branches do from the stalk. This comparison brings out the notion of our participation in the life of Christ. It is easy to pass thence to the conception of the mystical body in which Jesus, the Head, communicates His life to the members. St. Paul is most insistent on this teaching so fruitful in its consequences. A body must have a head, a soul and members. These three elements we shall now describe, following the doctrine of the Apostle. 143\. 1° The head plays a threefold role in the human body: it is first of all its most prominent and preëminent part, its center of unity, holding together, controlling and directing all the members; it is the source of a vital influx, for life and movement proceed from it. This threefold function is exercised by Christ in the Church and in the souls of men. a) He is without question the most prominent and preëminent among men. As God-man He is the first-born of all creatures, the object of the divine complacency, the exemplar of all virtues, the meritorious cause, the source of our sanctification, who on account of His merits was exalted above His brethren and before whom every knee must bend in heaven and on earth. b) He is the center of unity in the Church. Two things are essential to any complete organism: variety of organs and the functions they fulfil, and a single, common principle. Without these we should have a mass or a motley gathering of living beings with no tie to bind them together. After having given diversity of members to the Church by the establishment of a hierarchy, Jesus Christ still remains its center of unity; for it is He who as the invisible but real Head of the Church gives impetus and direction to its rulers. c) He is likewise the vital influx, the principle of life that quickens all the members. Even as man He received grace in all its fulness to communicate it to us: “We saw him full of grace and truth… from whose fulness we have all received and grace for grace.”[1] He is in fact the meritorious cause of all the graces bestowed upon us by the Holy Ghost. The Council of Trent does not hesitate to affirm the reality of this influx, this vital action of Jesus upon the just: “For the same Christ… does infuse virtue into those that are justified… as the head unto the members.”[2] 144\. 2° A living body must have not only a head but also a soul. The Holy Ghost is the soul of that mystical body whose head is Christ. This Holy Spirit infuses charity into the souls of men and also the graces Christ merited for us: “The charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us.”[3] This is why He is called the Vivifier; “I believe in the Holy Ghost… the Vivifier”. This is what St. Augustine had in mind when he said that the Holy Ghost is to the body of the Church what the soul is to the human body: “What our soul is to the body, the Holy Ghost is to the body of Christ, which is the Church.”[4] These words have been adopted by Leo XIII in his encyclical on the Holy Ghost. This same Spirit dispenses the sundry spiritual gifts, the diversity of graces — charisms — “To one the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another divers kinds of tongues… but all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will.”[5] 145\. Nor can this twofold action of the Holy Ghost and of Christ work at variance. On the contrary, one completes the other. The Holy Ghost comes to us through Christ. When Jesus was on earth His holy soul possessed the Spirit in all its fulness, and by His actions and above all by His sufferings and death He merited for us the communication of this same Spirit. It is, therefore, because of Him that the Holy Ghost comes now to impart to us Christ’s life and virtues and to make us like unto Him. Thus we see how on the one hand Jesus being man could alone be the head of a mystical body composed of men, since the head and the members must be one in nature; and we see on the other hand how as man He could not of Himself bestow the grace required for the life of His members. This the Holy Ghost does, but He does it in virtue of Christ’s merits. Hence, we can say that this vital influx takes its origin in Christ in order to reach His members. 146\. 3° Who are the members of this mystical body? All those who have been baptized. It is baptism that incorporates us into Christ. St. Paul says: “For in one Spirit were we all baptized unto one body.”[1] For this reason he adds that we have been baptized in Christ, that in baptism we put on Christ,[2] that is to say, we participate in the interior dispositions of Christ. This the Decree to the Armenians explains, saying that by baptism we become members of Christ and of the body of the Church.[3] From this it follows that all the baptized are Christ’s members, but in various degrees. The just are united to Him by habitual grace and the privileges that come with it; Sinners, by faith and hope; the blessed, by the beatific vision. As regards infidels, they are not actually members of Christs mystical body, although as long as they live upon earth they are called to become such. Only the damned are irrevocably excluded from this wonderful privilege. 147\. 4° The Consequences of this Doctrine. A) This incorporation forms the basis of the doctrine of the communion of Saints. The just upon earth, the souls in purgatory and the blessed in heaven are all integral parts of Christ’s mystical body. As such they all share in His life, come under His influence, and are obliged to love and help one another. St. Paul tells us: “If one member suffer anything, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it.”[1] 148\. B) This is what makes all Christians brothers. From now on there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither freeman nor slave; we are all one in Christ Jesus.[2] We are all in closest fellowship so that what is profitable unto one is profitable unto all others. No matter how great the variety of gifts, or how great the diversity of offices, the whole body derives gain from whatever good there is in each member, and each member in turn shares in the common good of the body. This doctrine reveals to us the reasons why our Lord could say that whatever we do to the least of His little ones we do unto Him;[3] for the head is one with the members. 149\. C) From St. Paul’s teaching it follows that Christians are Christ’s complement God has in fact “made him head over all the Church, which is his body and the fulness of him who is filled all in all.”[4] The fact is that Jesus, Himself perfect, needs an increment in order to form His mystical body. From this point of view He is not sufficient unto Himself; in order to exercise all His vital functions He requires members. Father Olier concludes: “Let us yield our souls to the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that Jesus may have an increase in us. Whenever He finds apt followers, He expands, grows and diffuses Himself within their hearts, filling them with the same spiritual fragrance wherein He abounds.”[5] This is how we are able and are called to fulfil those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, our Savior, for His body, which is the Church,[6] suffering even as He did, that His passion, so full in itself, be likewise fulfilled in His members through time and space. There is no doctrine more rich, more fruitful, than this doctrine of Christ’s mystical body. #### Conclusion: Devotion to the Incarnate Word [7] 150\. From all that has been said concerning the role Jesus Christ plays in our spiritual life, it follows that in order to foster this life an intimate, affectionate and habitual union with Him is demanded of us, that is, devotion to the Incarnate Word. “He who abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit.”[8] The Church brings this home to us when at the end of the Canon of the Mass she reminds us that through Him we receive all spiritual blessings, that through Him we are sanctified, quickened, blessed; that through Him, with Him and in Him is given to the Father Almighty in union with the Holy Ghost all honor and glory. A whole system of spiritual doctrine is here contained: having received from God all things through Christ, through the same Christ we must give God glory, through the same Christ we must ask further graces, with Christ and in Christ we must perform all our acts. 151\. 1° Jesus is the only perfect adorer of His Father. In the words of Father Olier, He is the perfect worshipper of God, the only one that can offer Him infinite homage. It is clear, therefore, that in order to pay our debts to the Most Blessed Trinity, we can do nothing better than unite our every act of religion with the perfect worship of Jesus Christ. Nor is this difficult. Jesus being the head of a mystical body whose members we are, adores His Father not merely in His own name, but in the name of all those that are incorporated into Him. He puts into our hands, He places at our disposal the homages He pays to God Almighty; He allows us to make them our own and to offer them to the Blessed Trinity. 152\. 2° With Him and in Him can we best make our petitions for new graces efficacious. He is the High-priest, “always living to make intercession for us.”[1] Even when we have had the misfortune of offending God, He pleads for us and takes our part all the more eloquently as with His prayers He offers also the Blood He shed for our redemption. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just.”[2] More, He endows our prayers with such worth that if we pray in His name, that is, trusting to His infinite merits and uniting our poor prayers with His perfect prayers, we are certain of having our petitions granted. “Amen, amen, I say to you; if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you.”[3] The fact is that the value of His merits is imparted to His members, and God can not refuse anything to His Son. “He was heard for his reverence.”[4] 153\. 3° Lastly, it is in union with Jesus Christ that we must perform all our acts, by keeping, as Father Olier so aptly puts it, Jesus before our eyes, in our heart and in our hands.[1] Now, we keep Jesus before our eyes when we think of Him as the ideal, the model, we are to imitate; when like St. Vincent de Paul we ask ourselves: “What would Jesus Christ do were He in my place?” We keep Jesus in our heart by drawing into our soul the dispositions of His own heart, His purity of intention, His fervor, in order to perform our actions in the spirit in which He performed His. We have Jesus in our hands when we carry into action with generosity, determination and constancy the inspirations which He suggests to us. Then, our life is, indeed, transformed and we live Christ’s own life. “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.”[2] ### § III. The Part of the Blessed Virgin, the Saints and the Angels in the Christian Life 154\. Assuredly there is but one God and one principal mediator, Jesus Christ: “For there is one God: and one mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”[3] However, it has pleased the Divine Wisdom as well as the Divine Goodness to grant us protectors, intercessors and models that are, or at least appear to be, closer still to us. Such are the Saints, members of Christ’s mystical body, who having reproduced in their own lives the divine perfections and the virtues of Christ, are concerned in the welfare of their fellow-members, their brethren. By honoring them we honor none other than God Himself, since they reflect the divine perfections. In asking them to intercede for us before the Almighty, it is none other than God whom we really invoke. Lastly, since their own sanctity depends solely upon their imitation of the divine Model, upon the measure in which they themselves have reproduced His virtues, when we imitate them we do nothing else but imitate Jesus Christ Himself. Far from detracting, then, from the worship due to God and to the Incarnate Word, devotion to the Saints confirms it and carries it out in all its fulness. And since the Blessed Mother of Jesus occupies a unique place among the Saints, we shall first explain the place she holds in the Christian Life. #### I. The Part Mary Holds in the Christian Life [4] 155\. 1° Its foundation. This rests upon the fact of Mary’s intimate union with Jesus, in other words, upon the dogma of her divine Motherhood. Corollaries deduced from this doctrine are her dignity and her office as the mother of men. A) At the moment of the Incarnation Mary became the mother of Jesus, mother of the God-man, mother of God. If we consider the dialogue between Mary and the Angel, we discover that the Blessed Virgin is the mother of Jesus not simply inasmuch as He is a private individual, but inasmuch as He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. “The Angel does not speak merely of the personal grandeur of Jesus. He tenders Mary a call to become the Mother of the Savior, of the expected Messiah, the Eternal King of regenerated mankind. The whole work of redemption hinges on Mary’s “fiat”. She is aware of what God proffers her; she accedes without restriction or condition to what God asks of her. Her “fiat” embraces the whole import of that divine invitation, it extends to the entire work of redemption.”[1] The Fathers, following St. Irenaeus, remark that Mary is, therefore, the Mother of the Redeemer and that, being associated as such with His work of Redemption, she has in our spiritual restoration a part similar to that of Eve in our spiritual ruin. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, has the most intimate relations with the Three Divine Persons. She is the well-beloved Daughter of the Father and His collaborator in the work of the Incarnation. She is the Mother of the Son with a real title to respect from Him, to His love and, upon earth, even to His obedience. By giving Him His body and blood, the instruments of our redemption, and by sharing in His mysteries, she was the secondary but true agent, the co-worker with her Son in effecting the sanctification and salvation of men. She is the living temple, the privileged sanctuary of the Holy Ghosts, and, in an analogical sense, His Spouse; for with Him and under Him she has an active part in bringing forth souls to God. 156\. B) At the Incarnation Mary became likewise the Mother of men. As we have already stated, n. 142, Jesus is the head of regenerated mankind, the head of a mystical body whose members we are. As such did Mary conceive Him. She likewise conceived His members, all those who form part of Him, those who have been born again and those who are called to incorporation with Him. When she became the Mother of Jesus according to the flesh she became the mother of men according to the spirit. The scene on Calvary only confirms this truth. At the very moment that our redemption is to be completed by the death of the Savior, Jesus says to Mary: “Behold thy son!” Then to St. John himself He says: “Behold thy mother!” This, according to a tradition that goes back as far as Origen, was a declaration that all Christians are the spiritual children of Mary. This double title of Mother of God and Mother of men is the foundation of the office which Mary fills in our spiritual life. 157\. 2° Mary, a meritorious cause of grace. We have seen, n. 133, that Jesus is in the strictest sense the chief meritorious cause of all the graces we receive. Mary, however, associated with Him in the work of our sanctification, merited these graces, not in the same manner as Christ, but secondarily and “de congruo,”[1] that is, under Christ and because of Him, in other words, because He conferred upon her the power of meriting for us. She merited these graces first of all at the moment of the Incarnation when she uttered her “fiat”; for the Incarnation is already the beginning of Redemption. To co-operate then in the Incarnation is to co-operate in the Redemption and in all the graces resulting therefrom, and hence in our sanctification and salvation. 158\. Besides, Mary whose will was ever in accord with God’s will and with the will of her divine Son, associated herself during her whole life in the work of redemption. She brought up Jesus, she nourished and made ready the Victim of Calvary. Associated with Him in His joys as well as in His trials, in His lowly labors at the house of Nazareth as well as in His virtues, she also united herself to her Son with tender and generous compassion in His sufferings and death. At the foot of the Cross she again uttered her “fiat”, acquiescing in the death of Him whom her soul loved even more than herself while the cruel iron pierced her heart, fulfilling the prophecy of Simeon: “Thine own soul a sword shall pierce.”[1] For many of the Jews present on Calvary the death of Jesus was the execution of a criminal; for a few it was the murder of an innocent man; but for His Mother it was a sacrifice for the salvation of the world. She saw in the Cross an altar, in Her Son a priest, and in His blood the price of our redemption. She suffered in her soul what Jesus suffered in His body, and in union with Him she offered herself as a victim for our sins. What merits did not her perfect immolation gain! Even after the ascension of Her Son into heaven she continued to acquire merits. The privation of the joy of His presence was a slow martyrdom. Though she ardently longed for the moment when she would be forever united to Him, yet, because it was God’s will and for the sake of the infant Church, she lovingly accepted this ordeal and thus secured for us merits without number. Furthermore, her acts possessed the greater merit because born of a perfect purity of intention, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,”[2] because they were elicited with such fervor that they fully realized God’will: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to thy word;”[3] and lastly, because they were performed in a most intimate union with Jesus Christ, the very source of all merit. No doubt, all these merits were first and foremost for herself, increasing her own treasure of grace and her titles to glory; but because of the part she took in the work of our redemption, she was also found worthy of meriting in our behalf; as St. Bernard says, she who was full of grace poured forth her overflow of grace upon us.[4] 159\. 3° Mary, an exemplary cause. Next to Jesus, Mary is the most beautiful model offered for our imitation. The Holy Ghost who in virtue of her Son’s merits lived in her, made her a living image of Christ. Never was she guilty of the least fault, never did she offer the least resistance to grace; on the contrary, she carried out her words to the letter: “Be it done to me according to thy word.” The Fathers, therefore, particularly St. Ambrose and Pope St. Liberius, represent her as the finished model of all virtues; “charitable and full of consideration for all who surrounded her, ever ready to serve them, never uttering a word or doing the least that could give pain, she was all-loving and beloved of all.”[1] It will suffice to note the virtues mentioned in the Gospel: 1) Her deep faith. She unhesitatingly believed the marvels the Angel announced to her from God. For this faith she was praised by St. Elizabeth under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost: “Blessed art thou because thou hast believed.”[2] 2) Her virginity is revealed in her answer to the Angel: “How shall this be done for I know not man?”[3] 3) Her humility is evidenced by the confusion she experienced at hearing her praises on the lips of the Angel, and by her expressed determination of ever remaining the handmaid of the Lord at that very moment when she was proclaimed Mother of God. It further betrays itself in that ecstatic prayer, the Magnificat, as well as in her love of a hidden life, while as Mother of God she had a right to be honored above all creatures. 4) Her interior recollection whereby she pondered in silence all that concerned her divine Son: “But Mary kept all these words in her heart.”[4] 5) Her love for God and men which caused her to accept willingly all the trials of a long life, especially the immolation of her Son on Calvary and the painful separation from Him from the time of His ascension to the moment of her death. 160\. This perfect model is also wonderfully attractive. First, Mary is a mere creature as we are, a sister, a mother whom we are drawn to imitate that we may show her our gratitude, our veneration and our love. Then, she is a model easy of imitation in this way that she sanctified herself in the ordinary, everyday life common to most of us, by fulfilling those lowly household duties of a young woman and a mother, leading a hidden, retired life both in joy and in sorrow, in the heights of exaltation and in the deepest humiliations. We are on firm ground when we imitate the Blessed Virgin. It is the best way of imitating Jesus and of obtaining Mary’s all-powerful intercession. 161\. 4° Mary, universal mediatrix of grace. Long ago St. Bernard formulated this doctrine in the well-known text: “It is God’s will that we should receive all graces through Mary.”[5] It is important to determine the precise meaning of these words. It is certain that when Mary gave us Jesus, the Author and Meritorious Cause of grace, she thereby gave us all graces. But we can go further. According to a teaching which, as time goes on, is becoming unanimous,[1] men do not receive a single grace which does not come to them immediately through Mary, that is, through her intercession. It is question, therefore, of an immediate and universal mediation, subordinated, however, to that of Jesus. 162\. In order to explain more exactly this doctrine we shall quote Father de la Broise :[2] “The actual disposition of the divine decrees ordains that any supernatural favor accorded to men be granted them by the common concord of three wills and in no other way. First of all, by the will of God, the Giver of all graces; then, by the will of Christ, the Mediator who by right of justice has merited and obtained grace; and lastly, by the will of Mary, a secondary mediator who through Jesus Christ has in all equity (de congruo) merited and acquired graces.” This mediation is immediate in the sense that for each grace granted to men Mary interposes the good offices of her past merits and of her actual intercession. This by no means implies that the recipient of a grace must of necessity demand it of Mary. She can intervene unasked in our behalf. Her mediation is also universal, that is, it covers all the graces given to men since the fall of Adam. However, it remains always subordinated to the mediation of Jesus; for if Mary can merit and obtain graces, it is solely through the mediation of her divine Son. Thus, Mary’s mediation simply emphasizes the import and richness of Christ’s own mediation. This doctrine has been confirmed by an Office and Mass in honor of Mary Mediatrix, which Pope Benedict XV granted to the dioceses of Belgium and to all the dioceses of the Christian world that should request it.[3] The teaching is therefore safe and we can make practical use of it. It can not but inspire us with an immense confidence in Mary.[4] ##### Conclusion: Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 163\. Since Mary plays such an important part in our spiritual life, we must entertain a great devotion to her. Devotion means devotedness, and devotedness means the gift of self. We shall be devoted to Mary, then, if we give ourselves entirely to her and through her to God. In so doing we simply imitate God who gives Himself and His Son to us through Mary. We shall give her our intellect by holding her in most profound reverence, our will by an absolute confidence in her, our heart by the gift of a tender and childlike love; in fine, our whole being by copying as far as possible all her virtues. 164\. A) Profound veneration. Veneration for Mary has its foundation in her dignity as Mother of God and in the consequences of this dignity. We can never adequately honor and esteem the one whom the Word-made-Flesh reveres as His Mother, the well-beloved daughter whom the Eternal Father contemplates with loving eye, and whom the Holy Ghost regards as His chosen sanctuary. The Father wishing to associate her so intimately in the work of the Incarnation shows her the utmost respect; He sends her an Angel who hails her full of grace and who awaits her “Fiat”. The Son reveres, loves and obeys her as His Mother. The Holy Ghost comes and takes His delight in her. When, therefore, we venerate the Blessed Virgin we join with the Three Divine Persons in esteeming what They Themselves esteem. No doubt, we must not exaggerate or indulge in any excess as regards this devotion to Mary. We must especially avoid anything that might suggest equality of Mary with Almighty God such as making her the source of grace. As long, however, as we see in her but a creature possessed of no grandeur, no holiness, no power save such as her Creator bestowed upon her, there can be no danger of sinning by excess. It is then God Himself whom we honor and venerate in her. Our veneration for Mary must, moreover, surpass that which we give to the Angels and the Saints, for her dignity as Mother of God, her office of Mediatrix and her exalted holiness place her above all other creatures. Thus the devotion we accord her, although ever remaining what is technically called “cultus duliæ” (veneration), that is, the cult that we pay to created beings as distinct from the worship (adoration) which we pay to God alone (cultus latriæ), is nevertheless called by theologians “cultus hyper-duliæ” to show that it transcends the homage we pay to the Angels and the Saints. 165\. B) Absolute confidence. This confidence is founded on two facts: the power and the goodness of Mary. a) Her power consists in an efficacious intercession with God, who will not turn a deaf ear to her whom He honors and loves above all creatures. And there is nothing more fitting than this. Mary gave to Jesus His very flesh, that human nature which made it possible for Him to acquire merit; she co-operated with Him by her acts and sufferings in the work of redemption. Is it not, therefore, most fitting that she should have a share in the distribution of the fruits of redemption? Jesus will, indeed, never refuse her requests, and we can say in all truth that Mary is all-powerful in her supplication, omnipotentia supplex. b) Her goodness is that of a mother who has for us, the members of Christ, the same affection she bears her own Son; that of a mother who having brought us forth in pain and labor during the anguish of Calvary will measure her love for us only by the price of her sacrifice. Hence our trust, our confidence in her must be firm and universal. 1\) It must be firm in spite of our miseries and our sins, for Mary is the Mother of mercy, whose business is not justice, but compassion, kindliness, condescension. Knowing as she does that we are ever exposed to the attacks of the world, the flesh and the devil, she takes pity on us who remain her children even when we have sinned. Thus, no sooner do we give the least intimation of good-will, of desire of returning to God, than she accords us a tender welcome; nay, often her thougtfulness anticipates our prayer and obtains for us those very graces which produce in our souls the first desire of conversion. The Church, well aware of this, has instituted a feast for some dioceses under the title of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, a title at first strange to our ears, but fully justified in fact, for it is precisely because she is without blemish, because she has never been tainted with the least sin, that she overflows with compassion for her unfortunate children who, unlike her, have not been exempted from the bane of concupiscence. 2\) Our confidence in Mary must also be universal; it must extend to all the graces we need for conversion, for spiritual growth, for final perseverance for preseveration amidst dangers, trials and difficulties. St. Bernard is never weary of recommending this trust in the Mother of God :[1] “When the storm of temptation arises, when you are midst the reefs and shoals of tribulation, fix thy gaze upon the Star of the Sea, call upon Mary. If tossed by the rising tide of pride and ambition, if lost upon the troubled waters of scandal and contention, look then at the Star, invoke her name. Do the billows of anger, of avarice, of lust batter against thy soul, cast thine eyes upon Mary. Does the greatness of thy crime fill thy soul with terror, does thy wretched conscience beat thee down in shame and the fear of judgment paralyze thy heart, then, when about to sink to the depths of despondency, to plunge headlong into despair, then think of Mary. In perils and in sorrows and in fears think of her, call upon her name. Let her name be ever on thy lips and the thought of her be ever in thy heart. Follow her that the power of her intercession may attend thee; imitate her, for in her footsteps thou canst not go astray; call upon her and thou canst not despair; think of her and thou canst not fail. If she holds thee by the hand how canst thou fall! Under her protection thou shalst know no fear; under her guidance thou shalt not falter; under her patronage thou shalt surely reach the goal.” Because we ever stand in need of grace to make progress and to conquer our enemies we must time and again have recourse to her who is so fittingly called Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Mother of Divine Grace. 166\. C) Our confidence in Mary must be accompanied by filial love, a love like the child’s, true, frank and tender. Destined by the Almighty to be the Mother of His Son, and therefore favored with whatever is lovable and endearing, she is the most loving of mothers, thoughtful, kind and devoted. Was not her heart created expressly for the one purpose of loving the God-man, her Son, and for loving Him in the most perfect way? Now, this very love she had for her Son she bears also towards us who are His living members, parts of His mystical body. She reveals this love in the mystery of the Visitation where she hastens to bring to her cousin, Elizabeth, Him whom she holds in her womb and whose very presence sanctifies the home of Zachary. Again, she shows her tender love for men at the marriage-feast of Cana, where her delicate thoughtfulness pleads with her Son to spare her hosts the shame of humiliation. On Calvary she consents to sacrifice her dearest Possession for our Salvation. In the Upper Room where the disciples prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit, she intercedes in behalf of the Apostles to draw down upon them in a larger measure the precious gifts of the Holy Ghost. 167\. The most lovable as well as the most loving of mothers, she should be also the best loved mother. This is one of her most glorious prerogatives. Wherever Jesus is known and loved, there Mary is also known and loved. Although aware of the Vast difference between them, we love them both, but in different degrees. Jesus we love with the love that is due the Godhead; Mary we love under God as His Mother, with a tender, generous and devoted love. We love her with a love of complacency, delighting in her greatness, her virtues and her privileges; meditating frequently on them, admiring them, rejoicing in them, and congratulating her on her exalted perfections. We love her with a love of benevolence; we sincerely long that she be better known and better loved; we pray that her influence over souls be widespread, and to our prayer we join the force of word and action. We love her with a filial love, with tenderness and without reserve, with all the abandon, with all the unreasoned, whole-hearted devotedness, with that sweet familiarity and respectful intimacy of a child with its mother. We strive to conform our wills in all things to the will of Mary and thereby to the will of God. In fact, this union of wills is the genuine mark of friendship. 168\. D) Imitation of Mary is the most pleasing homage we can render her. In this way we proclaim by our deeds, by our life, and not merely by our words that we actually regard her as a perfect model for imitation. We have noted above (n. 159) how Mary, a living picture of her Son, is for us an example of all virtues. If to resemble her is to resemble Jesus, could we do better than to study her virtues, to ponder them and strive to imitate them in our own lives? There is no better way to accomplish this than to perform each of our actions through Mary, with Mary and in Mary.[1] Through Mary, asking through her intercession the graces we need in order to imitate her, going through her to Jesus. With Mary, that is to say, considering her as a model and helper, asking ourselves often what Mary would do were she in our place, and humbly begging her to help us to perform our actions according to her will. In Mary, in entire dependence upon our good Mother, taking her point of view, entering into her plans, doing all things as she did them, for God’s honor and glory: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” 169\. These are the dispositions we must entertain in offering up our prayers in honor of Mary: in reciting the Hail Mary and the Angelus which bring back to mind the scene of the Annunciation and recall her august title of Mother of God; in saying the Sub tuum prœsidium, an act of confidence in her who shields us from harm, and the O Domina mea, a full surrender into Mary’s hands by which we give her our entire being; in the recitation of the Rosary, whereby we unite ourselves to her in her joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries which render so easy the sanctification of our joys and sorrows in union with her and with Jesus; and lastly, in the recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, which will often remind those who are privileged to say it of the grandeur, the holiness and the sanctifying mission of this good Mother. ##### The Act of Entire Consecration to Mary [1] 170\. Nature and extent of this act. This is an act of devotion which in itself embodies all the others. As explained by Blessed Grignion de Montfort it consists in the entire gift of self to Jesus through Mary. It comprises two elements: first, an act of consecration which is to be renewed from time to time, and then an habitual attitude by which we live and act in entire dependence on Mary. “The act of consecration,” says Blessed Grignion de Montfort, “consists in giving oneself wholly to Mary and through her to Jesus as her slave.” Let no one be shocked at the word, “slave,” which today seems so repugnant to us, but which has no such evil meaning as explained by this servant of God. A mere servant, says he, receives his wages, is ever free to quit his master’s service. He gives his labor only, not his person, not his rights, not his goods. A slave, however, freely agrees to work without wages and, trusting to the master that gives him food and shelter, hands himself over to him forever, with all that he is and has, in-order to live in entire dependence on the master in the spirit of love. 171\. Carrying the application of the simile to things spiritual, the perfect servant of Mary gives himself over to her, and through her to Jesus: a) His body with all its senses, keeping only the use thereof and pledging himself not to employ them except in accordance with the good pleasure of the Blessed Virgin or her Son. Moreover, he accepts beforehand the dispositions of Divine Providence as regards sickness and health, life and death. b) All wordly possessions, using them solely in dependence on Mary, for her honor and the glory of God. c) His soul with all its faculties, dedicating them under Mary’s guidance to the service of God and the good of souls, and renouncing at the same time whatever might compromise his sanctification or imperil his salvation. d) All his interior and spiritual treasures, his merits, the value of his satisfactory acts as well as the impetratory power his good actions may possess. All these are placed in the hands of Mary to the extent in which they can be given over to another. Let us explain this last point: 1\) Our merits properly so called (i. e., de condigno) by which we procure for ourselves an increase of grace and glory cannot be given away. When, then, we make a gift of them to Mary it is not in order to apply them to others, but that she might hold them in trust for us and give them increase. It is quite otherwise with the merits called de congruo, which can be offered for others, and these we leave entirely to Mary’s free disposition. 2\) In the same manner we allow her[1] to dispose of and to apply freely the satisfactory value of our acts and the indulgences we may gain, since these can be given to others. 3\) In virtue of our consecration to Mary we cede to her even the impetratory value of our acts, that is to say, of our prayers and our good actions, in so far as they are endowed with such efficacy. 172\. Once we have made this act of consecration, we can no longer without her permission dispose of the goods we have made over to her. However, we may and at times we should beg her to favor according to her good pleasure those to whom we are bound by special ties and to whom we are under special obligation. The best way, therefore, of harmonizing our gift of self to Mary and our duties to others is to offer up to her all those who are near and dear to us: “I am all Thine, all mine are Thine.” Thus the Blessed Virgin will draw on what we have given her, but more still on the treasury of her own merits and those of her Son in order to help those we have committed to her care. Our friends, therefore, will lose nothing. 173\. Excellence of this act of consecration. It is an act of holy abandonment, of self-surrender, excellent in itself and containing, moreover, acts of the highest virtues: religion, humility and confiding love. 1\) It is an act of religion toward God, the Word-made-Flesh, and Mary, the Mother of God. By it we acknowledge God’s sovereign dominion and our own nothingness, and proclaim with heart and soul those rights over us which God has given Mary. 2\) It is an act of humility, for by it we acknowledge our nothingness and our helplessness. We divest ourselves of everything that we have received from God and restore all to the Giver through the hands of her from whom, under Him and through Him, we have obtained every good gift. 3\) It is an act of confiding love, for love consists in the gift of self; and to give oneself entirely and unreservedly presupposes absolute trust and living faith. It may be said that this consecration if rightly made, and frequently and earnestly renewed, is even of greater worth than the heroic act by which we give up but the satisfactory value of our acts and the indulgences we may gain. 174\. Fruits of this act of consecration. They come from its very nature. 1) By this act we glorify God and Mary in an unparalleled manner: we give ourselves to God forever, with all that we are and all that we have, without measure or stint, and we do so after the manner of Divine Wisdom, that is, returning to God in the very way He chose to come to us, and hence, in the way that is most pleasing to Him. 175\. 2) We thereby also insure our individual sanctification. Mary cannot but minister unto the sanctification of those who, having disposed of their persons and goods in her behalf, are, so to say, her own property. She will most assuredly secure for us choice graces to safeguard our little spiritual treasure, to make it grow and have it bring forth fruit in season until the hour of death. She will help us through her superabundant merits and satisfactions and through her powerful intercession with God. 3\) A third fruit of this consecration to Mary is the sanctification of our neighbor. This is true especially of the souls entrusted to us. They are certain to gain by our gift. We can be sure that when we leave the apportioning of our merits to Mary’s good-pleasure, everything will be done with greater wisdom. She is by far more prudent than we are, more thoughtful and more devoted. Consequently our friends and relatives can only be the gainers. 176\. It may be objected that by such an act we alienate all our spiritual goods, above all, our satisfactions and the indulgences and prayers that would be offered up for us, thus rendering our purgatory all the longer. In itself this is true; however, it resolves itself into a question of trust. Do we rely more on Mary than on ourselves or our friends? If we do, let us have no misgivings, for she will care for our souls and further our interests far better than we could ever do ourselves. If we do not, then let us refrain from making this act of complete consecration for we might regret it before long. In any event one should not make this act of consecration without reflection and advice. #### II\. The Share of the Saints in the Christian Life 177\. By their powerful intercession and by their noble example, the Saints in their blessed possession of God minister to our sanctification and help us to progress in the practice of the Christian virtues. Hence, we should venerate, invoke and imitate them. 178\. 1° We should venerate them. All the good they possess is the work of God and His Divine Son. As mere natural beings they are so many reflections of the divine perfections. Their supernatural qualities are the work of that divine grace which Jesus merited for them. Even their meritorious acts, while being their own in the sense that their free will co-operated with Almighty God, are none the less the precious gift of the Divine Goodness who is ever their first and efficacious cause: “Thou dost but crown Thy gifts when Thou crownest our merits.”[1] When, therefore, we pay the Saints the homage of our veneration it is God and His Son, Jesus, whom we really honor and revere in them. We venerate these Blessed Ones as: a) the living sanctuaries of the Triune God who has deigned to dwell in them, to adorn their souls with virtues and with gifts, to prompt their faculties to action and cause them to elicit meritorious acts, and to grant them at last the crowning grace of perseverance to the end. b) We honor them as the adopted and well-beloved children of the Father, who surrounded by His paternal care knew how to respond to His love and to grow more like Him in holiness and perfection. c) We hail them as the brethren of Christ, the faithful members of His mystical body, who drew from Him their spiritual life and cultivated it in abiding love. d) We revere them as temples of the Holy Ghost, as His docile servants, who allowed His inspirations to be their guide rather than blindly follow the bent of a corrupted nature. Father Olier aptly expresses these thoughts: “You will be able to adore with the most profound veneration this life of God communicated to His Saints; you will honor Jesus Christ who animates them all and who through His divine Spirit makes them all one in Himself. It is Jesus Christ Himself who proclaims in them the glory of God; it is He who puts upon their lips their canticles of praise; it is He through whom the sainted glorify God now and through all eternity.”[1] 179\. 2° We sould invoke the Saints in order to obtain through their powerful intercession the graces we need. True, the mediation of Jesus Christ alone is necessary and all-sufficient in itself; however, because of the very fact that the Saints are members of the risen Christ, their prayers are united to His. Thus, the whole mystical body of the Savior prays, and with its entreaties it does sweet violence to the heart of God. When, therefore, we pray in union with the Saints we join our petitions to those of Christ’s mystical body and thereby insure their efficacy. Moreover, the Saints are glad to intercede in our behalf: “They love us as brothers born of the same Father and they have compassion for us. Seeing our plight and remembering that it once was theirs, they behold in us souls who like themselves ought to contribute to Christ’s glory. What joy must they not experience in finding souls to join them in glorifying God!”[1] Their goodness and their power must inspire us with full confidence in them. We are to invoke them especially on their feast-days. Thus we shall enter into the spirit of the liturgy of the Church, and share in the particular virtues practised by the different Saints. 180\. 3° Lastly and above all, we should imitate the virtues of the Saints. Each one of them strove to reproduce the divine model and each one can address us in the words of St. Paul: “Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ.”[2] In most cases, however, the Saints have cultivated a special virtue which is, so to speak, their characteristic trait. Some have directed their efforts chiefly toward the cultivation of the spirit of faith, hope or charity; others have centered them round the spirit of sacrifice, humility or poverty; others, again, have excelled in the exercise of prudence, fortitude or chastity. We can beg of them their distinctive virtues with the assurance that they have a special power to obtain them for us. 181\. This is the reason why we should be specially devoted to those Saints who lived in conditions similar to our own, who discharged the same duties that we must perform and who practised the virtues that we need most. We should also have a special devotion to our patron Saints, seeing in the choice made of them on our behalf a providential arrangement. Still, if for special reasons the movements of grace draw us to some other Saints whose virtues correspond better to the needs of our souls, there can be no objection to our cultivating devotion to them. 182\. Thus understood, devotion to the Saints is most useful to us. The example of men with the same passions as we have, who, tried by the same temptations, have won the victory with the help of the same graces that are accorded us, is a powerful incentive to make us ashamed of our faintheartedness and to strengthen in us the determination to put forth the efforts constantly required for the accomplishment of our resolutions. We thus naturally apply to ourselves the words of St. Augustine : “Canst thou not do what these have done?”[3] #### III\. The Share of the Angels in the Christian Life The part of the Angels in the Christian life has its origin in the relations they have with God and with Jesus Christ. 183\. 1° First of all, the Angels show forth God’s greatness and perfection. “Each symbolizes individually some attribute or other of that infinite Being. In some we see His power, in others His love, in others His strength. Each is a reproduction of some beauty of the divine Original; each adores Him and glorifies Him in the perfection it portrays.”[1] It is God, then, whom we honor in the Angels. They are like mirrors reflecting the perfections of their infinite Creator.[2] Raised to the supernatural order, they share in the life of God; and victorious in trial, they enjoy the Beatific Vision: “Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”[3] 184\. 2° If we consider their relations with Jesus Christ, it may not appear absolutely certain that they hold their grace from Him; but this much does appear with certainty, that in heaven they unite themselves with Him, the Mediator of all religion, in order to adore, praise and glorify the Majesty of the Most High. It is their bliss to add in this wise a greater worth to their worship: “Through whom the Angels praise, the Dominations adore and the Powers hold in awe Thy Majesty.”[4] Hence, when we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ to adore God we join at the same time with the Angels and Saints in a heavenly harmony which renders the praise of the Godhead still more perfect. We can well make our own the words of Father Olier: “May all the Angelic Host, the mighty Powers that move the spheres of heaven, forever pour forth in Jesus Christ whatever be wanting to our song of praise. May they forever thank Thee, Lord, for all those gifts both of nature and of grace which from the goodness of Thy hand we all receive.”[5] 185\. 3° From this twofold consideration it follows that they have at heart our sanctification. Since we share with them in the divine life, and since we are like them the religious of God in Christ Jesus, they long for our salvation that we may join them in glorifying God and in enjoying the Beatific Vision. a) Thus it is with joy that they accept those God-given missions to minister to our sanctification. The Psalmist says that God has entrusted the just man to their care that they may guard him in his way: “For he hath given his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”[1] St. Paul adds that the Angels are in God’s service as servants to minister unto the welfare of the heirs of salvation : “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?”[2]In fact, they burn with the desire of rallying elect souls to fill the vacant thrones of fallen angels, and to glorify and adore the Almighty in their stead. Victors over demons, they ask but to shield us from the perfidious enemies of our souls. It is our part to ask their timely assistance in order to repel the assaults of Satan. b) They present our prayers to the Most High[3] by joining their own supplications to our requests. It is, therefore, to our advantage to call upon them, especially in the hour of trial, and above all, at the hour of death, that they may defend us from the attacks of our enemies and conduct our souls to Paradise.[4] 186\. The Guardian Angels. Some among the Angels are commissioned with the care of individual souls: these are the Guardian Angels. This is the traditional doctrine of the Fathers, based upon scriptural texts and supported by solid reasons. It has been confirmed by the Church in the institution of a feast in honor of the Guardian Angels. The reasons that support this doctrine flow from our relationship to God, for we are His children, members of Jesus Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost. “Because we are His children,” says Father Olier,[5] “He appoints to us as tutors the princes of His realm, who hold it an honor to have us in their charge. Because we are His members, He wills that those very spirits that minister unto Him be also at our side to render us their services. Because we are His temples in which He Himself dwells, He wills that Angels hover about us as they do about our churches, so that bowed down in worship before Him they may offer a perpetual homage to His glory, supplying for our neglect and making reparation for our irreverence.” Father Olier goes on to say that God wishes to unite intimately through the agency of His Angels the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant: “He sends this mysterious host of Angels in order that they may by uniting themselves to us and binding us to themselves form one body of the Church of heaven and the Church of earth.” 187\. Our Guardian Angel keeps us in constant, touch with heaven. To derive full profit from his guardianship we can do no better than direct our thoughts frequently to our Guardian Angel, making him the object of our veneration, our confidence and our love. a) We venerate him by hailing him as one of those privileged beings who ever see the face of God and who are to us the representatives of our Heavenly Father. Therefore, we should do nothing that could displease or sadden our Angel; on the contrary, we must strive to give him proof of our respect by emulating his fidelity and loyalty in God’s service. This is, indeed, the most touching way in which can attest our esteem for him. b) We show him our confidence, by bearing in mind the mighty protection he furnishes us and his unfailing goodness towards us, his God-given charges. Since he is a master in foiling the wiles of the devil, we should invoke him especially when we are assailed by this treacherous foe and in all dangerous occasions in which his foresight and his adroitness will be of great help. We should likewise call for his assistance when determining our vocation, for he better than any other will know the providential designs of God in our regard. Finally, in all important affairs with others it is well to address ourselves to their Guardian Angels that these persons may be well-disposed towards the mission we are about to discharge in their behalf. c) We manifest to our Guardian Angel our love by reflecting that he has ever been and is still our devoted friend, ever ready to render us services the extent and import of which we shall realize only in heaven. By faith, however, we can even now understand, though only imperfectly, something of his good offices toward us, and this suffices to call forth our gratitude and our love. When loneliness weighs heavily upon us, let us remember that we are not alone, that near us hovers a friend, devoted and generous, upon whom we can lean and with whom we can hold familiar converse. Let us bear in-mind that honoring our Guardian Angel we honor God Himself whom our Angel represents here below, and let us often unite ourselves to him in order to give greater glory to God. ##### Summary 188\. God, then, has a vast share in the work of our sanctification. He comes to dwell in our souls in order to give Himself to us and to sanctify us. To impart to us the power to rise up to Him, He endows us with a supernatural organism composed of habitual grace, the virtues and the gifts. Habitual grace penetrates the very substance of the soul, thus transforming it and making it Godlike. The virtues and the gifts perfect our faculties and enable them with the help of actual grace to elicit supernatural acts that merit eternal life. 189\. God’s love does not stop here. He also sends His Only-Begotten Son, who, becoming one of us, becomes likewise the perfect exemplar, our guide in the practice of those virtues that lead to perfection and ultimately to heaven. The Son of God merits for us the grace necessary to follow in His footsteps in spite of the difficulties that we find within ourselves and all about us. In order to win us over to Himself He incorporates us into Himself, imparting to us through His Divine Spirit that life which is His in all its fulness. Through this incorporation He gives to the least of our actions an immeasurable value, for, we being made one with Him, our actions share in the value of His own actions. With Him, then, and through Him we. can give adequate glory to God Almighty, obtain new graces, and become more and more like our Heavenly Father by reproducing in ourselves His divine perfections. Mary, being the Mother of Jesus and His co-worker, though in a secondary manner, in the work of the Redemption, co-operates in the distribution of the graces Christ merited for us. Through her we go to Him and through her we ask for grace. We venerate and love her as a Mother and strive to imitate her virtues. Lastly, Jesus, being the Head not only of mankind, but also of the Angels and the Saints, places at our service their powerful assistance as a protection against the attacks of the Evil One and as a safeguard against the weaknesses of our own nature. Their example and their intercession are for us a tower of strength. What more could God actually do for us? If He has given Himself to us so prodigally, to what lengths should we not go to return His love? to what extent should we not be ready to spend ourselves to promote the growth of that divine life which He has so generously shared with us? --- ![[maps/bibliography#^biblio-tan]] > [[at-sl-05|← Ch. I]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-07|Ch. II cont. →]]