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118. The Production of Man's Soul

1. Plant-souls and animal-souls, after first creation,come into existence by generation; they are propagated with theliving bodies they animate.

2. The human soul, being rational, is a spirit; it cannotbe generated; it cannot come from matter, which is a thing inferiorto itself. It cannot originate except by the direct creative act ofGod in each instance.

3. The human soul does not exist before its body. By onesingle act of creation God produces the soul and joins it withmatter, and the soul constitutes this matter as a living humanbeing. The human body is generated by parents, but it is made aliving human being by the soul which God creates, and, by an actindivisible from creation, joins to matter within the body of thehuman mother.

"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri

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"Lord, take from me everything that hinders me from going to You. give me all that will lead me to You. Take me from myself and give me to Yourself."
St Nicholas Flue

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"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri

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